More Is Never Enough

As I ran yesterday, I wondered what all the reasons were that I’d gone into the Marines. Also, at nearly the same time, I reckoned with what I’d witnessed in the animal kingdom from some nature shows, as well in my own backyard. Questions have been: why do we want what someone else has, if we have enough? It is important to have a defense mechanism in place; however, when is conquering enough?

At this point, we should be at peace. There should be more peace. Out of gratefulness, we should be helping others. I went into the Marines to defend peace. Peace for those living in our country. Too, for those outside our country who want the basics, such as food, shelter, freedom and education, which lead to health. A healthy society is a happy society. Yet, at this juncture we have people wanting more. More is never enough.

I’m witnessing those in our country who are demanding longevity but have not been willing to take care of the necessities that they’d been blessed with upon birth. I was lectured as a child by a man who did everything to the human body that should kill it within at least forty years, if not fifty. That was my dad, who’d lecture me on how my body was a temple. This whilst he smoked an unfiltered cigarette, he’d call “cancer sticks”. He knew better. He drank a six pack of beer at least every day after work. He grew and smoked his own weed. He had tattoos. These were nearly all the things he told me not to do for health reasons. He died just before his 81st birthday. He was ambulatory from what I was told till the last few weeks of his life.

He used to say, “If you’ve got two arms, two legs and a brain consider yourself lucky.” Too, he’d pounded his chest and claimed that we had the greatest country in the world. That our freedoms were like no other country. I believed all that. I didn’t get tattoos; I didn’t smoke anything. I didn’t and don’t take drugs. My biggest drug has been a mug of coffee, which I usually don’t finish the mug of coffee in the morning anymore. The only time I do is when I’d be at another’s home being sociable or at some function, again to be sociable. I’m selective when I have a glass of wine. Twenty years ago, occasionally I’d have a few beers or a mixed drink and that was if I wasn’t driving.

Through the years, I’d read up on and listened to various successful people, some were athletes, some were nutritionists who exercised, some were exercise physiologists. We wouldn’t just discuss hydration, bodily functions, physiology, psychology, but also the spiritual aspect of being human. It was on how we perhaps treat the body that we have. How can we alter any predispositions. Can we change our genetics? Over thirty years ago, I’d stated to my husband that we could. Here he was a man with over a decade of college education, telling me I was crazy. Then nine years later, someone we both respected told

me I was correct in my thinking. We can change our predispositions. Yes, and that is what I work on every day. You see most of us knew back then that cigarette smoking alone reduced much of one’s health. That drinking large amounts of alcohol or caffeinated drinks were a detriment to one’s health.

We were all told over sixty years ago that we needed to be hydrated with water. Water drinking my mother pushed that. She’d stated one day when my brother was aged twelve, “You need to drink eight, eight-ounce glasses of water every day if you want healthy skin.” That was in response to his acne problem. And so, he did drink that exact amount every day and his acne was reduced by about 90% within a month.

Also, when it came to food we knew better at a young age. Keep the sugar low. Eat your green vegetables, have some protein, easy on the fats. Watch your cholesterol intake, get that checked as you become an adult. I was aware of all this by 1970, I was age eight then.

I asked my internist twenty years ago, out of disgust. “What is wrong with people? Especially, in this area of our country, that they don’t seem to register that they need to drink water as most of their fluid intake daily?” He responded quite matter of fact-like, “Jody. People know better. In this country, we all had the same education on this. We were taught that in elementary school. People do what they want to do.” I nodded, “Yeah. I know. It’s just mind-altering that they’re expecting us to not criticize them on this.” He remarked, “People do as they want. It’s their choice.” I nodded, “Yep. I’m still disgusted.”

I thought to myself, something so simple and we have to be reminded of doing it.

Yes, in life there are temptations and stressors. Things that push us to do the wrong things with our bodies or to not do anything with those things bestowed upon us. We are all guilty of it. But when does that guilt bring us to finally make better choices? Because the day it does, collectively as a nation we may realize that we need to fight the powers that be for our health. Currently, our pharmaceutical, medical companies and insurance companies are thriving due to our bad choices. That’s on each individual, each parent.

Medical companies have now become so big that a company in Texas now owns many hospitals across the country, and with that they own doctor’s offices. Go ahead and ask your local physician how he or she gets paid. Who are they connected to? Ask. Their offices with three or more physicians available in them, are usually connected to a hospital who salaries them. They often don’t appear to be the ones who hire their own staff. Their nurses are robotic in their expectations as to why someone, a woman past her mid-forties is not on medication of any kind. What’s that about? That shouldn’t be an expectation.

Our medical community is supposed to be practicing, not demanding of its patients; however, we are no longer patients. We are customers. It’s just a business. The business

model is swayed by many who haven’t gone through medical school, nor done residency in any medical field. Remember the powers that be want you sick; then they can raise your premiums. As the cost for care rises, the medical community’s higherups become wealthier and the rest of us become poorer. We still have to work. We still have to produce. Those that don’t are shunned. Too, women’s health takes and has taken a big hit. Women have become more controlled than ever with regards to their health. Men, not so much.

75.7% of Women aged 45-64 are on prescription medications, Where as their male counterparts its 67.1% for men the same age range. 89% of the average American man age 65 and over are on at least one prescription medication—Women 65 and over it’s 89.3% are on at least one prescription medication.1 82% of people age range 50-80 years old are on at least one prescription medication.2

We are allowing ourselves to be convinced that this is normal. More is never enough. When more becomes never enough that’s when society cares less and becomes careless. When that occurs, it’s about not caring about anyone outside of your inner circle or yourself.

Have another pill America. As you sleep through life, passing on the bad habits to your families, your neighbors, your co-workers, your subordinates as you teach the medical community that its okay for them to be influenced by those who could care less about the health of a nation. Remember, More is Never Enough.---Jody-Lynn Reicher

1 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7216a7.htm

2 https://insuredandmore.com/what-percentage-of-people-over-50-are-on-medication