Doug Casey on Your Health

(Interviewed by Louis James, International Speculator)

L: Doug, we’ve talked a lot about what we might call financial health, which only makes sense, given what we do here at Casey Research. But I know you have a great interest in physical health, and you’ve just visited one of the best health spas in the world. What did you think – would you recommend it to our readers?

Doug: Yes, I just finished spending ten days at the Canyon Ranch spa in Tucson, Arizona. It’s one of the oldest, and probably the premier U.S. spa. You might recall that about three years ago, I spent some time at the Chiva Som spa in Hua Hin, Thailand, which is probably the best spa in Asia. These may be the two best spas in the world.

L: So, how did they compare?

Doug: I’d recommend the Canyon Ranch spa highly, if only because it’s closer to where most of our readers are. The thing they do at both of these places is draw your attention to the fact that everybody – even those who try to engage in a healthy lifestyle – doesn’t really do an adequate job.

Look, right now, I’m sitting in an airport lounge in San Francisco, getting ready to board a plane to the Far East in a few minutes. I just left the Canyon Ranch earlier today. And I’m finding that as nice as the food is here in the first-class lounge, I really don’t want to eat any of it. The stuff we were eating at the Canyon Ranch was just so… wholesome. Organic. Perfectly balanced in terms of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. I’m truly feeling regret for having left.

I’m not overweight, but like almost everyone, I’m not at my ideal fighting weight either. In ten days there, I lost six pounds – and I could have done much better.

I had an even better experience at Chiva Som in Thailand.

These things are expensive, but for those who are able to afford them, going to one of these spas is probably one of the most important things they can do. You won’t really, fully understand why, unless you actually do it. So I’m suggesting, in the strongest terms I can, that people actually go out of their way and do it. It’s one of the smartest things you can do with your money, at almost any age.

L: Because if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything?

Doug: Exactly.

L: Okay, but you didn’t say how these two spas compared. Was the American one more high tech? Was the Asian one swarming with human attendants?

Doug: Actually, they are very similar. The medical technologies available at both places were equal and excellent. The costs are close, but Thailand is cheaper. But I’ve got to say – and this may simply be a function of the costs of providing services being so much lower in Thailand than in Arizona – that although the food in both places was excellent, the food in Thailand is a cut above excellent. And there were more people providing services…

From a consumer’s point of view, I’d have to say that the Oriental experience was probably better. There is the added effort involved in flying to Bangkok, and from there driving two hours to Hua Hin, but Thailand is something everyone should experience anyway. It’s one of my two favorite countries on the planet.

But I suggest that you do both, so you get a full idea of what it’s like and which environment suits you best. It’s potentially life changing. You know, one thing about these proper spas is that they make an effort to actually get you to change your life, from your way of thinking about your health to your daily habits. It’s not just an experience. It’s not just about going there to “do the spa thing” for a few days so you can say you’ve done it. They make a real effort to get you to reform the way you live, following a philosophy set down by each spa’s founders. I think it’s a very important thing for people to give serious consideration to – and most have not.

L: Sounds intense – you actually had time to work while there?

Doug: Yes. It’s amusingly coincidental that I happen to have been at a health spa when I wrote an article for this month’s Casey Report, on the so-called national health care crisis. That is, of course, mostly hysteria. Overhauling the U.S. medical system will do absolutely nothing to improve the health of the population. American medicine is extremely good for acute problems and diseases, but when it comes to health maintenance, it’s next to useless.

You know, Michael Moore, who is physically obese, intellectually dishonest, and philosophically unsound (what a pathetic combination – he should run for Congress), made the argument in his ridiculous movie that the average Cuban is healthier than the average American. That’s totally correct – but it has absolutely nothing to do with the health care system. The average Cuban isn’t healthier than the average American because his health care system is better. It’s a horrible – actually, a primitive health care system. The technology stopped advancing there back in 1960, and the doctors stopped learning new things in that year… medicines… Nothing has changed since 1960. But the average Cuban is in much better health than the average American.

There are two reasons for that: he has a much better diet, which is to say that he eats way fewer calories (and they are unrefined calories), and he gets a lot more exercise than the average American.

When things change in Cuba, so they have a diet like that of the average American and the same kind of transportation as the average American, the average Cuban will be in much worse shape.

People conflate the health of a population with a country’s medical system, when these things really have almost nothing to do with each other.

What this actually shows is the degraded state of American society. Instead of taking some personal responsibility for their health and lifestyle choices, they try to rely on medicos to engage in heroic efforts to keep them alive with tubes up their noses after they’ve become flaccid and bloated from a lifetime of bad habits.