My Intent

The intent of this blog is to provide my patients with information related to wellness and a wellness lifestyle that I have gathered over 30 years of study. I use the term 'wellness' instead of 'health' because the word 'health' has been co-opted and no longer refers to a state of well being in mind and body but more typically to an absence of symptoms. The state of our 'health' in Western society is such that we are becoming more and more ill with chronic diseases at younger ages.

With the economic situation of the past few years there has been a lot of talk about whether or not we are bankrupting future generations trying to get out of the economic mess we're in. That discussion should be had but in the context of what economic burden are we placing on future generations who will be called upon to pay for the 'illness' care of their parents and grandparents. Take a look at the cost of statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) on the NHS in the UK (I will often use statistics from other countries simply because the information is readily available). There are approximately 10,000,000 (that's 10 million!) people taking statins in the UK at a cost of about £1,000,000,000 (that's 1 billion GB pounds!!). A healthy sum for the pharmaceutical companies that make them, you say. Add to that the fact that people on statins are having there cholesterol levels monitored, typically twice a year. When you add up the cost of the GP, the blood tests, etc., you are looking at a twice annual cost of £50 for those on the statins. So that £100 times the 10,000,000 people on statins or another £1,000,000,000 for a total of £2,000,000,000 (2 billion GB pounds!!!) And that's for just one area of care delivering a drug whose benefits have not been demonstrated for the vast majority of those taking them! How many nurses would that money pay for? Maybe 50 - 70,000. Or we could build two university style, fully equipped hospitals PER YEAR!!

The diseases that we are suffering from and which are killing us - heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, etc. - are those of lifestyle. We do not have to sit back and become victims of these diseases or burden our children with caring for us but can be pro-active and take responsibility for our own well being.

This blog is meant to help you on your way. I welcome questions and comments and, if I write anything that you know to be untrue, I would ask that you bring it to my attention. But I would also ask that if you do bring mistakes to my attention that you are able to provide your source of information and that it not be from advertising that serves the seller not the public nor what is considered to be 'common knowledge'. 'Common knowledge' is often mythology.

I encourage you to look at my website under "Meet Dr. Chase Riley" is a section called "May I recommend". I'll be keeping a list of books there that I think may help you on your journey.