a 'scrip for change

On the ocassions when I see a doctor, they are always surprised that, as a middle-aged person, I am not on any prescription medications.  
"It says here you take fish oil.  Do you take anything else?"
"D3, when I remember."
"Oh, well...okay..."
Yep, stumped every time. 
And every time their reactions make me a little sad and a little angry.  Sad, because I don't feel my situation should be the exception and angry, because many (but not all) doctors are too quick to prescribe pills for people before they prescribe lifestyle changes and actually see how those might work.  Laurence and I have had experience with a doc we realized was in the pocket of the drug companies and now have the glorious experience of being associated with a doc who clearly is not, although Laurence and I are still obviously the exception for the 'no-meds' middle-agers.

Let me be clear here.  I don't see anything wrong with medications when they're truly needed.  Quite often, they can be invaluable as a bridge between illness and wellness, assisting one's body toward rebalancing itself.  For the typical 'age-related' meds (blood pressure, cholesterol, type2 diabetes as examples), all too often they become the quick fix and end up being life long crutches because people can stop being responsible for their own bodies.

Those who know me know I fully believe in the Paleo/Primal/no-grain practices of nutrition. Those who know me also know I understand that while I'd love to see everyone adopt this type of nutrition because of my husband's and my personal successes with it, it's not for everyone.  The most important nutrition program for everyone is to have one!  Eat consciously so your choices are as smart as they can be.

Those who know me know I fully believe in the CrossFit methodology for physical fitness. Those who know me also know I understand that while everyone can participate in CrossFit as its beautifully modifiable, it's not for everyone.  The most important fitness program for everyone is to have one!  The choice for fitness makes such a huge difference in over all health that is seems silly not to do something.

I have friends who have turned around their blood pressure, cholesterol levels, etc, through changes in their daily activity.  I even know of one who reversed his sleep apnea through increased physical activity and a modest weight loss.  And even though he always ate well (because he has a wife who is a damn good cook and has always cooked with whole foods!), he chose to tweak his nutrition a bit, too, which added to his healthful turnaround.

One of the most appropriate statistics I like to share related to this topic of the importance of taking care of oneself comes from a very interesting documentary called
Food Matters (not to be confused with Food Inc.).  The trailer for it is below and even just watching that will hopefully get you interested.  While I may not agree with all the specifics, the overall concept is important.  Among the other quotable snippets from this documentary, the statistic mentioned is (not verbatim) "back in the 50's, 7% of our income was spent on health care and 17% was spent on food.  Now, only 7% of our income is spent on food and 17% is spent on health care."   A good point for consideration.

Turning around the assumptions of the medical world that because one reaches a certain age "of COURSE that person will be needing age-appropriate medications" would be quite a story!  Instead of full page ads for a new med that can help, "but can cause death" (seemingly always a 'direct effect' of most medication~~there are no 'side effects' because an adverse effect from a med is directly related to the medication~~), there would be full page ads for a yummy recipe or success stories of people who made responsible lifestyle changes and were able to stay off/get off/greatly reduce the medications they were taking.  The only fine-print that would accompany those stories would be limited to a paragraph or two containing the recipe or the types of lifestyle changes the person made.  That would surely help begin the shift in the assumptions in the medical world about age and medications.