How the war on complementary medicine is costing us billions

The U.S. Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) recently commissioned an eye-opening report. It put some pretty shocking price tags on the money this country could save if the healthcare industry would only put more emphasis on prevention.

With all the concern over healthcare spending in this country, you would think a report like this would be making headlines left and right. But did you hear about it on the nightly news? Nothing but crickets, right? In fact, I read about this CRN report in an article about Australia, published in an international health journal (the same one I told you about yesterday). As far as I can tell, no major American media outlets reported the news.

Which is a shame, because there were more than a few priceless pearls of wisdom unearthed.

Like this one, for example. Apparently, the United States could save almost $4 billion in total costs related to heart disease over the next couple of decades. Simply by focusing more on prevention.

That’s not all. This country could also save over $12 billion if all women diagnosed with osteoporosis over the age of 55 were prescribed calcium and vitamin D supplements.

And that’s at the government’s puny Recommended Daily Allowances. Could you imagine what this country could save if it encouraged women to supplement with optimal levels of these nutrients? (Which, for the record, are 500 mg of calcium and anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily.)

Of course, who would use all of that leftover Fosamax then? (You want to know why this report disappeared under the radar? Well there’s your answer.)

Isn’t it funny how the government is responsible for educating consumers—yet these reports come out and no one hears about them?

True, when it comes right down to it, you’re the one who’s responsible for your own health. But it still falls on the government to disseminate the correct information so that you can make those decisions appropriately.

So I have to give Australia some credit. At least they’re aware of the biased nature of the dialogue Down Under. They know some groups would rather see alternative approaches to health and wellness stay on the fringes.

And Australia’s Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC) doesn’t hesitate to call these groups out when they start slamming the supplement industry.

Here is a refreshingly on-point quote from Carl Gibson, head of the CHC: “We’ve always had detractors and naysayers, and it doesn’t help when friends of science and medicine make a concerted effort to make sure that complementary medicines are attacked constantly.”

Gibson points out that some members of the conventional medicine lobby in Australia even go so far as to write to universities and urge them not to offer courses in alternative medicine.

It’s outrageous. And I assure you, the same kinds of attacks are happening over here.

This is why we have to continue to fight back. Alternative medicine has a lot of enemies. And they’ll do anything and everything in their power to deny people access to natural medicine and other holistic approaches—simply because they’re not the “standard of care.”

But our detractors invented the standard of care. (And not always for the right reasons, as you well know.) So of course they’re going to try to shoot down anyone who disagrees. And unfortunately, we are pretty outnumbered in this war.

Luckily, we have some great allies in Congress and the Senate. They won’t be there forever, though. So please, write to your own congressperson  or senator  now to defend your right to make your own medical choices.

It’s easy. Just tell them your success stories. I know you’ve got them—so write them down, and share them with your elected officials. It only takes a few minutes. But it will make a huge impact on helping to keep our medical freedom of choice alive.

Just be sure to share your success stories with me while you’re at it—either through my website, or on Facebook. Because like I’m always telling you, reading them really is the best part of my day.