The Most Expensive Lie in Health Care

By Dr. Jason Watts

We have all heard lies in our lifetime. As a country we have been lied to so many times that we don’t believe anything our government leaders say anymore: we are skeptical of advertising, we are sure all salesmen are lying about their products. Let’s face it; we have a lot of experience with lies.

I’d like to tell you about a lie most people aren’t aware of. This particular lie happens to be the most expensive lie in health care history. This lie costs our country somewhere in the vicinity of $1 Trillion per year and also has another expense that comes in the form of human life, about 200,000 to be specific. The lie that we have all been taught is that how you feel is more important than how you function.

Let me explain how this lie affects you: You have a fever. You feel very poorly, so you go to your drug store and get a drug to help you feel better by getting rid of the fever. The fever goes away, you feel better. The part that most people don’t get is that the fever is not the problem. Fever is a perfectly healthy, natural response of the body to rid itself of some bacteria, virus or toxin. In fact, a fever is the most powerful stimulus the immune system can have. While your body is trying to raise your body temperature to rid itself of something that isn’t supposed to be there, you may feel badly, but you are functioning perfectly. If we take the fever away to feel better, we have the potential of getting much sicker and risking death if we are not able to get rid of the invader.

Another good example would be food poisoning. If you eat tainted food the healthy response is to throw up, therefore ridding your body of toxins. You may feel terrible while you throw up but you are functioning perfectly. If you take some drug to stop the nausea and vomiting you might feel better, but you will get very sick or die if your body doesn’t get rid of the toxins. The same scenario is true of almost all symptoms; a cough is your body trying to get rid of foreign objects in the lungs, does it make sense to stop that with a cough suppressant? A runny nose is the body’s way of preventing pollen and dust and bacteria from entering further into your body, does it make sense to take a drug to stop that? Diarrhea is your body’s way of getting rid of foreign invaders, why would we want to stop it with a drug? How you function is always more important than how you feel.

If everyone in the country understood this concept there would be no market for over the counter medications or most prescription drugs. 99 percent of drugs treat how you feel, not how you function. Oh, and by the way, these drugs kill 200,000 Americans every year. The most important thing you can do in your health care is support your body’s function and that is why upper cervical chiropractic care is so important. Chiropractic is the only profession with the objective of removing nerve interference to enable your body to function more efficiently. So, while no one can guarantee that you will always feel good, Upper cervical chiropractic will guarantee that a body free of nerve interference will always function better! And that’s no lie.