Pursuit of Health vs. Illness

I recently was turned on to a fascinating new book about Americans being overdiagnosed. The author is a 'classically trained Physician', in his own words, and he writes about the medical community feeling compelled to use a myriad of advanced testing methods to locate disease in our bodies. His argument, however, is that many tests are unnecesary, and cause negative side-effects of their own.

Because of my own experiences with medical professionals, hospitals, surgeries, and prescription medication, I thought long and hard about Dr. Gilbert Welch's statements suggesting we have become a nation in "pursuit of illness rather than pursuit of health." If you're just catching up with me for the first time, I was diagnosed in 2005 with Kidney Disease, with no history of chronic illness in my family, and spent the following 5 years on dialysis. I had a kidney transplant in October of 2009.

What does Pursuit of Health look like? I considered my own daily life: the food I eat, liquids I drink, exercise I get, my general environment and its levels of noise, toxicity, stress, etc. and I truly believe that I am someone in Pursuit of Health. I urge all readers of this blog to do the same, and at least briefly examine their own circumstances, and what stance they have chosen to take on them. Know that we are all ultimately in control of our health, and the opinions of trained professionals are still just opinions.