Health
- Created on 12 March 2013
U.S. manages disease, not health (video)
Editor's note: Andrew Weil is the author of "You Can't Afford to Get Sick: Your Guide to Optimum Health and Health Care." Tune in to the documentary film, "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET Sunday, March 10.
(CNN) -- The most insistent political question of the past four years has been: How can more Americans get access to medical care?
The federal response was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Better known as "Obamacare," it is a complex mix of insurance changes and tax credits. When the act takes effect on January 1, 2014, it will provide access to insurance to about 30 million people who currently don't have it.
Unfortunately, that was the wrong question. So the looming "answer" is wrong as well.
(CNN) -- The most insistent political question of the past four years has been: How can more Americans get access to medical care?
The federal response was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Better known as "Obamacare," it is a complex mix of insurance changes and tax credits. When the act takes effect on January 1, 2014, it will provide access to insurance to about 30 million people who currently don't have it.
Unfortunately, that was the wrong question. So the looming "answer" is wrong as well.
Here's the right question: How can we improve medical care so that it's worth extending it to more people? In other words, how can we create a health care system that helps people become and stay healthy?
I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system -- one that depends on ruinously expensive drugs and surgeries that treat health conditions after they manifest rather than giving our citizens simple diet, lifestyle and therapeutic tools to keep them healthy.
The brutal fact is that we spend more on health care than any other country -- an estimated $9,348 per capita in 2013 -- and get shockingly little for our money.
The U.S. "currently ranks lowest on a variety of health measures," concludes a new report from an expert panel commissioned by the National Institutes of Health. Specifically, Americans have more obesity, more sexually transmitted diseases, shorter life expectancies and higher infant mortality than the inhabitants of nearly all of the 16 developed "peer" countries studied.
Why? A major culprit is a medical system based on maximizing profits rather than fostering good health.
Free health care plan can't meet demandLet me be clear. I am not against all forms of high-tech medicine. Drugs and surgeries have a secure place in the treatment of serious health conditions. But modern American medicine treats almost every health condition as if it were an emergency.
Are bad health choices too easy to make?This leads to vast wealth for the corporate medical complex but poor health outcomes and empty wallets for the patients. Making this system more accessible by passing costs to taxpayers will simply spread its failures more broadly.
The medical philosophy known as integrative medicine offers a better alternative.
As defined by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, IM combines mainstream medical therapies and complementary and alternative therapies "for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness."
It uses high-tech medicine sparingly to treat the most serious conditions while employing nutrition, exercise, stress-reduction and other simple, low-cost (or free) interventions to foster long-term health and resilience.
It's one thing to read about the horrors of the modern medical system.
It's quite another to see them vividly displayed in the faces and bodies of suffering Americans. I was honored to be interviewed for the documentary "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," premiering at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Sunday, March 10, on CNN. The film offers an unflinching look at the causes and effects of our medical system's problems and provides some hopeful solutions. Highlights include:
-- The torturous journey of Sgt. Robert Yates, an injured veteran wounded in Afghanistan. He was prescribed a shopping bag full of prescription medications that left him broken and miserable in body, mind and spirit. Watching Yates begins to regain his health through gentle, low-cost therapies, including meditation and acupuncture, is profoundly moving.
-- A look at the revolutionary Safeway Healthy Measures Program. It gives the supermarket chain's employees financial incentives for taking responsibility for their own health, decreasing Safeway's insurance costs significantly while improving participants' well-being.
-- The dramatic story of Dr. Erin Martin, an Oregon primary care physician fed up with being pushed to treat patients faster and faster to boost clinic profits. She enrolled in the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine's Fellowship Program to find a better way, explaining that "I'm not interested in getting my productivity up -- I'm interested in helping patients."
The film takes its name from the practice of setting a small fire to clear out nearby brush, allowing a fast-advancing forest fire to pass by harmlessly. Will we be sufficiently clear-eyed and rational to take a similarly bold action to avoid disaster wrought by our dysfunctional health care system?
I hope so. In the film, I say, "The present system doesn't work, and it's going to take us down. We need a whole new kind of medicine."
I am grateful to filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke for making that case in this persuasive and eloquent documentary.
Please tune in to CNN Sunday evening.
- Created on 12 March 2013
U.S. manages disease, not health (video)
Editor's note: Andrew Weil is the author of "You Can't Afford to Get Sick: Your Guide to Optimum Health and Health Care." Tune in to the documentary film, "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET Sunday, March 10.
(CNN) -- The most insistent political question of the past four years has been: How can more Americans get access to medical care?
The federal response was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Better known as "Obamacare," it is a complex mix of insurance changes and tax credits. When the act takes effect on January 1, 2014, it will provide access to insurance to about 30 million people who currently don't have it.
Unfortunately, that was the wrong question. So the looming "answer" is wrong as well.
(CNN) -- The most insistent political question of the past four years has been: How can more Americans get access to medical care?
The federal response was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Better known as "Obamacare," it is a complex mix of insurance changes and tax credits. When the act takes effect on January 1, 2014, it will provide access to insurance to about 30 million people who currently don't have it.
Unfortunately, that was the wrong question. So the looming "answer" is wrong as well.
Here's the right question: How can we improve medical care so that it's worth extending it to more people? In other words, how can we create a health care system that helps people become and stay healthy?
I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system -- one that depends on ruinously expensive drugs and surgeries that treat health conditions after they manifest rather than giving our citizens simple diet, lifestyle and therapeutic tools to keep them healthy.
The brutal fact is that we spend more on health care than any other country -- an estimated $9,348 per capita in 2013 -- and get shockingly little for our money.
The U.S. "currently ranks lowest on a variety of health measures," concludes a new report from an expert panel commissioned by the National Institutes of Health. Specifically, Americans have more obesity, more sexually transmitted diseases, shorter life expectancies and higher infant mortality than the inhabitants of nearly all of the 16 developed "peer" countries studied.
Why? A major culprit is a medical system based on maximizing profits rather than fostering good health.
Free health care plan can't meet demandLet me be clear. I am not against all forms of high-tech medicine. Drugs and surgeries have a secure place in the treatment of serious health conditions. But modern American medicine treats almost every health condition as if it were an emergency.
Are bad health choices too easy to make?This leads to vast wealth for the corporate medical complex but poor health outcomes and empty wallets for the patients. Making this system more accessible by passing costs to taxpayers will simply spread its failures more broadly.
The medical philosophy known as integrative medicine offers a better alternative.
As defined by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, IM combines mainstream medical therapies and complementary and alternative therapies "for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness."
It uses high-tech medicine sparingly to treat the most serious conditions while employing nutrition, exercise, stress-reduction and other simple, low-cost (or free) interventions to foster long-term health and resilience.
It's one thing to read about the horrors of the modern medical system.
It's quite another to see them vividly displayed in the faces and bodies of suffering Americans. I was honored to be interviewed for the documentary "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," premiering at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Sunday, March 10, on CNN. The film offers an unflinching look at the causes and effects of our medical system's problems and provides some hopeful solutions. Highlights include:
-- The torturous journey of Sgt. Robert Yates, an injured veteran wounded in Afghanistan. He was prescribed a shopping bag full of prescription medications that left him broken and miserable in body, mind and spirit. Watching Yates begins to regain his health through gentle, low-cost therapies, including meditation and acupuncture, is profoundly moving.
-- A look at the revolutionary Safeway Healthy Measures Program. It gives the supermarket chain's employees financial incentives for taking responsibility for their own health, decreasing Safeway's insurance costs significantly while improving participants' well-being.
-- The dramatic story of Dr. Erin Martin, an Oregon primary care physician fed up with being pushed to treat patients faster and faster to boost clinic profits. She enrolled in the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine's Fellowship Program to find a better way, explaining that "I'm not interested in getting my productivity up -- I'm interested in helping patients."
The film takes its name from the practice of setting a small fire to clear out nearby brush, allowing a fast-advancing forest fire to pass by harmlessly. Will we be sufficiently clear-eyed and rational to take a similarly bold action to avoid disaster wrought by our dysfunctional health care system?
I hope so. In the film, I say, "The present system doesn't work, and it's going to take us down. We need a whole new kind of medicine."
I am grateful to filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke for making that case in this persuasive and eloquent documentary.
Please tune in to CNN Sunday evening.
- Created on 07 March 2013
'Death Test' could predict early mortality
Alex Wong /Getty Images file
Want to know your chances of dying in the next 10 years? Here are some bad signs: getting winded walking several blocks, smoking, and having trouble pushing a chair across the room.
That’s according to a “mortality index” developed by San Francisco researchers for people older than 50.
The test scores may satisfy people’s morbid curiosity, but the researchers say their 12-item index is mostly for use by doctors. It can help them decide whether costly health screenings or medical procedures are worth the risk for patients unlikely to live 10 more years.
It’s best to take the test with a doctor, who can discuss what the score means in the context of patients’ own medical history, the study authors say.
The index “wasn’t meant as guidance about how to alter your lifestyle,” said lead author Dr. Marisa Cruz of the University of California, San Francisco.
Instead, doctors can use the results to help patients understand the pros and cons of such things as rigorous diabetes treatment, colon cancer screening and tests for cervical cancer. Those may not be safe or appropriate for very sick, old people likely to die before cancer ever develops.
The 12 items on the index are assigned points; fewer total points means better odds.
- Men automatically get 2 points. In addition to that, men and women ages 60 to 64 get 1 point; ages 70 to 74 get 3 points; and 85 or over get 7 points.
- Two points each: a current or previous cancer diagnosis, excluding minor skin cancers; lung disease limiting activity or requiring oxygen; heart failure; smoking; difficulty bathing; difficulty managing money because of health or memory problem; difficulty walking several blocks.
- One point each: diabetes or high blood sugar; difficulty pushing large objects, such as a heavy chair; being thin or normal weight.
The highest, or worst, score is a 26, with a 95 percent chance of dying within 10 years. To get that, you’d have to be a man at least 85 years old with all the above conditions.
For a score of zero, which means a 3 percent chance of dying within 10 years, you’d have to be a woman younger than 60 without any of those infirmities – but at least slightly overweight.
It’s hardly surprising that a sick, older person would have a much higher chance of dying than someone younger and more vigorous, and it’s well known that women generally live longer than men. But why would being overweight be less risky than being of normal weight or slim?
One possible reason is that thinness in older age could be a sign of illness, Cruz said.
Other factors could also play a role, so the index should be seen as providing clues but not the gospel truth, the research suggests.
The findings were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Grants from the National Institute on Aging and the American Federation for Aging Research helped pay for the study.
The researchers created the index by analyzing data on almost 20,000 Americans over 50 who took part in a national health survey in 1998. They tracked the participants for 10 years. Nearly 6,000 participants died during that time.
They previously used the test to predict the risk of dying within four years. They said their new effort shows the same index can be used to predict 10-year mortality.
Dr. Stephan Fihn, a University of Washington professor of medicine and health quality measurement specialist with Veterans Affairs health services in Seattle, said the index seems valid and “methodologically sound.”
But he said it probably would be most accurate for the oldest patients, who don’t need a scientific crystal ball to figure out their days are numbered.
- Created on 08 March 2013
Daylight savings time can affect your heart
It's that time of the year again! This weekend, set your clock an hour forward for daylight savings. The mornings get brighter and the nights get longer. Unfortunately, the days get shorter, or at it least it seems that way.
Did you know that losing an hour of sleep might be dangerous for your health?
Sleep deprivation
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- Created on 05 March 2013
Michelle Obama: ‘I Don’t Want My Daughters To Be Weight-Obsessed’ (video)
First lady Michelle Obama (pictured), who is in the third year of her Let’s Move! exercise initiative, revealed during her very first “Let’s Move!” Google Plus fireside hangout on Monday that she does not want her daughters to be “weight-obsessed.” The chat, which was attended by more than 3,500 viewers, was moderated by “Live with Kelly & Michael” talk show co-host Kelly Ripa. Mrs. Obama fielded questions from select participants, who submitted health and weight loss stories on Google Plus and YouTube and a third grade class from Brewer, Maine, reports iVillage[1].
Mrs. Obama joined Google Plus to discuss the importance of exercise particularly among young people, and as a bonus, attendees of the chat received a glimpse inside her household to see how she manages to implement healthful living for daughters Malia, 14r and Sasha, 11.
Mrs. Obama joined Google Plus to discuss the importance of exercise particularly among young people, a first lady Michelle Obama (pictured), who is in the third year of her Let’s Move! exercise initiative, revealed during her very first “Let’s Move!” Google Plus fireside hangout on Monday that she does not want her daughters to be “weight-obsessed.” The chat, which was attended by more than 3,500 viewers, was moderated by “Live with Kelly & Michael” talk show co-host Kelly Ripa.Mrs. Obama fielded questions from select participants, who submitted health and weight loss stories on Google Plus and YouTube and a third grade class from Brewer, Maine, reports iVillage[1].nd as a bonus, attendees of the chat received a glimpse inside her household to see how she manages to implement healthful living for daughters Malia, 14 and Sasha, 11.
In the Obama household, the first lady decided to make healthier choices, starting with adding more exercise to their daily regimen and making smart dietary changes like drinking less juice and adding more fruits and vegetables.
When the first lady was asked what advice she would offer young people struggling with weight, she responded that the topic is one that has been discussed in her home.
“You know, when I talk to my kids … we were going through some of these similar challenges,” Mrs. Obama said, addressing a young man who said he had once weighed 400 pounds as a 19-year-old. “Obviously, when my kids were little, they weren’t faced with the huge challenges you were faced with. But I never talked about weight in the household. We just started making changes and we made changes in a way that didn’t…make them feel badly about themselves, said the first lady.
Mrs. Obama contends that the oneness of weight and portion control should be placed on the adult in a young child’s life. ”Truly kids that age can’t control what they eat,” she said. “So as the Mom, I took it upon myself to make sure that we just surrounded them with foods that were healthy and that they could eat whenever they wanted to.”
What was stressed overall during the chat by Mrs. Obama was that someone’s overall wellness lifestyle dictates health in the long run and that obsessing on the numbers on a scale is not what’s important, rather being active and eating right are the crucial factors.
“I have two young daughters. We never talk about weight,” she said. “I make it a point… I don’t want our children to be weight-obsessed I want them to be focused on, ‘What do I have to do in this body?’ Because every body is different. Every person’s body is different.”
Watch Mrs. Obama’s Google Plus chat here:
She mentioned that her girls get plenty of exercise by doing such things as playing sports and walking their dog, Bo, every night after dinner. She also admitted to turning on the radio and busting a few moves with her girls for a good 30 to 40 minutes until they work up a good sweat, “They laugh at me; they have a good time, but at the same time they’re moving,” she said.
SEE ALSO: Car Jacked Missouri Baby Harmony Blue Found Safe[3]
References
- ^iVillage (www.ivillage.com)
- ^Permalink to: Montgomery Police Chief Apologizes To Freedom Rider Rep. John Lewis (newsone.com)
- ^Permalink to: Car Jacked Missouri Baby Harmony Blue Found Safe (newsone.com)
Read more http://newsone.com/2264398/michelle-obama-google-plus-chat/
