This latest concept of ‘Institutionalized Disease’ that I want to share with you was brought to the fore by COVID, however this concept is much larger than COVID, and it is VERY important we start to think beyond the institutional thinking we have come to accept as ‘normal’ . What we view as normal is actually quite flawed when it comes to your health, performance and your wallet!
What we are currently witnessing with COVID is the next iteration of an ‘Institutionalized Disease.’ Why? Well let’s start by looking at the definitions of an ‘institution’:
It is becoming evident as “Hell” and yes, I intentionally chose the word ‘Hell’ because “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions”. In this case great intentions, intentions to save lives and help humanity. All those in power, authority and with the resources to fund the massive effort truly believe in their hearts and minds they are doing something good for humanity, and have positioned themselves to provide that help . . . but for a hefty price.
The price of outsourcing our healthcare
It is quite evident that virtually all Chronic Diseases; Heart Disease, Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, Arthritis, are diseases which are largely preventable at little to no monetary ‘cost’ to the individual.
However, these easily preventable chronic diseases have become institutionalized as part and parcel of the healthcare business model. So much so, that most people consider the development of Chronic Disease as a ‘normal’ part of the aging process.
Think about this for a moment and let the concept of ‘Institutionalized Disease’ embed itself into your psyche. . . .this is the much bigger picture. COVID-19 is just the latest ‘opportunity’ to rob you of your health and wealth!
Let’s take snapshots of these ‘Institutionalized Diseases’ because just the monetary costs are staggering and give us a sense of just how institutionalized we have allowed disease to become the norm . . .
Heart Disease
A snapshot of Heart Disease Treatment reveals global Statin Drug sales are expected to reach a Trillion Dollars in 2020! To prevent being accused of hype and inflating the numbers, let’s pare this down to several hundred billion for just a single class of drugs! Combine this with Blood pressure medications, Diuretics, Blood thinners a, ACE inhibitors, Calcium channel blockers etc. it’s safe bet to say we spend well over a cool Trillion on pharma alone!
Diabetes
Here is something from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) itself “The cost of care for people with diabetes now accounts for ∼1 in 4 health care dollars spent in the U.S. Care” . . . with the cost of US healthcare estimated to be about $3.5 Trillion in 2017 we can pretty safely say it’s well over $4 Trillion today, especially when you throw COVID in . . . and, because Diabetes is a known comorbidity for a serious COVID infection, we can extrapolate that Diabetes costs are probably at or over another cool Trillion.
A Trillion here, a trillion there, it’s really no big deal if Pharma is syphoning off tens of billions here or there to save us because that’s chump change, right? . . . WRONG!
Treatment instead of Cure
Has institutionalizing chronic diseases helped in stopping or curing these diseases? No, caseloads have ballooned. This brings us to the second major concept to realize: The Standard of Care is Treatment. . . treatment for years or decades of decline.
That is the institutionalization part of Healthcare because remember the definition: “Institutions are permanent, which means that they do not end when one person is gone.”
Think about this definition and then consider this extrapolation . . . if institutions do not end when “one person is gone” what are the implications for institutionalization when tens of thousands are gone?
This is in no way a condemnation of modern medicine. In terms of immediate and acute care, modern medicine is literally a miracle at saving lives, and even finding cures. However, what has transpired with the institutionalization of chronic diseases which are entirely preventable and often reversible/curable is treatment - Treatment that can last decades. This is what has occurred and this is accepted as NORMAL, when the truth is chronic diseases are actually preventable and at a cost that is negligible compared to what it is costing us.
So what does this have to do with COVID?
All of this brings me to where we find ourselves today with COVID. Somehow, with the accelerated pace of modern technology, we will have managed to institutionalize COVID-19 within a year’s time. The reactive way we are dealing with it on a blanket, population wide scale is simply not sustainable in the long term.
Mandating strategies like mask wearing, socially distancing and locking down have had limited short term success in slowing and managing COVID’s spread, but these strategies have certainly not stopped it dead in its tracks nor are they sustainable from public health, social or economic policy perspectives.
The institutionalizing of COVID is quickly morphing from the current blanket vaccination strategy into annual blanket vaccinations, along with separate vaccinations for each new variant that appears. The actual data strongly suggests another more strategic and targeted vaccination approach would be much more effective and at vastly lower cost. If we can step back from the focus on the deaths, infections and poor outcomes, the data clearly identifies those who are at risk of a poor COVID outcome from those who have negligible risk.
For those at risk and those in close contact around them, vaccination is an option that should be seriously considered. I say this based upon the risk factor…..that is, the data shows those at risk are at a VERY high risk. Blanket institutionalizing of COVID-19 with population-wide strategies like the vaccination policy, hinders focused prevention and treatment for those who need protection the most before they end up at the hospital where, in many cases, it is simply too late.
This is not how business works, Pfizer alone has already generated billions of dollars in revenue for development of it’s vaccine and is estimated to generate around $15 billion in revenues in 2021 for it’s COVID-19 vaccine. Similarly, other companies like Moderna, J&J, AstraZeneca have all generated billions thus far with far more potential to profit.
The COVID vaccines are the new blockbuster drugs shareholders have been hoping for, thus COVID needs to be institutionalized rather than eradicated through simple low cost, effective strategies that won’t break you nor your wallet.
So what is the solution?
The point here is not to discard the vaccines but to avoid the mindset that they are the ONLY strategy we need to employ to move past this. If we see them as the only solution we ‘institutionalize’ COVID but, if we see them as part of a bigger picture, we can avoid repeating history by institutionalizing yet another disease.
Hindsight is 20/20 and if YOU can pry our focus from the foreboding fear and darkness to see how other preventable chronic diseases have been institutionalized, you will realize we have the information and tools to essentially eliminate this current challenge to health rather than institutionalize it.
And what do all of these Institutionalized Chronic Diseases have in common? . . . a lack of metabolic health, or, as my friend Debbie Potts calls it ‘Metabolic Chaos’.
Empowerment through Metabolic Health
If we are metabolically unhealthy, we create our own prison, and once we are in our cell we are beholden to the gatekeepers who hold all the power. This is what most of the population has allowed to happen with COVID-19. Yet, there are a few of us escapees out there like Mike Mutzel, Ivor Cummins, Aseem Malhotra and myself along with, yes, Sweden, who have alternative perspectives on the situation, perspectives which are consistent with a deeper dive into the data than simply fearing you in the face with the infection and death counts. Again, its that Murky Middle I talk about.
COVID is yet another wakeup call to higher health and, for the most part, we are not listening. . . The way forward is to go back to regain your Metabolic Freedom by optimizing fat metabolism, the metabolic state Nature bestowed upon YOU through millions of years of evolution.
A question for you - Do you want to be ‘Institutionalized’ or do you want to be ‘Metabolically Free’?
Like the hundreds of Athletes and individuals we have helped become metabolically free you have the same choice. COVID-19 is YOUR call to action to obtain the Metabolic Freedom you not only need but DESERVE to prevent us from being ‘Institutionalized’ yet again.
I’ll leave you with this link to a scene from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to drive the point home. Watch it to the very end and make your escape from becoming ‘Institutionalized’ today.