Vitality (2012) User Reviews

Very good, common-sense advice on DIY-health.

[Innsmouth_Apprentice · 9/10 · 6 October 2015]

Vitality is NOT a documentary promoting "alternative medicine" - I'd probably be the first one to rip into it if that were the case, as I'm skeptical towards a lot of that field's aspects. In fact, the doc does not mention a single special/exotic treatment, or herb, or procedure. What Vitality contains is an hour-long, sober argument in favor of healthy living as the means of avoiding disease in the first place as opposed to leading an irresponsible lifestyle and relying on drugs and treatments to cure illnesses once they arise. A seemingly self-evident thesis - but extremely valuable, and worth presenting over and over.

Vitality lists 4 areas for improvement - diet, exercise, sleep, and mindset - and goes over each in turn. Before it gets to them, however, the narrator and the interviewees make some comments on the mechanisms of medicine in the marketplace, which are, unfortunately, only too accurate. The medical industry indeed profits from extending treatment for as long as possible, and selling as many expensive drugs and procedures as it can... and healthy people are detrimental to their business. This system is very obviously flawed, and revision is required. Then the authors move on to specific advice for staying healthy and preventing the onset of disease. Most of the information set forth is well-known to the general public, but, like I said before, you can't repeat things as important as these enough. Good posture, eating organic, drinking enough water... all very sensible. I particularly liked the segment on the action of stress hormones, specifically - how they shuttle blood away from the forebrain to the hindbrain, effectively making continually stressed-out people less intelligent.

There was no obvious "quackery" in the documentary, although a couple of bits did give me pause. A man started talking about quantum mechanics as the definite proof of invisible energy fields and vibrations that regulate life... and the fact is that we're ways away from discovering what quantum mechanics really means for biology. Also, praise for "traditional healing arts" immediately made me cringe a little... but they never elaborated what that statement referred to. Finally, at least three of the interviewed experts were noticeably overweight, which, in my humble opinion, went counter to Vitality's premise.

Overall, a great and lucid documentary, and definitely worth watching. 9/10.

Being half right is not enough

[celr · 2/10 · 2 June 2014]

"Vitality" is apparently a vehicle for a variety of alternative healers (i.e. quacks) who want to be taken for legitimate physicians. Their cover story is a sermon about the importance of exercise, diet and sufficient sleep as the basis for a healthy life. As far as that goes, that's good advice, and advice that no actual MD would be hesitant to give. A large part of our health care costs are from treating people whose lifestyles are unhealthy and sometimes very unhealthy. This is where "Vitality" gets it right. If people would start getting enough exercise, stop smoking, and drinking excessive amounts alcohol our health care costs would plummet. If this film would encourage people to live healthy lifestyles that's a good thing.

The problem comes from the stated and implied ideology that underlies the good advice: the bias against Western scientific medicine and false claims that Western medicine 'treats only the symptoms' of disease and strives to get patients hooked on pills. On the contrary, scientific, or evidence-based, medicine is focused on finding and treating the cause of illness, not treating symptoms. And no real doctor would encourage his patients to live an unhealthy lifestyle.

This documentary features interviews with a variety practitioners of superstition and magic: naturopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists and 'natural healers'. You hear the word "allopath" used to describe regular doctors, a term invented by homeopaths and used to denigrate medical doctors. They talk about "energy fields" as being the basis of health and disease, a wooly and mystical concept that has no meaning in the real world. Those 'natural healers' promote diet and exercise as cover but in fact they see clients and presume to treat specific illnesses with what is little more than snake oil and incantations. While charging Western medicine with being about the money, alternative healers often manage to fleece their clients out of lots of it. Worthless treatments and supplements can be very expensive, often prescribed to treat imaginary illnesses such as toxic plaques in the bowels or psychosomatic infestations. What these quacks are promoting is the idea that people trained in magical systems be taken to be on an equal footing with actual doctors who went to medical school. If that ever were to happen I fear for the quality of medical care in America.