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The Little Book of Health
6 Steps to health and happiness
Dr. Laura Rigby, DC
[Copyright page]
2021 Berkshire Health Clinic Limited
ISBN 9798788304434
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including recording or other electronic methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
The author and publisher have provided this book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this book you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher.
Disclaimer
The book is for informational purposes only. Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Dedication
For my husband Siamak, my constant rock. Love you always.
I couldnt write this book and not dedicate it to my parents who have been my support and always believed in me, even when I havent.
If you know me, you know that I must dedicate this book to my dog Chester, for helping me to write the book by sitting on my keyboard or keeping my feet warm whilst I am sat at my desk.
Finally, this book is dedicated to all have entered our doors thank you for your trust in us!
Acknowledgments
My darling husband Siamak. My mentor, best friend, confidante and soul mate. Thank you for being you and for all of your support not just whilst writing this book but for my entire business venture. You have always been there helping and guiding me to steer the ship, whatever the weather. I am forever grateful.
Mum and Dad, my thanks goes well beyond this book. If it wasnt for you Dad, I wouldnt have even become a Chiropractor, my biggest influence in life. To you both for all the hours on the phone and support when I needed an ear, especially you Mum- I dont know how you have coped!
To all Berkshire Health Clinic Chiropractors and Therapists, CAs and Support Staff past and present your hands and incredible skills have helped create a better world, long may this continue!
Last but by no means least, to all of our clients, we would not be where we are, without you thank you for letting us be a part of your journey of life!
Contents
Healing with Berkshire Health Clinic
Berkshire Health Clinic (Ltd)
Foreword
Health is a spectrum.
Many enter our doors in pain and dysfunction, living their lives in a dimmed and disconnected state. It is our goal to use hands-on, manual chiropractic and therapy to reconnect your body to itself.
Restoration of function and a reduction in pain is, however, just the beginning. Health is not merely the absence of disease or pain; but rather living in a state of maximised potential and optimised function, and this is our purpose:
To INSPIRE you to actively make positive changes to your life; physically, mentally and socially
To SERVE you with the highest quality, cutting edge, evidence-based care to give you the best possible results.
To GROW your expression of life, to reconnect your body and elevate your being.
Welcome to Berkshire Health Clinic!
The Sickness in Modern Healthcare
I think the biggest problem with healthcare today is not its cost which is a big problem but for all that money, its not an expression of our humanity.
~Jonathan Bush
Government doesnt solve problemsit subsidizes them.
~Ronald Reagan
The biggest problems in the modern healthcare system throughout the world are the same: high costs, poor results, frequent medical errors, and patient dissatisfaction.
The structure and function of the modern healthcare system were set up at the beginning of the 20th century. It gave more importance to an acute care approach and much less priority to prevention and public health. The main emphasis was on understanding and treating infectious diseases and reliance on laboratory research.
This strategy made sense 100 years ago because of the prevalence of acute infectious diseases in a young population. However, it doesnt make any sense now. With the aging of the population, the burden of disease has shifted toward chronic diseases. The most common causes of death are now obesity and smoking, which result in delayed but progressive disease.
The main feature of modern healthcare is its use of a disjointed, task-based system that is aimed at addressing acute conditions. It takes notice only after asymptomatic persons become diseased and require drug treatment. This system favours speciality over primary care and procedures over cognitive tasks, for example, surgery instead of behaviour-change counselling.
Moreover, the modern healthcare system relies on new and costly technology even if its benefits are not clearly understood. Many preventive and cost-effective strategies are not researched or adopted because they cannot be patented or made profitable.
For example, between 2014 and 2020, total health spending in the UK has grown at 2% a year on average, from 124bn to 137bn. This period has seen constraints in NHS pay growth, staffing shortages, a marked rise in waiting times and rise in NHS provider deficits because the cost of delivering healthcare has outstripped funding. As a result, funding has focused increasingly on day-to-day spending at the expense of wider investment in the NHS.
Modern medical research usually pursues isolated problems and short-term magic bullet solutions. Often, the model for treating acute infectious disease is applied to the treatment of chronic disease. For example, cancer chemotherapy is modelled after antibiotic therapy and coronary revascularization is modelled after abscess incision and debridement.
Changing this broken healthcare system requires alterations in medical education, medical research, health policy, and reimbursement. The current fragmentation of healthcare should be replaced by a patient-centred, whole-person approach. For example, the government should support research on the development and dissemination of prevention strategies. Moreover, it should reward the use of appropriate non- patentable therapies. Primary care physicians should act as health coaches and all healthcare professionals should adopt a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach.
Medical education should include prevention strategies such as lifestyle modification. Rather than only diagnosis and management of diseases, it should emphasize homeostasis, health, and the practice of cost-effective health promotion.
Although the need for management of acute disorders will remain, positive health promotion is the only way to halt the emerging pandemic of chronic disease.
The Sickcare Crisis
