When I started thinking about going into the health care industry a whole slew of questions started surfacing. I had grown up under the assumption, that it was completely normal to get sick every so often, and that the only way to treat most ills was some type of medicine. I have very vivid memories of having to wash down dinner with cough syrup. It was SO NASTY! I wasn't a chronically sick kid. In fact, I was very active and rarely missed school or any type of "fun" activity. I am grateful to my parents for bringing me up the way that they did. Now that I am a father to two very healthy and active boys, and have studied health, wellness and health care I will admit. I have some serious questions and concerns.

I have realized that the model of health care in the United States is primarily "sick care". It is a system that has been created over the years. It is a system that can be blamed on several decades of misinformation. I think that as we have "progressed" as a society and become smarter in a sense, we have left behind common knowledge of how to treat and maintain a healthy body and mind. With that said, I am very grateful for the advances in the health care industry, that have blessed me and my family and close friends.

According to The World Health Organization (WHO), the United States health delivery system ranks 37th out of 190 countries. Sandwiched in between Costa Rica and Slovenia. The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Have you ever wondered where the United States ranks with other countries in the world for life expectancy? You might guess it would be in the top 10. Wrong! Top 20? Nope. Top 30? No way. Top 40? Not quite. For 2010, the United States barely makes it into the top fifty, at 49th place. Life expectancy in the United States is 78.24 years, while the longest life expectancy is in Monaco at 89.78 years. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost? The U.S. has a fee-for-service system—paying medical providers piece by piece for appointments, surgery, etc. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn’t reliably improve a patient’s health. Says Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, “More care does not necessarily mean better care.”

In the late nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur's "germ theory" became the medical paradigm, the controlling medical idea, for the Western world. In its simplest form, the germ theory proposes that the body is sterile and that germs from the air cause disease. The medical community started to look for the right pill to kill off the germ. This concept became ingrained into medicine and medical research. Most research goes to looking for the right pill for a specific disease.

With this model. It has taken the responsibility of health away from the individual. In my opinion, this has made us more sick as a society. It makes it easier to charade through life and live however you want, with the idea that there will probably be a pill for every ill. So in a sense, it is not entirely the fault of big pharma, the public is just as much to blame.

This theory is bogus. It is the soil not the seed. We need to create an environment in our bodies where the body can function at its optimal level. When we manifest with a problem, or a disease, it is due to our bodies in-ability to adapt to the world around it. We have an innate intelligence that serves us as an inner light. We need this light to be flowing freely, overpowering any type of darkness that enters our body.

How do we let this light grow and shine? It is multi-factorial.  We need to eliminate toxins, traumas and poor thoughts. Dr. James Chestnut coined the term, and I love to use it, Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well. Motion is life and will play a huge role in our overall health and wellness. Our bodies are resilient and want to show us. We need to create that environment and take responsibility for our health. Let our bodies express themselves as they were designed to do.

Much love, DR. RUTTER