The Real Problem With Health Care - The Answer No One Wants to Hear!

As we all know, the reforms in health care as of late have been a hot topic. And in many ways it is splitting the population in half. We have those on one side of the field who say it's a government takeover, we're losing our freedoms, we can't afford it and it will worsen the quality of care. Then there are those in favor of it who argue we can't afford not to reform it, the insurance companies are not concerned about the individual and are raising premiums regardless and as a nation everyone should be entitled to better health either as preventive maintenance or even for those with preexisting conditions.

Either position has very strong arguments but what is really at the core of the problem? Some will say that there simply isn't enough competition that will lower costs. Others say there isn't enough regulation. My suggestion here is that the root of the problem runs much, much deeper than any of these surface issues. The root cause is the same factor that impacted the real estate market crash with the sub-prime mortgage issue, the financial meltdown, the foreign wars, the change in political administrations, the weak value of the dollar, the out of control unemployment numbers and the poor economy. All of these are merely symptoms of a system which in and of itself is flawed and broken. We can argue all day about what is the way to fix individual problems but the truth is they are all connected and this problem is proven generation after generation. This is why the gap between the rich and poor is the farthest ever and is still widening. This is why inflation continually increases while wages do not comparatively. This is why the middle-class is dwindling to the point where it one day may no longer exist.

Before I share with you the true culprit behind the health care issue let me ask you a few questions. Do you feel as though you have to work harder and harder for less and less just to get by? Are you concerned with protecting your assets and getting further ahead? Would you like to pass your accumulated wealth on to your children when you die? Do you feel anxiety about protecting your retirement and whether or not it will be enough for you to live comfortably? Do you feel your quality of life is threatened by competition or the government politics? Well if you answered "yes" to the majority of these questions then take a deep breath... look in the mirror... and realize that YOU are the true culprit!

Now before you get defensive and start justifying your actions let me elaborate on what I mean. Each of us who plays the "game of survival" may not individually be the sole source of the economics issue but collectively it is this attitude compounded that causes the social ills of the world. Let's be honest with ourselves. We've all bought into the notion that the costs of living go up year after year. A loaf of bread that used to cost 15 cents 30 to 40 years ago now costs $3.00! And we all accept this fallacy that somehow it takes more money to grow the same wheat to make the bread! Last I checked sunlight still shines on the Earth for free. The price of air hasn't gone up any from zero. And rainwater still falls upon the land at no cost. The seasons are still the same length and the dirt hasn't become any scarcer than before. And if anything, due to technology, the process of actually making bread hasn't gotten any more tedious rather it has probably gotten easier and quicker to accomplish. Why the increase in price then? Why do we accept inflation as if the same everyday processes are now somehow harder or more costly?

The real problem is that we as a society have simply gotten greedier! This notion started many thousands of years ago and we still operate off the same antiquated ideas with very little change or growth in our perspectives. Thousands of years ago as civilizations evolved and grew, the concepts of scarcity and "might makes right" become the social norm. The same practices of animal instinct still exist within the human culture. The strong simply take from the weak! Tribes would invade neighboring tribes and take their resources. And those that had the resources had to protect their accumulations. This idea of ownership & property are the driving forces behind chaos. There were those few cultures such as the Native Americans that recognized that nothing truly belonged to any one individual. They realized that what was good for the whole community was ultimately best for the individual. After all, every single one of us are born into this world with nothing but our naked bodies. However, based upon the accumulations of the parents, one child may enter the world as a wealthy person while another may enter the world in extreme poverty unable to even receive necessary milk for survival. Thus, we are forced from day one, even before we have any understanding of our environments, to accept the evil reality of the "haves" and "have-nots!"

This is the true battle being waged in congress, in political parties, between communities and between nations! Those that have want to protect it and those that don't want to get it. The unfortunate reality is that the "haves" are the ones who generally have the power and the "have-nots" lack it and therefore are the weak. The difference is money, which in this world represents power! Let's remind ourselves that money was created supposedly as a convenient tool to make bartering a simpler process. After all, it is sort of difficult to carry around a pig to trade for some eggs or milk. The problem today is because those who have money hoard it to the point that they don't really need your pig, eggs or milk. Through generations of accumulation and the advancement of technology, the wealthy don't need much that the average working person has to offer. Hence, through desperation and so-called competition the "have-nots" have to accept less and less and are forced to give their only remaining asset left - themselves! And since computers, machines and robots can generally do the same amount of work without getting tired or expecting a paycheck, even your labor has little to no value anymore.

Now I know many will argue that there are opportunities out there for those who "work hard." And based upon our current systems this is true to a degree. But understand a few facts. Ninety percent of the world's wealth is held amongst one percent of the population. Another ten percent controls the majority of the rest. And finally ninety percent of the population lives either in poverty or a couple paychecks away from losing the little they may have. Now if you're in the top 10 percent then surely you probably don't want to change a thing. And if you're comfortable with your lifestyle even though you may never become one of the top 10 percent, you probably want to protect what you do have so you don't become one of those in poverty. But let's remind ourselves that the vast majority of the wealth held within certain families and institutions wasn't earned through honest hard work and invention but rather through violent, barbaric and atrocious means. Through slave trades, invasions, genocides and good old-fashioned pillaging, the "strongest" of those, centuries ago, were able to hoard their acquisitions and then pass them down through their families generation after generation.

Why should I be able to "own" hundreds of thousands of acres of land that I will never be able to personally use? Who says that I should be able to control oil sources that belong to the earth and should benefit everyone? Why is one life more important than another? Why should the few monopoly corporations be able to buy out every new idea or invention that comes along? The only thing guaranteed in life is death and you will leave it the same way you entered it - naked and by yourself! It is foolish to thing that whatever you accumulate in life will somehow be able to be taken with you. In fact, this war between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is not really about big government versus small government or right versus left. It is really about ignorance versus wisdom; love versus greed; compassion versus selfishness! This isn't meant to sound idealistic. I don't expect a utopia overnight but the reality is that we are our own worst enemies. Everyone that buys into the ridiculous notions that life somehow gets more expensive every year is part of the problem. The birds still fly in the air for free. Animals still live off the land without taxes. And the sun still rises everyday in spite of man's attempts to end our ability to witness it.

Leo Tolstoy, the author most popularly known for 'War and Peace,' went as far as to say, "Property is thievery!" Tolstoy, who was influenced by the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, went on to write journals that influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Noble sentiments such as John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country" perhaps should have restated that as "Ask not what mankind can do for you but ask what you can do for mankind" for we in truth created our businesses, institutions and governments to serve us and not the other way around. We allow national pride, culture, languages, religions, gender and personal desires to separate us. Yet it is only through love, unity and the desire to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" that is the true strength of society.

The vast majority of mankind will continue to live in despair because we've bought into lies, become lazy and only seek to benefit ourselves. We must look in the mirror and change ourselves first. Gandhi stated "Be the change in the world that you seek!" We would all benefit to approach our personal decisions, family decisions, outlooks on life and our politics with greater compassion and love for the benefit of all. Never allow fear to drive your choices for fear will only consume you and produce loss for everyone involved. There is a cause known as the Zeitgeist Movement. It is a noble idea on how mankind can improve the world we live in not just for our nation or ourselves but also for the entire world. While I think it is still a little too idealistic based upon man's current understanding and capacity, I do think it is a worthwhile idea towards the possibilities we could enjoy if we just had a little greater trust in one another. We, unfortunately, are still a long ways away from that day. I invite you to search for the video and/ or website. We don't have to accept the evils of the world or that some people lives are not worth saving but we must develop courage and stand up against fear, selfishness and greed.

I'm not a huge Star Trek fan but in one of the earlier movies there was a scene in which the Star Trek crew had traveled from the future back in time to the current present day. A person asked Captain Kirk how much it cost to build the Starship Enterprise and his answer was that "... in the future mankind doesn't do things in terms of dollars or profit but rather for the benefit of society!" We can only put one foot in front of the other but perhaps the day may come in time, somewhere in the distant future, where this sentiment may become reality. We are One.

http://www.the1soulwithin.com

Lateef Terrell Warnick, author of "Journey of the Soul: Day One" Book & Movie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNbWgdYa6Ss.

Also, founder of 1 S.O.U.L. Social Network & Movement, expresses teachings founded in universal love and the esoteric approach similar to that of the yogi or mystic which declares that the "kingdom of God is within."

1 S.O.U.L. is an acronym for "One Source Of Universal Love" and consists of spiritual writings, social network, blog and non-profit organization. Teachings in harmony with those of "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda, "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsch, "The Power of Now" & "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle, "The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore" by Deepak Chopra, "A Course In Miracles" by Marianne Williamson, "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran, "Beyond Belief: The Secret Book of Thomas" by Elaine Pagel, Swami Vivekananda, Babaji & the lives of Jesus the Christ, Buddha, Krishna who've shown us the way towards enlightenment & Self-Realization!

Health Care Blog For Reform - Is There Any Hope?

In today's times any health care blog concentrates on the big issue of health care reform. It is being discussed at a bipartisan conference today. President Obama says he knows the urgency of this issue and vows this conference is to be considered a last ditch effort to find lawmakers coming together to secure a compromise bill that will work for Americans. The subject of health care has been negotiated into the ground over the past year and no one seems to be capable of coming to an agreement on what is best for all of us. When politics becomes involved in issues such as the healthcare of our nation, it generally drowns out the voices of the general public and those in power do not seem to even want to listen to the silent majority.

In this health care blog we discuss the fact that Obama knows first hand how complex the healthcare struggles can be for many as he observed his own mother as she struggled for her rights as she battled terminal cancer years back. Many others have written him with their own horror stories of how the health care industry has failed them, time and time again. To quote the president, "What I'm hoping to accomplish today is for everyone to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree, because there is actually some significant agreement on a whole host of issues." In spite of the urgency of this topic, Republicans and Democrats simply seem to agree to disagree when it comes to certain issues, leaving no evidence of common grounds.

This health care blog notes that President Obama and Senator John McCain from Arizona had a heated discussion regarding the legislation involved in healthcare reform. McCain stated that Congress, under Democratic control is fashioning the health care reform legislation all the while violating Obama's openness pledges. The Senator says the legislation was produced behind the closed doors of a biased Congressional group using unsavory deal making techniques. McCain further asserts Americans actually want to return to the beginning of this struggle and totally scrap the legislation which is presently mired in Congress. As the matter is supposed to involve insurance and it's coverage for millions the discussion seems to be veering further and further away from its intended subject.

This health care blog is concerned with the fact that while all these high powered people battle it out, we seem to be left out. Left out of the decisions and not offered an opportunity to voice our feeling on this most important of subjects. While they continue to argue and debate, we see our medical insurance costs soar and there seems to be no end in sight without a good effective plan. Even the Democratic party cannot seem to come to any sort of agreement when it comes to health care reform.

This healthcare blog is concerned about the study that shows some forty five thousand people die each year because they do not have health insurance. Additionally, some seventy percent of the three quarters of a million people who filed bankruptcy last year did so due to medical bills, even though most had insurance. Perhaps we need a lot more health care blog coverage to prod these folks along.

The author is a full time writer.

Corporate Health Promotion Has 3 Years to Get It Right

In comments before the 2009 Annual Art and Science of Health Promotion Conference, Michael O'Donnell, PhD, MPH, MBA (Editor in Chief, American Journal of Health Promotion) described rapid changes in this field and what it meant to practitioners. "Despite 4 decades of corporate health promotion as a profession, there is still no consensus as to the most effective and efficient way to render services. We have only about 3 years to get it right."

 

Michael offers examples: "In smoking cessation, we have good science to guide us. We know that counseling therapy or nicotine replacement medication typically yields a 10% success rate. But when we combine counseling and nicotine replacement, the rate goes up to 30%. We also know when you increase the number of minutes of counseling, you increase success rates; but at 300 minutes we reach a plateau. Involving different types of people in counseling sessions also increases the likelihood of positive outcomes. By applying these scientific principles, we multiply our success 6-fold. Yet in something like weight control, beyond knowing people need to eat less and exercise more, we have very little knowledge of what works."

 

Strongly believing the industry needs to dedicate itself to studying what works in health promotion, he was actively involved in promoting Senate bill (S.1001/HR2354). Called the Health Promotion FIRST (Funding Integrated Research Synthesis and Training) Act, many provisions became law when President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and began going into effect in 2010. The bill included additional health promotion provisions and enjoyed bipartisan support. Highlights include:

Development of a national health promotion plan
Increased health promotion research
Technical assistance to enhance evaluation of worksite health promotion programs
Regular surveys on worksite health program prevalence and components
Grants to pay part of the cost for comprehensive worksite health promotion programs in small organizations
Allowing employers to offer employees an insurance premium discount of up to 30% (instead of the current 20%) for positive lifestyle practices or participation in worksite health promotion programs and asking Health and Human Services to study the benefits of increasing to 50%.

Focus on What Works Best

 

Michael challenges practitioners to focus more on what works best in their area of expertise. "What are the most cost-effective ways to reach the greatest number of people with the most hard-hitting programs to improve their lifestyle? I realize this is difficult for individual employee health and wellness practitioners. They may have great intuition and ability to assess a person or organization, and they may develop very effective interventions to encourage change. But when you ask them why they are successful, they can't articulate the core principles critical to their success. This has been a classic problem in our field."

 

"I realize that practitioners dedicate a great deal of time and effort to figure out the most useful strategies for each individual and organization they serve. Unfortunately, this approach is not practical if we want to reach most employees in most workplaces. When you build cars one by one, it's not so hard to get it right. But when you build an assembly line and crank cars out at a high volume, you need to be sure the best procedures are in place to make it work. As we scale up our wellness programs, we need to draw on standardized protocols that can be tailored to the special needs of each situation."

 

"Practitioners need to look for opportunities to team up with the scientific community and help them develop good theories as to what works best. Learn to articulate why what you do works. We need to network and share more with people. We must test programs that have been shown to be successful and find out why they work. We don't do that nearly enough."

 

"Time is running out for us to get it right. The industry is growing very fast. For a while purchasers entering the market will not know the questions to ask. It will be relatively easy to sell wellness programs. But eventually purchasers will become more sophisticated and require higher levels of quality proof. As more products become available, they will push down on the price. And when they do, we must make sure these commodities offer the best possible solutions to change lives."

 

Growing Our Future Leaders

 

To meet this growth in the health promotion industry requires energetic and forward-thinking leadership. Michael is concerned that in a few years, there may be a problem finding those leaders. "For the most part, today's wellness program leaders are in their 50s. When this group entered the field in their 20s, it was a new industry with many leadership opportunities. The youngest and brightest out of grad school moved into leadership positions quickly. Unfortunately, the pool of emerging leaders to replace us is small. In the 1990s the field experienced an economic downturn. Many of the new cohort of professionals were forced to move into other lines of work to survive. These would have been the professionals to eventually fill future leadership positions, and it was a small group to begin with. I often hear managers say it's difficult to find qualified people with 15-20 years experience."

 

Michael expresses concerned about the consequences of this looming leadership vacuum. "If new leaders don't come from within our field, they will come from outside the field. It's wonderful to gain new perspectives, but will they have the same philosophical value we have to help people? I worry that they will be oriented more toward medical healthcare cost containment and making money. What has been unique about our field is the focus on quality of life. That is a value we must preserve. We need to continue this dialogue on growing our future leaders."

 

"Don't get me wrong; talent must prevail. We don't want to coddle people or they won't be able to stand the pressure of a leadership position. It's got to be survival of the fittest, and emerging leaders need to challenge existing leaders for control. Cultivate the qualities in yourself and others that you expect to see in any leader. Create a vision and put a plan in place to achieve that vision."

 

What if We Don't Get It Right?

 

When asked about the consequences of not getting it right, Michael predicts, "We have a golden opportunity right now. The Obama administration and Congress are very interested in wellness and prevention. Prevention is the only thing that is not controversial. Congress believes prevention is the magic bullet to fix healthcare. But if we don't develop programs that produce consistent positive outcomes, we'll be in trouble. We have less than 3 years to get it right or we will lose the credibility we've worked so hard to achieve. If that happens, government and employers will shrug their shoulders and say, 'We tried, but it didn't work.'"

 

And Michael isn't sure who (or what) will fill the vacuum if it doesn't work. "It's kind of like managed care. In the original closed panel approaches developed by two of the larger HMOs, managed care produced better health outcomes at lower prices. This mutated into PPO approaches which are basically bulk purchasing arrangements that lack internal quality or cost controls. Managed care got a bad name. I think something similar could happen to worksite health promotion if we don't take action now."

Dean Witherspoon, CEO and founder of employee wellness firm, Health Enhancement Systems, has 25 years in health promotion. He has served on the board of the Association for Worksite Health Promotion and held several regional as well as state offices. Dean is a nationally known speaker and author, having presented at more than 70 conferences and written hundreds of employee wellness articles for national publications.

For more information on employee wellness topics, check out our free white papers at http://whitepapers.hesonline.com/.

Contact: Dean Witherspoon, Health Enhancement Systems, http://HealthEnhancementSystems.com, 800.326.2317

Information About Passive Smoking, Smokeless Tobacco And Other Health Risks

Involuntary or passive smoking is associated with premature disease and death. Estimates indicate that 38,000 to 43,000 nonsmokers who are regularly exposed to environmental smoke die annually from smoking related causes. 16 The majority of these (35,000 to 40,000) die from heart disease, and 3000 die from lung cancer. There is a dose response effect. The more the nonsmoker is exposed to environmental smoke, the greater the risk for premature morbidity (illness) and mortality (death).

Children of smoking parents are more likely to experience a higher incidence of influenza, colds, bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia. The impact of passive smoking on them can last a lifetime and may range from delayed physical and intellectual development to the hazards associated with prolonged exposure to carcinogenic substances.

An alarming trend is the escalating sale of smoke less tobacco products. Chewing tobacco and dipping snuff have become popular among high school and college men. The world health organization (WHO) has described the growing use of smokeless tobacco as a new threat to society. Nicotine is an addictive drug regardless of the method of delivery, and its effects are similar whether it is inhaled, as in smoking, or absorbed through the tissues of the oral cavity, as in dipping and chewing. The incidence of oral cancer may be 50 times higher among long term users of smokeless tobacco products than among nonusers. Smokeless tobacco is addictive and deadly.

Physical inactivity is finally being officially recognized as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease by the AHA. The upgrading of physical inactivity appeared in their latest position statement and reflects the importance of participating in physical activities regularly. The change occurred because the weight of the evidence that has been accumulating in the last 10 years shows that exercise produces many important health benefits. This is good news for those who have been physically active, and it may motivate some sedentary people to become active.

Physical inactivity (hypokinesis) is debilitating to the human body. A couple of weeks of bed rest or chair rest produces muscle atrophy, bone demineralization, and decreases in aerobic capacity and maximum ventilatory capacity. Your body was constructed for and thrives on physical exertion. The american college of sports medicine has established guidelines for the development and maintenance of physical fitness. The amount of physical activity needed to improve and maintain good health and to affect longevity is currently under investigation.

The evidence of investigators at the centers for disease control provided the statistical basis for the position change by the AHA. These researchers showed a relationship between physical inactivity and heart disease that was similar in magnitude to that of cigarette smoking, high serum cholesterol levels, and hypertension. approximately 26% of the population smokes cigarettes, 30% have blood pressures greater than 140/90, and 32% have cholesterol levels greater than 200 mg/dl.

Although these numbers are impressive and a significant change in any one would lower the incidence of heart disease, the researchers concluded that regular exercise was the one lifestyle change that could most affect the health of the nation. This is based on the fact that 78% of americans are sedentary or exercise too infrequently to enhance their health. Regular physical activity also has a modifying effect on many of the risks for cardiovascular disease.

Other major studies have supported the view that people who regularly engage in physical activities of moderate intensity have significantly less heart attacks and experience fewer deaths from all causes than people who exercise little or not at all. Moderate activity was the equivalent of walking 1 to 2 miles per day for a total of 5 to 10 miles per week. The greatest health benefits were gained by those who expended 1500 to 2000 calories per week (15 to 20 miles of walking) in physical activity.

A total of 17,000 men were followed for more than 30 years. Those who regularly walked, climbed stairs, or participated in sports activities decreased their risk from all causes of mortality. Those who expended a minimum of 500 calories per week (5 miles of walking or its equivalent) to a maximum of 3500 calories per week (35 miles of walking or its equivalent) experienced a progressive increase in longevity.

Investigators at the cooper institute for aerobics research 22 studied the relationship between physical fitness and mortality from all causes. The uniqueness of this study was twofold: first, the researchers measured the physical fitness level of all subjects by treadmill testing, and second, more than 3000 of the 13,344 subjects were women. Because of their lower risk for cardiovascular disease, women have essentially been neglected as subjects in heart disease studies.

The results of this study indicated that a low physical fitness level increased the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all other forms of disease. The difference in all cause mortality was greatest between those who were in the moderately fit category and those in the low fit category . The difference between the moderately fit and the highly fit was insignificant. For people who exercise regularly, the risk of dying from a heart attack compared with the risk for sedentary people is 35% to 55% less.

A study completed using only women as subjects investigated the physical fitness benefits versus the health benefits of three levels of walking intensity. One group walked at 5 mph, a second group walked at 4 mph, and a third group walked at 3 mph. The results showed that physical fitness improved on a predictable dose response basis. The fastest walkers improved the most and the slowest walkers improved the least, but the cardiovascular risk was reduced equally among the three groups. Low level exercise was as effective as the highest level in promoting cardiovascular health. Exercise for health does not have to be as strenuous as exercise for physical fitness.

A sedentary lifestyle imposes a financial burden on all people. Active people pay a price a lifetime subsidy of approximately $1900 to support the medical costs of sedentary people. The costs come from collectively financed programs, such as health insurance, sick leave coverage, disability insurance, and group life insurance. Because premiums and payroll taxes that finance these programs are equal for both sedentary and active people, the programs subsidize unhealthy behaviors. If sedentary people became more active, they would live longer and healthier, thus reducing the cost they impose on others.

The health and longevity returns from exercise and a physically active lifestyle are significant. Estimates indicate that longevity is increased by 1 minute for every minute spent walking and by 2 minutes for every minute spent jogging. The potential for improving the health status of Americans through appropriate lifestyle behaviors is evident from estimates indicating that 60% of all deaths are premature and approximately 50% to 60% of all illness and disabilities are preventable.

Check out how herbal medicines work, its diseases, uses of creatine and its effects. Also, know about the bodybuilding supplements You can get all this in detail at http://www.online-health-care.com

What is Universal Health Care? The Real Solution!

The real answer to what is universal health care is that people all over the world must decide they want to be healthy and well fed. We don't have to convince the impoverished peoples of this, it's more than an answer it's THE answer. When you are starving the focus of everything you do is on just getting a something into your belly. The industrial nations who have plenty of food available, must start putting a high priority on living a healthy lifestyle. There is simply too much disease that can be prevented. Simply put, universal health care should include a huge dose of prevention. Actually what I'm talking about is more than just prevention. I'm talking about two things here:

That we in the industrialized nations of the 21st Century have the knowledge, technology, and the communications networks to be able to eliminate an enormous percentage of diseases and have a healthy and fit human population. Of course there are no stats on this, but I'm going to say 90% of the diseases of the industrialized world can be prevented with the knowledge we have today.

People worldwide must make the conscious decision to take charge of their own health. We must all WANT to be fit and healthy. We don't have to be weight lifters, or fitness fanatics, or super athletes to be fit and healthy. We have to simply say to ourselves, "I'm not going to depend on doctors, insurance companies, governments, or anything else to keep me healthy. I'm going to focus on BEING fit and healthy."

The technology is there, the knowledge is there. The great need now is to spread the word -- create a worldwide movement to raise awareness of these two points I just raised. There are many organizations now that are involved in doing just this. We have the ability to spread the word rapidly around the world. The industrialized world has flirted with fast foods, processed foods, and nutrition deprived foods for several decades now. At a time when we have the knowledge of what we need to be fit and healthy, there are are so many diseases that are preventable with the right kind of awareness. Rich nations are overloading on junk food, while poor nations are starving.

The processed food companies have been ruling the food supply for the last few decades. Only a worldwide demand for healthy foods and sustainable agriculture can change that. They respond to what people buy. We love to blame them for what they produce, but they WILL respond to CONSUMER DEMAND. Get involved. Spread the word. Join a group. Be active. We can do this faster than we think. Look how fast just a few people in the right places were able to get people to stop smoking and expose the unscrupulous tactics of the tobacco industry. The communications technology of today is amazing. There are tons of resources. Kudos to Jamie Oliver for his "Food Revolution" TV series.

Ken Shuey believes that having and maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle is not just for athletes and fitness fanatics. It is a concept whose time has come for everyone.

The industrialized world has flirted with fast foods, processed foods, and nutrient deprived foods for several decades now. At a time when we have the knowledge of what we need to be fit and healthy, the world has hit rock bottom in disease and ill health. Rich nations are overloading on junk food, while poor nations are starving.

The time has com to turn our advanced technology toward getting health and fitness a worldwide priority. And that also includes a sustainable food production, supply, and distribution system. He has authored an indepth report on the controversy over whether vitamin and mineral supplements really work for your health or whether they do nothing. http://4wellnesssake.info/

Health Care Reform - Misguided Trust

It is estimated Americans will spend over $2 trillion this year on health insurance, pharmaceutical drugs and medical bills. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation within eight years, America's health care costs will soar to $4.1 trillion annually. Americans spend more for health care than any other nation in the world, yet, America is not the healthiest nation in the world. American ranks 34th in the world for infant mortality and 42nd for life expectancy.

Newsweek magazine reports that side effects from prescription drugs are now the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. The AMA reported that 750,000 people die annually from prescription drugs - not from the disease for which the drugs were prescribed.

America is the most drugged nation in the world, and it is legal drugs that are the problem. But it is not just the psychotropic drugs and painkillers Americans consume like candy. It is also the Statin drugs, antibiotics, blood pressure drugs, sex enhancing drugs and vaccines that are also exacting a toll on our health. People take them because they think they make them healthy, but, to the contrary people take them because they are unhealthy.

The fact is that the United States is the most heavily vaccinated population in the world and coincidently plagued with the highest occurrence of autism, diabetes and asthma in the world. What is wrong with this picture?

With the largest vaccination schedule in the world, it would seem that the U.S. would have the lowest death rates and the best health. However, the U.S. ranks 34th in infant mortality, falling behind such 3rd world countries as Croatia and Crete.

Gary Null, Medical analyst warns, "A definitive review and close reading of the medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that...the number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is 20 million. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million."

Chronic disease is on the rise in perfect step with the growing medical system. Forty-eight percent of men and thirty-eight percent of women are predicted to have cancer. Eight percent of children suffer from serious food allergies. Twenty percent of children are on schedule II pharmaceutical drugs, and a third of low-income preschool children are overweight or obese. Heart disease, asthma, allergies, diabetes, mental illness, cancer and obesity rates are spiraling upwards among all sectors of the population.

Americans spend about 10 percent of their disposable income on food. Other countries generally spend more than Americans. Japanese spends, on average, 13 percent. France spends 14 percent, China, 28 percent and India spends 39%.

Currently the U.S. spends 16 percent of its gross domestic product on health care. More than any other country. The World Health Organization ranks the U.S. at 37th in health outcomes.

The best time to create and maintain good health is before you have a diagnosable disease or disorder. You can not afford to wait for medical science to fumble upon the pharmaceutical answer with 25 - 30 serious side effects. If you are waiting for the medical miracle drug cure for cancer and still eating a junk diet and living a sedentary lifestyle the prognosis is bleak. If you are relying on the FDA to produce what is safe while you use products daily that have 'FDA approved' toxins in them, you may be bailing out your boat without stopping the leak.

If you accept the fact that the EPA only allows 0.1 mcg per kg of mercury in your diet yet you permit 25 mcg of mercury to be injected directly into your arm with one-single flu shot, you will be horrified to find out in the future that there are long-term side effects to placing toxic metals in your body.

The fact is that without government subsidization U.S. food costs would be much higher. Government subsidization typically targets the inorganic and the most toxic end of the food supply. This leaves organic food producers competing for market sales in a slanted playing field. Thus, forcing the majority of the U.S. population to be controlled by Government subsidized poor quality food. See documentary: Food, Inc.

Regardless, it is still your choice what you check out of the grocery store. It is still your choice to maintain health rather than look for a miracle cure or a 'quick fix.'

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach - Certified Hypnosis Practitioner, Author and Speaker. Dr. Dorothy connects people to principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one's daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net

Obama Care Health Care Rules For Business - Insanely Complicated

This Obama Care Health Insurance law is a nightmare and the last thing this nation needs right now, especially at a time when we need more jobs. The latest news is that the Obama Administration is intimidating large corporate health care insurance companies from raising rates. They have to, or they will go out of business, then you and I the taxpayer will end up paying for the losses incurred in public funded health care insurance.

Meanwhile, health care costs continue to skyrocket outpacing inflation by 10:1 for the last decade and no chance of slowing. So, you'd like to have a health care insurance debate with me would you? Well, I wouldn't go there if I were you, you can't compete with facts, besides maybe I should let you in on a few things first.

Okay, I admit it, I am much smarter than you, and probably a minimum of 40 IQ points, and if you voted for Obama, could even be significantly more than that, seriously, I am not going to lie to you to make you feel better, and I am not issuing certificates for participating or reading this article. You darn well better read my articles if you want to improve the gap mentioned above.

You see, I have one of those minds that just works awesomely, but I can tell you I've been reading some of the trade journals I take for various industries, many have articles on this new Obama health care bill, and I am amazed how complicated it is will all the requirements, fines, and phase-ins for 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Indeed, I am blown away, while reading all this four or five times to make any sense of it. It's a nightmare for small business.

And if the Obama Administration tries to tell us that small business likes this new law, because they really want to provide health care insurance for employees, and they applaud their efforts, well, that's just a load of smelly brown molasses looking material one might find in the aeration process at the POTW (publicly owned treatment works). Give me a break, no way will any small business person be happy about that.

In fact, it would make sense to fire as many employees as possible and hold off hiring anymore for as long as possible to avoid all that bureaucracy, as a small businessperson would need hire an accounting firm to administer just the employee health care insurance program, it is insanely complicated and utterly ridiculous, what a bunch of nonsense. This is what they produced?

No wonder Nancy Pelosi said;

Well, you'll just have to vote for it then, and see what's in the bill!"

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net. Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

Elimination of Fraud and Abuse in Health Care - Part 3

Waste, fraud and abuse in healthcare stops customers to have economical health facilities and it ultimately results in decline of quality as well. The United States of America's one of the biggest challenge is to come up with the strategy and ideas which help people having health facilities with quality, coverage and most importantly economical. It is explained in "Elimination of fraud and abuse in health care "part 2 that the customers dealing with healthcare is out of their reach each year and their pockets do not allow them to have quality and economical health. President Obama is appreciating and welcoming "ideas which can cut the cost, bring quality, reduce waste, fraud and abuse, last but not the least gives customer choice in healthcare.

One of the focal points is to bring innovation in healthcare and develop a system which can bring the mentioned constraints in healthcare. For that matter there is a need to take a look in what the Obama's healthcare reform plan is?

Barack Obama's Health Care Reform Plan

President Obama envisions the healthcare system so perfect that not even a single American suffers from healthcare. He puts emphasis on the reforms and his plan estimated cost is around $50 to $65 billion. The key factors of Obama's interest are:

1. Quality, Affordable & Portable Health Coverage for All.

2. Modernizing The U.S. Health Care System To Lower Costs & Improve Quality

3. Promoting Prevention & Strengthening Public Health.

One of the core aspect of this plan is the claim that every family will save approximately $2,500 each year. The plan caters a Health information technology investment aimed at dropping needless expenses that result from avoidable errors and ineffective paper billing systems. It will also help preventing and organizing of persistent circumstances. The preparation is required to raise insurance industry competition and reduce underwriting costs and profits in order to decrease insurance overhead. The health insurance should be universal which will diminish spending on uncompensated care.

The critics say that there is cost shift rather than cost reduction in this plan. Obama's stresses over creating another program just like Medicare or under- 65 age is itself a costly thinking. He also wants to empower government programs Medicaid and SCHIP. Obama makes investments in health information technology a significant element of his cost control strategy. This is the point of discussion. The only way to cope up with all these issues is to significantly use the technology. In order to improve quality Obama has planned to take steps which can produce results. It includes disease management programs, coordinated care, transparency about cost and quality of care, improved patient safety, aligning incentives for excellence, comparative effectiveness reviews, and reducing disparities in health care treatments for the same illness.

The three essential points to reduce inefficiency and abuse and improve healthcare quality are:

o Adopting state-of-the-art health information technology system.

o Ensuring that patients receive and providers deliver the best possible care, including prevention and chronic disease management services.

o Reforming the market structure to increase competition; and offering federal reinsurance to employers to help ensure that unexpected or catastrophic illnesses do not make health insurance unaffordable or out of reach for businesses and their employees.

The 3rd point of the Obama's plan is to Promote Prevention & Strengthening Public Health. For that matter he thinks, employers, school systems the medical and public health workforce, and federal and state and local governments have to play their role. The employers have o offer onsite clinical preventive services such as flu vaccinations, hygienic food in cafeterias etc. the workshops,seminars and training programs should be held in schools in order to educate children. Finally the government has to effectively use the electronic and print media and other ways to create awareness among people.

Problem Area

The healthcare costs are escalating and the health insurance have gone up too in the last few years, almost doubled with mounting 3.7 times faster in comparison to the salaries of employees. About 100,000 Americans die from medical errors in hospitals every year1. The personal bankruptcies are greater than ever due to lack of affordable health. Over 45 million Americans, including over 8 million children not having health insurance. 80% of the working families are uninsured. Intensifying health care costs are making it extremely intricate for employers, particularly small businesses, to endow with health insurance to their workers.

The basic problem is that until or unless a plan is not executed, things will not be changed. They will remain static. The claim that every American family will save $2,500 will be a dream, if there is no proper strategy and its implementation. There has to be a pro active procedure to fight with these issues. The nucleus of the strategy is to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in healthcare. As it is discussed before that there are a lot of statements and thirst for the enhanced healthcare system but nobody talks about the central point. By just saying "reforming the market structure" or "Adopting state-of-the-art health information technology system" and "Ensuring that patients receive and providers deliver the best possible care" the healthcare system would not improve. One has to come up with the practical approach and a "system" which can actually deal with these problems.

Steps to be taken to avoid fraud and abuse

The "system" has to be flawless in order to achieve what is promised. The Americans are going through a difficult phase of recession. It is the prime responsibility of the state to deliver what is pledged. There are some vital steps to be taken to ensure the paramount quality.

- Any one who is involved in care providers, the flow of information has to be accurate.

- This is absolutely vital to encounter Date Reporting System in place which can accumulate or transfer such information that can reduce the fraud and abuse.

- The existing encounter Data Reporting Systems are creating insufficient information to provide any means for the reduction of potential fraud and abuse.

- There is a strong need of making enhancements or addendum to the existing ERRS.

The very first problem occurs when the measurements taken to avoid fraud and abuse are considered to be satisfactory. The CMS has a lot more potential to recover as they are recovering currently. It is discussed thoroughly that what is fraud and abuse? And how it occurs? A unanimous plan of the strategy builders is to have precautionary measures to avoid fraud and abuse. When the fraud and abuse actually takes place then the need of identification is required. It is considered that the identification of improper payments is reasonable. Here is the problem; the CMS (Centers of Medicare and Medicaid services) came up with RACs (Recovery Audit Contractors) and they were able to identify only 0.3 percent ($ 1.03 billion) of the claims received whereas the total of $317 billion Medicare claim payments available for review. Just because the amount of recovery is high RACs are considered to be satisfactory but the percentage o recovery is extremely near to the ground.

References

1. Linda T. Kohn, Janet M. Corrigan, and Molla S. Donaldson, Editors; Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine (2000). To Err is Human. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Doctors Are Not Health Experts

According to several studies, including those done by the CDC and many others reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, prescription drugs are one of the leading killers in the United States.

It's a little hard to get a handle on just how many accidental deaths are caused by prescription drugs because the most reliable sources never combine into one study all of the ways prescription drugs kill people.

For example, in April 2008 the CDC testified to congress that 22,400 people died by unintentional prescription drug overdoses in 2005, and that exceeded murder by about 5,000 deaths.

But as high as 22,400 deaths sounds, it doesn't include the number of deaths caused by adverse reactions from prescription drugs.

One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association puts that number at 106,000 deaths per year. The same study reports that more than two million people are hospitalized each year because of unexpected reactions to drugs prescribed by doctors.

If you add the 22,400 deaths from accidental overdoses to the 106,000 people who die from adverse reactions to prescription drugs, the total is 128,400 accidental deaths a year from prescription drugs. But, this 128,400 still doesn't include tens of thousands more that die in American hospitals from errors made by doctors and nurses giving the wrong drug to patients.

However, using the 128,400 estimated deaths reported by these studies, the number of Americans killed accidentally by prescription drugs is more than three times the number of people killed in automobile accidents each year, 25 times the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war, 43 times the number of Americans that died on 9/11, and it keeps on happening every year.

For obvious reasons, including doctors' professional reputations and increased costs of liability insurance, it's widely accepted that doctors don't report all the deaths caused by prescription drugs. Many experts conclude the number of deaths caused by prescription drugs is likely to be more than twice as high as reported. That would put the number of accidental deaths caused by prescription drugs at more than 250,000 deaths per year.

The reason for the huge number of deaths is that a large number of prescription drugs are poisons designed to block the body's ability to cause a symptom by interfering with the normal biological functions of the body.

A few tiny prescription pills can knock you stone dead, and that's exactly what these pills do to hundreds of unsuspecting Americans every single day.

When your doctor hands you a prescription, does he ever mention that you were gambling with your life when you swallowed the pills he prescribes?

On top of the 128,400 reported deaths caused each year by prescription drugs shortly after the drugs are taken, are the slow deaths and diseases experienced by millions more Americans caused by taking Symptom Masking Maintenance Drugs for long periods of time.

Symptom Masking Maintenance Drugs

Imagine driving down the road in your car. You don't know it but a tiny hole has worn into a hose, a hole that's causing a very slow leak of the fluid that keeps the engine in your car cool. Over the last five thousand miles, just enough coolant has leaked out to cause your engine to overheat a little.

The small hole in the hose is your car's first underlying problem. The second underlying problem is the engine over-heating a little. Suddenly a red light appears on your dashboard. The red light is a symptom.

You continue on your way home and park your car for the night. On your way to work the next day, the red light comes on again. A week goes by and you begin to be annoyed by the red light on the dashboard so you take a piece of masking tape and put it over the red light.

You pride yourself with the brilliant display of ingenuity of eliminating the aggravating red light.

But a week later, while sitting in traffic your engine burns up and smoke starts rolling out from under the hood. Your car is dead.

Sound ridiculous? Well, this example pretty much sums up the practice of prescribing symptom masking maintenance drugs.

Only the symptom masking drugs are worse because the poisons they contain cause new underlying problems.

Any drug that's taken week after week, month after month, year after year with no attempt to find a different solution to the underlying medical problem is a maintenance drug. Maintenance drugs are pills taken every day for 365 days a year, at some other frequent interval, or when a recurring aggravating symptom occurs.

Your health depends upon making sure the drugs prescribed by your doctor to be taken on a daily basis for months or years at a time are not just covering up symptoms as is unfortunately the case with many drugs doctors prescribe.

Drugs that mask symptoms don't do anything to solve the underlying problem your body is facing. Since they don't do anything to solve the problem, the problem will most often get worse and you'll eventually have to take drugs that are more powerful or add more pills to those you already take.

The same way that covering up the red warning light on your dash board will cause your car to die, using pills to mask symptoms year after year often leads to more severe disease and death.

It's important to know what a symptom is.

Common symptoms are pain, swelling, rashes, fever, fatigue, head-aches, dizziness, light-headedness, hot flashes, sleeplessness, anxiety, tingling in your fingers or toes, blood in the urine, and stiffness in the joints.

Symptoms are unwanted conditions and experiences that cause you to run to the doctor. Symptoms are annoying, painful, or ugly conditions.

But you have to understand that these annoying, painful or ugly symptoms are not really the problem you have. These are only symptoms that let you know right away that the body is faced with a problem. Every annoying or painful condition is a symptom that has an underlying problem.

The underlying problem that is causing the annoying, painful or ugly symptoms, the challenge the body is facing are things such as; a nutritional deficiency, an infection caused by bacteria or virus, excessive consumption of any one of thousands of chemicals added to food, an allergy, eating too many carbohydrates(sugar), too much vegetable oil, or too much sugar, exposure to a toxin in your environment, excessive caffeine, a damaged organ, stress, exposure to a pesticide, drinking too much alcohol, a food ingredient such as MSG or Aspartame, a combination of many of the above or any one of thousands of other problems that are making it difficult for the body to work properly, problems that cause symptoms. When the body is facing one or a combination of these underlying problems, they result in symptoms that let you know there's a problem.

Again, although symptoms are painful, annoying or unsightly, they're only symptoms, they're not the cause of the problem.

The way to restore your health is to determine what causes the symptom, to determine the underlying problem, then to remove or fix the underlying problem so the body is no longer challenged. When the problem is solved, the symptom will automatically disappear and continued medication isn't necessary.

But most maintenance drugs prescribed by doctors only cover up or mask the symptom. As soon as you stop taking the drug, the symptoms reappear.

There's usually no attempt to fix the underlying problem. Many times the doctor won't even try to learn what the underlying problem is. The doctor just knows what pill to prescribe that makes the symptom go away. But since the underlying problem hasn't been addressed, the symptom may return requiring a stronger pill, or an altogether different symptom may appear causing the doctor to prescribe a second medication designed to stop the new symptom.

Most drugs that cover up symptoms are powerful poisons that cause the body to react in ways that stop the symptom. Because they're poisons, they not only don't do anything to fix the underlying problem, they actually harm the body, as any toxin will. And because the underlying problem continues, you must continue to take the drug indefinitely. That's the intent of maintenance drugs that mask symptoms, to keep you taking them forever. They're a money making racket.

An indication that a maintenance drug may be a toxic substance is that it has a long list of harmful side affects. Other indications that a drug may be a toxin is that it's a controlled substance or the quantity of the active ingredient necessary to make a sudden or dramatic impact on the body is less than 100 milligrams.

How can a poison help the body? It can't. Poisonous drugs only trigger responses in the body that eliminate symptoms. Poisons don't cure. Think about it.

Antibiotics are an exception. These drugs attack bacteria that cause infection. But they're not maintenance drugs either. Doctors prescribe antibiotics for short-term use. They're not designed to be taken for 365 days a year, year after year.

Some prescription drugs also provide substances that the body normally produces but which are not being produced in sufficient quantities to avoid symptoms. While these drugs may be used as maintenance drugs and taken 365 days a year, they really aren't toxins. But in many cases, instead of taking this type of drug, the body can produce sufficient quantities of the needed substance if it's given all the nutrients it needs, and the things that are making it difficult for the body to produce them are eliminated from the diet or environment.

When you take a poisonous maintenance drug that masks a symptom, when you take a drug that makes the symptom go away but doesn't remove the underlying cause of the symptom, your body faces two problems.

The first problem your body faces is the underlying problem that caused the annoying or painful symptom that first caused you to go to the doctor. You really don't know what the underlying problem is because no one tried to find out what it is. Remember, the drug didn't eliminate the underlying problem; it just stopped the symptom by using a poison that caused the body to react in a way that made it impossible for the symptom to continue. The second problem is elimination of the toxin in the drug you're now taking to stop the first symptom.

Because the body is now facing a new problem that weakens it, the body will eventually send another signal to tell you that the poison in the drug is making it hard for it to cope. The signal will be another symptom such as a soreness, a weakness, swelling, aching, headaches, blurred vision, loss of balance, burning when you urinate, rashes, fever, any of hundreds of symptoms to let you know there is a new underlying problem with which it needs help. The new underlying problem is the powerful poison in the drug you're taking that's designed to cover up the original symptom.

When your doctor learns of the new symptom, even though your new symptom may be listed as one of the dozens of side effects of the first symptom masking drug your taking, he will often give you a second drug that stops the side affect of the first drug.

The new toxic drug will stimulate a reaction in the body that counteracts the body's reaction and the new symptom will be gone.

Then the body will have three underlying problems;

1) the problem that caused the first symptom which hasn't been determined yet,

2) coping with the toxin in the first symptom masking drug, and

3) coping with the toxin in the second symptom masking drug that's designed to mask the side affect of the first symptom masking drug

Now that you're body is fighting two toxic drugs in addition to the original challenge that hasn't yet been identified, your body is weaker and facing more challenges. In time, your body will send yet another signal, another symptom telling you that it's not coping, or the first symptom will come back and be worse than it was when you first went to the doctor.

And, I think you know what your friendly doctor will prescribe when you tell him of this new symptom. Right, another patented toxic maintenance drug that triggers a response in the body that covers the new symptom but which further weakens the body because the immune system must now eliminate the poisons from a third toxic pill.

Maintenance drugs don't solve the body's difficulties. They add to the body's difficulties. But they sure do make huge profits for the pharmaceutical industry. Once you begin taking expensive little pills every day, once you begin to take expensive toxic drugs designed to mask symptoms, the body will become weaker and weaker and your doctor will keep shuffling back and forth between different toxic pills trying to match them with your changing symptoms. And for 365 days a year for the rest of your life, you'll be taking little toxic pills, pills that cost pennies to manufacture but which sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.

This is one of the best moneymaking rackets ever devised. In a 2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, it was determined that 44 percent of Americans were taking at least one prescription drug and that 17 percent were taking three or more prescription drugs. Moreover, large portions of these drugs are paid for from the taxes you and I pay that are then funneled back to the pharmaceutical companies through Medicare, Medicaid and other federal drug programs. We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars!

Don't let your doctor convince you of the need to take toxic maintenance drugs to mask symptoms. Hire a doctor who will help you determine the underlying problem. Work with your doctor to find out what's causing your body to experience pain, fatigue, swelling, dizziness, headache, or whatever annoying symptom you have.

A doctor's efforts to determine the underlying problem will include blood tests for levels of toxins, nutrients, antibodies, and many other indicators. The doctor will discuss your diet, any stressors such as toxins that may exist in your work place or at home, the history of different diseases experienced by your ancestors and family members, the possibility that you may have allergies and dozens of other stressors in the environment, food or water that may be causing the symptom you're experiencing.

And the doctor will continue researching and working with you until identifying the cause of your rash, pain, fatigue, swelling, dizziness, numbness or whatever symptom you have. When he determines the cause of your symptom, he will prescribe a more nutritious diet, vitamin supplements, antibiotics, exercise and other things that help your body defeat the stress that is causing the symptom. On the other hand, he may recommend you discontinue eating certain foods or work on a plan of eliminating toxins from your diet or your environment that may be stimulating the symptoms.

The approach a doctor takes to eliminating the underlying problem will look more like the Five Step Naturopathic Approach to Healing and Perfect Health described in chapter 16 of this book. It will not include prescription of toxic drugs that trigger reactions in your body to cover up the symptoms you have.

A good place to look for a doctor who will take this approach to healing is in the listings of Naturopathic Doctors, or ND's.

For the same reasons it wasn't such a good idea to cover up the annoying red light on the dashboard of the car, it might be best if your doctor didn't give you a pill to cover up the symptom because if the symptom is gone, it will make it harder to identify the underlying problem.

Cholesterol lowering drugs are a good example of a toxic maintenance drug you should never take. First, your doctor determines that your blood cholesterol level is at a level that the medical and pharmaceutical industries have published as being excessive. Then he or she prescribes a toxic cholesterol lowering statin drug that changes the chemistry of the liver and the blood by reducing the liver's ability to make cholesterol and other essential life supporting compounds such as Co-Q-10.

Does it really make sense to take a drug that interferes with the production of several compounds that are necessary for the life support functions of the body?

Your liver is busy making cholesterol, apparently because your body thinks it needs the extra cholesterol. But the doctor thinks the medical and pharmaceutical industries know more about how much cholesterol you need than does your body. Or he simply wants to keep his job as simple as possible. So he writes a prescription for statin drugs and you begin taking pills that attack the liver's enzyme producing function, enzymes and products important in the body's hormonal balance and energy production.

What if your body was right? What if your body knows a lot more about how much cholesterol it needs than those who publish medical guidelines for doctors, people who have never even seen you? Your doctor didn't look at anything but the cholesterol level. He never even considered that the body might be making the extra cholesterol for a reason.

Cholesterol is used in the production of a myriad of crucial life sustaining substances including vitamin D, testosterone, estrogen and many other hormones that regulate body functions. Cholesterol is a powerful antioxidant that fends off free radical damage such as is caused by free radicals in unsaturated vegetable oils. Cholesterol is used in the production of bile, and cholesterol helps give structural support to cells. Cholesterol aids in the fight against cancer. And, cholesterol is the material the body uses to patch small fissures in the coronary arteries caused by years of inflammation from excessive carbohydrate(sugar) consumption and exposure to various other chemical compounds added to our artificial food supply. (See chapter four for more about the important functions of cholesterol.)

If the doctor truly believed high cholesterol is an important symptom that must be addressed, he would try to determine the underlying problem. And once he determined the cause of the symptom, he could eliminate the cause, your cholesterol level would automatically drop and you wouldn't have to take a toxic pill every day.

But instead, he simply read the report from your blood test then followed the rules of his job, acted as agent for the pharmaceutical industry and sold you a daily dose of toxic pills that make it impossible for the liver to make as much cholesterol and other important life sustaining compounds as it once did.

Taking drugs to attack the liver's cholesterol production capacity is fighting against the natural and necessary healthful operation of the body's mechanisms. Because death from all causes is lower when you have high cholesterol, it's obvious the body does know what its doing when it makes extra cholesterol.

The scientific tests pharmaceutical companies use to demonstrate the effectiveness of statin drugs have nothing to do with cholesterol. Along with the dangerous interference with the liver's normal production of important cholesterol and enzymes, statin drugs also reduce inflammation of the coronary arteries. Inflammation is the real cause of coronary heart disease. But, this inflammation can be easily reduced by supplementing the diet with vitamins C and E, reducing the consumption of carbohydrates (sugar) to get blood insulin levels under control and cutting back on eating foods with trans fats found in all foods made with vegetable oils.

Instead of using natural means to eliminate inflammation in the body, ways that make the body stronger, toxic cholesterol lowering statin drugs attack the body's normal function of the liver and cause several problems.

First, because the body uses cholesterol to repair coronary arteries caused by inflammation, the body's coronary artery maintenance system is weakened.

Second, because cholesterol is important for the maintenance of cell structure, the entire body will be weakened if the extra cholesterol was being made by the liver to overcome a problem that affected cell membranes.

Third, because statin drugs reduce the production of Coenzyme Q-10, the muscles of the body, including the heart muscle, have less energy. Less energy causes fatigue.

Fourth, cholesterol is used by the body to make many important hormones including all the sex hormones, and others that fight cancer.

Fifth, Cholesterol is used by the body to make vitamin D. Reducing cholesterol potentially reduces the body's ability to produce sufficient amounts of this important vitamin that's already deficient in most people because of sun-fear and living in climates where for most of the year the sun isn't strong enough to help our bodies convert cholesterol to vitamin D.

Sixth, cholesterol is manufactured by the liver for use as an antioxidant. Therefore, reducing the amount of cholesterol increases the risk of cancer and other diseases caused by free radicals.

Seventh, the body was intentionally making extra cholesterol to improve the functioning of the body, to overcome an underlying problem that it faced. Taking statin drugs interferes with the body's natural system of health maintenance.

The underlying problem that most often leads to heart disease is inflammation. Instead of worrying about your cholesterol level, instead of worrying about the material your body intentionally makes to prevent heart attacks, start worrying about your insulin levels and getting enough vitamins to eliminate the inflammation, especially vitamin C.

Don't take expensive toxic pills every day that only make the symptoms go away and give the body more problems while the original underlying problem keeps working against the body. Find out what is causing the symptom. Find out the underlying problem, then eliminate the nutritional deficiency that is causing the problem, remove the stressor in food or the environment that is making life difficult for the body, eliminate the bacteria or virus that may be causing the problem, get more exercise, or do a combination of all of these and the symptom will automatically disappear or become more tolerable.

An MD cannot make a single dollar until you are sick. So, they have absolutely no training in medical school on what you should do to stay healthy.

So, stop relying on MD's for health and nutritional information.

I have 27 years investigating nutrition and nutritional cures. If you want a complete guide to getting healthy and staying healthy, visit us at [http://www.PerfectHealthInstitute.com]

The government issues the license of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to designate people qualified to perform investigations of the finances and operations of corporations and to give opinions on these finances and operations.

As a CPA conducting financial and operational examinations for a government agency that regulates corporations, and later as a CPA doing financial examinations for a multi-billion dollar international corporation, Springer personally experienced how people who are "just doing their job" unknowingly support institutional greed or have no feeling of responsibility or wrongdoing. Moreover, after generations of employees coming and going, the immoral consequences of policy are completely lost within a menagerie of procedures done repeatedly without thought by employees who can say with all honesty, "I just work here".

In 1981, Springer began investigating the discrepancy between the claim of the American Medical Association that taking vitamins just made "expensive urine", and the claims of several medical doctors who were using vitamins to effectively cure and treat many diseases and sickness.

His investigation of nutrition and nutritional cures spanned 28 years and included critical analysis of more than 40 books and hundreds of other publications with an investment of over 4,000 hours. Because this study required more than 13 times the time required to obtain his bachelor degree in accounting and CPA license, Springer considers himself a nutritionist first, and a CPA second.

They're Making You Fat and Sick is his report on this 28 year investigation.

The finding of this investigation is that health and profit are competing interests. Because the corporate profit motive is one of the most powerful forces in our nation, profit is winning this competition. As a result, the food industry and the health care industry are the most profitable industries but both fail in promoting good health.

A Single-Payer Federal Health System Structured to Promote Wellness

A wellness lifestyle is not a faith-based philosophy. It is a lifestyle shown by incontrovertible evidence to be effective at reducing the need for medical care while boosting quality of life. It is a disciplined approach characterized by reason, motivated by exuberance, grounded by athleticism and made possible by liberty. Liberty is viewed as the exercise of maximum personal and societal freedom.

Despite the Obama Administration's success in getting the "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (PPACA) through Congress, medical care costs are higher than ever and expected to increase even more. Drastic action is needed.

The time has come for a revolutionary perspective, if we are ever to become healthy here (the U.S.) and healthy now (within the next couple years). Attention must be given both to the organization and to the purposes of an integrated health care system. What we have is a fragmented medical delivery business. It's time to seek a new foundation for a system capable of supporting a national goal of citizen wellness.

The next health care debate should be addressed to absolute reform of the health sector from start to finish, from bottom to top. We need three separate but equal and interdependent goal parts:

1) vastly better health status outcomes;

2) dramatic cost reductions; and

3) improved medical care delivery.

Before continuing, please take a quick two-question quiz. Question one, and please make your best estimate right off the proverbial "top of your head," is: How much does the average American spend annually for medical care, including drugs? OK?

Make a guess.

The answer is $7,960 per person, as of 2009. Let's call it $8,000 a year - it's probably closer to $9,000, now that two years have passed since the massive amounts of data needed to do this were analyzed. That is the average spent by every man, woman and child. How much did YOU spend on medical care last year? Chances are, it was not even close to this amount. The high average cost is due to extraordinary bills incurred by a small segment of the population-the aged, the afflicted and the masses who live worseness lifestyles and thus suffer terrible illnesses that otherwise might have been avoided. On second thought, maybe this latter category encompasses a majority of American adults.

One more question: What do you suppose other nations spend on health care? Well, the answer is "nothing close to what we spend." The country that invests the most on medical care after us is Norway-$5,352 per person. Next in line of big health sector spenders are England ($3,487) and France ($3,978). (Source: "Health at a Glance 2011," OECD Indicators, November 23, 2011.)

The practical implications of this American medical largess is that expensive medical care limits all other federal initiatives, it raises employer costs and thus inhibits salary increases while adding to our crushing Federal deficit.

To say it's "the best in the world," a claim ritually put forward by all Republicans vying for that party's presidential nomination, is not consistent with our health status relative to other Western nations. We are spending far more while doing much less well.

No independent health care experts believe our system is the best; most in fact think it's dreadful. A report from the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) addressed this claim. The OECD concluded that claims that America's health system is the "best in the world" "are not true." (Maria Bartiromo, "Is America Faltering as a Health Care Leader?" USA Today, One on One, October 18, 2011.)

How, specifically, is it not true? Why do world health leaders fail to recognize what seems self-evident to patriotic, god-fearing, America-loving Republican candidates? Why do these foreigners miss recognizing the obvious-that ours is the best health care system in the whole wide world?

Let me review very briefly a few of the reasons that might influence their thinking:

* The focus of our system in on treatment, not prevention or wellness promotion.

* The costs of our medical services are greater than anywhere else.

* Our system is organized to deliver the most expensive services available, often when not even needed, which can have serious side effects.

* U.S. life expectancy is 78.2 years; Japan's is 83 years and Western nations average 79.5 years. Republicans wave the flag of American "exceptionalism." We're exceptional all right. With respect to health, we're exceptionally ill-not even average healthy. With respect to our system and to our health status, we rank with Chile and the Czech Republic. (Source: Robert J. Samuelson, "A grim diagnosis for our ailing health care system," Washington Post, November 27, 2011.)

* We have fewer doctors per capital than other developed nations. This is not necessarily an unfavorable indicator, though we might benefit from a better ratio of primary care to specialized doctors. We could most benefit if we led the way not so much with more medical doctors but rather with more wellness coaches, educators, programs and incentives.

* The U.S. medical system favors more expensive procedures. Knee replacement surgery costs more in the U.S. ($14,946) than in France ($12,424) and Canada ($9,910). The same is true of most other categories, such as MRI exams and angioplasties. Yet, despite high costs, we do more of all these and other costly procedures.

We do derive value for the big bucks invested treating multiple disease conditions exacerbated by high-risk lifestyles. Patients with breast cancer have a longer survival rate by a factor of about six percent, though we fare less well treating diabetes and asthma. (Editorial, USA Today, "Dutch Treat - a medical system with full coverage, lower costs," October 19, 2011.)

In summary, the U.S. health care system is, in fact, the best in the world-for doctors, hospitals, insurance and drug companies. Not, unfortunately, for individual consumers or American society.

Fee-for-service reimbursement encourages doctors to administer more services than necessary, adding to their profit and patient risks. Government oversight is minimal, despite the insistence of Republican politicians that medical care would be cheap and we'd all live forever if only government got out of the way of public-spirited free enterprise job creators.

My recommendation for better health now and here is a bit radical, but these are radically hazardous times. To control costs and promote health status, the U.S. needs a government-administered single-payer system. We need a national campaign to create a system that promotes REAL wellness education, lifestyle practices and socio-cultural supports. Little fixes will not reduce costs nor promote well-being. The situation is dire, financially and in terms of a population growing fatter and sicker. Revolutionary reforms must find their way to the negotiating table. The challenge is epic-it involves a fifth of the economy and 100 percent of the nation's health.

Robert Green Ingersoll, America's greatest orator of the 19th century, said: "If, with all the time at my disposal, with all the wealth of the resources of this vast universe, to do with as I will, I could not produce a better scheme of life than now prevails, I would be ashamed of my efforts and consider my work a humiliating failure." Well, our challenge is far less daunting than producing "a better scheme of life. Out task is to design a better medical system that costs less than the one we have but does vastly more to promote health here and now, as soon as possible.

Publisher of the ARDELL WELLNESS REPORT (AWR) - a weekly electronic newsletter devoted to commentaries on current issues that affect personal and social well being from a quality of life perspective. The emphasis is on REAL wellness, which is also the topic of Don's latest book. Read about it here - https://www.createspace.com/3478226 - The "REAL" acronym reflects key issues embraced and advanced in Don's philosophy, namely, Reason, Exuberance, Athleticism and Liberty. Sample copy of Don's latest edition by request. If you like it, you can sign up - the price is right - free. Contact Don at awr.realwellness@gmail.com

Mental Health Care Coverage in Minnesota - Supplementing Federal Healthcare Reform

In 2007, the governor of Minnesota proposed a mental health initiative and the legislature passed it. One of the more important components of the initiative was legislation amending Minnesota's two programs for the uninsured - General Assistance Medical Care and Minnesota Care - to add to the comprehensive mental health and addictions benefit.

Who Is Covered?

General Assistance Medical Care covers those with income at or below 75% of the federal poverty level who meet one or more of additional criteria known as General Assistance Medical Care qualifiers. Qualifiers include waiting or appealing disability determination by Social Security Administration or state medical review team; or being in a homeless or live in shelter, hotel, or other place of public accommodation.

Minnesota Care covers children and pregnant women, parents, and caretakers up to 275% of the federal poverty level, except that parents and caretakers gross income cannot exceed $50,000. Single adults without children increased to 200% of federal poverty level by January 1, 2008 and will rise to 215% of federal poverty level by January 1, 2009.

What Services Are Covered?

For Minnesota Care, there are limits of $10,000 on inpatient care for any condition (physical, mental health, or addictions) for parents over 175% of federal poverty level and childless adults. For General Assistance Medical Care, inpatient benefits are fully covered. Both programs cover chemical dependency outpatient services. An intensive array of outpatient and residential mental health services are available.

What Is The Cost?

In Minnesota, the Medicaid Temporary Assistance for Needy Families population, General Assistance Medical Care and Minnesota Care are enrolled in comprehensive nonprofit health plans that are responsible to deliver and are at risk for the entire health benefit, including behavioral health. Adding mental health rehabilitative services (including adult rehabilitative mental health services individual and group rehabilitation services, assertive community treatment, intensive residential treatment and mobile and residential crisis services) to Minnesota Care was projected to cost $3.40 per person per month. For General Assistance Medical Care, which includes a homeless population, the cost was $7.01 per person per month. The additional targeted case management service was projected to cost $2.22 per person per month for Minnesota Care and $7.66 for General Assistance Medical Care.

The legislature appropriated a total of $1 million in additional state dollars in fiscal year 2008 and $ 3.5 million in fiscal year 2009 to add the adult rehabilitative services and case management in Minnesota Care. State funds previously targeted for case management were moved from the counties to the state in an amount of $4.4 million in fiscal year 2009.

What Led To Comprehensive Coverage?

The state collected data on the residents served by Minnesota Care, General Assistance Medical Care, and Medicaid managed care plans serving non-disabled populations, and discovered that an increasing number of individuals with serious mental illnesses were in these plans. Several insurance reforms - similar to those included in the national healthcare reform bill - modified the private market, including guaranteed issue in small and large group plans, broader rate bands, parity for mental health and chemical dependency services, medical loss ratios, high risk insurance pool, and others. A lawsuit by the attorney general called attention to health plan denials of payment for court-ordered treatment, for example for civil commitment or out of home placement for adolescents.

Health plans settled with an agreement that behavioral and mental health benefits would be covered by a health plan if the court based its decision on a diagnostic evaluation and plan of care developed by a qualified professional. In addition to the court-ordered services provision, the state contracts and capitation with prepaid health programs (Minnesota Care and General Assistance Medical Care) were amended to align risk and responsibility for services in institutions for mental illnesses, 180 days of nursing home or home health, and court-ordered treatment. There were also highly successful experiments reducing costs and improving outcomes for commercial and non-disabled Medicaid clients who were offered a more intensive community based mental health service that improved coordination with and linkages to behavioral healthcare, primary care, and other needed services.

These demonstrations produced a positive return on investment - $0.38/person/month - and gave the health plans tools to manage the increased risk that resulted from several insurance reforms, including parity, a statutory definition of medical necessity, and the court-ordered treatment provision.

The state supported comprehensive coverage because it sought to provide mental health and addiction services in Minnesota as part of mainstream healthcare. Minnesota's mental health agency and other stakeholders desired to move mental illness from its historical treatment as a social disease requiring social services to an illness like any other. They wanted to foster earlier interventions and avoid shifting enrollees among different programs in order to access specific services. Operationalizing this change required rethinking medical necessity determinations, provider credentialing, contracting, procedure codes and other processes common to private insurance plans.

How Did It Get Through The Political Process?

Three factors significantly contributed to the political viability of a benefit expansion in the Minnesota Care and General Assistance Medical Care programs:

>> The governor of Minnesota and the administration provided strong leadership. The provisions to expand the mental health benefits in these plans were part of the governor's mental health initiative, set forth in advance of the 2007 legislative session.

>> An extremely strong coalition of stakeholders formed a mental health action group. This group is co-chaired by a representative from the department of human services and included representation from the private insurance industry and organized and knowledgeable advocacy and provider communities.

>> There was strong support in the legislature for the expansion of benefits in Minnesota Care and General Assistance Medical Care, including from a member of the finance committee in the house, who has a son with schizophrenia. The creation of a mental health division in the health and human services policy committee also helped move the policy discussion forward.

Why Does This Approach to Healthcare Reform Work?

A recent survey of community behavioral health organizations found that on average, 42% of reimbursement for services came from private insurers. While this represents the average, the survey found that there was quite a range in reimbursement sources. For community behavioral health organizations that specialize in services such as Assertive Community Treatment or case management, Medicaid is the predominant reimbursement source, either through fee-for-service or managed care.

Reimbursement from private insurance and Medicaid managed care is uniformly better than Medicaid fee-for-service. In addition to higher rates, the private insurers and Medicaid managed care organizations have been willing to offer special contracts for packages of services for crisis care and hospital discharge plus aftercare.

Linda Rosenberg is the president and CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. TNC specializes in lobbying for mental and behavioral healthcare reform. Lean more at http://www.thenationalcouncil.org.

Alcohol - A Health Malefactor

Many people consider alcohol as a social drink because its associated with parties, relaxation and adventures. Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been aware of the benefits and harms of alcohol. Today, for some alcohol is part of an everyday complete meal. Because evidence has proven alcohol a health benefactor when consumed moderately, some people tend to consume more than their body needs, which turns it into an insidious substance. While the health benefits of alcohol are being promoted since it prevents coronary heart disease and stimulates the circulatory system when consumed moderately, those benefits should not be encouraged because not only does alcohol increase the risk factors of many internal organs, it aggravates many environmental problems.

Alcohol consumption has been part of many cultures. Before the European colonization, the native population of the territory that would eventually become the United States used to produce weak beers or other fermented. In the past, alcohol was used as a trading medium, often bartered for highly sought-after animal skins and other natural resources such as indigo. During the colonial era, however, not only was alcohol used for medicinal purposes, it was also employed for religious ceremonies. For example, until the twentieth century, alcohol was the only painkiller generally available in western civilizations. In addition, alcohol was applied to help people recover their health and to reduce the risk of certain diseases including flu. Furthermore, liquor was associated with transcendental experiences and other cultural rituals that were purported to put people in contact with supernatural forces.

The peyote ritual is a prime example of these ceremonies. Peyote ritual is a sacrament intended to put one in communication with spiritual forces to instill harmony in ones life. The ritual follows a prescribed structure: it is composed of a leader called a Roadman who makes certain rules and regulations that are to be precisely followed. Finally, the Roadman uses a variety of sensory stimuli [including] cedar smoke and sprinkled water to prevent participants from drifting off into a disconnected state of conscientiousness. In fact, the peyote ritual is often used within Indian communities for the treatment of alcohol abuse.

Moderate consumption of alcohol lowers the risks for coronary heart disease. According to the United States Department of Agriculture and Human Services, moderate consumption is defined as no more than two drinks per day for men and no more than one drink per day for women. Ideally, a drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. In order for the cardio-vascular system to function properly, the tissue that constitutes the bulk of the heart requires frequent supplies of oxygen containing blood, which is delivered to the heart through the arteries. Cholesterol and other fatty substances can accumulate within the coronary arteries and ultimately block the flow of blood. Normally, this blood clotting condition is known as a CHD (coronary heart disease) attack. Alcohol plays a momentous role in facilitating the circulation of blood throughout the body. For example, alcohol prevents the formation of blood clots. In addition to cholesterol and other fatty substances impeding blood circulation, clotting also occurs from chemicals released into the blood through the arterial wall. Moreover, alcohol not only suppresses fibrin, the substance that promotes clotting, it produces certain substances that preclude the clotting process. Alcohol basically prevents the risk of CHD by eliminating most of the contributing factors.

In addition, alcohol consumption might play an important role in stimulating the cardio-vascular system. For example, laboratory research has demonstrated alcohols usage as a positive factor in preventing arterial narrowing in mice. Arterial narrowing in the human body occurs in the blood concentration of certain fatty substances that influence the deposition of cholesterol within the coronary arteries. In addition, alcohol may prevent the formation of clots within already narrowed arteries. For instance, analyses of blood samples of many individuals indicate that alcohol consumption increases blood levels of anti-clotting factors and decreases the stickiness of the platelets, the specialized blood cells that clump together to form clots. Other laboratory research suggests that alcohol might help protect against reperfusion injury, which is a form of blood flow to heart muscles weakened by lack of oxygen. Alcohol can be considered something of paramount importance since it enhances the cardio-vascular system.

In contrast, alcohol consumption has detrimental effects. It impairs bone development. To begin with, alcohol has some harmful effects on the two types of bone the human skeleton encompasses: cortical bone, which is dense and thick, forms the outer layer of bone and the shafts of the long bones of the arms and legs and cancellous bone, which is a porous meshwork of thin plates [which shape the vertebral column]. Alcohol is harmful for both types of bone although the most crucial effects occur in cancellous bone. Medically speaking, the process of skeletal growth and maturation involves three general phases: growth and modeling, consolidation and remodeling. Heavy alcohol consumption interferes with the growth-and-modeling phase by stopping the longitudinal growth rate and the rate of proliferation of bone. Moreover, usage of alcoholic beverages affects parathyroid, the hormone that regulates the calcium metabolism.

Overindulgence of alcohol causes adverse effects, particularly on women. For example, alcohol might indirectly affect bone through estrogen since the deficiency of such a hormone is a major contributing factor of osteoporosis. Over the last decade, many studies have shown an obtrusive relationship between the consumption of alcohol and bone loss. Specifically, a 1997 study conducted by a group of researchers showed that women aged sixty-five and older who were heavy alcohol consumers had an increased risk of vertebral deformity compared to moderate alcohol drinkers. Another study investigated the influence of moderate alcohol consumption on ovariectomized rats to imitate menopause. Subsequently, the rats that had their ovaries removed for the experimentation exhibited a diminished bone density and volume compared to nonovariectomized rats. Because fewer osteoblasts are found in the alcohol-fed animals, this finding leads to the conclusion that moderate alcohol consumption has no absolute health benefits since it inhibits bone quality.

Heavy alcohol consumption may lead to the necessity of liver transplantation. Because the liver is the largest organ in the body, it performs a variety on tasks, namely digesting, absorbing, and processing food. Moreover, the liver stores vitamins, synthesizes cholesterol, controls blood fluidity and regulates blood-clotting mechanisms. A liver disease is one of the most serious medical consequences of long-term alcohol consumption. In 1991, 25,000 Americans died mainly from liver cirrhosis, making it the elevenths nation leading killer. Another study demonstrates approximately one half of cirrhosis deaths have been ascribed to alcohol usage. Moreover, long-term alcohol consumption is the most prevalent single cause of illness and death from liver disease in the United States since the only possible cure is a liver-transplantation, which is a risky undertaking. In addition, the liver is so fragile that a single occurrence of heavy drinking is enough to dispose fat in the liver and may lead to alcoholic hepatitis, a severe inflammation of the liver characterized by nausea, weakness, pain, loss of appetite, weight loss and fever. Finally, alcoholic cirrhosis is the most advanced form of liver injury. The disease is characterized by progressive development of scar tissue that blocks the blood vessels and distorts the livers internal structure, impairing the liver's function. Basically, liver disease compromises the body’s ability to perform multiple functions essential to life.

Furthermore, alcohol consumption can damage the nervous system. Because alcohol is a toxic substance, it can cause alcoholic and chronic drinkers to suffer from abnormalities in their mental functioning and changes in behaviors associated with brain impairment. Alcohol consumption can have direct or indirect effects in the neurological system, which makes it even more dangerous to consume casually or regularly. Over the past twenty-five years, images of the brain created with modern neurological techniques, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tormography (CT), generally show a [clear] relationship between prolonged alcohol consumption and changes in the brains structure. For example, MRI and CT results have shown brain shrinkage and brain lesions or tissue damage in some alcohol consumers.

In addition, alcohol has some adverse effects on many other neurological processes. While moderate alcohol consumption of alcohol lowers body temperature, severe intoxication in cold weather may lead to hypothermia, a massive, life-threatening decline in temperature. Moreover, alcohol usage can interfere with normal sleep patterns. Light consumption of alcohol can cause early sedation of sleepiness, awaking during the night and suppression of Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM). Psychologically speaking, REM is the dreaming state of sleep and when it occurs near wakefulness, it often produces vivid hallucinations. Another severe consequence of alcoholism is the Korsokoffs Syndrome (KS), a devastating memory disorder in which a person forgets the incidents throughout the course of his day or as they occur. Hence, because of this dramatic loss of short-term memory (also called anterograde amnesia), patients with KS virtually live in the past.

Not only is alcohol consumption detrimental for the user but for others in his path. Drunk driving is one of the nations leading killers. Over the past decade, drunk drivers have killed more than 42,000 people on a yearly basis. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, alcohol significantly increases the changes of fatal car accidents. In 1997, more than 17,000 Texans died mainly from drunk driving accidents. Another study of the same year shows more than 30 percent of driving fatalities involved alcohol consumption. Most shocking of all, teenage drivers represent less than 7 percent of the total population; however, the damage of teenage drunk drivers is more than 13 percent of motor vehicle deaths. In order to minimize driving fatalities, most states have now adopted the Zero Tolerance policy in compliance with the National Highway Systems Designation Act of 1995. Fortunately, with the new law in place, more than 17,000 lives are being saved every year.

In addition, alcohol plays a causal role in violence. Over the past forty years, many studies have shown a conspicuous relationship between alcohol consumption and violent events. According to these studies, alcohol is linked to one-half to two-thirds of homicides, in one-fourth to nearly one-half of serious assaults. In addition, alcohol consumption appears to be connected with sexual assault. For example, police reports have demonstrated 24 percent of a group of identified sexual offenders and 31 percent of their victims had been drinking. Moreover, although many people consume alcohol moderately and responsibly, studies show that a number of people drink to get drunk and therefore, their behaviors create some serious problems for people around them. For example, alcoholics and people who frequently binge drink usually have problems with friends, marriage, home-life, work and finances. Statistically speaking, 5 percent of drinkers reported that their drinking affected their finances. Furthermore, heavy drinking can have major social costs on society including lost of productivity in the workplace, family violence, which in most cases, leads to a divorce, accidental injuries and even death.

Although there are opposing viewpoints on the effects of alcohol, there is one factor on which researchers can agree: Heavy consumption of alcohol is harmful. From some researchers standpoint, moderate consumption of alcohol can also be harmful because it can interfere with the normal functioning of the liver, impede bone formation and most importantly inhibit the nervous system. Medically speaking, alcohol has no health benefits without negative externalities.

In summary, although some have found that moderate alcohol consumption has some benefits, the actual adverse impact that it has on society is far from being beneficial. In order to circumvent being affected by the deleterious chain-of-reaction that comes along drinking, society has to understand one fact: the best way to prevent something is never to start.

References

Alcohol and Coronary Heart Disease.

National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Oct. 1999. Sirs Researcher. 09 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

Alcohols Harmful Effects on Bone.

Alcohol Health and Research World. 22 (Summer 1998). Health Reference Center Academic. 04 May 2001. [http://www.ccla.lib.fl.us].

Alcohol Use and Its Consequences.

Canadian Social Trend. Fall 1995. Sirs Researcher. 08 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

American Indian and Alcohol.

Sirs Researcher. 22 (1998). National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 06 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

Drunk Drivers Beware.

State Legislatures. November 1999. Sirs Knowledge Source. 07 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

The Epidemiology of Alcohol-Related Interpersonal Violence.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse. 16 (1992). Sirs Government Reporter. 08 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

Hunter, Beatrice Trum.

Some Effects of Alcohol. Consumers Research Magazine. 82 (Mar. 1999). Academic Search Elite. 09 May 2001. [http://www.ccla.lib.fl.us].

Liver Transplantation for Alcoholics With Terminal Disease.

Alcohol Research and Health. Winter 1997. Sirs Researcher. 07 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

New Benefits and Concerns about Alcohol. John Hopkins Medical Letter After 50. June 1997. Sirs Researcher. 04 May 2001. http://sks.sirs.com.

Oscar-Berman, Marlene et al.

Impairment of Brain and Behavior. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 21 (1997). EBSCO Academic Search Elite. 03 May 2001. [http://www.ccla.lib.fl.us].

Rodrigue Monestime has authored several articles. He holds a BS in Business Administration with high concentration in Management Information System (MIS). He is the founder of BizVita.com [http://www.bizvita.com], a site designed for busy professionals with an all-in-one approach to the daily facts of the global business environment.

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