Restoring Dignity : The Struggle for Optimal Health Care in America

The United States spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet it ranks thirty-eighth in the World Health Organization’s analysis of world health systems. Many Americans are uninsured, obesity is a national epidemic, and the very government that encourages people to eat fruits and vegetables subsidizes and gives free rein to GMOs and food companies that provide much of the nation’s junk food.

Something, clearly, is very wrong.

After twenty years in both conventional and integrative health care, wellness expert Joan Lusco Gugerty has seen the US health care system change significantly, sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. Her experience and research suggest patients and providers both sense the need for change.

Restoring Dignity reminds us that we have forgotten what is essential for nurturing ourselves, both physically and emotionally. Gugerty offers a way to move forward from a culture of businesslike reactive treatment to one of compassion, where conventional and holistic medicine come together for the greater good and the creation of a sustainable, caring health care system. To do otherwise is to risk the health of an entire nation—both now and in the foreseeable future.

Joan Lusco Gugerty became interested in wellness and nutrition in the 1970s, when smoking was commonplace and only hippie communes talked about healthy eating.

Gugerty spent twenty years working in the health care field, primarily in administrative roles in hospitals, doctor's offices, and medical training facilities, giving her access to the entirety of conventional health care culture. She also worked in a holistic physician's office for six years as well as spending one year in a physician's office as a Health Coach.

A thirty-year spiritual journey lead Gugerty to her real passion. In 2006-2008, she attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City, earning an integrative nutrition health coach certification, an experience that exposed her to leaders in the field of nutrition and integrative medicine. She is a Wellness Consultant and the Founder and Director of Heartworks Wellness, writing, teaching and motivating people to live more peaceful and healthy lives. The website is www.heartworkswellness.com.

Gugerty spent two years compiling information on patient and health provider experiences in the existing US health care system, which proved the catalyst for Restoring Dignity.