Is it "Health Care" or "Sick Care"?

With healthcare costs skyrocketing and chronic disease becoming more common, it’s clear we have work to do. And we can't blame it all on the system...but there's a lot to be said as we're no longer simply patients - we're consumers. Spending more than ever. Just watch the commercials around the evening news...who are the advertisers? You guessed it. Pharma. Or the tasty fast foods and snacks that will ultimately lead to conditions requiring pharma.

Over the past two decades, chronic conditions have steadily increased—among adults and children. Pediatric chronic disease has risen dramatically. More adults are living with multiple conditions than ever before. We’re treating more, managing more, prescribing more—yet overall health continues to decline.

So we have to ask:

Why does taking responsibility for our health so often feel like stepping outside the system instead of being supported by it?

An Unfortunate Reality: Understanding the Standard of Care

What many people don’t realize is that physicians practice within established standards of care designed to ensure safety and maintain licensure. These standards matter. They protect patients and practitioners alike.

They also define the limits of modern medicine.

For the most part, healthcare is structured to diagnose and treat illness once it appears — not to preserve health before it breaks down. Prevention, education, lifestyle support, stress regulation, nutrition, and early biological intervention often fall outside what is reimbursed, prioritized, or legally protected.

That isn’t a failure of physicians.

It’s a structural reality of the system they work within. It's also a reality of how they get paid. They aren't just doctors - at then end of the day, they are a BUSINESS.

Doctors are trained and incentivized to treat what is diagnosable and defensible. Care that keeps people well rarely fits neatly into that model.

This is Where Empowerment Comes In

So we have to ask:

If care begins after something breaks, who is responsible for protecting health before it does?
And if we’re increasingly effective at managing disease, why are so many people still getting sicker?

The future of medicine is empowerment—rooted in collaboration. This means you need to lean in. Listen to your body. Learn. Advocate.

Get excited about what your body can do to recover and heal itself.

We need to take an active role in our own care, working alongside healthcare practitioners, and supporting our biology before treating an illness becomes the only option.

Prevention doesn’t replace medicine - it helps drive a healthy life where you can hopefully avoid the need for it, and the diseases they accompany.

It begins when we shift from passive consumers to informed participants in our own health.