The MVP focuses on achieving community-wide health improvement
through science, education, action, compassion, and love.
Biochemical Health. The human body is a bioreactor. We consume various ingredients from our environment and use some of these ingredients to create energy and some to build and maintain our body. There can be no health without biochemical health. The human bioreactor is designed to work. It has operational specifications and it has maintenance specifications. Knowing and adhering to the basic principles of biochemical health is science. Advanced nutrition and targeted supplementation are necessary to achieve and maintain optimal biochemical health.
Purposeful Health. The human body and brain are perpetual motion machines. The body never stops moving and the brain never stops thinking. We cannot stop it. We can only control where it moves and what it thinks. We give it purpose. Purpose drives life. More purpose more life. Less purpose less life. Humans need purpose. If you don’t have it, find it. And try to find a good one.
Community Health. From our most intimate spousal relationships to our immediate family and friends to our coworkers or sports teams to our towns and cities to our country, humans seek connectivity. The true power of humanity is the ability to merge our minds and bodies into a synergistic purpose to achieve small things like sawing a log or great awe-inspiring things like building the Hoover dam. The groups we form amplify our purpose and we are drawn to them like moths to a flame. And like purpose, we control the groups we choose to join and we contribute to shaping the groups we belong to. Choose wisely and make your contribution to the group count. There is no greater thrill. Just look at the faces of any winning team when they win a championship.
Compassion comes from recognizing that there is no true internal self-worth. Our value can only be measured by things we achieve outside ourselves – through our actions. Compassion is simply remembering that, “there but for the grace of God, go I”.
Why is the MVP needed?
The line between health optimization and the treatment of disease has become so blurred that health optimization is often considered “alternative” medicine.
Somehow the treatment and reduction of disease symptoms has become equated with health.
We, as a community, have lost all perspective of what health is, how to achieve it, and how to keep it. Public health has lost its independence from the medical treatment of disease.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors – And Good Neighbors Make Good Communities.
It is time to restore the fence between medical healthcare and community healthcare so that they can become good neighbors again and together contribute meaningful value to the health of our communities.
The Dr. Goodenowe Community Health Center in Moose Jaw, CA, is dedicated to working in and with the community to restore health and vitality in real, meaningful, and measurable ways.
Health is function. The ability to thrive. To move. To think. To work. To play. To love. Health is a positive. Disease is a negative. The absence of a negative is not a positive, it’s a zero. Don’t be a zero.
Our passion for community health stems from a belief that the achievement of health and the treatment of injury or disease should be good neighbors and one should not encroach on the other. However, the fence between the two has been torn down. Public health has lost its independence from the medical treatment of disease. Somehow the treatment and reduction of disease symptoms has become equated with health. Health is function. The ability to thrive. To move. To think. To work. To play. To love. The absence of a negative is not a positive, it’s a zero. Don’t be a zero.
The Dr. Goodenowe Community Health Center in Moose Jaw, CA, is dedicated to working in and with the community to restore health and vitality in real, meaningful, and measurable ways.
How is the MVP measured?
Just like a hockey game, health has a scorecard. On the negative side, it is measured in disease and death. On the positive side, it is measured in functional performance metrics. The good news is that these measurements are well-established.
The incidence and prevalence rates of every disease, disease symptoms, and death are accurately tracked in every community. A healthy community will have lower rates of disease and death.
Biomarkers of health are equally well established. From blood biomarkers to imaging biomarkers to functional biomarkers. A healthy community will have better biomarkers of health.
Finally, a healthy community will be a productive community and an economically vibrant community.
Where do we start?
We have decided to start the MVP with autism. Autism has a dramatic effect on communities. Achieving meaningful improvements in the quality of life of children and young adults with autism and their families is a great way to energize the community and build credibility for the project as it expands into other health areas.
Stay tuned for program announcements in maternal, prenatal, and postnatal health optimization and restorative brain health in dementia and the elderly.
