Preventative action

In the news this week there has been a lot of discussion about NHS funding, where and how the money should be spent. I feel very strongly that we need to invest in preventative care – particularly as in the UK we have a large proportion of our population that is over 65 years. Small changes to lifestyle and habits around exercise, diet and personal care can make a real difference in avoiding larger problems later on. It is not down to the medical practitioners to make these changes: every individual would benefit from greater knowledge and ownership of their personal health. In general matters we go through life amazingly ignorant of many things that directly affect us and it’s only when things go wrong or break down that we get involved in the mechanisms and processes that help us function. This might be the workings of the combustion engine or…more importantly, our own mental and physical health. We need a good health service that is safe and reliable but we also need to challenge our own passivity: returning again and again to a chiropractitioner to solve the same problem always reminds me of Albert Einstein’s well known definition of insanity “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Again Einstein…”We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”