Pink Tax on our health

I'm sure you've all heard of the pink tax. The fact that women's products and services tend to be exorbitantly more expensive than men's products and services got me thinking about the role of the pink tax on our health.

 

Women have extraordinarily more complicated health issues than men do, and it's because our bodies are literally more complicated, between our hormonal systems, the intricacy in our cell responses and emotional function and nuances of our blood movement and nature cycles, keeping women health is harder than keeping men healthy.

 

Truth be told, the pink tax isn't just showing up in the cost of razors or underwear, It's showing up in the totality of our life.

 

Women are affected by toxicity, stress, and nutrient depletion exponentially more than men, yet, most of the medical model is based on the idea that our body is simply groupings of organs and parts thus making symptom-based management acceptable.

 

One of my early mentors in Chinese Medicine is fond of saying that a man’s body is like a 68 VW bug, if you have the basic manual, a wrench and hammer, you can do almost anything...but a woman’s body is like the newest Mercedes, you will need 5 experts, a huge bay of computer technology and all the best gadgets to even attempt a solution.

 

Thing is, he’s right, yet, the symptom-based model which includes most blood testing (horrible predictors of chronic effects of stress on our system) is still like the manual, hammer, wrench philosophy no matter how sophisticated it is dressed up.

 

The cost of operating this way for women is enormous.  The per capita health care costs for women-run about $361,000.00, meanwhile our rates of autoimmune disease, cancer, Thyroid disorders, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and exhaustion continue to rise.  This cost is about $100,000.00 more than it is for men.

 

Some would say, it is a case for lowering health care costs, which it may very well be, but perhaps the bigger issue is, the model we use simply put does not work for women...or for men really.

 

In truth, a piecemeal approach to medicine has left true restoration out in the cold, we have adopted practices and principles which are isolating our problems into manageable chunks while neglecting to honor the body as a whole. On top of it, these chunks are all costly... an average visit to a Functional Medicine doctor will involve Thousands of dollars in costs for labs alone, and not even approach a palatable view of the totality of what is wrong...just pieces...a bit of Thyroid, some adrenal fatigue, but no talk of how emotions play into the effects, or how the cell aging is reducing nutrient perfusion at the cell level, or how mitochondrial function is causing a near shut down of essential body functions or how the stress response is changing calcium and magnesium metabolism causing an increased risk for memory issues, dementia and heart disease….because the model doesn’t allow for that.

 

The same is true of conventional docs, although in their case, all you will get is a Chem panel, a CBC, and maybe TSH and vitamin D.

 

Too many women are being told they are depressed, anxious, have ADD or all of the above as the answer to their concerns about fatigue, low vitality, low mood and lack of life luster.

 

Now, in the interim, the consequence may just be fatigue, but over the next 10 to 20 years, the cost of staying here will become higher rates of every chronic disease….cancer, diabetes, and heart disease just to name a few. All rising because nothing was ever done to address the cause of the problem in the first place.

 

A shift that will stand to raise the overall cost of women’s health care into a range that will leave most out in the cold.

 

I say all this not to scare you, but to allow you to contemplate if the system you are relying on for your health is actually working for you?

 

Are you getting the chance to address the CAUSE vs the SYMPTOM?

 

Have you been offered the chance to understand your body at the deep cell layer and how it relates to the function of every organ and hormonal system combined?

 

Have you been taught not just to swallow pills, and eat differently, but to turn off the stress eating away at your life?

 

Have you been given sufficient knowledge to sustain your longevity and healing for the next 40 or 50 years even if you move away from that one doctor?

 

Have you been given away to deeply restore your connection to your vital feminine self such that you feel powerful in your body?

 

These are the things healing is supposed to do…

 

That pink tax is lethal, because not only does it deprive women of good care at reasonable rates, it deprives them of access to vitality and wisdom and a life of actual living vs just existing from moment to moment.

 

You deserve to THRIVE!

 

If you want to explore where vitality is missing in your life and find out what you can do to fix that, set up a call with us, and let’s see IF we can help you.

 

Blessings,

 

Dr. Julie