Re: An Open Letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton

[Guest guest]

Hi Listmates,

I ran across this open letter to Hillary Clinton and thought you would appreciate the insight.

http://www.hacres.com An Open Letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton I come to you as a citizen of these United States of America to offer a solution to a problem that is not only causing tremendous suffering to our people … but is also bankrupting our great nation. Mrs. Clinton, I believe you sincerely want an answer to this dilemma, therefore I submit the following for your consideration: 1. "Health is the largest failing business in America," says Prof. E. Cheraskin, M.D. of the University of Alabama School of Medicine. The health care crisis is slowly bankrupting our citizens and our country. Costs for health care are climbing four times faster than the rate of inflation. In 1992 we spent $817 billion on health care while 1993 is expected to have cost $942 billion. During 1994 it is projected to reach $1 trillion and by the turn of the century $2 trillion. The plan advanced by you and President Clinton will not stop this constant increase in medical costs! Actually, it will accelerate the rise in health care costs as more and more people are brought into a system that has already proven to be a failure. 2. We are a sick nation even though we are spending more to treat sickness per capita than any other nation on earth! If our present methods of treating disease worked, wouldn't our people be healthier? If our advances in medical technology were heading in the right direction, wouldn't we be winning the war against cancer, heart disease and other killers? Consider these horrible statistics: * Cardiovascular diseases affect 80% of all Americans; * 33 % of all Americans develop cancer and it is projected to reach 50% by the year 2000; * 6.5 million Americans suffer from diabetes; * 77% of the adult population suffers from arthritic and rheumatic disorders; * Over 25 million Americans suffer from asthma, bronchitis or emphysema; * 16 million suffer from ulcers; * 10 million are migraine sufferers; * Over 50% suffer chronic digestive disorders; * 80 million suffer from allergies; * 22 million suffer mental illness; * 98.5% of our population have bad teeth, and 31 million have no teeth of their own; * 70-80% are overweight and 80 million are classified as obese; * Nearly 90% of our children cannot pass a minimum physical fitness test. These somber statistics (from the Statistical Abstract of the United States 1992 as published by the U.S. Department of Commerce) are strong proof that the health of the American people is not getting better regardless of how much money is poured into so-called health care. Also, these statistics reflect the poor health of our population even though over 70% of Americans already possess health insurance. Obviously, possessing health insurance does not produce health! Sadly, the very drugs and treatments administered by our health-care professionals are the cause of many problems. (Over 25 percent of all hospital admissions are the result of adverse reactions caused by drugs prescribed by medical doctors.) 3. Calling your proposed legislation a "Health-Care Plan" is a misnomer! The plan you and President Clinton have advanced will not produce health. On the contrary it will continue to perpetuate the same status-quo of sickness and ill health we presently face while costing more and more money. It would be more accurate to call the proposed plan a "Disease-Care Plan." 4. Countries that have plans similar to the one you advocate (e.g., Canada, England, etc.) have found it to be an increasingly more costly plan that just doesn't provide quality health care for all citizens as you say you want for the United States. 5. Our present health-care system is geared to rewarding sickness and its treatment! It allows people that create their physical problems by improper diet and lifestyle to be rewarded when they get sick by providing them with health care, often paid for by those who take care of their bodies so as to maintain health. Your plan would also allow the physicians, hospitals and drug companies to make even larger sums of money because your plan promotes and perpetuates the treating of disease rather than the prevention of disease! Physicians' incomes average $130,000 per year; surgeons and radiologists make over $200,000; cardiovascular surgeons $500,000; while the pharmaceutical industry takes in $55 billion a year, making it the nation's most profitable business. 6. The plan you and President Clinton advance will increase our taxes and put even more money into a failing healh-care system that, by any standards, offers ridiculously high costs and pathetically poor results. It would be hard to imagine another American institution that offers less value per dollar. This is a system we must reform rather than expand, if we truly want to improve the health of the American people. IF WE ARE GOING TO CORRECT THE ABOVE PROBLEMS, A RADICAL CHANGE IS NECESSARY -- AND IT MUST BE RADICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE WASTEFUL, PROFIT-ORIENTED PROGRAM THAT CURRENTLY GOVERNS OUR HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM.

Here is what I propose 1. Shift our emphasis to prevention of disease rather than the current goal of merely trying to treat disease after it has occurred. The public must be told how to alter their diet and lifestyle so that disease is not created in the first place. This would be true health-care reform! The proposed health-care reform is doomed to failure because it is geared to treating the symptoms of sickness rather than the causes of sickness! Dr. Knowles, president of the Rockefeller Foundation says: "the next major advances in the health of American people will come from the assumption of individual responsibility for one's own health and a necessary change in lifestyle." With knowledge, people would then be able to intelligently choose between a system that promotes wellness through proper diet and lifestyle and a system that promotes disease and rewards an industry with a vested interest in sickness and disease. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare says: "it has become clear that only by preventing disease rather than treating it later, can we hope to achieve any major improvement in the nations health." 2. Educate the people! True health-care reform will not result by rewarding people who continue their disease-producing diet and lifestyles. Any health-care plan that does not have as its primary goal the education of the American people as to what they should and should not eat to produce wellness will fail! It will only produce more physical problems and larger expenditures of money. Almost all sickness and disease is caused by improper diet and lifestyle, not by bacteria, viruses or inheritance as we have been lead to believe by the Medical Industry. The way to restore wellness to the American people is to teach them how to eat and live so as to create wellness. Dr. Beverly Winikoff of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York said: "...There is a widespread and unfounded confidence in the ability of medical science to cure or mitigate the effects of such diseases once they occur. Appropriate public education must emphasize the unfortunate but clear limitations of current medical practice in curing the common killer diseases. Once hypertension, diabetes, arteriosclerosis or heart disease are manifest, there is, in reality, very little that medical science can do to return a patient to normal physiological function. As awareness of this limitation increases, the importance of prevention will become all the more obvious." 3. Any new health-care plan must be one that encourages health by rewarding wellness and those who maintain health! Most disease is self-induced by improper diet and lifestyle, thus, almost all sickness and disease is preventable by a diet and lifestyle that produces wellness. Any health-care plan that does not place the responsibility for maintaining health on the individual will fail! If you feel it is necessary to continue paying for the medical treatments of those who refuse to change their diet and lifestyle, then please reward those who maintain wellness. A voucher system would be a tremendous incentive. Allot every American citizen X number of dollars a year for health care. If they don't spend it, then send them a check each year for the amount not used. 4. Products that produce ill health should be removed from the market place or heavily taxed. Let those who manufacture these unhealthy products and those who consume them help pay for the physical problems they produce. Some examples: * Tobacco products cause most of the cases of cancer in the throat, lungs and stomach as well as a multitude of other physical problems including emphysema. Second-hand smoke, according to Harvey, kills 2000 Americans weekly. * Beverage alcohol in any form is a destroyer, an addicting drug and a killer. Alcohol poisons the body, damaging the brain, heart, nerves, lungs and liver to mention only a few. Thousands die yearly from cirrhosis while the influence of alcohol kills 25,000 people on our highways and maims multitudes. At the same time it disrupts homes while causing child and spousal abuse and lowers productivity in the business place. * Caffeine is an addictive drug found in coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks and many over-the-counter remedies. It causes birth defects, cardiovascular disease, and has been linked to cancer of kidney, pancreas, breast, ovaries, and large intestines. * Saturated Fat is linked to over 50% of all deaths in America. If a person eliminates saturated fat from their diet, they would reduce their chances of ever having a heart attack or stroke by over 96%. Animal protein and fat is the main cause or a contributing cause in many cancers, including breast, prostate, colon and uterine. Saturated fat is also the main cause of adult-onset diabetes. Dr. McDougal, M.D. wrote you a few months ago suggesting: "Tax all unhealthy goods. You propose more taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. Great! But how about a 'fat tax.' Saturated fat could be taxed at 1 cent a gram, and all fats purposely added to a product would be taxed at 2 cents a gram. Under this system, a Big Mac would be taxed 24 cents per ounce..." * Sugar is another item creating untold suffering among our citizens, including tooth decay and all kinds of physical, mental and emotional problems. The average American consumes 50 teaspoons of sugar per day. Just one can of soda pop contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, which can immobilize the immune system by 30% for a whole day. If we are going to improve the health of our people, we must warn them of the consequences of eating things that harm them. Calling the public's attention to the harm these products are doing by placing a tax and warning labels on them certainly would be a step in the right direction. 5. Government-controlled institutions and agencies must not be allowed to use their powers to promote sickness and disease! Some examples would be: * Of the 129 state-accredited medical schools in America, only 29 require a course in nutrition. Doctors receive an average of less than three hours of nutritional training in medical school. This is outrageous! Doctors must become promoters of health through diet and lifestyle rather than just treaters of disease! The American Medical Association must be required to prepare a curriculum to teach doctors the value of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease. * The American Dietetic Association (ADA) is responsible for preparing the diets and approving all meals served in our public schools, jails, hospitals and to the elderly. An evaluation of these meals would show that they are high in sugar, saturated fat, sodium chloride and white flour, while being of little nutritional value. Some schools have even brought fast food restaurants right into their school cafeterias with the approval of the ADA. An evaluation of the meals served in our nation's hospitals would reveal a menu that produces sickness rather than helping to heal those hospitalized. This poisoning of our citizens through government mandate and control must be stopped and the ADA must be required to teach dietitians the TRUTH about what is and what is not nutrition! * Each year, the USDA buys $3 to $4 billion worth of surplus foods (with taxpayers' money), which it donates to the nation's schools. In 1991, 90% of the USDA surplus foods were eggs, high-fat cheeses, butter, ground pork, ground beef and whole milk. If the USDA had gone out intentionally to obtain foods that would destroy the health of our children, they could hardly have done better. This use of tax payers' money to produce sickness in the youth of America is intolerable and must be stopped if we want to improve the health of our children. * We are spending taxpayers' money to subsidize farmers to grow tobacco instead of vegetables. Then we pay for anti-smoking public education campaigns and treatment of cancer and heart disease caused by smoking. Why are we funding both sides of the war on cancer? If we are going to use government subsidies to encourage farmers to grow specific crops, these should be healthful products. * Even the Food Stamp program needs to be reevaluated. While not allowing Food Stamps to be used for the purchase of alcohol and tobacco, Food Stamps can be used to purchase products loaded with sugar and oozing with saturated fat. The government of these United States has a responsibility to its citizens not to use its power to promote or subsidize products that harm its people! 6. Please consider my own personal experience and the testimonials of others who have regained their health by something as simple as a change in diet. Approximately 18 years ago I lost my mother to colon cancer. She was a registered nurse who believed her doctors when they told her that chemotherapy, radiation and surgery were her only hope. At the time of her death, I felt it was the treatments and not the cancer that ultimately caused her death. Shortly after Mom's death, I was told I had colon cancer at age 42. Refusing to go the traditional medical route after seeing what it had done to Mom, I opted for a change in diet and lifestyle. In less than one year, every physical problem was gone! Not just the cancer, but also high blood pressure, hemorrhoids, hypoglycemia, severe sinus and allergy problems, fatigue, even body odor and dandruff. I have maintained a vegetarian diet of at least 75 to 85 percent raw food, with daily consumption of carrot juice and Barley Green as a nutritional supplement for the past 18 years and have experienced absolutely no sickness … not even a cold, sore throat, headache or upset stomach, taken as much as an aspirin or gone to a doctor. At age 60 I can still play football with the boys, jog five miles, and have more energy and endurance than I had when I was 20 years old. What made this change in my health possible was learning ñ and acting on the knowledge ñ that our bodies are a living organism made up of living cells that require living food (raw food) to function properly. Cooked food is dead food and has very little nutritional value. Cooking destroys all enzymes, about 83 percent of vitamin content, changes the molecular structure of the protein and turns organic minerals into an inorganic form unusable by our bodies. Unlike drugs and synthetic vitamins, which are toxic substances to our body, the nutrients of raw foods work with the body to invigorate its own healing capabilities. We teach that TRUE HEALING IS SELF-HEALING as we give the body proper building materials to heal itself. And my personal experiences are not unique!! Several years ago I started a ministry called Hallelujah Acres in an effort to make what I had learned from my personal experience and research available to others. My book titled Why Christians Get Sick is now in its 6th printing while our bimonthly publication titled Back to the Garden presently has a circulation of over 10,000. We also hold seminars all over the United States. What has been the results? Daily we receive testimonies from people who have applied our teaching and been made well from all kinds of physical problems by doing something as simple as changing their diet. Following are some testimonies. Please note that these are all real people with real names and can be documented. Dianne McKee, suffered for five years from severe abdominal pain. She had been to over 20 doctors, had four surgical operations, and was no better. Five days after changing her diet and lifestyle to what we teach here at Hallelujah Acres her pain was gone. Dianne remains pain-free almost a year later. Harley Flora, a retired businessman came to us in November 1992 at age 76. He had already suffered two heart attacks, two open heart surgeries, and prostate cancer that had metastasized into his bones. He was also experiencing severe arthritis in his knees and could hardly walk, he had been unable to eat a salad for 20 years due to diverticulitus, he had severe constipation and a racing heart. Harley came to our seminar, went on the program we teach here at Hallelujah Acres, and in five months every symptom was gone and his PSA count, which determines prostate cancer, had reduced from 57.6 to less than 0.1. Harley is still doing great a year later and recent blood work shows every test area in the ideal range! Patsy Stockton, a Pastor's wife on 130-140 units of injection insulin a day for her diabetes came to our seminar in January 1993. She also had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sores in her mouth and she was overweight. Within three days after going on our program, her blood sugar had dropped from 371 to 112. In four months she was able to reduce insulin to four units, her blood pressure and cholesterol were normal, sores in her mouth were gone, liver spots on her hands and arms disappeared and she lost 48 pounds. Rhonda, my wife, (we were married in April 1992), came to my seminar in January 1991. At that time she was overweight, wearing a size 20 dress, had severe debilitating arthritis and a degenerated spine and was unable to walk a block without severe pain. Since going on the nutritional program we teach here at Hallelujah Acres, she has lost over 80 pounds (down to a size 10 dress), her arthritis is gone, her degenerated spine is healed, she has had a dramatic increase in energy and speed walks four miles most every morning. Becky McClellan came to us six months ago after being debilitated by multiple sclerosis for seven years. She is now back to work full-time, and takes care of her home and family. She said, "I feel like somebody handed me my life back this summer. I feel like I felt seven years ago." Payne came to us in August 1992. At that time she was on cortisone, and in extreme pain from rheumatoid arthritis. She could not get out of bed alone, could not dress herself alone. She was so bad that her husband had to comb her hair and brush her teeth. Her doctor told her she would be in a wheelchair soon. She was also very overweight. Fourteen months after changing her diet and lifestyle to what we teach here at Hallelujah Acres, she has lost 105 pounds, is off all medication, all pain is gone and she says that all that remains of her arthritis is a little stiffness when she first gets up in the morning. says she feels better than she has in over 20 years and is able to work in her garden again. Carol Cover had diarrhea for 22 months. She went the medical route for relief, which included many doctors, drugs and four trips to the Mayo Clinic. After 22 months of medical treatments she was down to 78 pounds and was dying. Within a few days after she changed her diet, her problem was gone! These represent only a few of the testimonies from people who have adopted the program we teach here at Hallelujah Acres. And they continue to remain free of physical problems as long as they stay on this program. Mrs. Clinton, please investigate what I have shared. Because of the financial profits from treating disease, you will find very limited support from those in the medical establishment for objective research into the benefits of preventative health care based on changes in diet and lifestyle. Modern science is learning much about the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, and the ways that vitamins, minerals and enzymes help our bodies to heal naturally. But still yet, most medical research is confined to looking for answers from pharmaceutical drugs, new surgical procedures, radiation, chemotherapy, etc. … in other words, things from which the medical establishment can make a huge profit. It's sad to say, but the medical establishment has a tremendous financial incentive in keeping large segments of our population dependent on expensive surgical procedures, costly prescriptions and over-the-counter remedies consumed on a daily basis. On the other hand, it's great when people are able to cure themselves simply by eating a natural diet and exercising. But this is an option discouraged in medical circles because there is no profit for doctors, hospitals, and drug companies. Our present health-care system is geared to provide what is most profitable for physicians, drug companies and hospitals, not to what is best for the people of our great land. This, Mrs. Clinton, is what must be changed if you and your husband wish to implement true health-care reform. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS If the health of the American people is to be improved and if the staggering cost of health care is to be curbed, we must look outside the current and established systems. And I am not advocating the use of synthetic vitamins, herbs or homeopathic remedies as the solution. These substances, along with all drugs, only deal with symptoms caused by improper diet and lifestyle. What I am saying is that almost all physical problems are caused by putting into our bodies substances that they were never biologically designed to handle … substances that are actually toxic to the body. Just as our automobile will not run properly if the wrong fuel is placed in the gas tank, neither will our bodies function properly if the wrong foods are put into them. Almost all physical problems can be eliminated and perfect health can be maintained by proper diet and lifestyle! My experience has even shown that when people adopt the diet and lifestyle we teach, most mental and emotional problems also disappear. If I can be of assistance in any way, please do not hesitate to call on me. My life is committed to restoring our world to health and sane living. Sincerely for a Healthy America, Rev. H. Malkmus P.S.: A note to our readers: If you agree with the contents of this letter, and feel strongly about the need to truly reform our health care system, please see that this letter gets to people with the power to make these changes … your Senators and Representatives, President Clinton and your local newspaper for starters. "The greatest medical discovery of our time is the awesome power within the human body to heal and rejuvenate itself! This tremendous discovery is destined to change the way we practice medicine in America. In the future, instead of cutting the body... instead of drugging it... instead of working against its natural systems... doctors will strive to feed and enhance the body's amazing power to self-heal. We're starting to see the shift in awareness already … The medical establishment still seems to believe that nutrition cannot prevent disease, and is practically useless in treating it. Yet, we now have scientific proof that diet is the single most powerful tool for the treatment of disease. More powerful than drugs. More powerful than surgery. More powerful than anything in the doctor's bag. And you can do it yourself … The medical profession is too narrow minded to admit the enormous value of nutritional healing." -- n Whitaker, M.D. in Wellness Today, July 1993 "As a nation we have come to believe that medicine and medical technology can solve our major health problems. The role of such important factors as diet in cancer and heart disease has long been obscured by the emphasis on the conquest of these diseases through the miracles of modern medicine. Treatment not prevention, has been the order of the day. The problem can never be solved merely by more and more medical care … Our greatest bulwark against the interests that have helped to create the present problems is an informed public." -- Dr. Philip Lee, Professor of Social Medicine and Director, Health Policy Program, University of California, San Francisco "When people learn and practice 'the art of right living,' physicians may go back to their farms and workshops!" -- Dr. Issac Jennings, 1830 "In most cases, impaired health is more the result of indulgences and practices that are absolutely harmful, than it is the result of omissions. Most sick people are very anxious to find out what they can do to get them well. What they fail to ask is, 'What can I stop doing that is making me sick?' " -- Dr. Ralph Cinque "Gentlemen, I will never die of cancer. I am taking measures to prevent it . . . It is caused by poisons created in our bodies by the food we eat... What we should do, then, if we would avoid cancer, is to eat... raw fruits and vegetables; first, that we may be better nourished; secondly, that we may more easily eliminate waste products... We have been studying germs when we should have been studying diet and drainage... The world has been on the wrong track. The answer has been within ourselves all the time... Drain the body of its poisons, feed it properly, and the miracle is done. Nobody need have cancer who will take the trouble to avoid it." -- Sir A. Lane, England's foremost abdominal surgeon "I can't imagine a system that's more dysfunctional than the one we have now ñ more expensive, not doing the job, with more waste …" -- Dr. Caper, medical policy analyst at Dartmouth Medical School "Our health care system is in crisis, bordering on chaos." -- Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop © 2001 Hallelujah Acres, http://www.hacres.com