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It is no coincidence that we fear disease, the following sound bites keep running through our brains – “doctors know best,” “if we only raise a few billion more dollars we will find the cure for cancer” and “America’s health care system is the best in the world.”

These beliefs are just a few that we harbor about modern medicine but they are not facts and they are not true. They are skillfully crafted pieces of propaganda that have been artfully peddled to the public over decades by well-trained opinion molders who are paid top dollar. Edward Bernays, father of the American public relations industry called it “engineering of consent.”

Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Bernays, was born with a genius for manipulation of ideas and knowledge of the workings of the unconscious mind. Maybe it was in his genes. Brought up in America, Bernays, early in life, took over the publication of two medical journals, though neither he nor his business partner knew anything about medicine.

Bernays, thanks to his relationship with uncle Sigmund, developed his special method of manipulating public opinion on the idea that the group mind does not think but instead it has impulses, habits and emotions. People’s first impulse, according to Bernays, is to follow the example of a trusted leader. Thus you have one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology.

That’s all true of modern medicine and its ability to strike fear into our hearts that make us willing participants in a pervasive drug culture. But what of alternative medicine? I’m not going to win many friends in the supplement industry when I remind you that they are using some of the same tactics to sell their products.

If you listened to all the fear-based advice that you “need” supplements to stay healthy, you’d soon find yourself on 100 pills a day. I’ve had clients like that. Their complaints usually were involving their digestive system caused by swalling so many pills!!

My tip for today, as it is every day – take responsibility for your own health by seeking solutions that educate you on how to accomplish that. Remember the adage, that it’s better to teach people how to grow their own food than keep giving them handouts. In this case, supplements are handouts, they don’t teach you how to eat properly, exercise, get enough sleep and use positive thinking. They make you think that your health is in a pill.

Learn how to take care of your own health and you won’t “need” to rely on drugs OR supplements. You will no longer feel you “need” to take them or feel “less than” if you don’t. And when you get to that place of being in control of your health, if you want to take supplements to feel even better than you do, then go ahead. Just don’t let fear be your guide. The attitude I like to adopt is: “I’m perfectly happy and fine where I am but ready for more!”

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