Oprah's favorite doctor, Dr. Mehmet Oz, spoke at the IOM Summit on Integrative Medicine last week and threw some thought-provoking facts and figures at the audience. These may not have been new to many in the audience, but together they put a sharper focus on the fundamental reasons underlying our national health crisis:
- We as a nation produce 3400 calories per person per day. "There is no way you can hold back this market force," Dr. Oz said: the calories have to get unloaded on the consumer in the form of bad food, at cheap prices. The surefire way to gain weight in the U.S., he said, is to go on food stamps. This, of course, creates the paradox of American poverty. Whereas in the rest of the world poverty equates with hunger and emaciation, in this country it is associated with obesity and malnourishment simultaneously.
- Dramatic generational decline in daily physical activity. 55 percent of people in their 40s and older used to walk to school, Dr. Oz said. He then asked members of the audience to raise their hands if their children were walking to school today. Only a handful of hands went up. Apparently, nationwide, less than 10 percent of that generation's children walk to school today.
- American health care system is balkanized and not customer-oriented. While many other industries have gone global and thus have been forced to become sharper in the face of dramatically increased competition, our medical system remains remarkably provincial, Dr. Oz said. Failure to become customer-centered has resulted in lack of trust and proliferation of unnecessary suffering.
What are the solutions, in his opinion?
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Promote health coaches to become physician extenders to hep patients manage chronic conditions. MDs, said Dr. Oz, are not prepared - nor do they have the time - to manage those.
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Create a Smart Patient movement. Many patients, said Dr. Oz, are afraid to question their doctor's advice or raise difficult questions for fear of getting shot down, becoming known as the "problem patient," and alienating their physician. But if a patient is part of a movement in which everyone raises their hand and questions the therapies they've been prescribed, we'll see an improvement.
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