Today we observe the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which declared that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is self-evident.
Or should be.
And you may not realize it, but Independence Day has everything to do with your health.
To be healthy in body, mind, and spirit, we should have the right to choose the healthcare we want. And the right to reject the healthcare we don’t want. We should have the right to choose the treatments we believe are best. And we should have the right to reject the treatments we don’t want.
But–like most of our other freedoms today–“health freedom” is severely restricted in 2014. The FDA, the CDC, Obamacare, the IRS, and numerous state and local entities take away our most basic rights to choose. And the press blindly plays along. So day by day, month by month, year by year, your personal health freedom slips away.
Plus, the academic-government-industrial-medical complex maintains a conspiracy of silence regarding scientific truth. In fact, the FDA’s laws and regulations prevent us all from telling the truth about natural approaches to health. For example, on Tuesday I told you about a major scientific study that found men and women who eat nuts have less arterial plaque in their arteries. But nut producers can’t tell you about that study…or they risk losing their business. Or even risk going to prison! Of course, big pharma can talk all it wants about treating diseases with their failed, dangerous drugs.
In many ways, we have less freedom today than we did before we declared our break from Great Britain.
In fact, when we look back at 1776, the restrictions and taxes imposed on the American colonists by King George III were a pittance compared to what the federal government takes away from us today in terms of our rights, freedoms, and hard-earned livings. To the end of his reign, King George never really understood why the colonists in the New World got so riled up. But (most) Americans in those days took their liberties and their livings seriously.
Throughout the early years as a new nation, natural medicine and health freedom flourished. Especially on the American frontier. For example, the frontier setting allowed, indeed required, the use of herbal remedies. Frontier men and women borrowed from both European folk remedies and Native American indigenous remedies. They even used remedies introduced by Chinese immigrants working on the transcontinental railway. Early Americans also embraced the spread of energetic healers (“mesmeric” or “magnetic” healers) from Europe. And by the late 1800s, this hands-on healing turned into to safe, effective, and “drug-free” manual therapies like osteopathic and chiropractic medicine.
During the Civil War, official Confederate medical kits carried traditional herbal remedies because the Northern blockade made it impossible to obtain manufactured drugs. Especially after the Battle of Gettysburg and the Siege of Vicksburg, both fatefully concluded on July 4, 1863.
Of course, the manufactured drugs of the era were nothing to brag about. In fact, in an address to the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1860, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, “If the entire materia medica as currently practiced could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes.” In fact, up until quite recently, all of mainstream medicine was so ineffective and toxic, many patients and even many doctors relied solely on natural healing approaches.
But all that changed after World War II. Big government, big pharma, high finance, and self-perpetuating academia began to place a chokehold on natural health and medicine.
However, with the advent of the internet, it’s getting easier to learn about and share the truth about medicine. And it’s easier than ever for you to stay informed about your own health and health choices. But only if you know where to look.
So, not all liberty is lost…yet.
And it’s not too late to recover. As always, since the time of our founding fathers, knowledge is power. So, ask questions. And demand answers. From your government. From your doctor. And even from your insurance company. Your health and your freedom depend on it!
Happy Independence Day.