Palabra Habitada

Most of the Congressional debate for health care reform revolves around ways to extend reimbursement for sick care. However, paying for more of the same fragmented, costly care isn’t reform, it’s madness.

The $2.2 trillion health care system, the costliest in the world, requires a new top-to-bottom vision, and although the 600 doctors and health professionals gathered at the Institute of Medicine’s Summit on Integrative Medicine last month didn’t agree on everything, they reached a resounding consensus about the need for Americans to change their health habits. Yet how can that best be accomplished?

With a primary shift toward health promotion, disease prevention and wellness, a revamped health care system could put the brakes on the disastrous trajectory predicted for 2012, in which total health care costs would equal 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Providers, employers, and even insurance companies finally concede that the US would fall behind the world’s nations in every imaginable sector if one out of every dollar of our productivity went toward health care costs.

For over 30 years, the National Wellness Institute has been reporting that 8 out of 10 Americans suffer from chronic ailments derived from unhealthy lifestyles: poor diet, inadequate physical activity and unmanaged stress. Yet the difficult task of behavior change has always fallen on individuals, without much support from the medical system or their doctors.

In addition, cultural support has been lacking for the most at-risk populations, often minorities with higher rates of diabetes and obesity. At present, there are more obese Americans than overweight ones-an almost unthinkable statistic.

Cultural support for healthy lifestyles starts with community activists demanding bike paths, public parks, safe streets, farmers’ markets, fresh food options and more from their local governments. Together with cooperation from industry, government, health care, and public health officials, pressure can be placed on developers to build environments that provide opportunities for physical activity. Teachers, parents and consumers can demand that Big Food stop advertising cheap, non-nutritious, calorie-dense, processed foods to kids and young adults. Schools can offer nutrition and PE classes again, and lunch programs can teach kids about healthy choices-and provide them!

Should Your MD Get Paid to Teach Wellness?

“Lose weight, stop smoking, start exercising, and cut down on your stress-and I’ll see you next year for your physical.” Everybody knows that the once-a-year admonition from your doctor rarely translates into new health habits.

A new tier of health coaches can supply the support and encouragement needed for Americans to begin their journey towards maximizing personal health. Health coaches should be part of every public clinic, medical office and hospital wellness center. They should be reimbursed by insurance companies, or be part of the first-access tier of Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance companies and corporate wellness programs. Even Dr. Mehmet Oz suggested that health coaches should be considered a central part of health care reform to CNN’s medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Instead of medical doctors expecting to be reimbursed for providing health promotion and wellness services (at rates exceeding $200/ hour), health coaches could easily provide this service at one-fifth the cost. They would also present a more friendly, accessible, peer-support approach to individuals. The specialized training of medical doctors is best directed to complex cases, whether acute or chronic.

The entire continuum of care needs to be re-examined and opened up to include reimbursement for health professionals that investigate the foundational causes of chronic illness, and who understand and have specialized skills in countering the ill effects of unhealthy lifestyles-professionals such as Nurse Practitioners, Naturopathic Doctors, and Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors, Homeopathic doctors, and Chiropractors.

For too long, there has been an active collusion barring the advancement of these professions by certain medical organizations with insurance companies, and the public has suffered as a result.

When these allied health professionals spoke up, demanding inclusion at the reimbursement table at the Summit on Integrative Medicine, a few medical doctors such as Dean Ornish, MD, championed this democratizing of the medical landscape, but others kept insisting that their own practices could accomplish wellness services, if only they were properly reimbursed.

However, reimbursement for lifestyle counseling should not have to include the major overhead encountered by medical doctors, including their clinical offices, costly tuition loans, high-tech equipment, numerous staff and billing clerks.

It’s been said that the US health care system is neither healthy nor much of a system. I believe it’s always darkest before the dawn of a new era, and these dark days of an ailing system must mean the light is about to break over the horizon.

Bringing health coaches into the US health care system can address the colossal “elephant in the middle of the room”-that the burden of disease and related health costs can be dramatically lowered through healthy behavioral change. Learning to move more, eat well and less, and de-stress often, is not only a prescription for a better life, it’s an Rx for US health care reform.

Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, is Dept. Chair and Professor of Integrative Health Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco. She is a medical anthropologist, specializing in behavioral medicine and integrative health. Reach her at mjordan@ciis.edu

Many people are looking for a more holistic health approach to meet their health care needs these days, but don’t quite understand what it means or how it will benefit them. More and more consumers are becoming aware that our current health care system is failing us in more ways than one and some kind of action is required, but get frightened or diverted by other’s negative perceptions and skepticism of natural health which is really based on misinformation and lack of understanding.

Most skepticism of alternative health modalities is fueled by the unfortunate fact that modern medicine tries to discredit alternative means of healing because it is much more profitable for them to use surgery and pharmaceuticals, not on any real grounds for concern. The topic of alternative health always brings out the doubting Thomas’s who scream quackery and voodoo. You may hear that they tried a holistic method without any success or that they had some weird side effect or even felt worse.

Here’s a couple important points to keep in mind. Their experience may be true but that does not mean it is true for everyone and there could be other reasons that contributed to their experience. We can very easily find another group of people who had great success and no side effects with the exact same treatment method they used.

This is because not everyone’s body responds to a particular treatment or healing approach in the exact same way. Even though you may share the same health condition with someone else, each of you has a unique body chemistry and genetics and the same disease can have a different process or impact from person to person. Each of these factors influences the results that will be achieved. In addition to that, someone with a liver, lymph system, endocrine system or other organ or system that doesn’t function optimally may have a very different response than someone who has healthier organs and systems.

Just because one treatment approach is ineffective for one person, does not meant it will be ineffective for you or others and that doesn’t mean that “all” holistic health care is ineffective. Results can be completely different from individual to individual. A lot of times it requires some trial and error to find what works best with your biochemistry and specific circumstances.

Additionally, this is true whether we are talking about a holistic health method or traditional pharmaceuticals. Regardless of whether we’re talking about natural remedies or prescription drugs, what is effective for one may not work at all for another, but overall holistic health is much more effective and a lot safer. We can find hundreds of thousands of people who have severe side effects, get worse, develop more serious health conditions or even die from prescription drugs. On the other hand, these events are rare within the field of natural health.

Holistic health or alternative health has actually been around longer than prescription medication or so called “modern” medicine. Plants and herbs have been used successfully to heal by many civilizations for centuries and most pharmaceutical drugs have their roots in herbal medicine. For example, the common and popular aspirin originated from an herb called white willow bark.

However, a crucial fact that many are not aware of is that just because something is natural does not mean it will automatically be free of side effects, complications or risks. Many people doctor themselves before first doing their homework and having a thorough understanding of the method they are using.

Herbs, plants, vitamins, minerals, or any alternative treatment method can be just as potent as a prescription and requires a great deal of education and research to be sure you achieve the desired results. They should be taken or performed as prescribed by a knowledgeable health care provider. For example: some holistic remedies that are effective for depression can have a negative effect on someone with Parkinson’s.

Too much or too little of a particular herb can be ineffective, while too much of a vitamin or mineral can be just as bad as not enough. There can be complications or interactions even within natural substances, as one herb or even treatment modality such as massage or acupuncture may counteract or rev up another treatment approach and vitamins and minerals work in conjunction with one another

Additionally, herbs and other natural substances can interact with prescription medication and reduce it’s effectiveness and vice versa. Its extremely important that you consult with a holistic health care provider and disclose all medications and conditions prior to medicating yourself.

Another important issue that may impact results of a holistic health remedy is the quality of the product or service you use. It’s vital to do your homework in this area as well and only use products and services from reputable companies. The natural health field is not immune to sales hype and scamming. You must be a diligent and informed consumer regardless of what path you follow.

Breaking free from the old way of thinking that conditions us to believe that drugs and surgery are the superior method of treatment can be frightening and difficult. It may seem foreign, threatening or strange at first, but when you get the facts about holistic health, you realize that it makes a lot of sense.

Holistic health offers us an abundance of wholesome, non-toxic, affordable approaches from herbal remedies and nutritional supplements to massage, acupuncture, yoga, detoxification, changes in lifestyle, environment and diet or colon cleaning, chiropractic manipulations, meditation and many more that attempt to not only restore balance and harmony in the body, but to society and the planet as well.

It’s an empowering approach where the patient works with the health care provider as a team and is encouraged to be an active participant in the health care plan, educate themselves about their condition and engage in a variety of self-care techniques and practices.

Unlike modern medicine, which only attempts to suppress symptoms, holistic medicine attempts to correct the health condition by finding the underlying cause. Instead of stuffing everyone in a cookie cutter treatment plan, holistic health care is a whole body/mind approach that is individualized according to each person’s specific needs.

The ultimate goal is to enable each person to reach their highest sense of well-being, function as optimally as possible and live life as fully as possible regardless of the presence or absence of disease.

Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed. is an author and holistic health counselor providing no hype, straight forward, down to earth, honest talk about holistic health, natural health and green living to improve or protect your mental and physical health. Visit her site for more free holistic health care tips or ask her a question at the Holistic Health Talk Blog.

Work and health. These two topics are this century’s biggest concerns. In fact, they’re so interrelated these days that you’d be hard pressed to find people who work without concern for their health. And I’m not just talking about physical health, but mental and emotional health as well. Along with increasing rates of obesity, this country is also experiencing increasing rates of depression, apathy, and detachment from family, friends, and life itself. Suicides are at an all time high, violence is in an upsurge (if you watch the news, anyway), and people are becoming more self absorbed and concerned for their welfare than they are for their children.

What is the reason this is happening? It is the relationship we have in this country between our health and our work behaviors. Both systems have foundations in the old 19th century industrial work ethic and mentality. What we seem to miss is that by keeping the assumptions and beliefs of our forefathers in regards to work and health, we will not be able to change either the health care system or how we work. What are these assumptions and beliefs?

Here is an incomplete list:

-working 9 to 5(or 6) Monday through Friday for 40 years or more is how we always work, despite the changes in our world concerning doing work and business via new technology 
-adhering to an agrarian educational system (children go to school from fall to spring with summers off) 
-working longer hours produces better results than working shorter hours 
-using managers as vehicles to control the mass of employees who are obviously not competent, need ideas and plans and behaviors given to them from above, have no lives of their own, and are not trustworthy 
-physical health can be separated from mental and emotional health 
-time equals money 
-high levels of stress do not contribute to health problems 
-work is more important than anything else in life which includes family, friends, hobbies, passions, creativity, imagination, rest, sleep, health, nature, and sports 
-our health care system is the best one in the world 
-our health care system really is a health care system rather than a pill and repair location for the body

These assumptions are basic to how our work and health behaviors work. Work in America is the number one activity we all engage in. Despite our complaints about wanting a life or being healthy or being free, work is what we all do. Work is the identity of America. Not freedom, not liberty, not basic civil rights, not prosperity or wealth. Work is how we all learn about each other and despite this, we all complain about work because none of us really want to do it. This creates a conflict between our emotions and our behaviors. Our behaviors stem from our flawed beliefs and assumptions about what work does for us, while our emotions dictate what we would really like. And despite the current saying that emotions dictate behavior, it’s actually the other way around. Our behaviors dictate our emotions.

Think about this. Anytime you want to go to do something, whether it’s watching a movie, hanging out with friends or family, playing with your dog, or taking a nice and casual walk in the middle of the day, we can’t. The thing we want to do the most is relegated to secondary importance because work is considered priority. Who’s priority? The company you either work for or your own business. And although we have tons and tons of time management courses and gurus, this way of living is getting worse and worse.

We’ve all read or heard that we must take time for the most important things in our lives, with health being number one. We can see that this will not work if we continue to believe the above beliefs and assumptions. We must replace these beliefs/assumptions with more empowering ones that will allow us to easily live lives of balance.

Which leads to a question about health. What is health? Is it being able to move like you did when you were 20? Or being able to creatively come up enough ideas to change the world? Or is it being able to enjoy the life you’ve been given each and every single day? The answer is that health encompasses our entire life. It means being able to live a life where you can be creative, in control, and minimize physical, mental, and emotional suffering until the very end of your life. It means following your heart’s desires and still retain the maturity and wisdom gained from past experience. It means being able to keep up with your kids when at the park. It means achieving the dreams you’ve always wanted to achieve. Health is the totality of life. Without health in any given moment, your life is not up to its potential.

Our work behaviors decrease our health potential. By believing work only gets done between certain hours on particular days or in particular ways, our health suffers. By believing that we should work for a company that says it has your best interests at work but really doesn’t is a fool’s task. Believing our work or health care system helps make America superior in the global environment is false, but it certainly produces illness and disease here in this great country. So, what are the new empowering beliefs and assumptions we “should” have?

-Work to get work done only when it needs to be done. If it’s not an emergency or a real priority relegate it according to your own to do list for the day 
-The results of work should be productive and that’s all it should be based on, not the time you needed to get it done. 
-Health is life. Without following our dreams or passions, being creative, getting enough sleep or rest, or doing activities we really enjoy, life can be an empty shell filled only with work. 
-Work is fourth to family, friends, and passions 
-Trust. Trust in yourself and trust others. If you are an adult, you should realize that other adults can be just as trustworthy as you when work needs to get done 
-Play should be 80% of your life while work should be 20% 
-Consistently repeat these beliefs to yourself each day in order to reap lifetime benefits

This is how health can be increased work behaviors changed. This is not easy, but it is a simple way of changing the way we do business and live our lives. If you have any questions, comments please let me know at my e-mail address. Thanks.

Personal trainer, hypnotherapist, writer, enthusiast and follower of human behavior.

Millions of Americans are feeling the stress of losing their jobs and as a result, their health insurance. But what if I told you that losing your health insurance could actually be a blessing in disguise? What if I told you that there is an opportunity in that loss…an opportunity for growth, and perhaps, with a bit of determination on your part, to reach and maintain your highest health potential?

When I was in high school in the ’70s I developed an eating disorder (anorexia nervosa that flipped into bulimia) that lasted 10 years. Sure, I had insurance. But it was the pre-Karen Carpenter era, so no doctors or counselors had a clue—which made my insurance worthless! Nowadays they might prescribe a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, but I am so glad those didn’t exist back then. Drugs do not get to the root of the problem and often have side effects nearly as bad, if not worse, than the illness.

Convinced I had to heal myself, I took eight university classes in psychology searching for a cure. But nothing worked till I moved to Mexico and got away from all the processed trigger foods. I also started taking super foods like bee pollen and brewer’s yeast, and… suddenly the eating disorder, which had been a 10-year hell for me, simply vanished! 10 years of praying and seeking a cure for my mind by reading psychology and self help books ended. I got well only after healing the body, not the mind.

I then knew the importance of nutrition as the principle key to health. Through the years I experimented with health modalities, even got a master’s degree in Chinese medicine and did acupuncture for a while. But I noticed herbs were even more effective than needles. The conviction grew that what a person puts into his or her mouth has the greatest effect of all.

When I discovered the cleansing and rejuvenating power of a raw food diet, my health soared! I was free from hepatitis C, PMS that had me depressed three weeks of the month, athlete’s foot, brain fog, herpes, even jet lag! I devoured every book on the raw food diet and came across a multitude of testimonials-people healing from disease without drugs or surgery. Victoria Boutenko, for example, was healed of arrhythmia and her husband of hyperthyroidism. Their son was cured of juvenile diabetes and their daughter of asthma. After just a few months on the diet, they were all going on extended hikes, bursting with energy!

Reverend George Malkmus healed himself of colon cancer…David Klein defeated colitis…Roe Gallo conquered a highly allergic sensitivity to the 20th century chemicals…Lou Corona healed from a head tumor…Dr. Lorraine Day reversed breast cancer…Angela Stokes lost 159 pounds… Jenny Smith no longer sleepwalks. The list goes on and on.

“But what about accidents?” you might be protesting. Yes, you might want to get a very high deductible insurance in case of accidents. But consider this: I know of people who even used raw foods as a main part of healing from accidents. Take Aajonous Vonderplanitz, for example. Four MDs told him that his son, injured from a car accident, would be brain dead for life. But using raw foods, Aajonous got his son to come out of the coma with a full recovery of his brain and muscles. His son went on to graduate from a university. (Aajonous details the entire story in his book We Want to Live.)

Then there is Dr. Joe Dispenza (who appears in the films What the Bleep Do We Know? and What If? and tells his story in his book Evolve Your Brain). Joe was injured in a car accident and was diagnosed with “multiple compression fractures of the thoracic spine with the T-8 vertebra more than 60% collapsed.” The doctors recommended Harrington rod surgery, but Joe was haunted by all the patients he had seen that had had this surgery. They never really healed, never regained their spinal flexibility, and many lived the rest of their lives addicted to pain medications. Filled with the conviction of the body’s innate power to heal itself, he rejected surgery and used raw foods plus visualization to heal himself.

Researchers are starting to learn that what you eat impacts your health more than anything, even genetics. What you eat feeds your genes toward health or degeneration. A friend of mine who eats a 100% raw diet says her friends are horrified when they find out she doesn’t have health insurance. She replies, “My health insurance is what I put into my mouth.”

Even if you don’t want to eat a largely raw diet, switching to whole foods goes a long way. (Don’t eat anything from a box, can, bag, or jar.) Get more alkaline by eating more greens (salads, green smoothies, wheat grass juice, chlorella, spirulina, blue-green algae). Avoid the worst culprits (wheat, dairy, table salt, sugar, transfats, monosodium glutamate, aspartame).

Also learn to use supplements instead of drugs. When I had hepatitis C, I took several pills of milk thistle three times a day. When I went back for a test, the MD was astonished to find that my liver enzymes were to be envied! My sister was hooked on a prescription drug and when she lost her insurance, if she didn’t keep buying it (spending $200 a month!) she couldn’t sleep at all. When I got her a month’s supply of tryptophane and told her to gradually reduce the drug while taking this supplement, she was finally able to wean herself off the costly meds.

There are other lifestyle factors besides diet that can make a huge difference in one’s health. One of the most important things is to get rid of the toxins in your environment. Get an air purifier and toss the moldy rugs or mattress (especially if you have asthma). Use natural, nontoxic cleaning supplies, makeup, tampons, personal care products, etc.

Exercise is another investment in your health. Vary it so you cover flexibility to prevent injuries and keep the spine youthful (yoga, stretching), endurance and cardiovascular health (walking, running, etc.), as well as strength-building (lifting weights, pushups, etc).

Other factors of health include adequate sleep and rest; supporting relationships; positive thinking; pure air and water; and adequate sunshine during the day so you can absorb Vitamin D.

The truth is that even if you have health insurance, the copayments can bankrupt you if you get a major disease such as cancer and you decide to go the conventional route. (This topic was brought up in the movie Sicko.) And even if you have 100% health insurance, the tendency is to not be proactive in your health. People who have that attitude wait till they get sick, and then expect some pills or surgery to heal them, and then wonder why they never feel good again. Many of these people end up spending a small fortune on alternative therapies that their health insurance didn’t cover (after they realize that the conventional route didn’t really heal them) because they truly want to regain their health.

People tend to leave all of the responsibility for their health to their health insurance. I have come across people who accept jobs they hate simply because they want the health insurance. In San Diego, many teachers are turning down a very generous golden handshake because they don’t want to lose their health insurance.

People are selling their souls for their health insurance because they don’t realize that if they change their lifestyle, they can be in near complete control of their health! What is really needed is not universal health insurance, but universal health education.

Take responsibility for your health. You may find, after a year or two (as I have), that you go to the doctor only for the annual checkup to confirm that you are on the right path. You may find (as I have) that you have restored the vigor, energy and radiant health you had decades ago. You may find (as I have) that when you are in control of your health, having no health insurance suddenly doesn’t seem relevant.

Susan Schenck, LAc, is a raw food coach, lecturer, and author of The Live Food Factor, The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet, known as the encyclopedia of the raw food diet. Go to [http://www.livefoodfactor.com] to get a free chapter from her book.

During the past 10 years there has been a dramatic upturn in Obesity and overweight adults in America and as you can imagine it has had a serious cost impact on the U.S. health care system. While many consumers who are denied health insurance coverage for being overweight or rated with a “fat tax” may feel that they are being jilted by the insurance underwriting system. Fair or not treatment for health issues associated with overweight and obese individuals does have significant repercussions on the economy and the overall cost of health care.

The underwriters use a system for determining your height and weight calculations to determine acceptable ranges. The correlation of the two defines a number called the BMI or ” body mass index” and gives the underwriters an estimate of body fat. According to the department of human health services a BMI of 30 is considered obese and 25 to 29.9 is overweight. If your BMI is higher than 43 you will not likely qualify for traditional health insurance coverage. If your BMI is between 29-43, a health insurer may choose to offer you health insurance with a rated up premium. If you have pre-existing health issues in relation to your weight, such as diabetes, hypertension or heart disease, a health insurer may deny you coverage altogether, even if your BMI is within range. In addition to the BMI the belly fat or waist circumference is a good indicator of future health problems associated with excess weight such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Overweight inactive individuals with a propensity to store excess stomach fat will eventually experience insulin resistance, and or other heart health issues. When underwriters review an application and see that an applicant has a combination of these pre-existing conditions a red flag is immediately raised regarding the application. Underwriters have certain risk criteria they use when combining your BMI with other risk factors such as smoking, and the health issues previously mentioned that might be exacerbated when combined together.

Certain combinations of these will result in a decline for health coverage. Excess Weight Affect Your Health and Cost of Health care? While many overweight individuals may feel they are being railroaded by the insurers, the conclusion is that between 2 and 7% of all health care cost are associated with overweight and obesity, which resulted from health issues associated with the treatment of the overweight factors such as hypertension, insulin resistance or diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiac conditions, certain forms of cancer, respiratory issues, inactivity, absenteeism from work, mortality cost, and loss of family income from premature death. What You can Do to Obtain Approval For A Health Insurance Policy If you believe you may be overweight and may not qualify for individual or family health coverage, you can take a few precautions prior to submitting a health application. You should find a qualified health insurance broker who offers more than one carrier’s products and is knowledgeable about some of the underwriting requirements or is able to research the best plan for you.

You can complete a prescreen application which will allow the broker to communicate with underwriters the issues prior to submitting the application and improve your chances of approval and avoid a potential decline. A decline can really be detrimental to obtaining creditable coverage. You should also review the BMI tables while not all tables are the same this will give you an idea of how close or far you are from current healthy body mass index levels for your height. Lastly consider improving your health for your own benefit by starting some basic exercise like walking 30 minutes a day, educating yourself about nutritious foods, eliminating empty calories like sugar and saturated fats and creating a lifestyle that makes you feel good, makes you productive, make you look great, reverse some health problems altogether and extend your life and most of all affords you quality health insurance.

Chris Beard is a virtual insurance agent providing automated online and tele-service insurance services to protect Florida families with health insurance, HSAs, life insurance, mortgage protection, medicare advantage and temporary health plans.

Term Life Insurance Quotes [http://www.trinity1financialgroup.com]

Health Insurance Quotes for Overweight