This article in the NY Times on the side effects of Tamoxifen, used to protect women from breast cancer raises a very interesting point for me. Although the article weighs up the side effects that the drug has with the perceived and proposed protective benefit, it seems to me that the same discussion could be fruitful when looking at our own lives.
In terms of health protection, let's get down and dirty. The plain truth is that the vast majority of us just don't spend money on a FUTURE health problem. 'Lip service' is the best term I can give to encompass our general attitudes. If we are flush with cash, we pay a company to pick up the pieces when we go off the rails, but that's the extent of it. We don't really have an ongoing planned preventative strategy. In one sense, paying into a fund gives us the go-ahead to forget about our lack of a daily health preventative plan.
I was given a taste of this last week. I was asked to present our water alkalizers to a very big media company that sells interesting products to the public. Even though I talked about alkalizing, about the ongoing acidification of the body, the increased immunity and all of the other benefits alkaline ionized water may have to an individual, my contact sat there, stonyfaced.
Eventually he spoke. "How much is the filter when it needs replacing?" I told him. "Too much. Most water filters are much less."
It was only when we concluded the meeting that I got what was happening. I suggested he take our sample unit, drink the water for a month and see the effect it had on his own health.
"I wouldn't do that. I smoke, I drink, and I don't do 'health' things. Maybe my wife might be interested."
Suddenly it dawned on me that this man just couldn't even come close to a personal health evaluation. His lifestyle was so important to him that he had dismissed all future as unimportant. Now, as we all know, many of us do the same. And all of us feel the remorse and the anger when our body finally gives out under the strain of the accumulated neglect.
But really, how could I judge him? That extra glass of wine, that extra handful of nuts, that lazy day with no exercise.. it's all one and the same; a conscious or unconscious decision to ignore the future.
Discussing it with Cassie later, we wondered if we were barking up the wrong tree trying to assist people to create a prevtative health culture in their life. Maybe, Cassie suggested, we should tell people that they can eat more, drink more, couch-surf more... if they just alkalise. After we got up off the floor from laughing, we agreed that was definitely NOT the way to get our message across.
It was about then that I found the article on Tamoxifen, entitled:
"When Lowering the Odds of Cancer Isn’t Enough"
So.. let's play a game. Let's pretend that I arrive at your front door. I offer you a pill that you take just once and I guarantee that you'll never get cancer. Even though you don't know me, you are excited. You call your partner away from the TV where he is immersed in a beer and a game of football. I wait patiently at the door. You now have a grumpy husband detaching himself from the couch and you are wondering what you are going to say to him. Suddenly you realise you haven't asked the price. "Quick," you say to me. "How much is the pill?"
"Cheap." I say. ""Twenty thousand dollars."
I'm not going to continue the story. I'd love you to fill it the gaps with a few replies below.
Of course, you are going to want proof of the pill's efficacy. And I have a 10,000 subject double-blind randomised study in my hand. The pill DOES work.
So you tell me how you convince your partner. And while you are at it, maybe you could take a look at what you put in the way of your own preventative health strategy.
And while we are on the subject, here's one amazing story of what one brother did for another, and what effect his computer program has had one thousands of people.
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