4 WAYS WE CAN TAKE BACK OUR HEALTH AND SAVE ON HEALTHCARE COSTS

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“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” – Randall Terry

First off, I hope you all have had an awesome Thanksgiving, and are all planning now to burn the calories 🙂

I’ve recently written about how I lost 30 pounds since I started this debt free journey, just by being mindful of how I lived. The motivation was to really save money on everything; especially on healthcare costs.

As I read and listened to health sites and podcasts, particularly The Model Health Show by Shawn Stevenson, a clinical nutritionist and health advocate; it began to open my eyes into how the supposed healthcare system, which is supposed to provide care, has turned into a money-making enterprise that ends up inadvertently upholding disease and even death, all because of the need for profits instead of people’s care.

A recent report by CNBC disclosed that health insurers made $6 Billion (with a B) as early as the second quarter of 2017, up from 29% over 2016. The report points to ‘taming medical costs’ as the driver for the record profits.

This is business speak for the insurers taking in higher premiums, and controlling what they payout in terms of claims. Another contributing factor is also because a high number of insured have high deductible plans in the thousands and tens of thousands, that also limit liabilities of claims up to the deductible.

If you think about it, the health insurers are businesses, and they profit greatly when a majority of people pay into the system, in anticipation of being ill or just to cover any health-related event.

In a significant article by CNN entitled ‘How Healthcare Costs are Bankrupting Us’ author Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, MD scarily reports that:

“Rising health insurance premiums have eaten into take-home pay. What money does come home increasingly goes back out as health care deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. People cannot plan for when these expenditures will occur, nor for how big they will be.

And as medical care expands to involve more people, more people experience these unpredictable expenditures — creating more financial stress. Medical care is a common cause of personal bankruptcy.”

The report highlights outrageous costs that healthcare companies bill Medicare and Medicaid that eventually translate to a burden to overall government spending. The system has gotten so bloated, so untenable and excessive (to the tune of 3 trillion) that to do nothing will surely result in significant pain to the taxpayer and eventually the nation.

When will this end? How can the government, ergo, the taxpayer be able to afford this ‘bubble’ in the coming years?

This is when I got to thinking, there has to be a better way to save money individually with healthcare other than handing it over by the fistful. That’s when I started to learn about nutrition and how it directly impacts health and wellbeing.

As I delved deeper into nutrition, I eventually learned what foods (yes foods) tend to make me sick and which ones cause my body to function normally. Not drugs, not procedures, but food interacting with my body, that eventually made me better and healthier.

Ultimately when we take back our health and live healthier lives, we WILL NOT be a burden to the system and can find alternative ways for cheaper healthcare coverage or can even go without.

Here are 4 changes we can do to ultimately take back our health and win with healthcare costs;

EAT WHOLE FOODS

I learned that by eating real food, not processed or manufactured food, helped restore health to my body due to the better absorption of these natural foods into my cells. In his best-selling book, Eat This and Live,

Dr. Don Colbert highlights the ‘living’ food; which are straight out of nature such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains versus ‘dead’ foods, those that come in boxes, cans, bags, which tend to be mostly unnatural and processed in factories.

By highlighting the living versus dead label, Dr. Colbert intended to convey the reality that food, widely regarded as giving nourishment and life, can also possibly bring slow degeneration and even death; the key is to choose which kinds of foods to consume the emphasis, of course, is for natural foods over processed.

I experienced this first hand, growing up in the 70s and 80s, I was always conditioned to eat what was convenient, which mostly came out of bags and boxes; I rarely ate food straight out of a farm, tree or even from the ground; what I ate mostly came out of the grocery store. Naturally, I grew up on the heavy side and on my unhealthiest day weighed as much as 210 lbs.

As I began my journey of learning almost three months ago, I started to eat healthier, again the motivation was because I wanted to save in healthcare costs, but the end result netted a healthier version of myself that is now armed with useful information that changes the trajectory and quality of not only my life but that of my family as well.

Just by changing what I ate, changed my health, mood, outlook, and perspective in life; and I encourage you to learn and delve into it yourself. You will definitely by surprised at how profound the changes it can make to your overall health.

CUT DOWN ON SUGAR

I learned about sugar and how it made me sick; shout out to Ty Bollinger and his team at thetruthaboutcancer.com ; where he highlighted the dangers of consuming unnatural forms of sugar such as white, brown, washed, artificial sweeteners and the like, these “processed sugars results in compromised immune function (decreasing the white blood cells’ ability to destroy bacteria), obesity, and diabetes” and can also be addicting.

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a world-renowned physician and alternative medical practitioner reports that Sugar in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup or

“Fructose tricks the body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism (it turns off the appetite-control system). Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.” This process also suppresses the immune system.

In short, regular consumption of processed and highly refined sugar will result in an unhealthy state, trust me, I’ve been there. The issue for me or for most of us is that we never knew any better; we were always told by the media, heck even by family, consuming fruit juice and occasional soda was good for us. Is it any wonder that;

“In 1890, only 3 people out of 100,000 had diabetes. In 2012, almost 8,000 out of every 100,000 people was diagnosed with diabetes (and this number is rising all the time)” – The Sugar and Cancer Connection: Why Sugar Is Called “The White Death”

I was there 5 months ago, an A1C that was 6.9 (5.9 is the normal range), the only way I was able to get it down to 6.3 in 2 months and baffle my Doctor was to totally cut down on sugar and sugary foods, including bread that turns into sugar.

I still have a ways to go but I believe I’m on the right track. And I emphatically recommend you do the same, even as an experiment; try cutting down for a week and see the quick changes it can make (for the better) in terms of mood, brain fog, and weight reduction.

You will not regret it.

CUT DOWN ON WHEAT, BREAD, GRAINS

I love Dr. William Davis book ‘Wheat Belly’; in it Dr. Davis reports that;

“Over 200 million Americans consume food products made of wheat every day. As a result, over 100 million experience some form of adverse health effect, ranging from minor rashes to high blood sugar to unattractive stomach bulges preventative cardiologist William Davis calls “wheat bellies.”

Dr. Davis reached the disturbing conclusion that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic―and that elimination of wheat is key to dramatic weight loss and optimal health.

In his book, he exposes the harmful effects of what is actually a product of genetic tinkering and agribusiness being sold to the American public as “wheat”―and provides readers with a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new wheat-free lifestyle.

Armed with this new found information, I experimented and stopped eating wheat for 2 months now, the result was a steady decrease in weight, brain fog lifted resulting in sharper mental focus, morning allergies and sneezing gone; who would’ve thought?

I was always taught by my Doctor and TV that wheat was good for me, I guess not.

Try it out and see for yourselves; nothing to lose except the stubborn wheat belly, which is now starting to shed on mine 🙂

SLEEP MORE

In his breakthrough book ‘Sleep Smarter’, renowned health expert and nutritionist Shawn Stevenson shares that;

“Good sleep helps you shed fat for good, stave off disease, stay productive, and improve virtually every function of your mind and body. Through better sleep and optimized nutrition, it will help keep you mentally and physically sharp.

The ideal sleep hours range from 7-9 hours, the more the better, but just having 7 straight and 20 minute nap times, can greatly benefit overall health and help digestion, healing and recovery.

I was taught growing up and even in school that resting was the key to healing after injuries and such but didn’t fully realize that sleeping is the major part of resting, and our body does its magic as we get deep into our sleep.

As I adopted the tips from Shawn’s book, and slept an average of 7.5 hours a day, with 20-minute naps in the afternoon, I saw an increase surge of energy, better metabolism, and an overall positive health.

Not only am I reaping the benefits, my wife also loves the fact that I completely stopped snoring and turning over at night, she now too is altering her habits and sleeping more and benefitting positively from the change.

WRAPPING UP

Just doing these 4 things made me healthier and I intend on keeping it going, no reason for me to go back, be unhealthy, throwing my money away on needless procedures and end up poor and dead.

By taking back our health, we not only save money but also invest more time for us, the time we can spend with our loved ones and doing the things we love, instead of spending it in poor health at the mercy of Doctors and hospitals.

Who would’ve imagined that by learning new information and adopting them with the mindset of self-improvement can turn into a life-changing journey that will not only benefit yourself but your loved ones as well.

The tried and true adage ‘health is wealth’ has never rung truer.

Do you have other tips that can be life-changing and health cost saving? Please do share by commenting below or emailing at thedebtfreejourney@gmail.com.

Until next post.

Peace and Blessings to you All.