The Primal Prescription: Surviving The "Sick Care" Sinkhole

Drs. McGuff and Murphy shed light on the little-known history of the American Medical system and in the process provide an eye-opening appraisal of the problems and absurdities of the present state of affairs. I suspect very few people are aware of the historical facts of American health care and fewer still have an understanding of the complex and sinister economic latticework that subsumes insurance, doctors, the FDA, pharma, and hospitals. The authors affably providee simple explanations to complicated topics and do an excellent job of giving analogies and scenarios to help us understand the real consequences of entering the "belly of the beast". Most importantly, they offer incredibly helpful, actionable solutions to the serious problems discussed therein.Some of the topics of the book include how the medical establishment got to its current doomed state, how the FDA is far more dangerous than we all suspect, how the current health care paradigm amounts to a Ponzi scheme, why health care and health insurance are not remotely the same thing, how to become knowledgable about medical screenings and medications, and, critically, how to make necessary lifestyle and diet changes to take back control of your health.There's so much great information in the book but its most salient message is that we (all of us) must take immediate responsibility for our health and that we can all learn how to be the genuine captains of our own "health care team" by adopting a primally (or paleo) inspired lifestyle.As a side note, as a Canadian with access to one of the most revered health care systems in the world, I think a book like is an important cautionary tale of how quickly things can deteriorate in any health care program under the right (wrong) circumstances and how we must never rest on our laurels with respect to medicare.A excellent book that is, in my mind, required reading for all.

I picked up this book mostly for the work of Robert Murphy who is a great economist and has a good knack for explaining complicated concepts and topics on different levels of understanding. I don't know much about McGuff and never heard of him, myself, before this book.This book is really two books in one and may not appeal to everyone. On one end you have Murphy's writing about the history of health insurance/healthcare in America, the Affordable Care Act, and government intervention in healthcare. And on the other hand you have McGuff's background as a doctor and promoting a primal/paleo lifestyle.What I was looking for more, and what I was hoping for more was a look of the history of healthcare, what's wrong with it, and what to do to fix it. And the pairing of an economist and a doctor would be able to greatly blend a lot of great information into one useful book.While this book does provide a lot of great information and critiques of government hurt and industry general business practices, I don't think this is a great reference book to give to someone or reference completely. There is a good critique of the ACA and the background history is book, but having a better basis of the formula of "We do X. Y is the result. However, if we did A, B would be the result. B would be better than Y and A > X". Other writings by Murphy follows this formula and others in his circle of friends.I could also see some benefit of adding information of McGuff's chapters but it feels too much like two different books. It would have been better incorporated into the other chapters or made smaller. And there is a lot of good incites and recommendations that McGuff gives. It just tends to feel like two different authors wrote their parts and put them together to appeal to two different audiences.Also, the ending where the libertarian ideal responses to improve the system were covered very quickly and not too much in the way of apologetics were made. Again, another section that could be incorporated into an overall narrative.I did enjoy the book overall. I was just hoping it would be a great libertarian/Austrian economic/rational medical care resource that presented the information better. Final Grade - B-

My intuition told me that there is no way that free market capitalism screwed up our healthcare system. I had bits and pieces of information for why that was, but I didn't have the complete big picture.That was the case until I read this book.Economist Bob Murphy did an amazing job explaining how government and regulation threw a monkey wrench in the US health care system. I now feel confident to engage in a conversation on this hot button topic with anyone.The other part of the book, written mainly by Dr. McGuff, was jam packed with very useful information on how to navigate through our healthcare system (while keeping a 'primal' mindset found in Mark Sisson's, The Primal Blueprint [ASIN:1939563305]). His candid discussion on what it is like to work inside of the system and how to make sure you, the patient, doesn't slip through the cracks is priceless.

I work out at Dr McGuff's super slow gym. The method challenges mainstream fitness paradigms, but it is supported by science, and works fabulously. So I'm willing to listen to him about the mainstream medical-industrial complex. Both his workout and medicine approaches are very challenging to implement, but worth it. "I put before you life and death. Choose life."

Your benefit from reading this book is determined by your expectations. The title, Primal Prescription, hearkens to the 'Primal' book series and world-view brain-child of Mark Sisson (who also wrote the forward). The second half of the book focuses on educating readers in responsible medical decision-making in line with the 'Primal' goal of engendering personal health. However, do not make the mistake of reading this book to understand the 'Primal' philosophy. I know that this is a gripe with some reviews, but they should understand that this is beyond the scope of the book. Go read the original if you want to learn about 'Primal' living. That being said, having never been exposed to the 'Primal' ideas myself, I didn't feel as if I missed out on anything.The major theme of this book combines libertarian worldview and the Primal philosophy: Just as government intervention in free-markets leads to lower standards of living, modern human lifestyles that go against our evolutionary history lead to negative health outcomes.This book is mainly divided into two parts: (1) The history, politics, and economic reasoning of interventionism in US healthcare, and (2) what individual patients can do to improve and protect themselves within (or outside) of the system. Here is the table of contents to get a good idea of the book contents:Part I: Understanding US healthcare, up through Obamacare1. How we got here: a brief history of US healthcare through 20092. The deadly FDA3. The Medicare Ponzi Scheme4. Perverse Economics of US medicinePart II: Obamacare, the futility of health redistribution5. The inner 'logic' of the Affordable Care Act6. Fatal flaws of the ACA7. Paving the way for 'single payer'Part III: Save Yourself8. Ken Korg battles the beast9. Lead by your (primal) example10. Choosing your doctor11. Getting of your meds12. Surviving the hospital13. Medical screening & elective procedures: worth the risk?Part IV: Freedom is the answer14. Rolling back big government and big pharma15: Living healthy and free_____________________________________________________________Many of the theoretical economic arguments will be familiar to free-market oriented readers, but Dr. Murphy goes through great lengths to interpret statistics from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO - aka: the government) and shows how many of the conclusions are skewed and cherry-picking data. In particular, Chapter 5 - the inner logic - is stream of logical reasoning reminiscent of Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt that demonstrates the necessary existence of various parts of the ACAThe second half can be thought of more as a handbook on how to manage your personal health than anything else. While I cannot personally relate because I am young and rarely require medical services, I know that these chapters are critical to patients who actually want to take control of their personal and financial health. This includes topics in how to find the right (aka free-market, similar health goals) doctor and how to navigate your way through hospital systems.As Dr. McGuff points out: "If you are concerned about the direction of the country, as you should be, then the single best thing you can do for its future is to make sure your household is healthy." All liberty lovers and those concerned with the best for themselves and their families will benefit from The Primal Prescription because "Whether in markets, human health, or interpersonal relationships, the great news is that we don't have to choose between idealism and pragmatism. Freedom and independence are appealing aesthetically, but they also work."