You are unique physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Physically, you are unique in terms of your body’s specific deficiencies, toxicities, harmful microorganisms, environment, DNA, and more. Your wellness plan needs to be equally unique. Most doctors use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to healthcare so they can fit more patients into their schedule. This is highly efficient and works very well in emergency trauma care. But is this an effective strategy for promoting your general health?

According to the World Health Organization, the United States spends more per person in health care than any other nation in the world, yet the latest World Health Organization data (as of 2020) ranks the USA 69th in healthy life expectancy1. Healthy Life Expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person can expect to live in “full health”. You can be on 15 medications and still be living in “full health” according to their statistics. And, the US takes more pharmaceutical drugs per capita than any other nation, so this would not meet my definition of full health. But even with this watered-down definition, we are still 69th in the world. Does this shock you. I hope so. It’s a shock to most Americans that we are ranked so low. But we’ve been in a decline for decades. This data suggests that the healthcare model the U.S. uses for general health is not working. If you are not willing to settle for 69th best for your family’s health, then you need to be doing things different than the average American.

Most family practice doctors are seeing between 20 and 40 patients per day. At that rate, it’s all but impossible for your doctor to get to know the specifics of your body.