This article is inspired by something posted to CNN’s website earlier today: The 5 most expensive drugs in the United States.

A lot of people get sticker shock when I hit them with the price of care at my clinic. And it certainly blows some minds that we don’t take insurance (except in very specific circumstances).

I am not unsympathetic–for the most part–at least when I’m speaking with an individual who wants to get healthy and struggles with the finances. I do work out payment plans with people and do my best to make it affordable where I can. But when I see the costs attributed to traditional medicine, particularly when held against the generally poor results, the costs to taxpayers of ineffective treatments, the amount paid to doctors who are little more than big pharma reps, I’m much less sympathetic regarding my costs.

Some treatments are not things my practice could help with–and I could launch into a criticism of the medical approach, but if I’m not treating that, I don’t feel that’s fair. For example, if you have a rare genetic blindness, there is a gene therapy that will give you sight for $1 million. That’s amazing. Giving the gift of sight is a big deal. Is it worth $1 million? That’s up to the person paying–however, I’d like to live in a world where being able to see isn’t necessarily cost prohibitive for most people.

A quick rundown of these top 5 most expensive drugs:

• A hormone therapy treating people with a leptin deficiency called Myalept. More than $42,000 for a month of treatment.
• A gallstone treatment called Chenodal that costs more than $42,000 per month.
• A C1 inhibitor called Cinryze that treats people with a rare mucous membrane and upper respiratory condition. It costs over $44,000 for a month of treatment.
• A toxoplasmosis (parasite) treatment called Daraprim that costs $45,000 per month.
• A treatment for a rare bone-hardening disorder called Actimmune that costs over $52,000 per month.

The natural approach

So suddenly, my 6-8 month care plan, which will treat you for a wide array of conditions ranging from autoimmune disorders to obesity to scoliosis to cancer… well, it doesn’t seem all that expensive anymore.

Take the case of leptin deficiency, for example. Leptin is a hormone that suppresses appetite by giving you the sense of feeling full. When you eat a massive Thanksgiving dinner, and you get to that point where you can’t shovel any more food into your mouth, it’s leptin telling you it’s time to stop.

Most people who come into my office that are overweight have a leptin deficiency. Most people who don’t eat a proper ratio of omega fatty acids have a leptin deficiency. Most Americans are low in leptin. Do you know what fixes that? It’s so easy, and so much less than $42k a month.

Eating more fats, intermittent fasting and doing burst training. That right there is the hormone balance trifecta.

Or how about these gallstones? I just had a patient pass several dozen gallstones using a gallbladder flush that cost less than $200. She couldn’t eat any fats before this. No butter, no avocados, nothing. Now her liver and gallbladder are functioning perfectly well and she’s living a much more normal, healthy, fulfilling life and she didn’t have to pay tens of thousands per month to do it. Not even close!

And we have several anti-parasite detox protocols. It depends on the parasite. But they are much, much cheaper than $40k+ per month. I’m talking maybe a few hundred dollars on the high end, depending on what you need.

The bigger cost

Beyond that, for all of that money, you aren’t necessarily “cured.” The gene therapy for blindness is the exception. The overall medical approach is to make you feel better, slow the expansion of the symptoms, and make test results look good. Rarely is it to address the root cause of a problem and fix it. Medications also damage the body.

So your overall health needs to be added to the cost. It doesn’t get better (usually) for all that money.

Furthermore, with 74 million Americans on Medicaid–basically the population of France–even if you take a natural approach, you are paying for these medications when you pay your taxes.

Modern medicine has some utility. It’s incredibly good at fixing broken people–those who have been in terrible car accidents or taken a spill. But it’s not that great with disease.