Top 7 Tips To Take Supplements Without Getting Taken

Walk down the supplement aisle at most health food stores, pharmacies and, increasingly, supermarkets, and it is almost impossible not to feel overwhelmed by the dozens - sometimes hundreds - of brands and combinations. Should you select a multivitamin/mineral combination or a dozen bottles of single-nutrient supplements or a multi plus a few additional singles? Should you buy natural supplements or synthetic? Regular or timed-release? A store brand or a national brand? Tablets or capsules?

If so, how much more? Energy formula? Stress formula? Women's formula or men's? It is such a hassle, there are so many brands and so many combinations. The choices are confusing, and few consumers know much about what they are buying. As a result, they often spend much more than necessary for supplements that may not meet their needs. Fortunately, you can take supplements without getting taken. Here is what I can advise.

1. Look For An Expiration Date

An expiration date is no guarantee of freshness, but it suggests that the packager understands that vitamins have a finite shell life. Steer clear of supplements within six to nine months of their expiration dates. They have probably been in the bottle for several years and may be past their prime.

2. Keep Supplements Away From Children

This is especially true for iron, often taken to treat iron-deficiency anemia or iron loss from heavy menstrual flow. Although - iron and supplements in general - are safe for most adults at the optimal daily requirement, it takes only a few tablets of a high-potency iron supplement to kill a child. An estimated 5,000 children swallow toxic doses of iron supplements every year; a few die. In the typical case, an adult carelessly leaves iron supplements on a bathroom or kitchen counter. Don't do this.

3. Don't Get Taken In By Hype

Want more energy? Stress management? Sexual ecstasy? Longevity? Immune enhancement? Freedom from illness? Some supplement labels promise their products can do everything except raise the dead - and maybe that too, if you take enough. Biochemically, vitamins and minerals play important roles in virtually every body system and process. So yes, they are involved in energy production, stress reactions, sexual enjoyment and everything else. But by themselves, supplements do not eliminate fatigue, alleviate stress or make you a great lover. Some supplements can help prevent and treat specific conditions, but brands that claim to keep you young, beautiful, energetic, mellow and sexy offer more hype than hope.

4. Think Food First

Supplements absolutely, positively do not replace food, and they cannot undo the damage caused by a chronically poor diet. Before you buy supplements, fill your shopping cart with fresh fruits and vegetables - and eat them. Buy organic produce if you like. But the data clearly show that any fresh fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer. Get your five servings a day, and then take your supplements as extra added wellness insurance.

5. Look For Beta-carotene Instead Of Vitamin A

The body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, so for all practical purposes, they are the same thing. However, long-term use of vitamin A at doses above 50,000 international units a day may cause problems. Beta-carotene is non-toxic even at high doses, so stick to that. Beware of labels that say vitamin A with beta-carotene. If the label does not specify, you can't be sure how much of each you are getting.

6. Supplement Your Insurance Formula

Insurance formulas have breadth but possibly not enough depth for your personal needs. If you have a family history of cancer or heart disease, you may want to take larger doses of antioxidants. In addition, some minerals are simply too bulky to fit into a single pill. The optimal daily requirement for calcium is 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams a day, but it is impossible to get that much from an insurance formula. Magnesium is also too bulky to fit into a single pill. Women of childbearing age should take 400 micrograms of folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube birth defects, but insurance formulas may not provide that much.

7. Forget Brand Names

All vitamins are essentially the same. Only about a half-dozen drug companies, such as Hoffman La Roche, actually make vitamins. They supply all the hundreds of companies that sell them. What you are paying for is basically packaging and advertising. Personally, I buy the cheapest vitamins I can find. They are just as good as the expensive brands.

Raymond Lee Geok Seng is one of the foremost experts in the health and fitness industry and is a writer specializing in body health, muscle development and dieting. He has spent countless of time and efforts conducting research and share his insightful and powerful secrets to benefit men and women all over the world. He is currently the author of the latest edition of "Neck Exercises and Workouts." Visit http://www.bodyfixes.com for more information.

UK Travel is Getting Harder

In the week that Scotland added dubious airport checks for passengers travelling within the UK, we take a look at how UK travel insurance can make holidays in the UK a little easier.

This week saw another small hurdle materialize for people travelling within the UK, and perhaps another infringement of our rights to move freely within our nation. Airport Police in Scotland have added a security initiative under the Terrorism Act that now means you have to produce a passport when you arrive there by plane, even if it was via an internal flight. Such a policy is usually reserved for passengers on international flights.

The new measure was only brought to public attention by the Telegraph newspaper after a member of parliament was stopped and asked to present his identity by police in Prestwick airport. Chris Grayling MP has questioned the legality of checking a person's identity without proper cause. Normally you only need to confirm your ID when you collect your tickets for domestic flights.

It is another small way that travelling within the country has become harder at a time when the market for UK travel is growing.

Holiday Parks' Protection

'Stay-at-home' holidays are on the rise following the recent world-wide economic instability. People in Britain are increasingly are opting for short weekend breaks or value trips to domestic holiday parks rather than the more expensive alternatives of a beach holidays abroad.

In response to this trend, holiday camp companies have added UK travel insurance options to the payment pages of their websites. The add-on policies cover for accidental damage to park property that may occur during a stay at the holiday camp, but they also cover more usual eventualities that you would expect from UK travel insurance cover, such as cancellation protection and illness requiring hospitalisation during the holiday.

Tellingly, one of the eventualities covered is if redundancy prevents you from being able to pay for your holiday. It is also amusing that the holiday park's insurance for travelling in the UK mentions a scenario where extreme weather stops holidaymakers from reaching their destination. With the effect of global warming becoming increasingly perceptible, and with localised flooding in areas of Britain again this summer, perhaps this contingency is not so laughable.

Although the cover offered by the holiday parks seems good, travellers should bear in mind that you can get the same 'single trip' cover for half the price from companies that specialise in UK travel insurance. There are even deals online that beat offers made by the post office and major supermarket chains.

It is also worth considering that an annual policy could work out cheaper if you take multiple trips within one year, with all those weekends away covered, too. And a UK travel insurance policy from some providers will also cover you for travelling to Ireland or the Channel Isles. It seems insurance companies are less particular than the Scottish Police about where you travel within the UK.

Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Journey's Travel. Their commercial travel insurance website, Insuremore, offers UK travel insurance for families, couples and singles with a quick and easy online claims feature.

Producing a Healthy Populace on a Budget - Who in the World is Getting the Job Done? Part 2

The debate on health care reform in Congress continues. Who's right and who's wrong? Are those who oppose some of the proposed reforms evil, selfish people who delight in seeing their fellow man suffer? Are those who staunchly support the proposed reforms living in a dream-world?

I am not qualified to give a definitive answer. But what I am qualified to do is poke around online and see who in the world is achieving the objective of health care reform explicitly laid out by President Obama - providing a way for all individuals to receive health care without fear that they are "one illness away from bankruptcy", and reducing costs in the process.

So, who is doing the best job in the world achieving this goal?

The answer might surprise you.

In this relatively small island-nation, you can be treated to views of towering skyscrapers, mosques and temples of ancient Malay and Hindu civilizations, as well as innumerable Western-style shopping malls. Welcome to Singapore!

Singapore boasts the 6th best health care system in the world with an infant morality rate almost 1/3 of that of the U.S. (there are just 2.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in Singapore as opposed to 6.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in the U.S.). Its populace is the fourth longest-lived in the world, with an average life expectancy of 81.98 years.

And Singapore accomplishes this by spending only 3.7 percent of its GDP (only $381 per capita) on health, as opposed to America's 15.4 percent expenditure!

What can account for Singapore being a shining example of a functional, frugal health care system? How does this system work?

In Singapore, individuals are required to set aside 6-8% of their income into what is essentially a health savings account (employers contribute to these accounts as well). This money earns interest, is tax-free, and can be withdrawn at any time to cover the health care expenses of ones' self or family members. Unspent money accrues and rolls over from year to year. This program is called Medisave.

Citizens of Singapore may purchase additional coverage for catastrophic events with Medishield (or Medishield Plus which offers even more coverage), and their premium payments may come out of their Medisave accounts.

The government subsidizes the health care of those who cannot cover their expenses with either Medisave or Medishield through the Medifund program. For the elderly and disabled, government-subsidized ElderShield pays for health care expenses that the individual cannot cover himself.

Here are some important points:

o Singapore's vision as a state is "adding years of healthy life," by focusing less on healing sickness, and in the words of the Singapore Health Ministry, more on "the more difficult but infinitely more rewarding task of preventing illness and preserving health and quality of life."

o The people of Singapore willingly take responsibility for their own health by spending their own money to fund most of their health care costs.

o "The reason the system works so well is that it puts decisions in the hands of patients and doctors rather than of government bureaucrats and insurers. The state's role is to provide a safety net for the few people unable to save enough to pay their way, to subsidize public hospitals, and to fund preventative health campaigns."

o 75% of the populace of Singapore uses less-expensive holistic/complementary medicine at least once per year in preventing and treating illness.

o Complementary medicine is widely accepted by the medical community at large as an important contributor to the nation's health.

Phua Kai Hong, associate professor of health policy and management at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore gives the following reasons for Singapore's successful health care system:

o "the creation of incentives for responsible behavior and the efficient delivery of services;

o the discouragement of overconsumption through cost-sharing;

o the regulation of hospital beds, doctors, and the use of high-cost medical technology;

o the promotion of personal responsibility;

o targeted government subsidies;

o and the injection of competition through a mix of public- and private-sector providers.'"

What can we in the United States of America learn from Singapore? Why don't we try to emulate some of the things that have worked in Singapore in our own health care reform?

Before I discuss this in a subsequent post, in my next post I will outline the health care system of a part of the world where a push to give health insurance to all is doing just that, but costs are continuing to skyrocket and hardships for middle class citizens in obtaining health care continue in full force.

Unfortunately, the latter is the system we are emulating, and it appears that almost no-one is paying attention!

Julie Behling invites you to become a follower of her blog at http://www.juliebehling.com.

Producing a Healthy Population on a Budget - Who in the World is Getting the Job Done? Part 1

Are you familiar with the saying that if you want to become successful at something, find someone who has what you want and do what they do?

Applying this simple wisdom to the healthcare debate, I decided to see what I could turn up. Out of all the countries in the world, which nations have the populations with the best health measured by the highest life expectancy, and how is this accomplished?

I was hoping to come across a comprehensive study by some think-tank or prominent university giving detailed statistical analysis of factors affecting life expectancy and health, showing which nations around the world have the healthiest populations, and how they accomplish this, but I couldn't find anything substantial.

I will attempt to provide some rudimentary findings in this article.

I started with searching for life expectancy rates in the different nations. I figured that life expectancy was the simplest measurement of the health of a populace. Here is the Top 10 List:

Countries with Highest Life Expectancy

Macau (part of China) -- 84.36
Andorra -- 82.51
Japan -- 82.12
Singapore -- 81.98
San Marino -- 81.97
Hong Kong -- 81.86
Australia -- 81.63
Canada -- 81.23
France (metropolitan) -- 80.98
Sweden 80.86

50. United States 78.11

Why do people living in these countries on average outlive the rest of the world?Does universal health care coverage play a key role? What about the lifestyle of these groups? What about factors that can't be changed, but still play a role such as wealth and demographics of the populations?

Wouldn't it be important to have an in-depth understanding of why these populations are so long-lived before undertaking any expensive, extensive, and potentially revolutionary changes to our own health care system?

As it turns out, each of the nations that made the top ten are relatively wealthy when compared with many other parts of the world, but those with the highest life expectancy are certainly not the wealthiest. From this, I must conclude that wealth may play a role in life expectancy, but there are clearly other factors involved.

Japan is noted for its extraordinarily low obesity rate - only 3% of Japanese citizens are obese (while in the United States, a full 32% of the populace is obese)! Since several of the top killers of Americans are chronic illnesses that occur with a significantly greater prevalence in the obese (heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes), it would make sense that America's portly and out-of-shape populace is a literal drag on the nations's life expectancy. Japan's relatively lower rates of these chronic diseases gives further credence the significant role of obesity in life expectancy.

An interesting side note about Japan's low obesity rate is how they avoid this modern plague - Japanese children are taught to eat only until 80% full, fresh vegetables and fish are eaten in abundance, sweets are eaten occasionally, and more people in Japan get exercise in their daily lives than in America. I think we can learn a lot about a healthy lifestyle from the Japanese!

In terms of demographics, some of the countries in this top-ten list have a tiny population size with a racially homogenous populace (such as San Marino, Andorra, Macau, and even Sweden). Others have larger populations, but still a very homogenous population such as Japan and Australia (92% of the Australian population is of European descent). But Canada, France, and Singapore all have a good degree of racial diversity.

A quick look at demographics reveals that having a small, homogenous populations may be positively associated with higher life expectancy, but it is clearly not the main player in the life expectancy game.

Next I wanted to look at the health care systems of each of the countries on this top-ten list. Unfortunately, a complete statistical analysis of the health care systems of nations with high life expectancies is beyond the ability of my poor little brain, and beyond the scope of a blog entry. But here's what I can say so far:

Each of the nations and nation-states with the highest life expectancies appear to give access of at least basic health care to even the poorest of their citizens. If someone is having a heart attack, they won't be turned away. If someone is mauled in an accident of some type, they will receive care. Any person with a chronic illness will receive at least basic care in a public clinic of some kind.

I have much more research to do to compare how this differs from what is currently offered to the poor in the United States under the Medicaid and Medicare program. I'm sure there are may be some significant differences, and I would like to know what they are.

In my research on health care systems, I made a very surprising find that I want to share. Did you know that in the list of countries with highest life expectancies that there is a country that is less affluent than the U.S. that has an infant mortality rate one-third less than that of the U.S., that spends one-seventh of what the U.S. government spends on health care for its populace, and its population lives an average of almost four years longer?

What country is this, and what are they doing right?

And did you know that there is a part of the world where a push to give each and every citizen health insurance has succeeded at insuring almost everyone, but has increased the cost of health care for many of its citizens while showing little or negligible increases in their actual health, while practically bankrupting its government in the process?

Stay tuned for the scoop. Julie Behling invites you to become a follower of her blog at http://www.juliebehling.com.

Insurance Leads - Getting More by Working Smarter!

The insurance business is highly saturated as you may know. Acquiring insurance leads consistently by the day not only becomes more costly, it is more challenging in every business aspect of the industry. However, the insurance business as you already may know is one of the most profitable industries in the entire world. With insurance, everyone is covered. At least that's the motto for many!

Getting more leads, acquiring more customers, and keeping loyalty among your range of clients from your portfolio is one of the three fundamental keys to achieving success in the business. Not only are they principles followed by many successful corporations in numerous industries, such keys are what fuel national success in businesses for years.

Let us take a leading insurance company that is favored among millions of adults nationwide in the United States, Geico. For years now, Geico has recognized the power in using a smart, yet simple lead generation funnel. You most likely have seen the TV commercials.

Geico provides you a distinctive TV commercial among the hundreds of competitors they currently have in the industry. They have a wild pet that already identifies the company; they mix the commercial with informative situations and steps you should consider. Ultimately, you pick up the phone and call Geico and an insurance agent or telemarketer, as defined in the industry, builds rapport with you, a person who needs insurance.

They have a successful and proven lead generation system. Now for two years in a row they ranked #1 for the well known "Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index". The Government Employees Insurance Company known as Geico is the fourth- largest private passenger auto insurer in the United States. With more than 8 million policyholders and over 13 million vehicles, they surely know how to retain customers.

The financial keys and the teachings that such a brilliant company like Geico provides any person starting in the insurance business rely on keeping their customer's loyalty. Successful insurance companies as in every other business invest thousands of dollars, and those at the very top invest millions of dollars a month acquiring new customers. One single customer over a span of 12 months could easily mean four figures in growth income.

That is one of the main reasons shareholders in many companies should be proud of such distinctive commercials. They entertain, tell a realistic viewpoint of the real world, and most importantly, they sell.

Now according to Berkshire Hathaway, Geico is surely rated A++ for financial stability. Surely, a great working company if you want to learn the ropes.

But what happens if you are already planning to own your own insurance agency? What needs to happen if you need a lead generation system in place to acquire smart and intelligent business that produces results? The key will be to search for the best Internet marketing lead generation system on the Internet, a system that teaches you a step by step process on how to build your own profitable list. Finally, make sure the insurance leads you acquire are fresh and workable according to your needs.

Would you like to learn lead generating techniques and how to handle those leads? Learn how using software programs, joining groups or associations, and how the Internet can be effective at generating leads. Go to http://www.LeadsAndListBuilding.com

Insurance Agents - Getting Started in a Career in Insurance

An insurance career, like any career in sales, has the potential for great rewards with a bit of luck and hard work. At the same time, as most agents are for the most part independent and paid entirely based on commission, there is no salary to fall back on and no one to carry you when times get hard.

Although many insurance companies will require that new agents they hire have a college education, this is not required by the state and many independent agents set up private brokerages and sell coverage and policies from various companies without actually working for any individual company. In general, if you are just getting started in your insurance career, it is easiest to start out with a company or brokerage of some kind, where you can work with and learn from your fellow agents.

For more information about how to obtain an insurance license in your state (each state has rules and regulations that are specific to that state, even though these are usually similar across different states), contact your state Department of Insurance, or contact the National Insurance Producer Registry, an organization that works hand-in-hand with many states to help new agents get licensed.

Also, remember that starting out in insurance, there can be fairly large differences in salaries in the different insurance lines, for example, between life/health vs property/casualty insurance base salaries.

It is usually easier for a life & health agent when they are first starting out, with larger commissions upfront, while property and casualty agents take a bit longer to get going but are easier to build into more of a snowball effect. Usually it is fairly easy to maintain a large number of policies with a large number of customers with minimal interactions over the lifetime of the account, most of that upfront. In fact, many successful agents years into their insurance career are able to offload a large portion of their work onto the office staff they they end up hiring to cover most tasks such as answering the phone, etc.

In short, a career in insurance can be a great way for a person to get started on their own quickly, and is something that can be built into quite a decent salary (six figures are not at all uncommon) after just a few years of hard work.

Insurance career education and training providers are available to help guide you through the process of becoming an agent. If you are interested in a career in insurance, see our site at http://www.cpmipro.com/ for more information.

Imagine Getting Sick, Having Medical Insurance and Going Broke Anyway

When I had some pains in my chest my internist decided I should have a stress test. It sounded like a good idea to me. I enjoy living and am not the least bit interested in the alternative.

This was more than an ordinary stress test like running on a treadmill. I was walking quickly on an elevated treadmill while undergoing some nuclear profusion imaging to reconstruct tomographic SPECT images.

Apparently the shots they gave me lit me up inside so the physician and nuclear technician could see how I was reacting to the stress.

While I am probably leaving something important out and do not understand the technical terms involved, I was readily able to recognize the cost of the procedure. Try $2,485. All of this took about 4 hours and the physician was involved for all of probably 20 minutes.

I had insurance but still will end up paying $593. My insurance company will pay $813. It is not difficult for me to understand why people wonder if they have medical insurance or not.

An article in USA Today on March 22 had this headline: Even the insured have trouble paying bills.

Well, duh. I would hardly be exaggerating if I suggested that medical insurance coverage in America is totally out of control.

We have millions of citizens working without any medical insurance, others are paying through the nose for coverage they do have, we have millions of children without any medical coverage whatsoever, and very few of us seem to be getting our medical obligations paid with our insurance in force.

Businesses and organizations keep reducing our medical coverage to lower their premiums, and the insurance providers keep reducing our benefits and raising our deductibles and co-pays for office visits and prescription drugs.

Workers and consumers are getting it from both sides while health care providers and insurance providers claim each is gouging the other. It makes you wonder who is really profiting.

A fleet of 400-dollar-an-hour attorneys with 17 months of legal investigation could not figure it out in their most sober effort, nor would they want to as the pay is too good.

To say no one is really profiting is nonsense as medical costs have routinely exceeded the increase in inflation during recent years.

In the USA Today article, a senior policy analyst says "Shifting more costs onto patients has significant health access and financial consequences."

Well duh. Trust me when I say it does not take a senior policy analyst to tell consumers they are getting the short end of the stick as well as paying more for less medical coverage and less medical service.

Someone far brighter than a senior policy analyst needs to figure out how health care coverage in American can be less expensive and more effective.

Things are so bad you cannot even get detail on your bill, and even if you did it is so poorly explained that you cannot understand the charges.

It is like insurance companies lying, cheating and stealing in their policies with consumers, getting caught, paying multi-million dollar fines for their indiscretions, and then acting like it is no big deal when these major corporations are actually common criminals that are never prosecuted.

Is it possible that a nation that has produced so many great thinkers cannot come up with one great thinker that can see through this health care maze and produce a positive plan that benefits the few moneymakers enough to benefit all of us who need more affordable coverage?

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley's Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.

Read my articles on Borrowing and Credit Card Companies, including "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", and my 3-part series on "Your Credit Score - How It Can Cost You Thousands More on Your Mortgage - Part 1; Six Actions You Can Take to Improve Your Contract Terms - Part 2; and FICO Plans to Eliminate Authorized Credit Card User Accounts - Part 3".

Find my Blog at:

http://www.edbagleyblog.com

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Producing a Healthy Populace on a Budget - Who in the World is Getting the Job Done? Part 3

In Part 1 of this article, I expressed the desire to take an objective view at the health care systems of different nations to see if I could find a good example of a country who was pulling off a healthy population, a high life expectancy, and a quality health care system without breaking the bank.

In Part 2, I discussed the shining example of Singapore in doing just that - Singapore has the 4th highest life expectancy in the world (people live to age 82 on average), has the 6th best health care system, and the government of Singapore spends only 3.7% of its GDP on health care!

In this final section I wished to contrast Singapore, who literally is getting the job done, to that of another part of the world. In this part of the world, government leaders decided that instead of finding a way to focus on having healthy citizens while cutting unnecessary costs, they would instead focus on making sure the entire population had health insurance. Health insurance, they surmised, was the key to the population's health, as well as the key to keeping down the health care costs for both the government and the citizenry.

What have been the results? Did this government achieve its objective of insuring the masses? And if so, has this brought the desired curb in health care costs? Are the previously uninsured better off now that they have this insurance? Is everyone enjoying the fruits of this initiative?

I am sad to say that this experiment took place in our very own state of Massachusetts, and so far, it doesn't look good.

According to a March 2, 2009 article in the Boston Globe, healthcare reform in Massachusetts has:

Failed to achieve universal coverage (200,000 are still without health insurance),
Failed to address the problem of health insurance being tied to ones' employment,
Failed to make health insurance affordable for many citizens (including middle and low-income individuals and families),
Failed to shore in costs for the state (healthcare costs for the state of Massachusetts have doubled from $630 million in 2007 to an estimated $1.3 billion for 2009),
Failed to assure citizens' access to healthcare.

A more recent Christian Science article from October 21, 2009 concludes that "a mandate on individuals to buy health insurance can work - just don't expect it to reduce the cost of care."

There may be some residents of Massachusetts who are happy with the results of the healthcare reform that have been enacted there, but the problems remain paramount.

If Massachusetts is, at best, no better off for its healthcare reform that has doubled healthcare expenses for the state, then should we not take some heed as our entire nation appears ready to plunge onto a similar course?

Should our main focus as a nation be universal health insurance? Shouldn't we find a way follow the example of Singapore and focus on:

Population wellness through disease prevention,

Enacting policies that put more healthcare decisions into the hands of individuals, and fewer into the hands of the government?

In the meantime, I suggest each of us take actions to give us the best chances of having good health -- eating a balanced diet low in processed foods and high in minimally-processed plant-based foods, drinking plenty of clean water, getting adequate exercise and sleep, and using low-cost and oftentimes effective holistic means for taking care of problems when they first arise (such as herbs, essential oils, massage, acupuncture, reflexology, etc...), thus potentially using more expensive Western modalities more sparingly as a result.

To your health!

Julie Behling invites you to become a follower of her blog at http://www.juliebehling.com.