Tuesday Voice: A sixth red herring of the healthcare biz

Risk factors

By Jim Rix

The idiom “red herring” is used to mislead, to distract, to obscure the truth. And the truth, sad to say, is frequently not profitable for some businesses. And businesses that do not make a profit do not survive. The healthcare biz is no exception. Curing patients all too often is not profitable, while treating patients forever is. After all, it’s called “healthCARE” not “healthCURE.” As a result, many red herrings abound in the healthcare biz.

Red herring #6 is “risk factors.” For example, high blood pressure (hypertension) is a good indicator for heart disease – the clogging of the arteries with cholesterol-containing plaques. Much as placing your thumb over the end of a garden hose increases water pressure (as indicated by the water’s squirting higher and farther), constricting arteries with cholesterol plaques increases blood pressure.
    The reason hypertension is a red herring is because the healthcare biz focuses on treating it with medications. And this treatment will go on forever (good for profits) because it treats a symptom and not the underlying cause of the disease – clogged arteries.
    It’s the same with the “risk factor” high cholesterol. The healthcare biz prescribes cholesterol-lowering medications to treat high cholesterol, rather than tell patients that the cause of their clogged arteries is the food they eat. Only animal foods contain cholesterol. Plant foods do not.
    So, dear reader, would you rather contribute to the healthcare biz's profits by treating your symptoms (your “risk factors”) or address the cure and prevention of your disease by choosing wisely what you eat?

Dietary supplements:

Previous red herring: Milk
_______________
Copyright © 2014 by Jim Rix

Comment box is located below