The phone rings and the lady of the house answers, "Hello."
"Mrs. Sanders, please."
"Speaking."
"Mrs. Sanders, this is Doctor Jones at Saint Agnes Laboratory. When your doctor sent your husband's biopsy to the lab yesterday, a biopsy from another Mr. Sanders arrived as well, and we are now uncertain which one is your husband's. Frankly the results are either bad or terrible."
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Sanders asks nervously.
"Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer's and the other one tested positive for AIDS. We can't tell which is your husband's."
"That's dreadful! Can't you do the test again?" questioned Mrs. Sanders.
"Normally we can, but Medicare will only pay for these expensive tests one time."
"Well, what am I supposed to do now?"
"No problem - The people at Medicare recommend that you drop your husband off somewhere in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don't sleep with him."
If you don’t want to led down the road of doctor prescribed pill, there are many ways to naturally lower your blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure is the silent killer. Left uncontrolled, it can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure or premature death.
It’s called hypertension and it has few early symptoms. The heart grows larger in an effort to compensate for the extra workload and becomes weaker in the process.
A good way to lower your blood pressure is to exercise. Exercise will also combat the plaque buildup.
Obesity, smoking, diabetes increases the risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure or premature death.
Lower the amount of salt intake. Studies show that high sodium intake is associated with higher blood pressures.
Lower alcohol consumption lowers blood pressure.
Nicotine causes blood vessels to constrict and causes increases in blood pressure.
New health news is in the making with Virtual Colonography that uses a CT scanner to make a series of X-rays of the colon. What happens next is a computer creates 3-D images and there is no recovery time needed.
The virtual colonography costs one-third that of the traditional exam. When suspicious polyps are found a follow up exam will be required. It was found that only 8% of patents need a follow up.
In a critical health risk news story for the unborn, the unfriendly to life New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that a doctor has no duty to tell a woman considering an abortion that her embryo is an “existing human being.”
This cowardly ruling averting a trial over which the focus would have been, “when does life begin?”
I recently heard of a documentary where a doctor was performing a heart operation of a 4 month old fetus and the little kid reached out and touched one of the doctors fingers in an effort to hold on and communicate. The doctor said he would never forget that moment.
The Federal Drug Administration has been compromised. As everyone is aware, health care cost in the US are out of control. Collusion and monopoly interests preventing capitalistic competition in the marketplace leaving the consumer to foot the bill.
The American Medical Association and doctor lobbyists limit the amount of medical colleges in the US in an effort to hinder the supply of doctors. Reasonable markups on medical procedures, elder and hospital care is thrown out the window. The health care system is rife with price gouging.
To complicate matters, the FDA lets too many doctors with financial conflicts serve as advisers, lawmakers according to consumer advocates. Unethical doctors kowtowing to big pharmaceutical companies often compromise the safety of our drugs.
For instance, ten members of a 32-person FDA panel had financial ties to companies whose products were examined. Without their votes, the panel recommendations would have been reversed for Vioxx and Bextra.
If America has the best health care, why do the French, who drink more, smoke more, eat more cheese and still live longer than us despite paying less for health care?
Canada’s health care system, contrary to popular belief in America is excellent. It is often attacked from the United States as having long waiting lines for medical assistance.
Danielle Martin, board chairwoman of Canadian Doctors for Medicare has this to say when she wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal saying:
"In a systematic review of 38 studies published in Open Medicine in May, 17 leading Canadian and U.S. researchers confirmed the Canadian system leads to health outcomes as good, or better, than the U.S. private system, at less than 50 per cent of the cost."
Studies were made sampling hospitals in Canada, Britain and France to answer the question, “Can you choose your own doctor?” The answer was a resounding “Yes.“ “Can doctors make a good living?” The answer was a resounding “Yes.”
“Was the United States the only country that discovered innovative new drugs?” The answer was a resounding “No. It was found that the rate of European countries' discovery of new life saving drugs was proportionately the same as that in the United States.
Privatized medical care interests are fear-mongering supported by greedy doctors and powerful private sector interests.
The pumpkin could end the need for diabetics to have daily insulin injections.
Compounds in the flesh could drastically cut or even replace the need for diabetics to have insulin injections, a study suggests.
Researchers found that pumpkin extract promotes regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells in diabetic rats, boosting levels of insulin producing beta cells and insulin in the blood.
Diabetic rats fed the extract had only 5 per cent less plasma insulin and 8 per cent fewer insulin-positive (beta) cells than healthy rats.
The protective effect of pumpkin is thought to be due to both antioxidants and D-chiroinositol, a molecule that regulates insulin activity.
The research, carried out at East China Normal University in Shanghai, was reported in the journal Chemistry and Industry.
The rats used all had type 1 diabetes, but researchers believe pumpkin may also play a role in the more common type 2 form.
Now the question arises, with a privately controlled health system, how is BIG pharmaceutical going to profit from something anyone can make? How to you put that into a pill or injection and make billions?
Keep your ears glued to the new diabetes research, how it develops for human application and hope some startup company takes the ball and runs with it to take out the insulin industry and needle makers.
The problem in nutrition for the very poor is more likely to be obesity as opposed to malnutrition. The American Enterprise Institute reports that 70% of low-income Americans are overweight compared to 60% of the non-poor.
More people die in the U.S. of too much food, not the lack of it. It's found that the Food Stamp Program used by the poor allows purchase of excess saturated fats and sugar food items and encourages over-consumption. Perhaps The Federal Food Stamp Program needs to take a carrots and sticks approach to their generosity using our scarce tax dollars.
OLYMPIA — The state House on Saturday narrowly passed a bill for small businesses health coverage.
Small business owners need cheap insurance coverage but are often denied cheaper insurance since their pool of employees is too small. Worst yet, you are not allowed TRUE INSURANCE ODDS for themselves or their employees screened for engaging in a healthy lifestyles. You get no brownie points for going to the gym and keeping yourself physically fits, not engaging in risky lifestyle choice, not being gay, not being obese, having good genetics … in short, they group all the high-risk folks together and give an inflated rate charge. Policy holders have to pay for all the life style choice losers.
Starting in 2009, businesses with 50 or fewer employees would be required to purchase their health insurance through a newly created Washington Health Insurance Partnership (WHP), instead of directly from private health-insurance companies.
A 12-member board would oversee the partnership. All health plans now sold to small businesses could be offered through the pool. But the board would design and promote up to six different health-insurance plans that employees could choose from, ranging from a catastrophic plan to comprehensive coverage.
The bill calls for subsidizing coverage for people who make under 200 percent of the federal poverty level — about $20,000 a year for a single person.
Cody figures the pool could grow to as many as 500,000 people. She believes that will increase competition and reduce premiums. She also says the bill would give employees more choices and allow them to keep the same health plan when they move from job to job.
FACT: Hospital complications and errors comprise the 8th leading cause of death in the U.S. Surprisingly this exceeds even motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS . . .Hospital-acquired infections account for 100,000 American deaths each year. Medical complications kill 30,000 more people a year. Medication errors lead to 7,000 deaths annually.The 80:20 rule, which states the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results extends to everyone.Unfortunately, the principle that 20 percent of the doctor and hospital staff are superstars and the rest leave something to be desired is not what you want to hear when you walk into a hospital. The same problem extends to auto mechanics and politicians.
The pitfalls and peril of extended hospital stays gives pause to be wary beyond the emergency room.
