Why are we so sick?

There is no incentive for the 'health sector' to keep us healthy. The system profits from illness. Mainstream medicine, as Dr Shiv Chopra confided to me while I accompanied him during his tour to Odisha, is about creating customers for life. We all know this.

How can we reverse the trend? I would like to recollect a practice of China. In China there was a system of family doctors. Every family had a doctor (practicing the traditional Chinese system of medicine) who used to be paid on a monthly basis. If any family member fell sick the payment was stopped. Thus it was in the interest of the doctor to keep the entire family healthy.

In today's scenario I would be called an anarchist to propose this. Doctors are simply not interested. In a recent interaction, I was very surprised when a doctor told me that ensuring clean water, sanitation, nutrition, fighting pesticides etc was not a doctor’s duty. The doctor’s duty was to treat the sick.

What do you say to such arguments? Is it a wonder then that doctors want us to be perpetually sick? Health is bad for business. The way to end that business would be either to adopt the Chinese practice or to take the responsibility of our own health and fight medical fascism with all the force we can muster.