Can we trust the healthcare system?
In this solo episode, I’m getting real about something I think a lot of us feel—how modern medicine sometimes leaves us disconnected from our bodies, relying on quick fixes and pills that don’t always get to the heart of things. I’ll be sharing my own journey, from working as a dietitian to exploring Ayurveda and holistic healing, and how I finally found a way to trust my body and really listen to what it needs.
This isn’t about blaming doctors; it’s about us learning to reconnect and feel in control of our own health. So, let’s sit down together and dive into these beautiful, age-old practices that help us feel more balanced and truly cared for. We deserve to love and nurture our bodies, and I can’t wait to share how we can start doing that!
What We Discuss:
- 00:00 Intro
- 02:00 Misinformation in Modern Healthcare
- 06:09 Profit over People
- 09:31 Overprescription and overmedication
- 13:22 The Problem with Standardized Health Metrics
- 15:46 The History of Harmful Medications
- 18:56 Questioning the Safety of Medications
- 21:24 There is Always a Way and Another Option
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you actually know that the b Andi calculation was
developed in eighteen thirties by a mathematician and it wasn't
actually intended to be a formula that measured someone's health
at all. It was created to assess the average body
mass of a population. That's it. I'm Radiwka and on
my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy
and the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations
(00:23):
that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn,
connect and find comfort together. Before I start with this episode,
because I know you've read the title and had many thoughts,
I just want to start off by saying I will
not be bad mouthing doctors. I will not be bad
mouthing the system. I Am just going to be sharing
pure facts and the realities of what is happening with
(00:45):
our healthcare system, why unfortunately it is failing us, and
what we can do about it, how we can take
our health back into our own hands so that the
system is not in control and we are in control
of our health as much as possible. I have friends
who are doctors. I respect and appreciate the work that
(01:06):
they do every single day. Whether it's me in hospital,
whether it's my family members that have been in hospitals.
I can truly appreciate the people who work in these environments,
and it is not an episode that is going to
be cussing them in any way. This is more to
do with the actual system and how sometimes it's going
against us, and how sometimes it's trying to trick us,
(01:28):
and how to just see that, how to actually be
aware and in knowledge of what's happening so we can
make informative decisions. And so I just wanted to preface
this episode with that because otherwise I feel like I'm
going to have a lot of people coming at me,
and I'm doing this for you, not for myself. So
I'm sharing all this information because I found it out
(01:49):
and it really helped me to understand how to protect
my own health even if other people aren't looking out
for it. And I think that's really important. So let's
get into it. So I actually wanted to talk about
this topic, and I thought it was important too because
I found through working in the healthcare system as a
dietitian in a hospital and then in my years of
(02:11):
sharing ancient healing practices online after that that people can
be so defensive and so aggressively outspoken when I share
things that are as simple as using spices in water,
whether it's to heal your gus or whatever it is
I speak about, and I find there is such a
huge gap in understanding. There's so much misinformation out there
(02:32):
and also so much brainwashing that happens within this healthcare system.
It feels really hypocritical to be honest, when people tell
me I shouldn't be sharing what spices can do because
they think there's not enough evidence for it. But then
we'll happily pop pills that have been tested solely on
animals or in a lab for maybe a year and
think that that's absolutely normal. And Okay, I guess my
(02:53):
question is always is five thousand years of wisdom passed
down through generation not evidence enough? And by the way,
generations that have had no benefit by sharing it, they're
not getting paid for it, they don't have any financial
investment behind it. It is just families of generations that
have passed down this healing wisdom to their family, to
(03:15):
their children in hopes that it will help to heal
their body too. So actually, I just want to start
by saying that a lot of these healing systems have
been passed down with no intention of gaining anything from it,
and I think that is the knowledge that we should
be appreciating the most and taking on most in our
life because it has not been skewed in any way.
(03:35):
There is no bias in any way except for wanting
their children to be happy and healthy in their body
and in their mind. And I've really noticed that these days,
what we end up trusting when it comes to our
health is a little bit distorted because of everything that
we've been told. When I worked in the healthcare system
in the UK as a dietitian in a hospital, I
(03:56):
got to see the ins and outs. You know, I
was only working there for a short period of time,
but I definitely felt like I saw enough. I saw
how how the doctors worked. I saw how some doctors
truly care and honestly some just don't. I saw how
you have to work within the frameworks and how you
have to work according to a specific regulations that you
(04:18):
are told that you have to stay within. Even as
a dietitian, when I would have patients that come to
see me, I would have a protocol I would have
to follow, even if I wanted to tell them something different,
I couldn't because there's first line advice, second lighted advice,
third line advice, and at some point you have to
put them onto these supplements because they can't go under
this certain and at some point you have to put
(04:39):
them on this supplement or recommend it to them, even
if I don't want to recommend it to them. And
so there's definitely limitations on how much you can honestly
share with people because of the frameworks that you have
to stay within. And so no, this isn't about any
singular doctor or the nurses that, by the way, just
need to say shout out to all the nurses out there,
because if there's one thing I noticed working in a
(05:01):
hospital is that the nurses are the unsung warriors that
do all the work that no one else wants to
do in hospitals, and they seriously are the backbone that
keep it running. So just want to do a shout
out to all the nurses who I've noticed truly care
about the people that they are, that they are looking
after and that they come into contact with and their patients.
(05:23):
I really came to appreciate that when I worked in
the hospital and when my grandma was in hospital and
I saw all the work that they did. So by
the end of this episode, I hope that it just
opens your eyes and makes you more aware of the
things to look out for when you do require treatment
or need help with your health. Two to help you
to realize the more you learn about your own health
and become and two help you realize that the more
(05:47):
you learn about your own health and become proactive and
an active participant in your health, the less chances you
will be roped into the negative side of the healthcare system.
I know this might upset people, but I urge you
all to listen to one section or pick up one
part that I say and understand that I get no
benefit from speaking on it except the desire to help
you reach your optimal health. So here is why I
(06:10):
just don't trust the healthcare system. And let me just
caveat that with also saying the healthcare systems in different
countries are different. The UK system is government funded, whereas
the US healthcare system is unfortunately privately funded and or
based on money. Let's just be honest. So the first
thing I will say is profit over people. Now, this
(06:31):
is definitely focusing on the US healthcare system, but overall,
I think it applies everywhere, to be honest, to some degree. Now,
obviously this is no secret. It's all of the news regularly,
and modern healthcare prioritizes pharmaceutical profits and procedures over preventative
and holistic healthcare. That is a fact. They don't want
(06:52):
to give you free meditation classes feel anxiety, They'd rather
give you a pill for it. They don't want to
give you free workouts or a reduced or subsidized workouts
for anybody who's got depression or who suffers with anxiety.
They'd rather give you a pill for it because they
profit from that. One thing I found so crazy was
how a zempic, which by the way, was a drug
(07:14):
created for diabetic patients specifically. One example of this which
made it all so clear was when azempic became this
weight loss craze. I'm sure you've all heard about a
zempic and how it is the most amazing weight loss drug, which,
by the way, it is absolutely not, But it was
actually created first for patients with diabetes, specifically for patients
(07:36):
with diabetes. When people started finding out or not finding out,
when doctors started telling people that it also can help
with weight loss, especially in the US, because, by the way,
a lot of people in the UK have not even
heard of a zempic unless it's been on an Instagram
reel or something. It's not something that's recommended in the
UK the way it is in the US. There was
(07:57):
a shortage of a zepic for diabetes patients, which is
what the drug was made for, because doctors were selling
it for weight loss to people who didn't even need
to be losing weight for their health. And that is
a perfect example how this healthcare system prioritizes pharmaceutical profits
over giving someone back their health, and they're prescribing a
(08:20):
zempic to anyone. There was not even any regulations. There
wasn't like if you're above a specific BMI. It wasn't
if you are above a certain weight. No, there are
people who are within the healthy BMI range, if not
probably near the lower end of it and been given
a zempic just to lose a few extra pounds. And
by the way, most of these people were not given
the side effects. They weren't told how terrible it can
(08:41):
be for your body, and the doctors were not thinking
about the mental effect of this on a person's body,
of how it changes their relationship with food, how it
changes their relationship with their body, how it creates fear
in a person once they come off it, and therefore
makes someone to stay on it for pretty much the
rest of their life because their body eventually says, you
(09:02):
know what, I'm going to stop working because you're not
letting me work the way that I'm supposed to. You're
going to give me the bare amount of food, bare
minimum amount of food because your stomach can't hack it
when you're on a ZEMPE and your body slowly starts
to just decide to give up, because why am I
going to keep working on building a strong digestive system
if you're not giving me much to digest. So it
(09:22):
was made to help with diabetes, but ended up becoming
the most viral, most talked about drug for weight loss,
and to be honest, that sounds a little bit fishy
to me. My second reason is because of the appalling
amount of over medication and medication dependency that is created
because of this system. Patients are often overprescribed medications that
(09:43):
treat symptoms rather than actually addressing the root cause of it.
And that's honestly what attracted me to ivaate it the most.
It was the fact that it always focuses on the
root cause. It's not just on the symptoms. It's not
just that, Oh, your skin has acne. Let's just make
the acne go away. No, it's okay, Where does this
acne come from? Oh? This acne is probably linked to
(10:04):
your gut. Let's heal your gut before we think about
how to heal your acne. When we heal your gut,
it will eventually end up healing your acne. But let's
think about the root cause. Does it come from a
mental state? Are you too anxious right now? Okay, let's
think about all these holistic ways that we can help
to heal your anxiety and your gut. At the same time,
let's think about the foods that are inexpensive, the spices
(10:24):
that are inexpensive, that you can use on a daily basis,
to not make you dependent on something, but to help
heal your body in a natural way. Being on medication
for the rest of your life is not solving your
health problem. True health is actually absence of disease, and unfortunately,
many of these medications may mask some symptoms of one condition,
(10:45):
but actually end up causing another later in life. So
then you're unfortunately trapped in this constant cycle of resolving
one thing to then find another. And by the way,
if someone has a long term illness and is on
medication for end is helping with the pain and relieving
certain symptoms, I totally understand it. But sometimes for short
term issues, people are put on long term drugs something
(11:07):
that can be resolved by eating better, sleeping better, going
for walks, doing more exercise, improving your digestion, doing a cleanse.
People are put on medication for these things and it
hooks them onto a medication for years and years and years.
Some of the statistics I read honestly shocked me. Forty
two percent of Americans are on five or more prescribed drugs,
(11:31):
and between nineteen ninety nine and twenty nineteen, more than
five hundred thousand people died from an opioid overdose because
of the over prescription of painkillers by the healthcare system.
And then let's talk about the pill. Forty percent of
women between ages fifteen and nineteen are on the pill,
not just for contraception, because they went into their doctor's
(11:53):
office and they said, oh, my crumbs are hurting a
little bit more than normal, or I'm getting a bit
of acne on my face because I've just hit puberty.
And the doctors say, eh, just put you on the pill.
Just put you on the pill for the rest of
your life, without giving you any warning of what it's
going to do to your body. The amount of women
that are just thrown onto the pill at any given
moment for every damn thing is absolutely ridiculous, And honestly,
(12:17):
a system that causes dependency and takes away someone's independence
is not a good system. I know so many people
who have told me something is wrong, like, I know
something is wrong with me. I feel it in my core.
I'm feeling like this, my body is just not right.
And then all the top tests come back within normal range,
and the doctors will say, no, need to run any
(12:40):
more tests. You're absolutely fine, you're within this normal range
and you should just go home. And they're like, no,
I know there is something wrong with my body, please
can you run more tests? And they say, well, you're
within normal range, so there's no reason for us to.
And these are my friends whose skin is flaring up,
their digestion is feeling horrible. They're waking up feeling lethargic
every single day. They are just not well. They do
(13:02):
not feel like themselves, but the doctors don't see their
symptoms as being serious enough or important enough to investigate.
And unfortunately, and the fact is, these normal ranges that
these doctors base their assessment on do not account for
individual differences, whether it's in lifestyle or genetics or environment.
(13:22):
Did you actually know that the BMI calculation was developed
in eighteen thirties by a mathematician and it wasn't actually
intended to be a formula that measured someone's health at all.
It was created to assess the average body mass of
a population, that's it. The study was also, by the way,
based on European males, so it definitely didn't account for
gender differences or ethnicity differences or genetics, but somehow became
(13:48):
the key assessment to determine health and categorize people into
being underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. And to be quite honest,
from what I saw as a dietician, it was really
so inaccurate because so many athletes or people who would
go to the gym and bodybuild would show up as
being obese when they were clearly healthier than someone who
(14:09):
was in the normal range. And honestly, even our BUYO
markers for things like the A vitamin ranges or mineral
ranges or hormones, it is so dependent on the person.
And yes, of course we have to have a normal range.
But if someone's saying there is something fundamentally wrong and
it's showing up still as normal in terms of our biomarkers,
does that mean that we just stop listening to the
(14:31):
person and how they're feeling when they know their body best.
And so that's honestly why I feel like we have
to take our health back into our own hands and
put in work and time to understand what health means
to us, because if we're not looking out for ourselves,
how can we expect somebody else to. And at the
end of the day, if the system is like this,
then the best thing we can do for ourself is
(14:52):
learn about our body, understand it better, and educate ourselves
on the holistic options that are available. And I will
say that the healthcare st has started to acknowledge that
there is a mind body connection, thank god, finally, after
we've done many studies on it and There's been enough
research out there, but it's still not enough. They have
such a limited view of what wellness actually looks like.
(15:13):
There are more than enough studies now to show the
undeniable mind body connection, the effect that meditation can have
on our nervous system and our well being. The list
goes on. There are more than enough studies now that
show and confirm the connection between our mind and our body,
our illnesses and mental stress, meditation and the effect of
(15:33):
it on our nervous system. The list goes on and on,
and like I said, it's definitely got better, but they
will never focus on it completely. They will never try
and recommend it before recommending medication because they'll go out
of business. Now, let's talk about the evidence that a
lot of medications are based on. Shall we Let me
first start off by saying, there are so many studies
(15:54):
about so many medications that are so biased and funded
by people who want that medication to win, and often
you don't find out until it's too late. The fact
is that doctors to some degree are just prescribing what
they're told to They're listening to the people above them,
and they're not usually the ones actually doing the research.
In the labs or seeing the results. They're seeing the
(16:16):
written studies, which are often biased or untruthful, and basing
their recommendations on something completely unaware of who's created it,
or who's funded it, or even how it was tested.
I only think that there's just a lot of blind
trust and blind leading the blind in this system. I
actually did some research on the medications and drugs that
have in the past been marketed as being good for
(16:38):
someone and then turned out to be absolutely horrific. These
are just some of the ones that stood out to me,
but there are so many like this that have happened
over the years. The first one is a medication called
salida mine. This was actually in the nineteen fifties to
nineteen sixties. Originally it was marketed as a sedative and
treatment for morning sickness for pregnant women. Eventually they figured
(17:00):
that it was actually causing birth defects in ten thousand babies,
leading to malformations and things like missing limbs in the children.
This was actually considered one of the most tragic drug
scandals to exist in history. The second one is fenfen.
This was in the nineteen nineties. It was a popular
drug at that time for weight loss, and it did
(17:20):
create weight loss, but also it created heart valve damage
and pulmonary hypertension. The FDA actually pulled this drug from
the market in nineteen ninety seven. Another medication also prescribed
to pregnant women in nineteen seventy. It was called des
and it was prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages
and complications during pregnancies. It was actually discovered in the
(17:43):
nineteen seventies that this drug increased the risk of vaginal
and cervical cancer. It was actually found later on that
this drug increased the risk of vaginal and cervical cancer
in the daughters of the women who took that drug.
It also led to infertility and reproductive issues. The drug
obviously got banned, but it affected millions of people over
many generations. Acutane, I'm sure you've heard of it. It
(18:06):
was a drug that was used for severe acne. It
was linked to severe birth defects if taken during pregnancy,
as well as increased risk of depression, suicidal thoughts, and
inflammatory bowel disease. So even if it was effective for acne,
it then caused all these other effects, and so it
was voluntarily discontinued by the manufacturer in two thousand and nine,
(18:29):
although there are still many generic versions that continue to
be sold. And lastly, benzodiazepines also known as valium or xanax,
they are still sold to this day. They obviously used
to treat anxiety, insomnia, or lots of mental health disorders
and lots of mental health conditions. They found that long
term use of these medications causes dependency, cognitive impairment, and
(18:52):
withdraw symptoms that make it really, really difficult for somebody
to get off this drug. Look, these are just a
few of the ones that went wrong. I'm sure there's
been so much incredile research done for so many different
health conditions that have really helped many people, and I
don't take it. This does not take away from that,
but it also doesn't make up for these The fact
is we need rigorous drug testing over long periods of
(19:14):
time to really assess how it's going to affect people.
We need research downe but where it's not funded by
pharmaceutical companies who have investment in the drugs. This is
not me trying to scare you of taking drugs. That
is not what I want to do. I get no
benefit from doing that. I just wanted to highlight these
so it makes you ask more questions when you do
get recommended things like this, so you are making informed
(19:37):
decisions and choice and you do take time to do
your research on these drugs before just saying yes to them.
And sometimes the pain and struggle is so difficult that
temporary relief is necessary. I've had family members who've tried
all the different types of holistic treatment, but their pain
was just so severe they really needed strong pain relief
to take away the pain while they figured out what
(19:58):
their long term solution was. But you can maybe do
holistic treatments alongside these drugs to help counteract the negative
effects of them. If I'm completely honest, I haven't been
to a normal doctor for about ten years now. It's
probably my last resort when all else fails, purely because
I've found myself in better health since I've followed traditional
holistic systems, so I've never actually wanted to turn back.
(20:21):
And if you're going to spend money anyway, then why
not try a holistic system. Whether it's aravada or Chinese
medicine or acupuncture. All these systems work without having to
put synthetic drugs into your body. Yes, they take a
little bit longer because everything naturally takes longer, but it's
because they're trying to get to the root cause rather
than just healing the things that you see or feel.
(20:42):
All these systems have been around way longer than these
farmer companies have, and to be honest, the evidence for
a lot of these healing practices date back thousands and
thousands of years, which is way longer than any of
these drugs have been tested for. And so I really
do urge you guys to think about the different holistic
practices that you have around you that you can turn to.
(21:02):
And you can maybe start with having a cold and
a cough. You don't have to go there for something
really big. If you're not ready to take that leap
as soon as you get, you know, find yourself being
a little bit under the weather or unwell, try and
go to a holistic person to try and see if
they can help you with that small thing, and maybe
they'll build your trust up for them to help you
with the larger things if you happen to need it
(21:23):
later in life. Really and truly, I just hope that
this podcast was a reminder to you that you do
have other options. If you're frustrated with your doctors right now,
if the system has failed you, just know that there
are other options. And yes, it may take a little
bit longer, and it may take time to find the
right system that works for you. And it's scary trying
something new and not knowing what to expect. But is
(21:45):
it not worth a try to try and get to
the root of your problem and possibly getting rid of
a condition that doctors might have you on medicine for
for the rest of your life. I will tell you,
I know so many women, so many women who have
had things like polycystic ovary syndrome where the doctors have said,
it's just what you have. You can't do anything about it.
(22:06):
Go on this pill, lose some weight and you'll be fine.
And it has not helped. If anything, it's made their
symptoms worse. They've gone to holistic doctors, whether it's acupuncture
or a vader or Chinese medicine or a mixture of
all three, and they're able to have children that acne
clears up, their symptoms are far less and they are
given hope in a way that the conventional healthcare system
(22:31):
did not give them and not just hope without follow
through hope and then result also, And so I always
say there's always a way. There is always a way,
you just have to find a different route, and so
try everything. Like your health is your biggest investment. It
is the thing I always say this. I'm like, I
would rather skip holidays, I would rather skimp one so
(22:53):
many other things except for the quality of the food
I'm eating and the health practices that I invest in.
And so I really encourage you to do that, if possible,
try different things out and see what works for you. Now,
I'm really sorry that this was quite a heavy episode,
and I hope it made you feel more aware and
not more afraid. It was not my intention to scare you.
It was my intention to inform you. But thank you
(23:15):
so much for listening, and I'd love to hear your
thoughts on this. So definitely DM me on our really
good CRI Instagram page, and don't forget to follow this
podcast so that you get a notification every single time
and new episode comes out. Thanks so much.
Did you actually know that the b Andi calculation was
developed in eighteen thirties by a mathematician and it wasn't
actually intended to be a formula that measured someone's health
at all. It was created to assess the average body
mass of a population. That's it. I'm Radiwka and on
my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy
and the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations
(00:23):
that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn,
connect and find comfort together. Before I start with this episode,
because I know you've read the title and had many thoughts,
I just want to start off by saying I will
not be bad mouthing doctors. I will not be bad
mouthing the system. I Am just going to be sharing
pure facts and the realities of what is happening with
(00:45):
our healthcare system, why unfortunately it is failing us, and
what we can do about it, how we can take
our health back into our own hands so that the
system is not in control and we are in control
of our health as much as possible. I have friends
who are doctors. I respect and appreciate the work that
(01:06):
they do every single day. Whether it's me in hospital,
whether it's my family members that have been in hospitals.
I can truly appreciate the people who work in these environments,
and it is not an episode that is going to
be cussing them in any way. This is more to
do with the actual system and how sometimes it's going
against us, and how sometimes it's trying to trick us,
(01:28):
and how to just see that, how to actually be
aware and in knowledge of what's happening so we can
make informative decisions. And so I just wanted to preface
this episode with that because otherwise I feel like I'm
going to have a lot of people coming at me,
and I'm doing this for you, not for myself. So
I'm sharing all this information because I found it out
(01:49):
and it really helped me to understand how to protect
my own health even if other people aren't looking out
for it. And I think that's really important. So let's
get into it. So I actually wanted to talk about
this topic, and I thought it was important too because
I found through working in the healthcare system as a
dietitian in a hospital and then in my years of
(02:11):
sharing ancient healing practices online after that that people can
be so defensive and so aggressively outspoken when I share
things that are as simple as using spices in water,
whether it's to heal your gus or whatever it is
I speak about, and I find there is such a
huge gap in understanding. There's so much misinformation out there
(02:32):
and also so much brainwashing that happens within this healthcare system.
It feels really hypocritical to be honest, when people tell
me I shouldn't be sharing what spices can do because
they think there's not enough evidence for it. But then
we'll happily pop pills that have been tested solely on
animals or in a lab for maybe a year and
think that that's absolutely normal. And Okay, I guess my
(02:53):
question is always is five thousand years of wisdom passed
down through generation not evidence enough? And by the way,
generations that have had no benefit by sharing it, they're
not getting paid for it, they don't have any financial
investment behind it. It is just families of generations that
have passed down this healing wisdom to their family, to
(03:15):
their children in hopes that it will help to heal
their body too. So actually, I just want to start
by saying that a lot of these healing systems have
been passed down with no intention of gaining anything from it,
and I think that is the knowledge that we should
be appreciating the most and taking on most in our
life because it has not been skewed in any way.
(03:35):
There is no bias in any way except for wanting
their children to be happy and healthy in their body
and in their mind. And I've really noticed that these days,
what we end up trusting when it comes to our
health is a little bit distorted because of everything that
we've been told. When I worked in the healthcare system
in the UK as a dietitian in a hospital, I
(03:56):
got to see the ins and outs. You know, I
was only working there for a short period of time,
but I definitely felt like I saw enough. I saw
how how the doctors worked. I saw how some doctors
truly care and honestly some just don't. I saw how
you have to work within the frameworks and how you
have to work according to a specific regulations that you
(04:18):
are told that you have to stay within. Even as
a dietitian, when I would have patients that come to
see me, I would have a protocol I would have
to follow, even if I wanted to tell them something different,
I couldn't because there's first line advice, second lighted advice,
third line advice, and at some point you have to
put them onto these supplements because they can't go under
this certain and at some point you have to put
(04:39):
them on this supplement or recommend it to them, even
if I don't want to recommend it to them. And
so there's definitely limitations on how much you can honestly
share with people because of the frameworks that you have
to stay within. And so no, this isn't about any
singular doctor or the nurses that, by the way, just
need to say shout out to all the nurses out there,
because if there's one thing I noticed working in a
(05:01):
hospital is that the nurses are the unsung warriors that
do all the work that no one else wants to
do in hospitals, and they seriously are the backbone that
keep it running. So just want to do a shout
out to all the nurses who I've noticed truly care
about the people that they are, that they are looking
after and that they come into contact with and their patients.
(05:23):
I really came to appreciate that when I worked in
the hospital and when my grandma was in hospital and
I saw all the work that they did. So by
the end of this episode, I hope that it just
opens your eyes and makes you more aware of the
things to look out for when you do require treatment
or need help with your health. Two to help you
to realize the more you learn about your own health
and become and two help you realize that the more
(05:47):
you learn about your own health and become proactive and
an active participant in your health, the less chances you
will be roped into the negative side of the healthcare system.
I know this might upset people, but I urge you
all to listen to one section or pick up one
part that I say and understand that I get no
benefit from speaking on it except the desire to help
you reach your optimal health. So here is why I
(06:10):
just don't trust the healthcare system. And let me just
caveat that with also saying the healthcare systems in different
countries are different. The UK system is government funded, whereas
the US healthcare system is unfortunately privately funded and or
based on money. Let's just be honest. So the first
thing I will say is profit over people. Now, this
(06:31):
is definitely focusing on the US healthcare system, but overall,
I think it applies everywhere, to be honest, to some degree. Now,
obviously this is no secret. It's all of the news regularly,
and modern healthcare prioritizes pharmaceutical profits and procedures over preventative
and holistic healthcare. That is a fact. They don't want
(06:52):
to give you free meditation classes feel anxiety, They'd rather
give you a pill for it. They don't want to
give you free workouts or a reduced or subsidized workouts
for anybody who's got depression or who suffers with anxiety.
They'd rather give you a pill for it because they
profit from that. One thing I found so crazy was
how a zempic, which by the way, was a drug
(07:14):
created for diabetic patients specifically. One example of this which
made it all so clear was when azempic became this
weight loss craze. I'm sure you've all heard about a
zempic and how it is the most amazing weight loss drug, which,
by the way, it is absolutely not, But it was
actually created first for patients with diabetes, specifically for patients
(07:36):
with diabetes. When people started finding out or not finding out,
when doctors started telling people that it also can help
with weight loss, especially in the US, because, by the way,
a lot of people in the UK have not even
heard of a zempic unless it's been on an Instagram
reel or something. It's not something that's recommended in the
UK the way it is in the US. There was
(07:57):
a shortage of a zepic for diabetes patients, which is
what the drug was made for, because doctors were selling
it for weight loss to people who didn't even need
to be losing weight for their health. And that is
a perfect example how this healthcare system prioritizes pharmaceutical profits
over giving someone back their health, and they're prescribing a
(08:20):
zempic to anyone. There was not even any regulations. There
wasn't like if you're above a specific BMI. It wasn't
if you are above a certain weight. No, there are
people who are within the healthy BMI range, if not
probably near the lower end of it and been given
a zempic just to lose a few extra pounds. And
by the way, most of these people were not given
the side effects. They weren't told how terrible it can
(08:41):
be for your body, and the doctors were not thinking
about the mental effect of this on a person's body,
of how it changes their relationship with food, how it
changes their relationship with their body, how it creates fear
in a person once they come off it, and therefore
makes someone to stay on it for pretty much the
rest of their life because their body eventually says, you
(09:02):
know what, I'm going to stop working because you're not
letting me work the way that I'm supposed to. You're
going to give me the bare amount of food, bare
minimum amount of food because your stomach can't hack it
when you're on a ZEMPE and your body slowly starts
to just decide to give up, because why am I
going to keep working on building a strong digestive system
if you're not giving me much to digest. So it
(09:22):
was made to help with diabetes, but ended up becoming
the most viral, most talked about drug for weight loss,
and to be honest, that sounds a little bit fishy
to me. My second reason is because of the appalling
amount of over medication and medication dependency that is created
because of this system. Patients are often overprescribed medications that
(09:43):
treat symptoms rather than actually addressing the root cause of it.
And that's honestly what attracted me to ivaate it the most.
It was the fact that it always focuses on the
root cause. It's not just on the symptoms. It's not
just that, Oh, your skin has acne. Let's just make
the acne go away. No, it's okay, Where does this
acne come from? Oh? This acne is probably linked to
(10:04):
your gut. Let's heal your gut before we think about
how to heal your acne. When we heal your gut,
it will eventually end up healing your acne. But let's
think about the root cause. Does it come from a
mental state? Are you too anxious right now? Okay, let's
think about all these holistic ways that we can help
to heal your anxiety and your gut. At the same time,
let's think about the foods that are inexpensive, the spices
(10:24):
that are inexpensive, that you can use on a daily basis,
to not make you dependent on something, but to help
heal your body in a natural way. Being on medication
for the rest of your life is not solving your
health problem. True health is actually absence of disease, and unfortunately,
many of these medications may mask some symptoms of one condition,
(10:45):
but actually end up causing another later in life. So
then you're unfortunately trapped in this constant cycle of resolving
one thing to then find another. And by the way,
if someone has a long term illness and is on
medication for end is helping with the pain and relieving
certain symptoms, I totally understand it. But sometimes for short
term issues, people are put on long term drugs something
(11:07):
that can be resolved by eating better, sleeping better, going
for walks, doing more exercise, improving your digestion, doing a cleanse.
People are put on medication for these things and it
hooks them onto a medication for years and years and years.
Some of the statistics I read honestly shocked me. Forty
two percent of Americans are on five or more prescribed drugs,
(11:31):
and between nineteen ninety nine and twenty nineteen, more than
five hundred thousand people died from an opioid overdose because
of the over prescription of painkillers by the healthcare system.
And then let's talk about the pill. Forty percent of
women between ages fifteen and nineteen are on the pill,
not just for contraception, because they went into their doctor's
(11:53):
office and they said, oh, my crumbs are hurting a
little bit more than normal, or I'm getting a bit
of acne on my face because I've just hit puberty.
And the doctors say, eh, just put you on the pill.
Just put you on the pill for the rest of
your life, without giving you any warning of what it's
going to do to your body. The amount of women
that are just thrown onto the pill at any given
moment for every damn thing is absolutely ridiculous, And honestly,
(12:17):
a system that causes dependency and takes away someone's independence
is not a good system. I know so many people
who have told me something is wrong, like, I know
something is wrong with me. I feel it in my core.
I'm feeling like this, my body is just not right.
And then all the top tests come back within normal range,
and the doctors will say, no, need to run any
(12:40):
more tests. You're absolutely fine, you're within this normal range
and you should just go home. And they're like, no,
I know there is something wrong with my body, please
can you run more tests? And they say, well, you're
within normal range, so there's no reason for us to.
And these are my friends whose skin is flaring up,
their digestion is feeling horrible. They're waking up feeling lethargic
every single day. They are just not well. They do
(13:02):
not feel like themselves, but the doctors don't see their
symptoms as being serious enough or important enough to investigate.
And unfortunately, and the fact is, these normal ranges that
these doctors base their assessment on do not account for
individual differences, whether it's in lifestyle or genetics or environment.
(13:22):
Did you actually know that the BMI calculation was developed
in eighteen thirties by a mathematician and it wasn't actually
intended to be a formula that measured someone's health at all.
It was created to assess the average body mass of
a population, that's it. The study was also, by the way,
based on European males, so it definitely didn't account for
gender differences or ethnicity differences or genetics, but somehow became
(13:48):
the key assessment to determine health and categorize people into
being underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. And to be quite honest,
from what I saw as a dietician, it was really
so inaccurate because so many athletes or people who would
go to the gym and bodybuild would show up as
being obese when they were clearly healthier than someone who
(14:09):
was in the normal range. And honestly, even our BUYO
markers for things like the A vitamin ranges or mineral
ranges or hormones, it is so dependent on the person.
And yes, of course we have to have a normal range.
But if someone's saying there is something fundamentally wrong and
it's showing up still as normal in terms of our biomarkers,
does that mean that we just stop listening to the
(14:31):
person and how they're feeling when they know their body best.
And so that's honestly why I feel like we have
to take our health back into our own hands and
put in work and time to understand what health means
to us, because if we're not looking out for ourselves,
how can we expect somebody else to. And at the
end of the day, if the system is like this,
then the best thing we can do for ourself is
(14:52):
learn about our body, understand it better, and educate ourselves
on the holistic options that are available. And I will
say that the healthcare st has started to acknowledge that
there is a mind body connection, thank god, finally, after
we've done many studies on it and There's been enough
research out there, but it's still not enough. They have
such a limited view of what wellness actually looks like.
(15:13):
There are more than enough studies now to show the
undeniable mind body connection, the effect that meditation can have
on our nervous system and our well being. The list
goes on. There are more than enough studies now that
show and confirm the connection between our mind and our body,
our illnesses and mental stress, meditation and the effect of
(15:33):
it on our nervous system. The list goes on and on,
and like I said, it's definitely got better, but they
will never focus on it completely. They will never try
and recommend it before recommending medication because they'll go out
of business. Now, let's talk about the evidence that a
lot of medications are based on. Shall we Let me
first start off by saying, there are so many studies
(15:54):
about so many medications that are so biased and funded
by people who want that medication to win, and often
you don't find out until it's too late. The fact
is that doctors to some degree are just prescribing what
they're told to They're listening to the people above them,
and they're not usually the ones actually doing the research.
In the labs or seeing the results. They're seeing the
(16:16):
written studies, which are often biased or untruthful, and basing
their recommendations on something completely unaware of who's created it,
or who's funded it, or even how it was tested.
I only think that there's just a lot of blind
trust and blind leading the blind in this system. I
actually did some research on the medications and drugs that
have in the past been marketed as being good for
(16:38):
someone and then turned out to be absolutely horrific. These
are just some of the ones that stood out to me,
but there are so many like this that have happened
over the years. The first one is a medication called
salida mine. This was actually in the nineteen fifties to
nineteen sixties. Originally it was marketed as a sedative and
treatment for morning sickness for pregnant women. Eventually they figured
(17:00):
that it was actually causing birth defects in ten thousand babies,
leading to malformations and things like missing limbs in the children.
This was actually considered one of the most tragic drug
scandals to exist in history. The second one is fenfen.
This was in the nineteen nineties. It was a popular
drug at that time for weight loss, and it did
(17:20):
create weight loss, but also it created heart valve damage
and pulmonary hypertension. The FDA actually pulled this drug from
the market in nineteen ninety seven. Another medication also prescribed
to pregnant women in nineteen seventy. It was called des
and it was prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages
and complications during pregnancies. It was actually discovered in the
(17:43):
nineteen seventies that this drug increased the risk of vaginal
and cervical cancer. It was actually found later on that
this drug increased the risk of vaginal and cervical cancer
in the daughters of the women who took that drug.
It also led to infertility and reproductive issues. The drug
obviously got banned, but it affected millions of people over
many generations. Acutane, I'm sure you've heard of it. It
(18:06):
was a drug that was used for severe acne. It
was linked to severe birth defects if taken during pregnancy,
as well as increased risk of depression, suicidal thoughts, and
inflammatory bowel disease. So even if it was effective for acne,
it then caused all these other effects, and so it
was voluntarily discontinued by the manufacturer in two thousand and nine,
(18:29):
although there are still many generic versions that continue to
be sold. And lastly, benzodiazepines also known as valium or xanax,
they are still sold to this day. They obviously used
to treat anxiety, insomnia, or lots of mental health disorders
and lots of mental health conditions. They found that long
term use of these medications causes dependency, cognitive impairment, and
(18:52):
withdraw symptoms that make it really, really difficult for somebody
to get off this drug. Look, these are just a
few of the ones that went wrong. I'm sure there's
been so much incredile research done for so many different
health conditions that have really helped many people, and I
don't take it. This does not take away from that,
but it also doesn't make up for these The fact
is we need rigorous drug testing over long periods of
(19:14):
time to really assess how it's going to affect people.
We need research downe but where it's not funded by
pharmaceutical companies who have investment in the drugs. This is
not me trying to scare you of taking drugs. That
is not what I want to do. I get no
benefit from doing that. I just wanted to highlight these
so it makes you ask more questions when you do
get recommended things like this, so you are making informed
(19:37):
decisions and choice and you do take time to do
your research on these drugs before just saying yes to them.
And sometimes the pain and struggle is so difficult that
temporary relief is necessary. I've had family members who've tried
all the different types of holistic treatment, but their pain
was just so severe they really needed strong pain relief
to take away the pain while they figured out what
(19:58):
their long term solution was. But you can maybe do
holistic treatments alongside these drugs to help counteract the negative
effects of them. If I'm completely honest, I haven't been
to a normal doctor for about ten years now. It's
probably my last resort when all else fails, purely because
I've found myself in better health since I've followed traditional
holistic systems, so I've never actually wanted to turn back.
(20:21):
And if you're going to spend money anyway, then why
not try a holistic system. Whether it's aravada or Chinese
medicine or acupuncture. All these systems work without having to
put synthetic drugs into your body. Yes, they take a
little bit longer because everything naturally takes longer, but it's
because they're trying to get to the root cause rather
than just healing the things that you see or feel.
(20:42):
All these systems have been around way longer than these
farmer companies have, and to be honest, the evidence for
a lot of these healing practices date back thousands and
thousands of years, which is way longer than any of
these drugs have been tested for. And so I really
do urge you guys to think about the different holistic
practices that you have around you that you can turn to.
(21:02):
And you can maybe start with having a cold and
a cough. You don't have to go there for something
really big. If you're not ready to take that leap
as soon as you get, you know, find yourself being
a little bit under the weather or unwell, try and
go to a holistic person to try and see if
they can help you with that small thing, and maybe
they'll build your trust up for them to help you
with the larger things if you happen to need it
(21:23):
later in life. Really and truly, I just hope that
this podcast was a reminder to you that you do
have other options. If you're frustrated with your doctors right now,
if the system has failed you, just know that there
are other options. And yes, it may take a little
bit longer, and it may take time to find the
right system that works for you. And it's scary trying
something new and not knowing what to expect. But is
(21:45):
it not worth a try to try and get to
the root of your problem and possibly getting rid of
a condition that doctors might have you on medicine for
for the rest of your life. I will tell you,
I know so many women, so many women who have
had things like polycystic ovary syndrome where the doctors have said,
it's just what you have. You can't do anything about it.
(22:06):
Go on this pill, lose some weight and you'll be fine.
And it has not helped. If anything, it's made their
symptoms worse. They've gone to holistic doctors, whether it's acupuncture
or a vader or Chinese medicine or a mixture of
all three, and they're able to have children that acne
clears up, their symptoms are far less and they are
given hope in a way that the conventional healthcare system
(22:31):
did not give them and not just hope without follow
through hope and then result also, And so I always
say there's always a way. There is always a way,
you just have to find a different route, and so
try everything. Like your health is your biggest investment. It
is the thing I always say this. I'm like, I
would rather skip holidays, I would rather skimp one so
(22:53):
many other things except for the quality of the food
I'm eating and the health practices that I invest in.
And so I really encourage you to do that, if possible,
try different things out and see what works for you. Now,
I'm really sorry that this was quite a heavy episode,
and I hope it made you feel more aware and
not more afraid. It was not my intention to scare you.
It was my intention to inform you. But thank you
(23:15):
so much for listening, and I'd love to hear your
thoughts on this. So definitely DM me on our really
good CRI Instagram page, and don't forget to follow this
podcast so that you get a notification every single time
and new episode comes out. Thanks so much.
Host
Radhi Devlukia
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