Why Change Recommendations for Mammograms?

Controversy signals a need for change of view in healthcare reform.

Nov 19, 2009 Daniel Sanelli

Healthcare system and view of healing need a change in paradigm rather than trying to overhaul these antiquated viewpoints.

A government panel made up of experts that advise doctors on medical care has recently released new recommendations for routine mammograms. For two decades now, women have been encouraged to receive mammograms every year from age 40 on as a way to detect abnormal breast tissue. The new recommendations suggest that this early detection strategy should actually begin at 50 years of age rather than 40. This announcement has caused quite a stir, and the debate is really just a symptom of a greater problem; the aging belief system that underlies this country’s approach to health.

Is This Health Care Rationing?

With the new proposed healthcare bill currently floating over Capitol Hill, critics are crying that this may be a form of medical “rationing.” They fear that insurance companies will cling to these recommendations and begin to deny regular screenings for women under 50 years old. It has long been accepted that early detection through mammograms and self examinations is the best approach to beating breast cancer.

The government task force argues that early and frequent mammograms lead to many false alarms and unnecessary biopsies. Studies seem to support that they also don’t increase survival rates for these women. Proponents of the new recommendations also point out that this will lead to improvements in testing and the increased use of more effective procedures like MRIs and ultrasounds.

Breast cancer, like any cancer, is daunting. Some estimate that one out of every two people will at some point be struck by this disease. Approaching these staggering odds through early detection programs and with the greatest available technology is necessary. But this cannot be the primary tactic.

Solving the Health Care Crisis

Undoubtedly this debate will continue. Who knows what resolve will be settled upon with mammogram recommendations? And this is just one issue, one health concern, whose controversy reveals the current crisis this country finds itself in with respect to our healthcare. As our leaders cry for reform, as our citizens demand a change, what begs for greater attention is actually the health crisis that we are facing. The healthcare crisis is fueled by the failing health of the American people. Degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes are rampant in this country. And these are predominantly lifestyle illnesses, seemingly caused by decades of the abysmal “Standard American Diet” (or SAD), environmental toxins and pharmaceutical side-effects.

America Needs a Change of Paradigm

Thus far the prevailing world view (or paradigm) as it pertains to health care in this country is that it has been failing its followers. For the last few centuries the burgeoning of science and medicine has swung the pendulum so far to one side that most people accept the belief that all healing comes from the outside. Our system is built on this view that one must attack disease, germs and cancer by outside means. Americans have spent billions on drugs and medical equipment to battle these enemies. And people most often seek professionals to “heal” their ails, almost as if they are there in the battle only as spectators.

It’s time to return to a more holistic view of one’s health, one’s body and one’s life. A holistic perspective on health bids that healing comes from within, that the body has the ability to heal itself. However it needs nourishment in all aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Only a dramatic change in how people view their health, and how they view their participation in their own healing, only then will this haunting crisis be resolved.

Hope for the Future

When a person changes their beliefs about their body, about the choices they make in their daily life, to a more holistic and all encompassing interconnected view, inevitably this will command a new way of living that fosters health and vitality not just for the individual, but for the community at large. Americans who want a change, citizens who want reform should start from within. People should take responsibility and take an active role in their own health and the health of those around them. Living lives aimed at preventing disease and promoting health, rather than favoring a strategy of warfare and early detection, would be a more admirable goal for the people of this nation.

The copyright of the article Why Change Recommendations for Mammograms? in General Medicine is owned by Daniel Sanelli. Permission to republish Why Change Recommendations for Mammograms? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Mammogram

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