National health care has passed. For anyone who has lived under the guise of a national health care system, you already know that it has its good points and it has its bad points. The one thing clear however is that there is a difference between “health” care and “sick” care.

The majority of national health care programs are based on “sick” care services, which is anything from early detection of to treatment of full-blown disease, and of course crisis care. These are all well and extremely necessary, but the President has already commented that recreating a system like that in this country will further bankrupt us.

Some estimates for the numbers of people with autism alone in this country have grown from 2 in 10,000 births in 1987 to 1 in 110 this year. What this translates into financially is that as these people grow older they will be or may already be reliant upon the government and national health care system to support them. This is a great expense without the revenue to support it. And this is only taking one demographic into account. As doctors are further overworked and underpaid for their services, quality of care diminishes, and we are left with a system that handles crisis or “sick” care wonderfully but has no time or money to handle health care.

That makes it our responsibility to manage and be responsible for our own health care. Besides, in the end we are the ones who have to live with the decisions we make about our bodies and our lives and how we choose to or not to take care of ourselves. My objective in the upcoming months is to bring you compelling information regarding health care and health care decisions, to inform you and enlighten you as to what decisions are within your power to make and the potential benefits and/ or consequences involved. I will present not only my own information, but information from others who I trust to be authorities in their respective fields in hoping to assist you in making your own best choices for your and your family’s best health. 

What is health?

Before we can proceed any further, we must examine this question. Why? Because if we don’t know where we are going, how will we know if we’re choosing the correct path? We can probably all agree on these 4 fundamental aspects or principles of health:

1. Good energy. We sleep well, wake up alert and refreshed, function during the day, and then sleep well again.

2. Mental Clarity. We perceive our environment in a non-hostile way and are free of fears, phobias and anxieties.

3. Emotional Stability. We can pass through a full range of emotions.

4. Unlimited Physical Expression. Experienced joyfully and painlessly, we should not “feel” our physical expression.

Any definition of health that I’ve ever found has in some way included all 4 of these principles. It would be reasonable to suggest that any modality or lifestyle choice that attempts to simultaneously address these 4 components builds health. And any that looks to fix one or these without regard for the other is not health care, but some form or crisis or sick care. Take a look at some of the choices that you are currently making in your health care decisions. Would they be categorized as health care or sick care? Do you have an intended outcome with these modalities, and if so what is it? How will you know when you’ve arrived at it? And as a result of the care you receive, will there be anything fundamentally changed within you? Did You Know…? Autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, intellectual disability (formerly termed mental retardation), lowered IQ and other disorders of learning, development, and behavior are highly prevalent among American children. Between 1997 and 2006, rates of ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year. Today, approximately 4.5 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD. The lifetime prevalence of learning disabilities in United States (U.S.) children is approximately 9.7%, according to a 2007 Pediatrics article. According to a 1994 study, approximately 16% of U.S. children have a developmental disability, and research shows increasing trends. Since the early 1990s alone, reported cases of autism spectrum disorders have increased tenfold. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates that one in 110 U.S. eight-yearolds have autism spectrum disorder, with an increase of 57% between 2002 and 2006. While increased awareness and improved diagnostic criteria undoubtedly played a role in the current figures, studies controlling for those factors infer that other culprits, such as chemical contaminants and geneenvironment interactions, are likely to play a role in the rising incidence of learning and developmental disabilities in the U.S. Contributing Author: Laura Abulafia, MHS This is not to say that sick care is a negative thing. This is to say that knowing what your objectives are and knowing what you choose to arrive at your objectives gives a greater chance of success toward obtaining your goals. We also gain a greater level of satisfaction in knowing what to expect and knowing when our expectations have been met, and especially in knowing where our expectations are cannot be met by our modality of choice. 

Did You Know…? 

Contributing Author: Laura Abulafia, MH

Autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, intellectual disability (formerly termed mental retardation), lowered IQ and other disorders of learning, development, and behavior are highly prevalent among American children.

Between 1997 and 2006, rates of ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year. Today, approximately 4.5 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD.

The lifetime prevalence of learning disabilities in United States (U.S.) children is approximately 9.7%, according to a 2007 Pediatrics article. According to a 1994 study, approximately 16% of U.S. children have a developmental disability, and research shows increasing trends. Since the early 1990s alone, reported cases of autism spectrum disorders have increased tenfold.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates that one in 110 U.S. eight-yearolds have autism spectrum disorder, with an increase of 57% between 2002 and 2006. While increased awareness and improved diagnostic criteria undoubtedly played a role in the current figures, studies controlling for those factors infer that other culprits, such as chemical contaminants and geneenvironment interactions, are likely to play a role in the rising incidence of learning and developmental disabilities in the U.S.

Contributing Author: Laura Abulafia, MH