THE BEST ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE YET! Losing my mom to ALS changed my life in so many ways and set me on the path to studying wholistic health and natural medicine. Although I appreciate greatly the attention to the disease and the donations this campaign has garnered, many are completely missing the point. Id like to see each ice bucket video clip include one piece of information about ALS. Facts: Today, seven in 10 deaths in the U.S. are related to chronic diseases, such as ALS, which are often preventable. 75 percent of our health care dollars are spent treating chronic and man-made diseases which can be financially devastating for families, on top of the physical and emotional suffering. There is currently no cure for ALS, and, despite millions of dollars spent on pharmaceutical research, no drug has been approved to treat ALS since 1995 (thats 20 YEARS). Only 3 percent of our health care dollars go toward prevention. The Affordable Care Act provided the nation’s first mandatory funding stream dedicated to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public health care costs. In this stage of the epidemiological transition (look it up), prevention is truly our best medicine. Please support ALS and other disease prevention funding!
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:06:48 +0000