While the health care reform bill may change some aspects of our medical treatment, what has been made clear is that we need to take personal responsibility for our own health and well being. And one way that starts with being informed and having access to information and products that promote natural ways of healing. That's the goal of the Health Freedom Expo, an outgrowth of the Health Freedom Movement, which runs Friday June 4 through Sunday June 6 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center. The event features well known natural health care advocates and authors like Kevin Trudeau, Dick Gregory, Dr. Joseph Mercola, chef Alex Jamison, Liz Oz, Dr Masaru Emoto, Venus and Mars series author John Grey and dozens of other speakers who bring messages of empowerment and better living though self-care.
The Expo is a work a of love and dedication for Julie Kline, whose father Dr. Wendell Whitman, founded the event as a way to educate the public about alternatives to traditional healthcare. After Whitman passed away in 2008, Kline said she has stayed committed to continuing his legacy. She explains that order to protect our health and our right to choose our treatment we have to exercise personal responsibility:
As an individual one needs to be very proactive taking care of your health in the months and years ahead. Rely less and less on outside parties or health plans to do it for you.
We need to work hard to preserve our health freedoms in the days ahead, to have access to health products and services that meet our individual needs; we cannot accept any 'cookie cutter' approach to our health- either with conventional medicine or natural health products and services
Adopt a 'wellness' mindset and build in healthy habits that will help prevent the onset of disease; if we do need medications, we must integrate taking meds with a healthy lifestyle and healthy life habits.
Support legislators on the local, state and national level who sponsor health freedom legislation and initiatives.
I first tried health food when I was seven years old. Granted it was carob bar, but I liked it and since then I have explored and gotten results with Bach flower remedies, acupuncture, chiropractic care, kinesiology, hypnotherapy, vitamins, herbs, nutritional supplements and other alternative treatments and preventative measures. While homeopathy won't cure a gunshot wound (immediately), that subtle medicine has been very helpful to me and millions of people on a number of occasions, and that you can now find homeopathic medicine and herbal formulas on grocery and drug store shelves shows the enormous strides that have been made in our freedom to choose how we care for ourselves.
It remains to be seen how health care reform will affect alternative treatments, but Kline points out that our access could be hampered by monopolies (think Big Pharma and insurance companies) and that again it falls on the individual to be responsible:
The solution lies in responding to these assaults on freedom with litigation and legislation. Education. The more the consumer knows, the less they are willing to subjugate themselves to substandard health care. Prevention is key. Consumers should become their own health care advocate.
For more information on Health Freedom Expo click here.