So the word disease is quite a fascinating word, we user it every day in a variety of ways and probably never think exactly what it means.
Quite simple, two parts to the word dis and ease and the precise meaning of the word is simply that. The body is not at ease, the body has disease. The key word here is the use of the term the body, we tend when thinking about the body, just to think of the physical side of ourselves, loved one's etc, but, the brain / mind / neurological connections / conscious / unconscious however we term it, is just as important as our physical symptoms. The two are so interconnected that they can not be separated and yet Western Medicine does it's best. In fact it goes even further by only recognising physical symptoms and not even exploring or recognizing patients psychological requirements.
Disease is the bodies way, physical and psychological, of telling us that something is wrong, simple as that. So what happens then is that instead of exploring this and finding the root cause of the symptoms, in most cases, Western Medicine tries to mask or hide the symptoms by prescribing pain killers, anti inflammatory's, muscle relaxants etc. etc. and then what happens. More problems, the majority of patients who are prescribed these class 1 drugs experience stomach problems so more pills are prescribed to combat the new symptoms caused by the first lot of drugs. So now a new disease has been added and more disfunction in the body.
I understand that the GP's, NHS, private medicine etc. etc. have limited resources but, and here's the thing, if we fundamentally changed the way we view medicine then billions could be saved. China, for instance, has no free national healthcare system, people pay for all their own treatment and yet a high proportion of the spend on treatment is spent on preventative treatments. Yes that's right, the Chinese people spend their own money on treatment when nothing is even wrong.
We need to change the agenda on health and wellbeing. The NHS was a fantastic organisation and still has many highly skilled and dedicated staff, the problem is the current structure and delivery was designed tens of years ago and is now not fit for purpose. There has to be a move right back to the beginning of the medicinal supply chain. Education, learning and training needs to be fundamentally changed to encompass the needs of people today and of the future not the needs of people ten of years ago who had completely different life styles. If we don't the future is very very bleak.