OPINION: Thrive Movie Shows Wrongs In The World

A WOMEN’S JOURNEY, ADVENTURES AND PERSPECTIVE

HEALTH AND FOOD

Part IV of Judy Edwards Journey

August 16th was the first public screening of the movie  ‘Thrive’ in Brevard County.

In spite of the thunder-filled evening and torrential downpour, an intrepid group of 25 people attended the viewing of the eye-opening movie.

So far this film has been viewed over 1 million times and has been translated into 19 different languages.

I was impressed again, with how beautiful, inspiring and depressing this film is.

Were it not for the indefatigable glimmer of hope at the end, I was ready to go shoot myself as how can we correct this global situation of the haves and the have-nots?

How can we change the rampant destruction on our planet resulting from the pursuit of the mighty dollar?

I longed for my days of blissful ignorance. There was talk after the film of addressing the situations present in the film at a future date.

I have some personal stories to share with regards to the next chapter of this story and how it segues from food to health.

It has been almost 10 years since my mother-in-law passed away after a stroke.

When she entered the hospital, her blood was as thin as water and would not clot. There was nothing anyone could do for her.

At the time, she was 72 years old and taking upwards of 12 medications a day.

Mum Passed Away

My Mom passed away 2 years ago. She suffered from an inherited kidney disease.

At the end of her life, she was on dialysis and was taking various medications herself. At one point she was in the hospital due to an infection and was administered a drug.

Within minutes, right in front of my eyes, she almost died due to an adverse drug reaction.

She didn’t die at that moment, but she never fully recovered and passed a couple of weeks later.

It took me a while to put together the facts that just maybe all those drugs that were prescribed to these lovely women in fact helped to kill them.

Recently, I saw the statistic that stated in the past 27 years there have been 3 million deaths from taking prescription drugs exactly as prescribed.

In ‘Thrive’, they discuss the health care industry in the United States.

Our health care system has a fundamental flaw: more money is made when people are sick rather than healthy.

Pharmaceuticals Profit

Pharmaceuticals profit when they sell more drugs and doctors make more money when they see more patients.

Mainstream medical education emphasizes drug research and treatment. Only patentable cures are of interest to drug companies.

Natural remedies-such as lifestyle, diet, exercise, herbal supplements, remedies and homeopathy which have all proven to improve health, are ignored.

My Dad died of ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease, 25 years ago and there is still no cure.

Patients die too quickly from ALS for them to be interested in it.

Consider hypertension. A patient can be on that prescribed medication for years. This is a much more interesting proposition for the pharmaceutical industry-a steady stream of income.

Many people are unaware of natural, viable, cheaper health solutions and most doctors are not adequately informed about them.

Health insurance companies also do not cover many of these natural solutions, so patients seek out mainstream treatments in order to save money.

Lobbying Takes Control

This whole subject is complicated by the fact that the pharmaceutical industry has giant lobbying teams.

They fund political campaigns, research and education teaching doctors the drug-treatment paradigm.

Pharmaceutical companies wine, dine and compensate doctors.  They run aggressive marketing campaigns that at this point are hard to avoid.

Advertisements for drugs have crossed into all aspects of media. We are being trained through advertisements to ask doctors for medications for problems that we have self-diagnosed and we will stay on these prescribed medications for years, paying a fortune in health insurance premiums to cover the medications.

Stress Is a Killer

My own story is that during the end of my Mom’s life and her subsequent death, I ignored the stress surrounding this.

My heart began racing intermittently. I consulted with 3 doctors, the first of which, told me I could die, the 2nd told me I wouldn’t die and it was all in my head, the 3rd told me it would never go away and I needed medications and monitoring.

I brought up the stress question with all 3, which was ignored.

After running through the tests to determine that my heart as a pump was fine, the solution was that I would have to be monitored for three years with implanted monitors.

I would never have considered this excessive option except for the lambasting I received from my 2 daughters for being irresponsible about my health. Doctor #1 freaked them out.

Chi Gung Is a Great Tool

In the end, I learned Chi Gung. I practice it every day. My heart is back to behaving as it should.

The monitors were removed after one year.

I am fine and I am certain that I convinced one cardiologist in the county that alternative measures do work.

I am not by any means anti-medicine.

If I were in a major accident I would hopefully get taken right to a hospital.

My life was saved a few years ago by surgery from a ruptured appendix and I appreciate that.

I just get angered by the commercial powers larger than me, poisoning my food, air and water and the industry created to provide pills for the resultant illnesses.

The question remains: what are we doing to ourselves? And when will this madness stop?

STAY TUNED TO SPACECOASYDAILY.COM FOR MORE JUDY EDWARDS JOURNEYS

Judy Edwards is a painter and writer who lives in Brevard County, Florida. Edwards studied art at the Honolulu Art Academy, Rhode Island School of Design, Newport Art Museum on Monhegan Island, Maine and at the Ringling School in Sarasota, Florida. Currently, Edwards  is a member of the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery in Melbourne, Florida.

In art, she places her current emphasis on investigating, creating, and manipulating colors with molten wax. Edwards says, “The additive and subtractive nature of encaustics lends itself to abstraction and is thrilling to work with”.

Visit her website at JudyEdwards.com to find out more about Edwards and her art.

CLICK HERE to purchase a copy of her book entitled Journeys a grand adventure

 

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