I'm chronically ill. RFK Jr. could find solutions to actually make us better
2025-02-04
Category: political

During his&nbsp;confirmation hearings, senators understandably questioned Robert F. Kennedy&nbsp;Jr.’s views on health, ranging from abortion&nbsp;to&nbsp;vaccinations. It’s not surprising people would hesitate&nbsp;to&nbsp;accept some of Kennedy’s most&nbsp;unusual claims. Americans who have&nbsp;Red Dye No. 3&nbsp;in their favorite breakfast cereal and McDonald’s Big Macs&nbsp;for&nbsp;dinner clearly have the most&nbsp;to&nbsp;lose. From&nbsp;fluoride in our water&nbsp;to&nbsp;beef tallow&nbsp;to&nbsp;vaccines,&nbsp;RFK&nbsp;Jr.&nbsp;is&nbsp;asking questions about our health no one else has bothered&nbsp;to&nbsp;ask. RFK&nbsp;Jr.&nbsp;is&nbsp;willing&nbsp;to&nbsp;push against our unhealthy habits, something no one else has considered.&nbsp;Is&nbsp;that really a bad thing?  According&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;latest CDC reports, an estimated 129 million Americans have at least one major chronic disease – including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and hypertension. Most&nbsp;are women, often with several diagnoses. Women also constitute&nbsp;over 80% of patients&nbsp;with autoimmune diseases, suffering from symptoms with severe consequences. COULD RFK JR BE A DISRUPTOR AND REFORMER AT HHS? We&nbsp;no longer live in a world where chronic&nbsp;illness describes obese, middle-aged men who refuse&nbsp;to&nbsp;give up red meat; in 2025, young women, otherwise healthy, are the very face of chronic&nbsp;illness. So many young women are sharing their journeys with debilitating&nbsp;illnesses online, that news outlets now dub them "sickfluencers." I am one of&nbsp;millions of young women&nbsp;under 30 years old with multiple health conditions.&nbsp;  Along with two first cousins – both under 30 – I have been diagnosed with a mysterious condition causing autonomic dysfunction, called&nbsp;Postural Orthostatic Tachycardic Syndrome&nbsp;(POTS). This&nbsp;is&nbsp;a condition affecting&nbsp;one&nbsp;to&nbsp;three million people&nbsp;in the U.S.,&nbsp;up&nbsp;to&nbsp;85% of whom are women. Yet, doctors are puzzled by this condition and often tell patients&nbsp;to&nbsp;"just drink more." Other medical professionals have chalked it up&nbsp;to&nbsp;anxiety. Still others shrug and say, "I don’t know what’s wrong with you." GOP OWES RFK JR. BIG TIME, AND THE DEBT IS DUE There&nbsp;is&nbsp;no cure.&nbsp;Some geneticists have hypothesized&nbsp;these symptoms&nbsp;to&nbsp;be caused by a collection of disorders previously thought&nbsp;to&nbsp;be considerably rare, known as&nbsp;Ehlers Danlos Syndrome&nbsp;(EDS). Others claim the&nbsp;HPV vaccine&nbsp;may be at play.  Many of these young women, ranging from 14&nbsp;to&nbsp;25, are&nbsp;objectively thriving; they are high achievers – honors students making A's in school – are often athletic, and are, in the words of their doctors, the very "pinnacle of health."&nbsp; Then, one day, they suddenly wake up with terrifying symptoms: blurred vision, worryingly high heart rate and low blood pressure, uncontrolled vomiting and nausea, and fainting when they stand up. POTS and EDS are not the only conditions young women are facing. These are just a few out of many.&nbsp;Abigail Anthony&nbsp;wrote several years ago in The Free Press about her journey with endometriosis and how doctors called her "hysterical." Experiences like these are far from uncommon&nbsp;for&nbsp;these young women. In fact, these situations are often the norm.  WHAT RFK JR MUST DO TO WIN OVER SKEPTICAL SENATORS – AND AMERICANS The majority of medical professionals&nbsp;have never heard of these conditions. They walk in blind, with no idea how&nbsp;to&nbsp;treat these&nbsp;illnesses – let alone provide a cure. Patients like me are desperate&nbsp;for&nbsp;answers – any answers –&nbsp;for&nbsp;what&nbsp;is&nbsp;causing these life-altering symptoms; they have little&nbsp;to&nbsp;no guidance or information, few pharmaceutical options, and certainly no treatment plan shown effective&nbsp;to&nbsp;control the plethora of conditions leaving them house-bound,&nbsp;hospitalized, and unable&nbsp;to&nbsp;eat. Pharmaceutical companies are known&nbsp;to&nbsp;distance themselves from developing new drugs, arguing that research into&nbsp;chronic&nbsp;illness&nbsp;isn’t profitable.  Where does that leave patients? With no answers, and no hope. Their lives are left destroyed – all before reaching 30. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION If&nbsp;we&nbsp;truly care about treating the underlying cause of chronic&nbsp;illnesses and fighting against the health epidemic women face, the government must incentivize&nbsp;solutions&nbsp;that&nbsp;actually&nbsp;make&nbsp;us&nbsp;better&nbsp;instead of pushing&nbsp;us&nbsp;aside. We&nbsp;deserve answers – and, at the very least, hope&nbsp;for&nbsp;better&nbsp;lives. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP