Aging is not what it used to be. I have the impression that in some significant respects my own health is actually improving over the years, and that has mainly to do with my increasing understanding of self-regulation in the context of a general growth in awareness of alternative health. The same is true most likely for anyone who has committed some time and energy to that enterprise, whether it be through meditation, attention to nutrition, the adoption of an exercise regimen, taking time for biofeedback/neurofeedback, or even just an accommodation of the need for sleep. This may or may not have much to do with the fundamental risk of disease, but it has a lot to do with perceived quality of life.

This is happening among an increasingly aware public in the face of a continuing effort by the pharmacological/medical/university complex that matters of health should be left to the professionals. Life is increasingly being defined as a medical condition, with every important life transition from conception to organ harvesting after death being attended by the medical priesthood. The tribute paid to this enterprise is already at the level of 15% to 18% of our total personal expenditures in this country (depending on what all gets counted), and this fraction is still rising briskly. Medical dependency promotes yet greater dependency, in a progressive spiral that likely ends in the person being maintained on life support in a nursing home, at the same time heart-healthy and brain-dead. Nevertheless, I write as someone who has had his life saved a number of times by “real” medicine (as opposed to lifestyle or boutique medicine), and I have reason to be very grateful. (more…)