Kids these days…

Just this past week down in Ann Arundel County, 17 HS football players were taken to the hospital due to heat related illness; all 17 at the same time, not a cumulative count. Now that I’m old enough to say: “kids these days,” I have to say, kids these days are a little weak. I did 2 a days under the blistering South Texas sun under stifling coastal humidity, and we never passed out. Now the truth is the blame falls with the coach. He should have noticed something was wrong when that many boys are getting sick; but that is actually beside the point itself. Like I’ve mentioned many times before, being proactive is not prevention. Being preventative with hydration entails 24 hour a day vigilance, and more than drinking Gatorade and eating bananas. Just recently I wrote about hydration and it’s importance, when you dealing with extreme conditions, that importance quadruples. They need to be drinking no less than 8 glasses of water a day along with 1 more for every 15 minutes of activity, eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and whole grains; a low-calorie carb/electrolyte replacement beverage (Gatorade) is fine for about every hour to two of activity.

I also want to talk a bit about childhood obesity. This generation of kids is the first in recorded history not expected to outlive their parents. Even though 2/3’s of children under 12 are clinically overweight, only 40% of parents believe that their children are (mostly because they are too and don’t realize it). Back when I was a kid (and yes I actually did walk uphill both ways in the snow. In college, in the Utah mountains where it snows feet upon feet, I lived on top of one hill and campus was on top of another.); I can count on one hand how many times we went out to eat in a year on one hand, we went outside at 9, and came back at 9, and soda was only for special occasions. Today, it’s McD’s 3 times a day, gallons of Mt Dew and the only exercise is thumbs on the video controller.

So what to do? Eat well, think well and move well…

Pro-active vs Prevention

There's been lot's of talk about using preventative measures to lower health care costs during all this reform hoop-la. I'm here to tell you "their" idea of prevention won't save anything, and will cost extra, because it's not prevention at all but just being proactive. Heart disease: "they" say early testing and monitoring is cheaper than by-pass. It is, but stress tests, MRA's and angio-grams cost $10K each and then your avg cholesterol medication is about another 7 grand a year. It's cheaper for the insurance company for you to have a heart attack and die, that's called hedging your bet. "Their" so called preventative measures aren't really about prevention, but finding things that may or may not be wrong with expensive tests and medication.

Now, I'm not saying don't get your tests, early detection is far more valuable then money; do them, do them regularly and on time. Being proactive is priceless, but it's not prevention.

Want true prevention that actually prevents disease and saves money? Move well, eat well and think well. Exercise $75-100 for a good pair of shoes; putting down that snickers, saves you money; brocolli $2ish/pound; letting go of anger and angst, sometimes free; not having a heart attack, priceless.

Paying for health care

I. End the corn subsidy. Corn is processed into corn syrup, a highly inflammatory, high but empty calorie goo that makes us fat and promotes disease. It also alters the histology and biochemistry of the animals that eat it; which in turn alters the biochemistry and histology of us meat eaters. Cows should be eating grass. Corn makes them bigger and is cheaper because of the subsidy. Take the money and put it to health care, and the increased cost will force farmers to raise healthier meats.

II. Tax fast food, prepared, processed and junk foods that all tend to be cheaper than healthy foods. Take that money and put it toward health care. It will also make healthy food cheaper (by comparison).

III. Make gym memberships, visits to true preventitive providers such as chiropractors and nutritionists tax deductible. Healthier people go to the doctor less.

IV. Make health insurance merit based, such as auto. In that I'm self-employed, I have to buy my own insurance. Private plans are exempt from ERISA rules; which means that people with unhealthy habits, the over weight, with pre-existing conditions and those who go to the doctor more, pay more. All health insurance should be the same.

V.Mal practice reform. Not tort reform.Currently 80% of all medical costs are diagnostic, not because the doctor doesn't know what's wrong, but so he can document he did his diligence incase you sue. Insurance companies charge outrages fees to doctors not because of law suits, but because they lost their shirts in the market. I know an OB that has been in practice over 20 years, never been sued and by law has to carry a $1 million policy, which he pays $100,000 a year for. If you capped malpactice payouts today, I doubt rates would go down. Insurance companies are there to make money first, provide a service second.

Put the burden (and financially) on the plantiff. If you loose, you pay for court costs, investigations and the doctors lost wages. Cases can only be filed after an obudsmen finds that it is true neglegence, not just a mistake.

Get Real About Health Care Reform

About 6 months ago I quit paying alot of attention to the news. I still listen to NPR, watch Stewart and Colbert and read homepage headlines; but I'm not super-engaged. So what I'm saying is, I'm not really that sure what is going on with health care reform, except it isn't really going. I do know that no one is even really talking about health care reform, but health care finance reform (and not really doing much with that either).

I'll hear on TV all the time that here in the US we don't have a health care system, but a sick care system. It isn't even that. We run a symptom care system. My head hurts, take this pill, I can't breath, take this pill; run this test, cut that out to alleviate this/that symptom. If we were even serious about sick care, we would get to the root cause of headaches, backpain, shortness of breath etc and fix it (which IS what I do, but that's another subject for another day).

The leading causes of death, disease and health care expenditures in this country are all life-style related. Smoking, diet, accidents and sexual. There isn't a single disease, disorder or system that smoking doesn't mal-affect. If in 2009 you still smoke, come by the office so I can wack you with a stick.

Diet. We eat like crap and don't exercise, and the food we eat we think is good, is crap. The average American should eat about 1800 calories a day, we usually get 2600; of which about 60% is usless, i.e has no nutritional value. Such as simple carbs, alcohol, fats and some dairy products (ice cream, processed cheese etc). We should get most of our calories from fruits and veggies (potatoes, lettuce and ketchup are not veggies); followed by lean meats (no visable fat) and tree nuts. Less than 10% should come from a refined source. In short, if it comes in a sack, box, bag or comes from the grocery store ailes and not periphery; don't eat it.

Even then, much of our fresh food is lacking or even dangerous. The way our meat is grown (feed corn, drugs and hormones) creates a biochemical change in that meat that promotes inflammation in our body.

If we want to get serious about health care reform, let's reform our health.

More of Me

I've started this blog to further promote health, wellness and prevention. The real thing, not how a politician or salesman uses those words. Quickly, I am a trained chiropractor with physical therapy priveleges in Bel Air, MD. I have thousands of classroom and hundreds of thousands of experience hours in diagnosing and treating all manor of disease along with how to prevent it from a natural model of health. You can visit me on the web at http://www.susquespine.com or http://belairdiskpain.com and be my facebook friend: Susquehanna Spine N Rehab