Posts for category ‘Health Care’

I received a question today on a post I wrote called Alternatives.

“I’m studying alternative medicine for sociology at school and was wondering why people chose to use alternative medicine when modern medicine is available.  Even people with cancer, chose to use alternative therapy instead of rely in doctors. I am just very unsure why.”

There are a lot of reasons why people use alternatives.

Some don’t trust drug companies. They believe that these outfits are only in it for the money.  They point to examples where the companies have suggested long term use of medicines ostensibly to prevent possible problems.  For example, taking one aspirin a day can prevent heart attacks.  Even some doctors are calling this a myth.  If it is, then some companies are making a profit on this.

Still others worry about drug testing. Up until the 1970s it took about 20 years of testing before a drug was approved for use.   Today tests are completed within a year and then if there are no immediate problems it is released to the public.  Have you ever noticed how your doctor’s office hands out free samples?  This is a way of testing it in the field.  Have you noticed how a lot of drug ads list side affects that, in some cases, outweigh the benefits?  Some drugs have been taken out of circulation when it was discovered that they can cause death.

Some people don’t trust doctors. Are these doctors getting kickbacks from the drug companies to push certain drugs?  It seems like everyone is on at least one drug nowadays.   They see other doctors as being close minded.  There has been a lot of study on omega 3 fatty acids and how they can help the body. Some doctors actually consider the results of eating fish or taking omega 3 supplements to be more of a placebo rather than a benefit.

People look at their country’s healthcare ranking. According to the World Health Organization the United States ranks 37.  To give you an idea where we are on the list, Cuba is 39, Morocco is 29.

They listen to prominent doctors. When a particular harmful drug was removed from the market a few years ago the then surgeon general was asked if drugs actually cure illness.  His answer was that they only address symptoms.  When asked if these drugs are safe he responded that drugs will kill you.

Why do these same people trust alternatives? The same surgeon general was asked if alternative medicines are safe.  He said that the worst they could do would be to give you diarrhea.

Do alternatives work? Modern medicine is fairly young, perhaps 50 years old.  A lot of the “natural medicines” have been around for thousands of years. Some work, some don’t.   Evidence is strictly anecdotal; there haven’t been many formal studies done.  If someone is going to go in this direction they should do a lot of their own research.  Some of this stuff is just “snake oil”.  You can end up spending thousands of dollars for something that doesn’t work well or at all.

I believe in using both alternative and mainstream medicine. One prominent MD, Medical School Teacher, and author, Andrew Weil believes in Integrative Medicine which combines mainstream medical treatments with alternative treatments for which there is some scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness.

Both mainstream and alternative medicines have some very beneficial parts to them.  Just as people should research alternative practices before utilizing them they should also study mainstream methods before discounting them.

It has been a mixed bag of a day today. It has had its ups and downs and we have a long way to go before it is over. It started out like any other Thursday. We got Max off to school and then I went over to my mother’s house. Every Thursday I do the work that she needs to have done. I washed the shingles on the roof; there has been a lot of mold this year. I also trimmed back her bushes. Then after that it was time for a road trip.

Several weeks ago I put up a guest post from my friend Rich Mountain regarding an organization called suitcases4kids. Its goal is to replace the garbage bags that kids in foster care use to move their belongings with suitcases. Ever since I told her about it Mom has been searching out and giving me 3 or 4 suitcases a week to give to the charity. Today when I arrived she handed me 2 but then she wanted to stop at a couple of places where she has had good luck finding them.

We found 1 suitcase at our first stop but then saw a beautiful one at the second. As we entered the place a gold Mercedes Benz pulled in behind our car. A fiftyish man got out dressed in expensive clothes. He was wearing a tight v-neck jersey with black chest hair pouring out and gold chains around his neck. He followed us inside.

This is an interesting place. Residents of this town drop of items that are in good condition that they don’t need anymore. If they or someone else sees something they like they can just take it. There is no rhyme or reason to the place. People drop their things anywhere they find a space so as a result rather than having a clear path to move through quite often we have to step over things to get to another spot.

Mom has had good luck finding suitcases here. She has a system; move through the place once to see if she finds anything she wants. Once she completes her first circuit anything she has picked up she hands off to a companion, me in this case. She then makes a second run because she finds that she always misses things the first time. Depending on her mood she may make several more trips after this.

It was during the second pass that I saw the beautiful suitcase; some child would love this. As I moved towards it suddenly out of nowhere appeared that gentleman who had also discovered it. He scooped it up before I got there and examined it to see if it was in good condition. I was amused that he was even interested in it; even more so when I found out that he was going to sell it in a yard sale. When I approached him and suggested he donate it to the kids he shrugged me off; apparently the money was more important. No matter, Mom had found 3 so far this week for me.

When we were done I dropped my mother off at her house and headed home. My wife was waiting for me at the door; she was unhappy. She had been sick for some time and had finally been able to see her doctor. After he tested her he gave her some not so good news. He said that she had parasites, a yeast infection, and a tape worm; he prescribed some medicines for her. He also suggested she stop eating wheat because of all the gluten and chocolate because of the sugar. He said that she was feeding the parasites, the yeast, and the worm.

She won’t have much of an issue cutting out wheat; she has been slowly working on doing that for some time now. It is the chocolate she will have a problem with. As she puts it, she’s been eating it since she was a baby. She calls it her addiction. I believe it; I have seen her kneeling on the floor in store candy aisles pulling bags of candy off the bottom shelf just so she can find the ones that she loves. We will be working on this one for awhile.

And guess what? Max got home from school on time but then had a meltdown. Why? He didn’t know; he just knew that he was upset. I convinced him to sit quietly on the couch until he could get it together. When he recovered we told him he could have his best friend over. This was a big deal; they haven’t been together for 3 weeks. Separating them started out as loss of privilege, or punishment, or whatever you want to call it. Max had taken issue with something his friend had said and started hitting him. We took Bobby home and told my son that he couldn’t play with him for a few days.

But when we gave Max back the privilege of seeing his friend, Bobby had disappeared. Turns out he and his mom went on vacation and when they got back she was very sick so we weren’t able to communicate with them. 3 weeks later the boys are back together and as I write they are having a ball. They are dividing their time between playing indoors and outside. It’s about to rain so I expect they’ll be camping out soon in front of my office door.

Even though the day is far from over it has certainly been a mixed day of successes and upsets. I’m hoping for a quiet relaxing evening tonight. Oh wait, probably not. The “So You Think You Can Dance” result show is on tonight and I know my wife will be terribly upset at whoever is cut. It has been whittled down to 4 girls and 4 boys and unfortunately my wife loves all of them.

Did I say I was hoping for a relaxing evening?

Have you been keeping up with everything happening with President Obama’s Healthcare Initiative?  I have found it confusing especially since I started watching the cable channel devoted to the goings on in the Senate.  Of course, the Democrats want one thing and keep going on and on about how the Republicans are trying to stop any reform that will benefit the country.  Meanwhile the Republicans are complaining that the package that the Democrats in both the Congress and Senate will bankrupt the country while limiting all the choices that Mr Obama promised.

Who is right?  I don’t think any of the politicians are.  And they won’t be right until they start listening to their constituents.  I recently came across a series of videos that attempts to put our current healthcare situation into some perspective.  There are 14 and are only 50 seconds to 8 minutes long (note, some videos have several parts to them).  None are slickly packaged; each is about someone like you and me who has had issues (good and bad) with our current healthcare system and what changes, if any, they would like to see.

All are worth watching but since they are all homegrown some are better than others. This is the first one:

“When I first brought up this video I was afraid it was going to try to sell me a position (pro or con) on government healthcare.  But like the rest of us Ms Keenan has only voiced her concerns about what the final outcome may be.”

Each video covers a different aspect, some talk about their insurance coverage, others tell stories of their harrowing experiences with the current health care system, and still others don’t even have insurance.  All would like to know what the future of healthcare is and what they would like to see included.

Most of them like the idea of a single payer system but they regret that it is not even part of the government discussion right now.  And of course there are those that argue along party lines, that is, why the Republicans are wrong and why the Democrats are on the right track.  But aside from that we can learn something from what each person has to say.  And for me it was a great start in understanding all the issues without having to listen to the politicians’ versions.

After seeing this video you can watch the rest of them and then think about your situation.  What experiences have you had with healthcare and what would you like to see happen.  If you are from Massachusetts what do you think of their healthcare plan.

For those of you who don’t know, besides the standard insurance company plans, Massachusetts has two of their own.  The first one is called MassHealth.  It is for people who are under 19, over 65, or are disabled.  The second program, Commonwealth Care, is for those people between the ages of 19 and 65 and are in good health.  Costs for these are based on your income level.  In this state everyone must have insurance so these were made available for people that can’t afford regular health insurance.