I have been working in healthcare since 2007-that’s 19 years of witnessing the inner workings of an industry that many people only see from the outside. Needless to say, this is a combine experience from two continents. But I fully entered the front lines in 2014, which means I now have more than a decade of direct patient-care experience. And after all these years, I can confidently say this: healthcare is not what it used to be.
As a profession once held in deep respect, we undeniably lost much of that respect after the COVID‑19 pandemic. But what I’m about to say goes even deeper than that. Some people will agree with me immediately, and some may be offended. That’s fine. The truth doesn’t need approval-it just needs honesty.
And here’s the truth:
Doctors can’t make you healthy.
I don’t say that lightly. I say it as someone who has spent years at the bedside, in the trenches, and witnessing what really brings patients into the hospital. Modern medicine is astonishing when you are dying. Trauma, infections, heart attacks, strokes-these are moments when medical care can work miracles. If you’re in crisis, we have drugs, machines, protocols, and expertise that can absolutely save your life.
But health, real health, doesn’t come from a hospital, a surgery, or a prescription bottle. And here’s why:
Medicine Lives Downstream. Think oil and gas (up/downstream)
By the time you walk into a hospital, the damage has already accumulated.
We don’t treat the cause.
We treat the consequence.
High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, chronic fatigue, joint pain, insomnia, anxiety-these conditions don’t show up out of nowhere. They are built slowly through years of habits, environment, stress, poor sleep, lack of movement, overeating, and constant overstimulation.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most people don’t actually want to be healthy-they want relief.
They want the pill because the pill is easier than the process.
Changing your life is hard:
- Fixing sleep is hard.
- Eating real food is hard.
- Moving daily when you’re exhausted is hard.
- Being hungry sometimes is uncomfortable.
- Facing stress instead of numbing it is uncomfortable.
Swallowing a pill is easy.
So we medicate the numbers instead of addressing the habits:
- We medicate stress instead of fixing the life causing the stress.
- We medicate blood sugar instead of fixing diet and movement.
- We medicate low testosterone instead of fixing sleep, excess fat, and lack of purpose.
- We medicate anxiety instead of strengthening a nervous system weakened by constant artificial stimulation.
Medication has a place-but it was meant to be a bridge, not a lifestyle.
The Hardest Truth: You Cannot Outsource Health
Healthcare has slowly turned into a lifestyle substitute. People want medicine to make up for choices they aren’t willing to change. But no doctor, no nurse, no specialist can build health for you.
Health is created upstream-long before symptoms appear.
Most people come to the hospital only when their body finally says, “I can’t compensate anymore.”
And by then, they want a fix that doesn’t exist.
There is no pill that replaces:
- Movement
- Natural light
- Sleep
- Real food
- Physical effort
- Purpose
- Discomfort
These aren’t prescriptions-they’re inputs.
Without them, the body adapts in the only way it can: by breaking down.
If Medication Alone Worked, We'd Be the Healthiest Society Ever
We prescribe more medication than any society in history.
Yet we are also:
- The most medicated
- The most comfortable
- The least resilient
Not because doctors fail, but because we ask medicine to solve problems it was never designed to solve.
Fat gain, hormone disruption, chronic inflammation, poor aging-these are not mysterious diseases. They are predictable biological responses to a modern lifestyle that eliminates struggle, movement, discipline, and natural rhythms.
Your body adapts to the life you live.
If your daily life is sedentary, climate‑controlled, overstimulated, comfort‑driven, overfed, and under slept, your body will downshift your metabolism, tank your hormones, weaken your resilience, and dull your vitality-not because it’s broken, but because it’s efficient.
If You Want Health, You Must Do the Work Medicine Can’t
If you’re looking for shortcuts, hacks, or magic pills, this message isn’t for you. But if you’re ready to hear the truth:
Doctors don’t make people healthy. Habits do.
Medicine is the safety net. Health is the daily work.
So what do you actually do?
You don’t overhaul your entire life overnight-you’ll fail.
You start with your environment, not motivation.
Five Non‑Negotiables to Start With
These aren’t forever rules. These are the foundation.
1. Prioritize sleep like your life depends on it.
Because it does.
Go to bed earlier.
Cut the screens.
Make your room dark and cool.
You cannot out‑exercise or out‑supplement bad sleep.
2. Move every day.
Not “workouts”-movement.
Walk, carry things, stretch, sweat.
Your biology expects motion. When it doesn’t get it, everything declines.
3. Eat like food still has consequences.
Because it does.
Stop grazing, think the cow. They have 4 stomachs; we only have one.
Eat real meals.
Eat enough protein.
Let yourself feel hunger occasionally-it’s not an emergency. Eat when you are hungry and not when you are bored.
4. Choose discomfort on purpose.
Cold.
Heat.
Hard workouts.
Difficult conversations.
Doing things when you don’t feel like it.
This is how you rebuild a resilient nervous system.
5. Stop looking for shortcuts.
If it’s hard, that doesn’t mean you’re failing-
it means you’re doing the work that actually creates change.
You Don’t Need Perfection-You Need Ownership
If you change the inputs, the biology will follow. Every time.
And if this perspective resonates with you-if you’re tired of confusion, tired of quick fixes, tired of the revolving door of prescriptions and symptoms-then you’re exactly the kind of person this message is meant for.
Health isn’t found in a pill bottle.
It’s built, one choice at a time, upstream from the crisis.
Until next time-keep moving, keep choosing effort, and keep choosing responsibility.
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Pal Ronnie
