April 17, 2025 • 27 mins
The stark reality of how money influences health outcomes remains one of society's most uncomfortable truths. As someone battling cancer for over six months while navigating America's complex healthcare system, I've experienced firsthand how financial status dramatically shapes treatment options, care quality, and ultimately survival itself.
From high-deductible insurance plans to astronomical medical bills for even brief consultations, our healthcare system creates nearly insurmountable barriers for anyone without substantial resources. The $1,600 bill for a five-minute appointment with questionable results illustrates why so many avoid seeking care until absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, numerous potentially life-saving therapies remain tantalizingly out of reach for those without the means to access them – hyperbaric treatments, ozone therapy, specialized infusions, and even basic supplements that insurance won't cover.
But healthcare access represents just one dimension of this pervasive disparity. Wealthy individuals generally consume higher-quality nutrition, live in less polluted environments, maintain stronger support networks, experience less chronic stress, and enjoy greater health literacy than their less affluent counterparts. The capacity to reduce stress through vacations, pursue preventative care without financial concern, and access educational resources about health management creates a compounding advantage that extends lifespans and enhances quality of life.
Perhaps most telling is the uneven access to cutting-edge medical innovations. When Magic Johnson received his HIV diagnosis at a time when it was considered a death sentence, his wealth enabled access to experimental treatments that likely saved his life. This pattern repeats daily across countless conditions – those with resources can pursue alternatives when standard protocols fail, while others must simply hope conventional approaches will suffice.
Despite these sobering realities, community offers a powerful counterbalance. Through meaningful connections, shared knowledge, and collective support, we can partially bridge the health-wealth divide. This podcast aims to build exactly that kind of community – one where information flows freely, support is readily available, and health resources become more accessible to everyone regardless of financial status. Join us in creating a network where good health depends more on strong relationships than on bank account balances.
Intro for podcast
Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we're going to talk
about a subject that's a littleuncomfortable and I'd like to
maybe consider it the elephantin the room and this is the
topic of money and health care,or money and health and health
(00:23):
care, or money and health.
So throughout all of historysince there has been a
difference, since people wereable to climb up and be more
wealthy than each other, sothere was a point where we were
(00:43):
all the same.
Everybody worked together,everybody hunted, they gathered,
everybody worked together.
Everybody hunted, they gathered, they did whatever.
But over time, some people didbetter than others.
And then money came to be inexistence and people started to
gather it and all the thingswe're not going to get into, all
the reasons why people becomewealthy and others don't, all
(01:08):
the reasons why people becomewealthy and others don't.
But as you start moving intosociety's evolution, you start
having wealthy classes of peopleand impoverished classes of
people, and throughout all ofthose times, the wealthy people
would generally live a lotlonger, and there's a lot of
reasons for that.
Probably the simplest one isthey had food and you could have
(01:33):
land, so your people would payyou taxes.
Taxes might come in the form offood, livestock, whatever.
So if you were not in asituation where you're
constantly struggling to eat,well, you generally if that was
the only thing that wasdifferent you'd probably live
longer.
And so you know, as societycontinues to grow, here we are
(01:58):
fast forward 20, 30,000 yearsand all of a sudden we've got,
you know, very complicatedsocieties.
We have places in the worldwhere poverty is still the norm.
You have places where there'sdifferent casts of people, where
people are born into povertyand they stay that way.
(02:19):
People are born into wealth andthey stay that way.
And then you have societies,like in America, where it's
dynamic.
You could be born into povertyand build your wealth, or you
could be born into wealth andlose it all and become
impoverished.
But regardless of this, thereare fundamental reasons why
(02:43):
having wealth can bring youbetter health, and people talk
about universal health care, andyou know we just take it from
the rich and give it to the poorand all of these things.
And you know, if there was amodel for that that really
worked, there'd be evidence ofit.
(03:05):
And you know, maybe there's afew countries that are very
mineral resources or just very,very wealthy countries because
of internal reasons you know,oil reserves or mineral reserves
or things like that and theycan afford to shower their
(03:26):
usually very small populationswith a high quality of life.
But that's few and far betweenand I don't know what the
statistics are on that.
But I suspect those people havebetter quality of health.
But in most places wherethey've tried universal health
care I hear the same stories.
(03:49):
It's worse than Kaiser in thesense of long waiting lines,
limited access, very shortdiagnosis times, all kinds of
problems, misdiagnoses, badprescriptions, all kinds of
(04:09):
reasons why it's not functioningwell.
Is it better than nothing?
Of course it is.
Is it something?
Yes, of course it is.
But here in America we've got itset up to where, unless you
have nothing, you can't get much, and so I have been struggling
(04:29):
with a battle with cancer fornow more than six months, and I
had to learn the hard way aboutall this, and so I fell into a
situation where I wasself-employed.
I made some money, but notenough to really pay my own
medical bills.
I get hit with this diagnosisand the coverage that I had was
(04:57):
a very high deductible,relatively low premium, but even
still the premium was high forme relatively low premium, but
even still the premium was highfor me and because of that I
have run into all kinds ofcomplications because of things
not being approved or taking along time to approve and because
(05:19):
of the deductible, I've gotthis huge amount of bills adding
up and so that's certainly putsa giant stress and it's even
caused, you know, a hardship,because once you start dealing
with a problem like cancer orany major disease, your whole
life turns into treating it andit's pretty difficult to spend
(05:42):
time working and making money oreven putting thought into that
while you're trying to keepyourself alive.
And that's something that Idon't know.
If people really think abouthow much time it takes to work
on yourself when you have amajor illness or disease or even
injury, and the amount of timeit takes to go to doctors and
(06:07):
just to traveling and dealingwith it all and any therapies or
anything you might have to do,it's just huge amounts of time
and all the time is huge amountsof money.
I mean, I don't know.
It seems like medical billshave gone up so much I don't
even know what to say.
I've gone into a five-minutedoctor visit where they looked
(06:30):
at me, put a little camera downmy throat and I walked away with
a $1,600 bill and I'm just likewhat the hell?
And it turned out even I gotsome bad information from that.
It doesn't matter, you know,it's interesting.
In talking with the Dr Hoffman'sgroup, we came up with a notion
(06:50):
that said maybe healthcareshould be like sometimes lawyers
work, where a doctor only getspaid if they actually help you
and otherwise they'll make somekind of a salary, but you know,
and you don't get the big bucksunless you actually make a
difference.
So let's just get into some ofthese things as to what the
(07:12):
difference is.
So you know just straight upaccess to health care situation
where you either live in acountry where you've got some
kind of you know Medi-Cal, or oryou know the type of subsidized
health care or even some kindof a universal health care, and
(07:36):
you don't have money.
What?
How are you going to get anyhealth care at all?
How are you going to get anymedicine at all?
It's, people don't just give itto you, and there are free
clinics and things that aresponsored by nonprofits and
whatnot.
How are you going to get anymedicine at all?
People don't just give it toyou, and there are free clinics
and things that are sponsored bynonprofits and whatnot, but few
and far between.
(08:06):
And then when you get intothings like health insurance,
you know, like I was justtalking about, I know people
that have multiple layers, likein me, going and I tell them,
well, I've got this, you knowthis, this PPO health insurance.
They're like well, do you haveany other coverage?
Like some people apparentlyhave multiple layers of
insurance and that affords themall kinds of things and you can
have different services,different medications.
You know, the first thing thatI've learned is, before you walk
(08:31):
into anything, before you makean appointment, anything, it's
like well, what's your, what'syour date of birth, what's your
name?
And then they check yourinsurance and if you don't have
everything right, you don't evenget in the door, you don't even
get to talk to anybody.
And I know, you know, in theyears past I was a cash patient.
That was a different story.
(08:51):
I don't know how it works now,but I don't have any cash right
now.
So it's, it's crazy.
So the quality of care reallymakes a big difference when you
have either the resources to payfor it or the good insurance
(09:13):
and like for me right now.
There's a bunch of therapies Icould be doing right now if I
had money.
You know, I could be doinghyperbaric, I could be doing EBU
ozone treatment.
I could be doing hyperbaric, Icould be doing EBU ozone
treatment, I could be doinginfusions.
There's all kinds of therapiesthat I could be doing that could
potentially have a verypositive effect.
(09:35):
Even some of the supplementsthat I could take I've had been
generously donated somesupplements from a doctor friend
of mine, and and because I'vebuilt a network of people, it's
made a giant difference in mylife.
But the amount of effort I'veput into that has been the
(09:56):
reason, not because I had anymoney and that's another big
point that I'll get to maybe inanother show but the other
option, nutritional choices.
I think this is one of thebiggest issues.
People that are impoverishedgenerally eat shit food and
(10:20):
that's not always true.
So there are places wherepeople live in a rural setting.
They grow their own food, theytake care of themselves, they
don't have any money, butfrankly, they can be way more
healthy because of that.
So they're not eating processedfood, they're not eating sugary
foods, they're not eating emptycalories.
They're growing good, wholesomefoods, whether it's meat, eggs,
(10:43):
poultry, vegetables and fruits,fish, whatever.
There are plenty of placeswhere people that don't have a
lot of money also are what theycall in the blue zones or they
live generally very healthylives.
(11:03):
But typically if you get into it, if you're poor, you're going
to eat crap.
You're going to eat, you know,cheap gas station food.
You're going to eat fast food.
You're going to eat box food,government cheese, that kind of
thing, lack of nutrition, fullof poisons, pesticides,
(11:25):
chemicals of all kinds, all theproblems that come from that and
generally, if you've got money,well, you're going to Erewhon
and eating your frigging $20strawberry.
You're eating the organic, thebest of the best, going to the
farmer's markets and eating thefoo-foo food, and well, you're
generally going to have a betterquality of life.
(11:45):
You go to a restaurant wherethey're making fresh food farm
to table all this stuff.
You know you're going togenerally have a better quality
of life.
You'll also maybe know moreabout different supplements,
different resources and thingslike that.
Your living environment.
This is something that, again,people maybe don't pay attention
(12:09):
to and it's not entirelydependent on wealth, because
there are rural areas again,where people have created safe
places for themselves, familycompounds and things like that,
where you don't have to.
Your safety does notnecessarily just depend on money
(12:31):
.
It can solely be built oncommunity.
But generally speaking,impoverished areas are riddled
with crime.
When people don't have anyresources, they sometimes resort
to a lot of bad choices and youknow, drugs and all kinds of
(12:52):
things happen as a result ofthat.
And maybe as important as thatis is it just brings stress, and
I think stress is a giganticcontributing factor to health.
And that's not to mentionpollution.
If you go to a bad part of town, you drive around, what do you
(13:14):
see?
You see filth, usually you seeindustrial areas, you see
polluted water, polluted air,polluted streets.
You go to San Francisco and yousee frigging shit all over the
walls and all over the floor andjust horrible situations.
And you know it's nasty,disgusting, and people are
(13:36):
living in it and wondering whythey're getting sick.
Then you get to education.
This is another big disparity,probably one of the biggest
disparities between the havesand the have-nots.
The have-nots have to spendtheir time working and foraging
and hustling and the haves well,they get to take their time and
(13:58):
get some education, get tolearn more, get to distance
themselves from the day-to-dayissues and, as a result, you can
likely often make betterchoices.
You create better networks ofpeople.
These are all things thatmatter, and especially when it
(14:20):
gets into the support system.
So when you have means, thenyou generally gather with people
who have means and yougenerally have an opportunity to
create a social environment,which is very good for health
and being able to do things likerelax, being able to go on
(14:44):
vacations, being able to dothings you want to do, remove
stress, even being able to dothings like exercise regularly.
You know, the guy who isimpoverished is working all the
time.
Maybe you get exercise fromworking, but it's a very
specific kind of thing, mayberepetitive, maybe causing
(15:04):
problems to your health, and,frankly, the person who gets up
and has a personal trainer and anutritionist and all of that,
you know who do you think isgoing to be the healthier one?
And then it also comes down tothings like the likelihood of
(15:24):
taking on habits like drinking,smoking, drugs and others.
When you're going through arough time, people have a
propensity to want to cover thatup, to not have to feel the
pain and the suffering of all ofthat, and that's where a lot of
(15:44):
these behaviors come from, andnot to say that the wealthy
people don't do that as well.
And there's plenty of examplesof excess and all that.
But I think if you look at thedisparity between the wealthy
and the impoverished, you'regoing to find a whole lot more
issues with substance abuse andother toxic behaviors.
(16:11):
And then when it comes down tothings like time, you know I
don't know how many times whenI'm working a lot there's no
time to go to the doctor, Idon't have time to go and get a
checkup, I don't have time toget that blood work done.
I got to work, I got things todo, and if I don't get those
things, I'm living so close tothe edge.
(16:32):
Then all of a sudden billsstart coming in due and I can't
pay them and then that turnsinto this cascading problem of
collections and calls and stressand it adds up and it turns
into this tidal wave ofnegativity.
And you know there's anotherlayer, for that Stress reduction
(16:52):
is another huge one.
I think money is probably thebiggest stressor of most people.
It destroys marriages, itdestroys sanity, it destroys
relationships.
If you have money it's reallyeasy to walk around.
And I'm not saying money buysyou happiness.
(17:13):
I'm just saying it's a loteasier to be happy when you have
money than when you're not.
And I have had money and nothad money and my level of
happiness has not changed onebit.
But I recognize that I controlthat.
And a lot of people findthemselves falling victim to
their circumstances and it'sprevalent Preventative health
(17:38):
measures.
These are things that you know.
If you believe in vaccines andyou think that's a good idea,
well, you can afford them.
You can go and take your timeand get that.
If you believe in things likesupplements, if you believe in
things like therapies, a sauna,maybe a swimming pool or gym
equipment or all the things thatpeople do to get healthy, a
(18:01):
juicer there's all kinds oftools and things that people do
when they have resources.
I'm not saying that you can'tfind it otherwise, but it's
certainly a lot easier whenyou've got this money.
Now here's the kicker chronicdisease management.
If you've never been dealt witha chronic disease, whether it's
(18:22):
cancer or emphysema or MS orwhatever, people don't realize
that this stuff just doesn'tstop.
And if you need a therapy, well, you just keep needing it until
you don't.
And if it's a drug, or if it'sa treatment or whatever it is.
(18:44):
Not only is it going to takeyour time every time every week,
every month or however oftenyou have to do it, but it costs
you every single time.
It certainly gives you nothingother than whatever it's doing
for your situation, but it takesa lot, and it takes not only
from you but of your loved ones,and I think that that's
(19:05):
something that people don'trealize.
You know, in this disease thatI'm dealing with and even when I
was battling the government,you know for over six years,
people lose sight of the factthat you're doing it every day.
And you know I was on bail forsix years and dealing with the
stress of that and can't getanything go wrong or I'm going
(19:27):
to be locked up, and every dayI'm dealing with that stress.
I'm certain that contributed tomy cancer.
But you know people hadn't seenme for a while.
Hey, how's that thing going?
Oh, hey, how's the battle going?
You know, because they're notthinking about it.
(19:49):
But you deal with it everysecond of every minute of every
day and it's can be brutal andif you don't have the, the
wherewithal, people crack allthe time.
Um, and that gets topsychological well-being.
You know you think to yourselfhealthy mind, healthy body.
And if your mind isn't right,whether it's because of stress,
or maybe you've got some kind ofchemical imbalance that you're
not able to manage because youdon't have resources, you can't
(20:13):
afford to go to a psychologistor a psychiatrist or a therapist
or somebody that can maybe giveyou some direction.
So you go around continuingwhatever the cycle that you're
in.
Maybe it's bad choices, maybeit's bad relationships, maybe
it's you know, who knows?
Whatever the behavior is, and Ithink that that's another big
(20:35):
issue that people don't realize.
I think your psychologicalwell-being has everything to do
with your health.
I think your psychologicalwell-being has everything to do
with your health and I thinkthat you know it's a major issue
.
Even things like travel andexperiences.
You know, you think about thewealthy person and oh yeah, we
(20:55):
went to St Bart's last week.
Oh, I'm off in here, I'm offthere doing this, doing that.
Well, guess what?
That's very helpful.
You go on vacation and youdecompress and you let go, and
it's so restorative and sohealing.
And you know the handful oftimes I go on vacation, I do it
because it's for my health, andwhether it costs a lot of money
(21:17):
or a little money, I will taketime off, no matter what, and
wash my spirit with that, and itmakes a gigantic difference.
And you know, sometimes peoplehave the sense to do it, even if
you don't have money, and yougo to the park or you go camping
or you go to the beach orwhatever, and you find a way to
get away and reset.
(21:38):
That's really important.
But a lot of folks are stuck.
You know they got to work allthe time, or, even worse,
they're impoverished and theyhave maybe a loved one that they
have to tend to or whatnot, andthen not.
Finally but this is kind of thelast point that I think I'm
going to bring into this isthings like experimental
(22:01):
research and cutting edgetechnology.
You know, I can remember whenMagic Johnson was diagnosed with
AIDS and you know everybody'slike, oh no, he's going to die.
It's like, well, guess whatthat guy could afford?
The latest greatest cocktailsof drugs, the latest greatest
cocktails of drugs.
(22:22):
And he was actually part ofprobably the pioneering of
what's now the norm.
And now what used to be a deathsentence is an inconvenience
for most people and many, many,most people that have AIDS here
in the United States or in firstworld countries.
(22:42):
It's definitely not a deathsentence like it was, but if it
wasn't for the wealth, I don'tknow if Magic Johnson would be
around today and I don't knowhow all of this would go.
So there's all kinds ofpotential therapies, access to
(23:05):
information.
You know.
It's really something that Ithink is something that we need
to consider and think about,that I'm working on building
this community because, as muchas all these things that I've
(23:28):
mentioned are factors and aretruths, there is also plenty of
ways that people that don't haveresources can access, and it's
generally through community, andthat's what I'm building here.
There are doctors that canshare their resources and
information and knowledge.
I have built a team of doctorsthat aren't charging me anything
(23:50):
and we talk and I've gottensome of the strategies that I'm
working on from some of thesedoctors and having conversations
.
There are therapies that arenot necessarily documented, you
know, like this ozone therapiesand glycerin, and you know
things like this chlorinedioxide and some of these sound
(24:15):
therapies that you know, eventuning forks for God's sake, it
doesn't cost much and they canlast forever and they can make a
difference.
I'm not saying any one of thesethings are a panacea.
I'm just saying that there areanswers that don't have to be
expensive and we can shareinformation and we can share
time and energy and even justthe community support is so
(24:40):
healing.
I can attest that with dealingwith cancer.
I come from a big family andmost of my immediate family I
have not even heard from and notthat I'm going out of my way to
tell anybody about it and it'sreally just about the truth.
(25:01):
If we have a relationship, wespend time together.
If we don't, we don't and I'mnot being dishonest about that
anymore.
And the people that I do spendtime with, that I have
relationship, I share a lot with, and so the people that check
in once in a while and see howI'm doing, or even people that
donated and things like that,it's wonderful.
(25:23):
But the people that are sharingmy life, I talk to virtually
every day and the people thatare there in support when I have
a down moment, they know andthey're connected and they're
the ones that are holding me up,and most of those people I've
known for very little amount oftime relevant to the rest of my
life, and in all these familymembers there's a handful I got
(25:45):
this giant family and maybe ahandful of them have even
reached out and talked to me,and that's, it's not on them.
They don't owe me anything.
I don't owe them anything.
It just tells you that what youthink or what, classically,
you're told, this is what'simportant.
Family, this family, that bloodin all of these things doesn't
mean anything.
(26:05):
Build yourself a good community.
Spend time with therelationships that you, that you
cherish.
Build them there.
That is where your strength isgoing to come from.
That is where health can comefrom.
That's where answers can comefrom, and I think that that's
really a big part of what we'redoing here with the podcast.
I'm so grateful for everybodythat's supporting this podcast.
(26:27):
We're increasing our reach andif you think this is a good show
, please tell somebody about it,share it, maybe subscribe.
I'm creating more and moresubscriber content and encourage
you to participate.
And until next time, I thankyou for being part of the
Healthy Living Podcast.
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we're going to talk
about a subject that's a littleuncomfortable and I'd like to
maybe consider it the elephantin the room and this is the
topic of money and health care,or money and health and health
(00:23):
care, or money and health.
So throughout all of historysince there has been a
difference, since people wereable to climb up and be more
wealthy than each other, sothere was a point where we were
(00:43):
all the same.
Everybody worked together,everybody hunted, they gathered,
everybody worked together.
Everybody hunted, they gathered, they did whatever.
But over time, some people didbetter than others.
And then money came to be inexistence and people started to
gather it and all the thingswe're not going to get into, all
the reasons why people becomewealthy and others don't, all
(01:08):
the reasons why people becomewealthy and others don't.
But as you start moving intosociety's evolution, you start
having wealthy classes of peopleand impoverished classes of
people, and throughout all ofthose times, the wealthy people
would generally live a lotlonger, and there's a lot of
reasons for that.
Probably the simplest one isthey had food and you could have
(01:33):
land, so your people would payyou taxes.
Taxes might come in the form offood, livestock, whatever.
So if you were not in asituation where you're
constantly struggling to eat,well, you generally if that was
the only thing that wasdifferent you'd probably live
longer.
And so you know, as societycontinues to grow, here we are
(01:58):
fast forward 20, 30,000 yearsand all of a sudden we've got,
you know, very complicatedsocieties.
We have places in the worldwhere poverty is still the norm.
You have places where there'sdifferent casts of people, where
people are born into povertyand they stay that way.
(02:19):
People are born into wealth andthey stay that way.
And then you have societies,like in America, where it's
dynamic.
You could be born into povertyand build your wealth, or you
could be born into wealth andlose it all and become
impoverished.
But regardless of this, thereare fundamental reasons why
(02:43):
having wealth can bring youbetter health, and people talk
about universal health care, andyou know we just take it from
the rich and give it to the poorand all of these things.
And you know, if there was amodel for that that really
worked, there'd be evidence ofit.
(03:05):
And you know, maybe there's afew countries that are very
mineral resources or just very,very wealthy countries because
of internal reasons you know,oil reserves or mineral reserves
or things like that and theycan afford to shower their
(03:26):
usually very small populationswith a high quality of life.
But that's few and far betweenand I don't know what the
statistics are on that.
But I suspect those people havebetter quality of health.
But in most places wherethey've tried universal health
care I hear the same stories.
(03:49):
It's worse than Kaiser in thesense of long waiting lines,
limited access, very shortdiagnosis times, all kinds of
problems, misdiagnoses, badprescriptions, all kinds of
(04:09):
reasons why it's not functioningwell.
Is it better than nothing?
Of course it is.
Is it something?
Yes, of course it is.
But here in America we've got itset up to where, unless you
have nothing, you can't get much, and so I have been struggling
(04:29):
with a battle with cancer fornow more than six months, and I
had to learn the hard way aboutall this, and so I fell into a
situation where I wasself-employed.
I made some money, but notenough to really pay my own
medical bills.
I get hit with this diagnosisand the coverage that I had was
(04:57):
a very high deductible,relatively low premium, but even
still the premium was high forme relatively low premium, but
even still the premium was highfor me and because of that I
have run into all kinds ofcomplications because of things
not being approved or taking along time to approve and because
(05:19):
of the deductible, I've gotthis huge amount of bills adding
up and so that's certainly putsa giant stress and it's even
caused, you know, a hardship,because once you start dealing
with a problem like cancer orany major disease, your whole
life turns into treating it andit's pretty difficult to spend
(05:42):
time working and making money oreven putting thought into that
while you're trying to keepyourself alive.
And that's something that Idon't know.
If people really think abouthow much time it takes to work
on yourself when you have amajor illness or disease or even
injury, and the amount of timeit takes to go to doctors and
(06:07):
just to traveling and dealingwith it all and any therapies or
anything you might have to do,it's just huge amounts of time
and all the time is huge amountsof money.
I mean, I don't know.
It seems like medical billshave gone up so much I don't
even know what to say.
I've gone into a five-minutedoctor visit where they looked
(06:30):
at me, put a little camera downmy throat and I walked away with
a $1,600 bill and I'm just likewhat the hell?
And it turned out even I gotsome bad information from that.
It doesn't matter, you know,it's interesting.
In talking with the Dr Hoffman'sgroup, we came up with a notion
(06:50):
that said maybe healthcareshould be like sometimes lawyers
work, where a doctor only getspaid if they actually help you
and otherwise they'll make somekind of a salary, but you know,
and you don't get the big bucksunless you actually make a
difference.
So let's just get into some ofthese things as to what the
(07:12):
difference is.
So you know just straight upaccess to health care situation
where you either live in acountry where you've got some
kind of you know Medi-Cal, or oryou know the type of subsidized
health care or even some kindof a universal health care, and
(07:36):
you don't have money.
What?
How are you going to get anyhealth care at all?
How are you going to get anymedicine at all?
It's, people don't just give itto you, and there are free
clinics and things that aresponsored by nonprofits and
whatnot.
How are you going to get anymedicine at all?
People don't just give it toyou, and there are free clinics
and things that are sponsored bynonprofits and whatnot, but few
and far between.
(08:06):
And then when you get intothings like health insurance,
you know, like I was justtalking about, I know people
that have multiple layers, likein me, going and I tell them,
well, I've got this, you knowthis, this PPO health insurance.
They're like well, do you haveany other coverage?
Like some people apparentlyhave multiple layers of
insurance and that affords themall kinds of things and you can
have different services,different medications.
You know, the first thing thatI've learned is, before you walk
(08:31):
into anything, before you makean appointment, anything, it's
like well, what's your, what'syour date of birth, what's your
name?
And then they check yourinsurance and if you don't have
everything right, you don't evenget in the door, you don't even
get to talk to anybody.
And I know, you know, in theyears past I was a cash patient.
That was a different story.
(08:51):
I don't know how it works now,but I don't have any cash right
now.
So it's, it's crazy.
So the quality of care reallymakes a big difference when you
have either the resources to payfor it or the good insurance
(09:13):
and like for me right now.
There's a bunch of therapies Icould be doing right now if I
had money.
You know, I could be doinghyperbaric, I could be doing EBU
ozone treatment.
I could be doing hyperbaric, Icould be doing EBU ozone
treatment, I could be doinginfusions.
There's all kinds of therapiesthat I could be doing that could
potentially have a verypositive effect.
(09:35):
Even some of the supplementsthat I could take I've had been
generously donated somesupplements from a doctor friend
of mine, and and because I'vebuilt a network of people, it's
made a giant difference in mylife.
But the amount of effort I'veput into that has been the
(09:56):
reason, not because I had anymoney and that's another big
point that I'll get to maybe inanother show but the other
option, nutritional choices.
I think this is one of thebiggest issues.
People that are impoverishedgenerally eat shit food and
(10:20):
that's not always true.
So there are places wherepeople live in a rural setting.
They grow their own food, theytake care of themselves, they
don't have any money, butfrankly, they can be way more
healthy because of that.
So they're not eating processedfood, they're not eating sugary
foods, they're not eating emptycalories.
They're growing good, wholesomefoods, whether it's meat, eggs,
(10:43):
poultry, vegetables and fruits,fish, whatever.
There are plenty of placeswhere people that don't have a
lot of money also are what theycall in the blue zones or they
live generally very healthylives.
(11:03):
But typically if you get into it, if you're poor, you're going
to eat crap.
You're going to eat, you know,cheap gas station food.
You're going to eat fast food.
You're going to eat box food,government cheese, that kind of
thing, lack of nutrition, fullof poisons, pesticides,
(11:25):
chemicals of all kinds, all theproblems that come from that and
generally, if you've got money,well, you're going to Erewhon
and eating your frigging $20strawberry.
You're eating the organic, thebest of the best, going to the
farmer's markets and eating thefoo-foo food, and well, you're
generally going to have a betterquality of life.
(11:45):
You go to a restaurant wherethey're making fresh food farm
to table all this stuff.
You know you're going togenerally have a better quality
of life.
You'll also maybe know moreabout different supplements,
different resources and thingslike that.
Your living environment.
This is something that, again,people maybe don't pay attention
(12:09):
to and it's not entirelydependent on wealth, because
there are rural areas again,where people have created safe
places for themselves, familycompounds and things like that,
where you don't have to.
Your safety does notnecessarily just depend on money
(12:31):
.
It can solely be built oncommunity.
But generally speaking,impoverished areas are riddled
with crime.
When people don't have anyresources, they sometimes resort
to a lot of bad choices and youknow, drugs and all kinds of
(12:52):
things happen as a result ofthat.
And maybe as important as thatis is it just brings stress, and
I think stress is a giganticcontributing factor to health.
And that's not to mentionpollution.
If you go to a bad part of town, you drive around, what do you
(13:14):
see?
You see filth, usually you seeindustrial areas, you see
polluted water, polluted air,polluted streets.
You go to San Francisco and yousee frigging shit all over the
walls and all over the floor andjust horrible situations.
And you know it's nasty,disgusting, and people are
(13:36):
living in it and wondering whythey're getting sick.
Then you get to education.
This is another big disparity,probably one of the biggest
disparities between the havesand the have-nots.
The have-nots have to spendtheir time working and foraging
and hustling and the haves well,they get to take their time and
(13:58):
get some education, get tolearn more, get to distance
themselves from the day-to-dayissues and, as a result, you can
likely often make betterchoices.
You create better networks ofpeople.
These are all things thatmatter, and especially when it
(14:20):
gets into the support system.
So when you have means, thenyou generally gather with people
who have means and yougenerally have an opportunity to
create a social environment,which is very good for health
and being able to do things likerelax, being able to go on
(14:44):
vacations, being able to dothings you want to do, remove
stress, even being able to dothings like exercise regularly.
You know, the guy who isimpoverished is working all the
time.
Maybe you get exercise fromworking, but it's a very
specific kind of thing, mayberepetitive, maybe causing
(15:04):
problems to your health, and,frankly, the person who gets up
and has a personal trainer and anutritionist and all of that,
you know who do you think isgoing to be the healthier one?
And then it also comes down tothings like the likelihood of
(15:24):
taking on habits like drinking,smoking, drugs and others.
When you're going through arough time, people have a
propensity to want to cover thatup, to not have to feel the
pain and the suffering of all ofthat, and that's where a lot of
(15:44):
these behaviors come from, andnot to say that the wealthy
people don't do that as well.
And there's plenty of examplesof excess and all that.
But I think if you look at thedisparity between the wealthy
and the impoverished, you'regoing to find a whole lot more
issues with substance abuse andother toxic behaviors.
(16:11):
And then when it comes down tothings like time, you know I
don't know how many times whenI'm working a lot there's no
time to go to the doctor, Idon't have time to go and get a
checkup, I don't have time toget that blood work done.
I got to work, I got things todo, and if I don't get those
things, I'm living so close tothe edge.
(16:32):
Then all of a sudden billsstart coming in due and I can't
pay them and then that turnsinto this cascading problem of
collections and calls and stressand it adds up and it turns
into this tidal wave ofnegativity.
And you know there's anotherlayer, for that Stress reduction
(16:52):
is another huge one.
I think money is probably thebiggest stressor of most people.
It destroys marriages, itdestroys sanity, it destroys
relationships.
If you have money it's reallyeasy to walk around.
And I'm not saying money buysyou happiness.
(17:13):
I'm just saying it's a loteasier to be happy when you have
money than when you're not.
And I have had money and nothad money and my level of
happiness has not changed onebit.
But I recognize that I controlthat.
And a lot of people findthemselves falling victim to
their circumstances and it'sprevalent Preventative health
(17:38):
measures.
These are things that you know.
If you believe in vaccines andyou think that's a good idea,
well, you can afford them.
You can go and take your timeand get that.
If you believe in things likesupplements, if you believe in
things like therapies, a sauna,maybe a swimming pool or gym
equipment or all the things thatpeople do to get healthy, a
(18:01):
juicer there's all kinds oftools and things that people do
when they have resources.
I'm not saying that you can'tfind it otherwise, but it's
certainly a lot easier whenyou've got this money.
Now here's the kicker chronicdisease management.
If you've never been dealt witha chronic disease, whether it's
(18:22):
cancer or emphysema or MS orwhatever, people don't realize
that this stuff just doesn'tstop.
And if you need a therapy, well, you just keep needing it until
you don't.
And if it's a drug, or if it'sa treatment or whatever it is.
(18:44):
Not only is it going to takeyour time every time every week,
every month or however oftenyou have to do it, but it costs
you every single time.
It certainly gives you nothingother than whatever it's doing
for your situation, but it takesa lot, and it takes not only
from you but of your loved ones,and I think that that's
(19:05):
something that people don'trealize.
You know, in this disease thatI'm dealing with and even when I
was battling the government,you know for over six years,
people lose sight of the factthat you're doing it every day.
And you know I was on bail forsix years and dealing with the
stress of that and can't getanything go wrong or I'm going
(19:27):
to be locked up, and every dayI'm dealing with that stress.
I'm certain that contributed tomy cancer.
But you know people hadn't seenme for a while.
Hey, how's that thing going?
Oh, hey, how's the battle going?
You know, because they're notthinking about it.
(19:49):
But you deal with it everysecond of every minute of every
day and it's can be brutal andif you don't have the, the
wherewithal, people crack allthe time.
Um, and that gets topsychological well-being.
You know you think to yourselfhealthy mind, healthy body.
And if your mind isn't right,whether it's because of stress,
or maybe you've got some kind ofchemical imbalance that you're
not able to manage because youdon't have resources, you can't
(20:13):
afford to go to a psychologistor a psychiatrist or a therapist
or somebody that can maybe giveyou some direction.
So you go around continuingwhatever the cycle that you're
in.
Maybe it's bad choices, maybeit's bad relationships, maybe
it's you know, who knows?
Whatever the behavior is, and Ithink that that's another big
(20:35):
issue that people don't realize.
I think your psychologicalwell-being has everything to do
with your health.
I think your psychologicalwell-being has everything to do
with your health and I thinkthat you know it's a major issue
.
Even things like travel andexperiences.
You know, you think about thewealthy person and oh yeah, we
(20:55):
went to St Bart's last week.
Oh, I'm off in here, I'm offthere doing this, doing that.
Well, guess what?
That's very helpful.
You go on vacation and youdecompress and you let go, and
it's so restorative and sohealing.
And you know the handful oftimes I go on vacation, I do it
because it's for my health, andwhether it costs a lot of money
(21:17):
or a little money, I will taketime off, no matter what, and
wash my spirit with that, and itmakes a gigantic difference.
And you know, sometimes peoplehave the sense to do it, even if
you don't have money, and yougo to the park or you go camping
or you go to the beach orwhatever, and you find a way to
get away and reset.
(21:38):
That's really important.
But a lot of folks are stuck.
You know they got to work allthe time, or, even worse,
they're impoverished and theyhave maybe a loved one that they
have to tend to or whatnot, andthen not.
Finally but this is kind of thelast point that I think I'm
going to bring into this isthings like experimental
(22:01):
research and cutting edgetechnology.
You know, I can remember whenMagic Johnson was diagnosed with
AIDS and you know everybody'slike, oh no, he's going to die.
It's like, well, guess whatthat guy could afford?
The latest greatest cocktailsof drugs, the latest greatest
cocktails of drugs.
(22:22):
And he was actually part ofprobably the pioneering of
what's now the norm.
And now what used to be a deathsentence is an inconvenience
for most people and many, many,most people that have AIDS here
in the United States or in firstworld countries.
(22:42):
It's definitely not a deathsentence like it was, but if it
wasn't for the wealth, I don'tknow if Magic Johnson would be
around today and I don't knowhow all of this would go.
So there's all kinds ofpotential therapies, access to
(23:05):
information.
You know.
It's really something that Ithink is something that we need
to consider and think about,that I'm working on building
this community because, as muchas all these things that I've
(23:28):
mentioned are factors and aretruths, there is also plenty of
ways that people that don't haveresources can access, and it's
generally through community, andthat's what I'm building here.
There are doctors that canshare their resources and
information and knowledge.
I have built a team of doctorsthat aren't charging me anything
(23:50):
and we talk and I've gottensome of the strategies that I'm
working on from some of thesedoctors and having conversations
.
There are therapies that arenot necessarily documented, you
know, like this ozone therapiesand glycerin, and you know
things like this chlorinedioxide and some of these sound
(24:15):
therapies that you know, eventuning forks for God's sake, it
doesn't cost much and they canlast forever and they can make a
difference.
I'm not saying any one of thesethings are a panacea.
I'm just saying that there areanswers that don't have to be
expensive and we can shareinformation and we can share
time and energy and even justthe community support is so
(24:40):
healing.
I can attest that with dealingwith cancer.
I come from a big family andmost of my immediate family I
have not even heard from and notthat I'm going out of my way to
tell anybody about it and it'sreally just about the truth.
(25:01):
If we have a relationship, wespend time together.
If we don't, we don't and I'mnot being dishonest about that
anymore.
And the people that I do spendtime with, that I have
relationship, I share a lot with, and so the people that check
in once in a while and see howI'm doing, or even people that
donated and things like that,it's wonderful.
(25:23):
But the people that are sharingmy life, I talk to virtually
every day and the people thatare there in support when I have
a down moment, they know andthey're connected and they're
the ones that are holding me up,and most of those people I've
known for very little amount oftime relevant to the rest of my
life, and in all these familymembers there's a handful I got
(25:45):
this giant family and maybe ahandful of them have even
reached out and talked to me,and that's, it's not on them.
They don't owe me anything.
I don't owe them anything.
It just tells you that what youthink or what, classically,
you're told, this is what'simportant.
Family, this family, that bloodin all of these things doesn't
mean anything.
(26:05):
Build yourself a good community.
Spend time with therelationships that you, that you
cherish.
Build them there.
That is where your strength isgoing to come from.
That is where health can comefrom.
That's where answers can comefrom, and I think that that's
really a big part of what we'redoing here with the podcast.
I'm so grateful for everybodythat's supporting this podcast.
(26:27):
We're increasing our reach andif you think this is a good show
, please tell somebody about it,share it, maybe subscribe.
I'm creating more and moresubscriber content and encourage
you to participate.
And until next time, I thankyou for being part of the
Healthy Living Podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.