The Best Health Care You Can Ever Get and the Health Industry's Most Well-Guarded Secret

Is this what you think doctors are like?

Look at the picture I chose for this article. Unfortunately, many people think this is how many doctors are like. And I understand why people think of them this way.

However, the reality is that doctors are no more evil than any other profession. I'm not going to say that every doctor is a saint, but in reality, almost all doctors choose their profession because of a genuine desire to help people. In addition, being a doctor is far from glamorous. A doctor will frequently have to deal with moral dilemmas and eventually live with the moral consequences of the death of a patient, including guilt and second guessing.

I would say that a doctor's greatest satisfaction is not about getting a sick patient healthy, but to get a patient to behave in a way so that he doesn't get sick again.

The culprit is not the individual doctor, but the corporations that have overtaken health care. As I said before, a corporation's main priority is profit over everything else. Their take on health care is more like this:

The Magical Cure at a Cheap Price?

Like any corporation, they don't want you to be a client now. They want you to be a client forever.

It's the same reason laptops and smart phones don't have batteries that are detachable anymore. When the battery dies, you'll be forced to buy a new one. They want you to buy the laptop now and a laptop in the future. However, this is people's health we're talking about, not a gadget.

Fortunately, the best and cheapest health care is at your disposal.  It's called prevention. If you want a long and healthy life, just follow these steps:

1.- Don't do anything that will shorten your life unnecessarily. Sadly, "doing something stupid" is the number 1 cause of death among American teenagers.

2.- Eat well. You don't need a specific diet. You're an adult and you don't need anyone else to tell you that having pizza and hamburgers everyday is bad for you.

3.- Sleep well. 7 or 8 hours at a minimum.

4.- Exercise.  30 continuous minutes (2 sessions of 15 minutes won't do) or until you break a sweat, 3 times per week. If you can't find time to do exercise, I assure you that your body will take time to be sick.

5.- Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs.


6.- Be happy. This is the hardest part. Comfort is NOT happiness. You have to find out what happiness means for you and make it happen. Obviously in a responsible way.

This is the best-kept secret of the health care industry. If we all followed these rules, we wouldn't need them as often, we wouldn't have to spend so much money on health care, and the lack of demand would force them to make their prices affordable.

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Robert Ervin is a freelancer who writes about healthcare, medical tourism, and living in Mexico.

If you're considering traveling to Mexico for healthcare or retiring in Mexico, you may want to get yourself a copy of The English's Speaker's Guide to Doctors and Hospitals in Mexico, in order to find a good doctor or hospital in the main towns and cities of Mexico, or The English Speaker's Guide to Medical Care in Mexico, to understand how the Mexican healthcare system works.