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Being Healthy Is Unprofitable
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
U.S. healthcare is unsustainable. That it will break in the next decade is predictable.
That good health is insanely unprofitable was highlighted by a staggering statistic in the recent research paper The Concentration of Health Care Spending (via B.C.):
Mean annual spending for the bottom half of (the American population) distribution was just $236 per person, totaling only $36 billion for the entire group of more than 150 million people.
We don't know why the 150 million people did not consume much in the way of "health services"-- they might have been healthy and had no need for healthcare beyond routine tests, or they might have needed care and been unable to afford it, despite the Orwellian-titled Affordable Care Act (ACA).
But let's assume that the 150 million people--roughly half of America's 317 million residents--were healthy and had no need for health services beyond minimal prevention and a few low-cost tests.
The total cost of their care was $36 billion--just over 1% of the nation's $3.2 trillion bill for healthcare and healthcare insurance. Let's assume that 90% of the populace was healthy, and the remaining 10% were very ill and needed 100 times as much care as the healthy.
The total cost of caring for the 285 million healthy people would be roughly $67 billion, or just over 2% of the $3 trillion we currently spend on healthcare. The very ill 32 million would need $23,600 each, or $755 billion.
The total cost for a largely healthy population and 32 million ill people who required 100 times more care than the healthy would be $822 billion, or roughly 25% of the $3.2 trillion we currently spend annually.
Here is an example of the insanity of U.S. healthcare costs. One of our European friends was doing post-doctorate research at a major U.S. university. His son suffered a minor burn in the kitchen, and on the doctor's recommendation, the parents took the toddler to a hospital a few days later to have the dressing--basically a piece of gauze taped over the burn--changed.
Naive to the absurdities and costs of U.S. healthcare, the parents followed these instructions rather than just changing the gauze themselves.
Their punishment for foolishly asking the medical establishment to spend 5 minutes changing a small piece of gauze: a bill for $875. The list of similar charges is equally absurd. Among those known to me first-hand: $120,000 for a few days in a hospital, no operation, not intensive care; $6,000 for 20 minutes sitting in an observation room after a minor outpatient surgery on the patient's big toe--the list is essentially endless.
Readers are quick to note that the charges may not be paid in full--but that is no defense of the system. So that makes it OK that Medicare is charged "only" $80,000 for a few days in a hospital bed, or "only" $5,000 for sitting in a room for 20 minutes?
Estimates of the cost of paper-shuffling and fraud in our healthcare system start at 40%. Outright fraud (billing for phantom services and patients) accounts for an astounding percentage of healthcare expenditures, as do needless/ineffective tests and procedures.
Prevention is cheap, intervention and care of chronic disease is costly.
Sadly, we know 90% of the American populace is not healthy. Rather, the 70% who are overweight are facing decades of ill-health and needlessly early deaths.Consider this report cited in America The Obese:
Published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, a study comparing young men and women of healthy weights to young obese individuals found that those who were overweight lost about 8.4 years off of their lives if they were men and 6.1 years off of their lives if they were women.
Young obese men suffered 18.8 more years of poor health leading up to their early deaths compared to men of healthy weight, while young obese women suffered 19.1 years of poor health. Even when obesity emerged just in old age, both men and women were found to lose years off of their lives: for men, an average of 3.7 years and for women about 5.3 years.
Americans spend $60 billion annually on weight loss programs and products, yet we become more overweight every year. Note that this $60 billion is almost twice the amount spent on healthcare for 150 million Americans.
The weight gain may be linear in nature, but the adverse consequences of extra weight are geometric. As noted in New obesity guidelines help physicians and patients with weight loss treatments:
As our waistlines expand, so too do the number of medical problems caused by excess body weight. A 2012 report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “F as in Fat, How Obesity Threatens America’s Future,” found that if obesity rates continue on their current trajectories, the number of new cases of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, hypertension, and arthritis could increase 10-fold between 2010 and 2020—and double again by 2030.
“As evidence unfolds, everyone is beginning to appreciate that obesity and excess body weight are driving medical conditions and costs. You cannot get medical costs under control as long as we have these rising rates of obesity,” says Donna Ryan, MD, professor emeritus at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University Health System, and previous past president of The Obesity Society.
That America's ill health has become a national security risk is obvious: America: Too fat to fight.
Excess body weight threatens not just the nation's healthbut its economy and social fabric: F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).
Anyone who thinks the stagnant American economy that already spends twice as much per person on healthcare as our advanced 1st World competitors can support 10-fold increases in lifestyle-caused chronic diseases is living in Fantasyland. The pharmaceutical industry has a plan to "cure" diabesity--their fondest dream is a bunch of pills that cost $84,000 a year, just like the recent treatment for Hepatitis C. Patients Get Extreme to Obtain Hepatitis Drug That's 1% the Cost Outside U.S.
Here's what will happen as the wave of weight/lifestyle diseases swell into a tsunami:
1. Care will become scarce within our "somebody else pays for me" system as the system starts breaking down.
2. Care will become cash only as payments to frontline providers dwindle.
The "cure" for excess body weight is well-known and well-documented. The vast majority of us can only change our lifestyle and thus our weight and health within a support group of others engaged in the same challenge. Supplements don't work, fad diets don't work, gym memberships (lacking a total transformation of lifestyle) don't work--nothing works but continual human support from those dealing with the same issues.
But operating support groups is not profitable, and so our healthcare system gives the only real cure lip-service. Prevention and support groups are cheap and effective, but they're terribly, horribly, unavoidably unprofitable, so they are given lip-service, while the healthcare industries gear up to provide $100,000 procedures and $84,000 per year medications, all paid by "somebody else."
U.S. healthcare is unsustainable. That it will break in the next decade is predictable. We are collectively wandering the beach, picking up seashells, while a mighty tsunami wave is approaching that will wash everyone on the beach away. We can either deal with the lifestyle and cultural causes of our mounting ill health or be swept away when the system crashes.
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We excessively adiposed some folks.
I had to look that one up.
I saw a Carls Jr. commercial on teevee the other day. It wasn't the same one as this one, but this one's even more ridiculous. Kind of sums up the blind-patriotic-exceptional-pacification in one short clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjSJj_Pdjys
Too much disconnect in too many places...
I live in Alaska and we have some of the highest health care costs in the US. The wife and I went for a routine physical, on new insurance, and it cost us TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS, which was less than our deductible.
I have not been, nor will I, go back to the doctor.
Fortunately my wife is Asian so we will catch up on all that the next time we go west to visit her family.
I think the best thing folks can do is just stop going to the doctor (or ween off the meds and then stop going).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKD_o4gbcSE
Life has been good!
Regards,
Cooter
The health care system is run by government.
Government is a WEALTH TRANSFER mechanism.
What's not to understand?
We don't need the four horsemen, we've got government instead......
Stock up on your caustic soda and caustic potash, there is a very lucrative market for designer soaps.
Tyler told me so.
pods
That's a lye.
you can get this at Lowes to make soap with, Home depot does not sell it. http://www.lowes.com/pd_486650-331-HD-CRY-DO_1z0w5rn__?productId=4751600&pl=1
I have been making soap with grease from Briskets and Bacon for a couple of years now, I never tell the ladies I give it too until after I have them try it and tell me what they think of it. They always ask for more.
Skaterboard...had to repost that commerical; it's pretty incredible how they portray 'patriotism' eh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjSJj_Pdjys
However, I will admit, that's one piece of delicious meat! Makes my mouth water.....
And obese people can't stand-up & fight.
Funny you should mention that. Some general was on NPR saying the armed services are having some serious difficulty finding 'good men' meaning: 1) not obese; 2) not on drugs; and 3) absent-to- minimal felony histories.
Indeed all works by the plan, awesome indeed.
This statistic/status indicates that now it is the optimal point to hit the bison between its horns and drop the yoke on its neck.
In capitalism it is AKA market creation :)
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/02/17/business/Creating-a-mark...
Oh gawd when thou my Bisonian brotha gonna get it that thou art only cattle for the lords?!
Yeah good thing...=/
I started doing the Organic / Non-GMO (when possible) high protein low carb diet about ~8 months ago with filtering my water with one of those G4 filters that takes everything out. I have lost a few pounds (losing weight was not a goal) but I feel much better and my sex drive is pretty darn high these days. Just saying it may not only what we are eating but literally what type of what we are eating if that makes sense to you. I have also switch to only Soda made with sugar for my Rum and Cokes (need some vices) and have almost completely cut out corn syrup. I hope this info helps someone.
The best medicine to cure your weak sex drive ain't in a bottle or organic food, my friend:
http://img.phombo.com/img1/photocombo/3155/SexyBabe_Iphone_Wallpapers__a...
It wasn't a bottle of anything it was a change in my diet over all to organic and non-GMO food. The sex drive thing was a pleasant side affect. Also and I forgot to mention this in Nov 2013 I switched to Veggie Glycerol based E-Cigs and stopped smoking (still have a real one from time to time while drinking).
Nice. I started doing the same thing. high protein. lower carbs...around 80 to 95 grams per day. and moderate fat. Also started juicing. I do the "mean green" juice once a day. It's great. Costs about $30-$60 dollars a week so it's really not that bad.
I'm buying organic veggies from Whole Foods to juice with. It makes me feel great. Probably more nutrition than I've had in my entire life.
Also, going to an acupuncturist. It seems to be straightening out a lot of problems, including acute dry eye and my stomach has flattened out almost instantly.
I hope your membership to the International Accupuncturist Assoc is all paid up...
Accupuncture to flatten your belly? What insane crap.
spoken like someone that's never actually had acupuncture or is able to understand the concept. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and shut your ass.
If you don't like the cost, don't use it.
OK, but seriously, the high costs are due to a couple of factors:
1: Government interference in the free market, not allowing efficiency - actually FORCING incredible inefficiency.
2: Lawyerscum jacking up malpractice insurance, forcing unnecessary procedures, all in the name of greed.
"1: Government interference in the free market, not allowing efficiency - actually FORCING incredible inefficiency."
If you want to provide universal healthcare you'll always need some regulation ... you have to set max prices for procedures, you need to find a way to incentivize people to pick cheaper options, you need transparancy regulation on average health outcomes (transparancy is not the choice companies tend to make to try to be competetive on a free market, easier to make your money off idiots through marketing). It's a balancing act.
Only if you consider social darwinism utopia are there utopian solutions.
I don't want to provide universal healthcare. Universal healthcare is the problem.
2: Lawyerscum jacking up malpractice insurance, forcing unnecessary procedures, all in the name of greed.
I see this parroted quite a bit... First, malpractice insurance is a pittance for most medical practitioners. Only the highest risk professionals have to pay much.
Second, please tell all of us, who makes the decision about whether to run a procedure and, moreover, who gets paid for that procedure? When it was mentioned in the article above, it was thrown in with "fraud". Why do you suppose it was characterized that way?
Tort reform in Texas did not lead to more affodable care. Shocking, eh?
It hasn't lead to cheaper insurance rates anywhere... and every state has tort reform. The state legislatures pass tort reform without requiring insurance companies to reduce rates. (HINT: WHO IS IT THAT WANTS TORT REFORM AND WHAT REALLY IS TORT REFORM).
The simple fact is that tort "reform" has been going on since society started... torts are simply the concept of having to pay for the injuries you cause to other people. This has been something society has changed at all times, but stays within a particular band usually. However, what medical practitioners are really clamoring for is tort immunity. In every instance it has ever been tried, the industry becomes reckless and it leads to thing very thing that torts attempt to cure.
Interesting. So you are saying that medicine in Great Briton, Canada, et al, are reckless.
At common law, no professionals had any limited liability protection, especially doctors (I find it hard to believe that the countries that adopted common law didn't carry the torch in some form or fashion). Are you saying that in all of these countries, medical professionals have tort immunity? No matter what they do wrong, they cannot be sued?
Gross negligence to lose immunity, not just judgement mistake or bad outcome. The current system is broken. 12 jurors too unemployed to have something better to do, deleriously medically unsophisticated trying to choose between two "experts" who are paid to support one side or the other. Bankruptcy courts have specially trained judges but med mal? Not at all.
Costs go up because hospitals have high fixed costs and low variable costs. They want docs to order cts and mris. Customers or "healthcare consumers" are always right. Patient wants a ct of the abomen, you'd better do it or they'll complain and you're dealing with administration. The whole idea of customers instead of patients is repulseive. There is an information asymmetry and patients can be taken advantage of because of it. Also, costs are just plain ridiculous. xray routinely $500. In japan you can get an mri for a third of that, but their insurance execs (major beneficiaries of the ACA) aren't in the middle.
I'm looking forward to cash/barter only. I have a good reputation, take the time to do what I think is best, speak english as a first language and, am pretty easy on the eyes too. I will continue to do well and probably vetter when people have their own skin in the game and consider their choices more closely. Wife's the best pediatrician around, she already has good clientelle and will do better when it's a cash business again. Bring on the reset.
Gross negligence to lose immunity, not just judgement mistake or bad outcome. The current system is broken. 12 jurors too unemployed to have something better to do, deleriously medically unsophisticated trying to choose between two "experts" who are paid to support one side or the other. Bankruptcy courts have specially trained judges but med mal? Not at all.
First, most states have passed laws that: (1) set limits on the extent of liability of a medical practitioner (virtually always patently unconstitutional, but never let a lobby get in the way of the constitution); and/or (2) establish a "reckless" or "gross negligence" standard for liability (at the very least, for the possibility of punitive damages). In short, most places already have the system that you demand, or a hair away, but yet you believe that we do not... this is ignorance. If the system is broken, then your demands made it so.
Second, you're arguing from a technical standpoint (if you looked at it on paper) rather than how the system actually performs. The common law standard for medical malpractice is an incredibly difficult hurdle for plaintiffs. You want to completely dismiss a jury, but if there is any way they can give a case to a doctor, then they will. "Judgment calls" are going to present a stalemate for a jury. Further, given that no local doctors will testify against any other local doctors, you have to bring in an outside party, who usually starts off in the hole as far as credibility.
Third, there are no attorneys fees in tort cases. If you bring a suit and lose, then you eat your own attorneys fees. This causes attorneys to be risk averse (since virtually all of these cases are pursued on a contingency basis) and only pursue more viable cases. This is why the vast majority of cases, in the real world, are gross negligence; there have to be so many bad actions on the part of a medical practitioner that liability is all but certain, e.g. sawing off the wrong leg, cutting an artery in surgery, hooking up an IV incorrectly, letting the patient choke on food, bed sores, etc. Compare and contrast these issues to born losers, e.g. failure to diagnose... things that require discretion on the part of the practitioner.
Fourth, medical practitioners are now protecting themselves through disclosure. Patients come in and sign forms stating that they have been made aware of X issue and that it is their responsibility to attend their follow-up sessions (e.g. cancer screenings), for any damage that results from choosing not to undergo Y test (e.g. in the event that rare disease Z [that displays symptoms similar to other common issues] could be detected but for the use of lavishly expensive test A), etc. This pretty much eliminates much of what was left of the "judgment call" arena from litigation.
Fifth, just because you have a job does not mean that you get out of jury duty... unless you can get dismissed for cause (rare) or convince an attorney to use a peremptory strike against you (often based upon something you have no control over), then you're probably going to have to endure the case.
Last, to the extent that a jury gets it wrong, there is a trial judge who can set a verdict aside, as well as an appellate court who can do likewise. Most people cite the initial headline of the mcdonalds case (spilled coffee) for all that is wrong with torts, but yet no one actually investigates what happened... the jury's award was reduced by the court for being excessive... Further, the SCOTUS has set constitutional limits on punitive damage awards... [remember to differentiate between compensatory damages (what you can prove you were damaged as a result of someone else's act) and punitive damages (a monetary award meant to punish an actor for bad behavior and deter persons from similarly acting). Punitive damages are virtually impossible against medical professionals to the extent they have not already been prohibited]. Given that you are a medical professional, I suggest you start becoming skeptical of the insurers' media narrative and do your own research.
Costs go up because hospitals have high fixed costs and low variable costs. They want docs to order cts and mris. Customers or "healthcare consumers" are always right. Patient wants a ct of the abomen, you'd better do it or they'll complain and you're dealing with administration. The whole idea of customers instead of patients is repulseive. There is an information asymmetry and patients can be taken advantage of because of it. Also, costs are just plain ridiculous. xray routinely $500. In japan you can get an mri for a third of that, but their insurance execs (major beneficiaries of the ACA) aren't in the middle.
Fixed costs/infrastructure spending are the crux of the matter. Large players have built huge monuments to god on the expectation that insurance reimbursement rates would continue to increase and that consumers could afford to pay for the services in the event insurance wasn't available. This was a fundamental miscalculation, but like all others who do the same, the medical industry will have its bailout.
In my experience, the patient isn't the one demanding tests... most patients aren't doctors and don't know what tests are necessary. Rather, it is the medical practitioner who demands the tests based upon the symptoms presented. Tests are ordered on every possible scenario so that the most profit can be reamed from the patient's payer source. Given the information asymmetry (it is a relationship of trust after all) and lack of patient skin in the game, why does the patient care? Many are old and don't have anything better to do than talk with a nurse while getting blood drawn. When confronted on the issue, medical practitioners blame attorneys for having to practice defensive medicine. However, lawyers don't get paid for the unnecessary tests.
I'm looking forward to cash/barter only. I have a good reputation, take the time to do what I think is best, speak english as a first language and, am pretty easy on the eyes too. I will continue to do well and probably vetter when people have their own skin in the game and consider their choices more closely. Wife's the best pediatrician around, she already has good clientelle and will do better when it's a cash business again. Bring on the reset.
I advise my medical professional clients to prepare for a cash system now... those who have already moved over are making more money as a result. The trick is to cherry pick/market to the best cash patients in your locale before all the other professionals have no choice but to go after them. However, I would advise against hoping for the reset: you may increase your societal standing because you're in a relatively better position to handle it, but it may be at a much lower overall level than you are anticipating. A reset carries incredible risk... fear of which is why the system has endured so long. Don't fall prey to the central planners' hubris in believing that you can contemplate all aspects of such a dynamic system as the world.
But their jalepeno swiss burger... C'mon man - admit it...
Obesity tax ....
your average american is a 70 pounds overweight mexican
Treatment of diabetes is extraordinarily expensive. It is a major contribution to the overall excessive cost of healthcare in the U.S. Mexicans are particularly prone to diabetes. A quarter of the Mexican population is already here in the U.S. enjoying free healthcare (the California legislature just approved free healthcare for illegals yesterday, for instance - the rest of the states do, too, but surreptitiously - California just made it de jure instead of de facto).
You do the math.
G o o d crash and burn bitches
On purpose -
Obese people can't stand-up & fight.
whatever, stay in school, max student debt, never work full time, milk the system. Its the Clinton way. BTW minorities don't do well in school because of racist 100 years ago, not a breakdown of traditional two parent families and the drug culture.
We'll make Social Security solvent by shortening lifespans. Unfortunately that will make Medicare and Medicaid go insolvent that much faster.
Decisions, decisions.
Meh. No need to heal that which is de@d. Gummint gotz 5 year planz for that
The obesity epidemic is yet another symptom of the primary cause: Mammon worship.
Individuals who, in pursuit of a “better life”, and “happiness”, pile stress upon stress upon themselves, only to “unwind” by spending on junk food, fast food, short-lived material “toys” and things that prove a form of retail therapy, leads instead to less time and motivation to exercise, more stress to pay the bills, leading to obesity and related health problems, which require more money to pay for insurance, healthcare and prescriptions that further destroy health and happiness, while requiring more stressful hours of slaving for Mammon.
High stress levels causing an epidemic of stress related illnesses, heart disease, etc, that has led to Big Healthcare and Big Pharma taking a huge bite out of people’s incomes.
Ironically, the same people that stress themselves out serving Mammon are the same ones losing their income, time and health by serving Mammon.
Children raised by TV, X-box, etc, as they sit there stuffing their face. Children shipped to school and college to be brainwashed to believe serving Mammon and the Beast is the only way to “make” it.
What many have not come to understand is that money is debt, not wealth. So Mammon worship is servitude to debt. The masses have been brain-washed to give the majority of their waking lives, health, mind, time and effort to acquire more debt! Which leads to more debt servitude!
No wonder people are unhappy, feeling like something is missing from their lives.
Eating too much, lounging too much, too much stress, being willfully ignorant about the pursuit of "riches" = how "we" got here.
Do my flip-flops make me look too fat?
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4145/4954832140_b11e374694_b.jpg
He's got some decent boobs, little hang, but for his age not too bad.
pods
I know I am going off topic a bit, but why is it that everything socialists do winds up as a train wreck? It is almost like they are doing it on purpose or something.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fatpeoplehate
"Rather, the 70% who are overweight are facing decades of ill-health and needlessly early deaths."
'Needless' is a strong word in that situation. They ate like pigs for a long time, taking no responsibility for their own condition and then their body felt the NEED to die early. How is that 'needless'?
That's why some things CANNOT be left to the private sector.
Capitalism is profit-based, all the rest about it is irrelevant. So, of course, they will happily make you sick so they can sell cures to you.
A State-funded health system is the only possible answer, like it is done in every sensible country, including the UK.
So the UK is a "sensible" country, then? I take issue with that.
I think an argument for personal responsibility over one's body trumps both those in spades...
The problem is we socialize health care because we insist people receive treatments they can't personally afford out of pocket. I don't have a better solution. We also don't have a good way to divide costs between behavioral based and bad-luck based health-care costs. If we discriminate on a profit based system between behavior and bad-luck profit motivated actors will have a huge incentive to provide as little care as possible.
The problem is we socialize health care because we insist people receive treatments they can't personally afford out of pocket. I don't have a better solution.
I do. Reduce the reimbursement rate for services and stop covering so much. There is a reason that at many institutions, the red carpet gets rolled out for medicaid patients. While the primary service might not offer as high of a reimbursement rate, the ancillary services will more than make up the difference (things that private insurers would never cover). You have the same problem with the health industry as you do academia and banking: remove the government teet and prices will decline. The insurance reimbursement rate dictates the cost of services, not the other way around. If medical practitioners were forced to offer services for what people can actually pay, then your problem will be solved.
If we discriminate on a profit based system between behavior and bad-luck profit motivated actors will have a huge incentive to provide as little care as possible.
This makes no sense. So doctors care whether their patient caused his or her own harm? They just want to see as many people as possible, to get paid as much as possible. The cause is irrelevant.
As a society, we have some difficulty deciding what to allow or prohibit private insurance companies from doing. However, on the issue of publicly provided healthcare, we can tack on some stipulations about what gets reimbursed by the public treasury. If I have to pay for your food and healthcare, then don't you owe it to me not to abuse yourself? My responsibility to provide for strangers is unconditional?
Obama care was never ment to succeed. It was ment to fail to usher in a total take over by the federal government of health care. Of course that means raising tax rates accordingly. Limiting doctors salarys and not treating the old and sick.
Please do not forget how well the veterans health care run by government is working in the USA.
Capitalism would work just fine if the consumers were given accurate information. Do you even understand where all the health problems in the US stem from? Look back 100 years when people ate bacon and eggs and were not told by their government how evil fat is and how awesome grains and breads are. Then came the food pyramid. We had the Government getting VERY involved in telling people what to eat and what has the end result been? How well has that government meddling and central planning worked out for us?
Do you really believe that? How is the Michelle Obama fresh vegetable kick working on changing diets? Now I can agree that the corn, beef and fast food lobbies are hurting us, but government education and guidelines? That stuff is totally in one ear and out the other.
I think the US's post-WW2 wealth has given the current generation a strange perspective on historical diets.
My grand parents and parents were already on a carbohydrate heavy diet long before the food pyramid, they didn't have the money to get a significant amount of energy out of protein or fat ... that shit was expensive.
PS. I'm not saying low carb diets don't make sense, I'm just saying that for most of the world the diet has been mostly carbs since agriculture first arrived.
That is a big part of it. But also 100 years ago then went outside and performed hard physical labor after eating the egss and bacon. Not so much today.
What could be more stupid than a country guaranteeing the healthiness of its population irrespective of their behavior?
Absurd medical costs is the main reason that US unfunded liabilities are over $150 trillion and rising at least $7 trillion a year. That works out to be 1,230,000 per taxpayer and rising at $57,000 per taxpayer per year.
Good luck with your 30 year US bonds.
The vast majority of people in the US are doomed to poor health due to the rampant misinformation everywhere you look about nutrition and what is healthy, and there seems to be very little you can do about it. The public is very entrenched in this bad information. Where do you even begin?
1. Excess carbohydrates in our diet because we are told over and over how healthy grains and whole grain bread is, and how bad and evil FAT is! Last I checked, we feed grains to livestock to fatten them up so it is no wonder all these carbs are making Americans fat as well.
2. "You are what you eat" horseshit. "The experts" are just now fessing up that fats like olive oil are actually good for us. Unfortunately, fat is still largely demonized because you still see 'fat free' all over the place in your local grocery store as if that is a good thing. The problem is, what is fat replaced with now that the food has no flavor? Thats right, sugar!
3. Excess carbs (which break down quickly into sugar in your body) cause your body to constantly release insulin to keep your blood sugar levels in the tight range that they need to be at. Just ask diabetics how fun it is to keep blood sugar in check. Unfortunately, having raised insulin levels means insulin is also doing its other job besides keeping sugar levels in check which is locking fat in your fat cells. Your body is literally unable to burn its own stored fat for energy. It has to be frustrating and puzzling for heavy people trying to lose weight why all that energy they are carrying around isn't being used by their body and they feel hungry all the time dieting.
I am very passionate about this topic because in my own quest to educate myself it became obvious that our nation is awash in misinformation from all angles; from poorly educated 'health experts' all the way to the special interests who rely on these lies to stay in business.
And just for the record, this isn't necessarily about people 'being fat'. The 'being fat' part happens as a by product of the carb rich diet pushed by the industry and FDA. The more insidious effects cause a whole host of other problems including the rampant rise in diabetes and other metabolic related illnesses.
Misinformation is one thing, but is not an excuse.
Here:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/
All the referenced documentation you would ever need to maintain a healthy weight, reverse heart disease, and live a long, healthy, and cancer free life.
But people will not eat this food, because once you actually start a nutritarian way of eating, you go through detox. And most people don't have the balls for detox.
People think they are hungry when they dont eat for 4 hours and start to get dizzy, achy, etc. That isn't hunger. That is detox. Most people will never know actual hunger.
I used to be very passionate about educating people as you are.
Now I don't care. Fat people want to die early, so be it. Seeing fat fucks praised for the courage to let a doctor remove their stomach does that to a person.
pods
Pods,
Yeah you know at the end of the day I am all about personal freedom but also about personal responsibility. I am against these idiots like Bloomberg waging war on sodas. This is a free country; if that is the type of diet people want to consume then fine. I just don't want to be on the hook for these related ballooning healthcare costs.
That I agree with entirely!
Dr. Joel Furman's Eat to Live is a must read.
Only person to explain, for instance, in clear and simple terms, why one should *not* take vitamin A (which prevents cancer) supplements to prevent cancer.
Also here: nutritionfacts.org
A treasure trove of searchable nutrition research, updated daily.
Amen Brutha' Joe.
When a person eats carbohydrates above a certain threshold, all dietary fat goes to storage and only carbs are used as fuel. Thus the need to eat every few hours. And as you said the insulin levels suppress mobilization of stored fat. So it is a double whammy of being constantly hungry and shuttling nearly all dietary fat to storage. My family's dietary carbs come from vegetables, fruit, and nuts ONLY. We are completely grain free and have all radically improved our health since switching two years ago.
Modern medicine and the healthcare industry is a racket that is largely enabled by the poor diets that Americans were duped into believing were healthy.
You need to distinguish between refined carbohydrates and whole food carbohydrates. Refined carbos are, basically, toxic. Whole food carbos (in fruit, whole grains and veggies) are fuel.
Refined carbs like those found in table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc. are indeed toxic. In my view, any form of grains (wheat, rice, corn, barley, etc) or food-products made from grains are only one baby step above them. Without some form of external processing such as grinding, crushing, soaking, fermenting, or other cooking, they are practically inedible. The digestive system of humans are not adapted to eating grains in their unprocessed forms. When they are processed, then they become a dietary source of easily digested carbohydrates which contributes to what CosmoJoe described above (insulin spikes, hunger, etc.)
And on fuel, our bodies can burn carbohydrates or fat. Dietary carbohydrates are broken down to glucose (all forms of carbs). Dietary fat and stored fat are converted to ketone bodies for use throughout the body. This is our biological adapatation to prevent loss of muscle mass when not eating, and in the longer term prevent starvation. No one has ever run out of fuel because they didn't eat carbs for a while.
"Without some form of external processing such as grinding, crushing, soaking, fermenting, or other cooking, they are practically inedible. The digestive system of humans are not adapted to eating grains in their unprocessed forms. When they are processed, then they become a dietary source of easily digested carbohydrates which contributes to what CosmoJoe described above (insulin spikes, hunger, etc.)"
Taking a nut out of a shell is "processing" according to that definition as is taking the hide off an animal. W hole grains, though "processed" according to your definition are not the same as refined grains. And all whole grains are not equivalent.
Most dietary saturated fats also get stored in the damaged epithelium of your arteries.
Here are some other things your digestive system does with meat: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol...
Eat some whole wheat kernels or corn (with the husk removed) and get back to us on how it works out. No grains are necessary for health. Most are detrimental to health. That being said, you can eat raw meat and raw nuts, though cooking improves them.
And as far as dietary saturated fat causing cardiovascular disease, not sure about that. A good explanation of cholesterol:
http://eatingacademy.com/cholesterol-2/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-... (Read Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories for a more complete history).
For the TLDR crowd: big numbers of small dense LDL particles, from diets high in carbohydrates, are bad news.
Interesting video. But, remember the article yesterday by GW about the editors and their highlighting the garbage scientific studies that are put out.
Regarding cancer, I have not done as much reading on that topic but I do find it interesting that ALL cancers have one thing in common (hint: Warburg effect).
So cooking is bad because chimps can't do it? Or what? We've had fire for quite a while; and yes, one of the big benefits of fire is that it allows us to cook things.
"No grains are necessary for health." No meat is necessary for health.
Did you know that rural Okinawan villagers, among the longest lived groups on earth get 85% of their caloric intake from sweet potatoes? Only about 8% from fish and most of the rest from greens and rice.
Yes you can eat raw meat along with any parasites and bacteria that come with it, yum.
Whole foods, plant based diets result in very low LDL counts.
Because there are many billions at stake, there is all kinds of garbage out there parading as research, funded by stakeholders. Kinda like tobacco company sponsored cigarette/cancer studies.
Apologies to all chimps:
"The chimps learned that one transforms potatoes from raw to cooked. Given a choice of which device to put food in, they almost always opted for the "cooker," showing they understood and willingly waited for the raw-to-cooked transformation."
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/chimps-mental-skills-cook-study-230355185.html...
Most of the animals I eat have plant based diets. And from my recent lipid panel: LDL was under 60 and HDL was over 90 (neither really matter though).
In all seriousness, following the diet of just about any primitive culture eating their traditional diets will yield an improvement in health for most. Having sufficient protein, fat, and nutrients (found in vegetables) is all that's required. Excessive carbohydrates, particularly those from sugar and grains, fuck with people in many non-obvious ways. Thus, they aren't part of the plan anymore.
I'm not anti-carb, btw. Just anti-grain.
Good numbers. And we mostly agree: eating plenty of fruits, greens legumes, avoiding refined carbs and processed foods (incl trans fats) is most important.
Imagine 10,000 people turning 65 every day for the next 13 years and the cost that will go into just the last 2 years of their lives. Ive seen a bill in the $400,000 range for a an elderly relative for the last 10 days of their life. I'm not saying that's the norm, but we all know 50% of healthcare is spent in the last 2 years of ones life. To say its unsustainable is an under statement.
I don't need the extra 2 years of my body being used by a hospital and doctors to pump the money out of insurance companies.
Fuck that. Morphine doesn't cost much at all, nor does home hospice care.
Pretty soon, too, you'll be able to make morphine at home using yeast.
I thought that was called beer?
Losing/maintaining weight is the easiest fucking thing on the planet. Eat less calories than you burn everyday and you will lose weight. It really is that simple. You dont have to be a fucking iron chef in the kitchen. Hell, you dont even have to eat healthy. You dont even have to exercise. Just stop fucking eating so much. Do a calculation of how many calories you burn each day, eat less than that. Children can figure this shit out.
I hate to break it to you, but your over simplification of calories is the reason we are in this mess. If you take two people, both of whom eat 2500 calories a day and one of them is eating healthy fats, bacon, eggs, and the other person is eating 'healthy grains', Special K and pizza, one person is going to get fat as fuck and be ravenously hungry between meals and the other person may even lose some weight.
Of course, the skinny person eating bacon, eggs, and loads of other animal products daily is going to die of cancer as well. They will just need a smaller casket.
pods
This is where we can agree to disagree :) I will just say, if you look at humans in their primal state we have been eating animal products for a long time. If an EMP blast tomorrow took us back to the stone ages, you wouldn't be living a vegan diet. You would be hunting and gathering. Technology may have changed our eating habits but evolution moves a lot slower than that.
Well I will never go Vegan, and most of the Vegans I know are not healthy. Most just live on carbs, and not good ones at that.
If an EMP took us back to the stone ages, I would think "meat" would become a very subjective thing.
Meat is a luxury though, always has been. Throughout history, calories have been the big thing to aquire. Calorie dense foods worked well, and fat was the best store of energy.
Its fine to disagree. One thing I have found, is if you like eating a certain way, you will eat that way, and find any way to reassure yourself it is healthy.
Same with smokers. (I still smoke)
pods
If we have an emp, after few months, meat will be the only thing to eat. I'm Long on Longpork in such an event.
Hence why I put "meat" in quotes. :)
Vegan is fairly useless term: you can eat chips and drink Pepsi and be "vegan" -- and very unhealthy. You need 4 words: "whole foods, plant based." The healthiest diet you can eat.
I eat something animal based maybe once a month these days, usually as a guest at someone's house. Right now I've got a touch of a cold - first time in over 2 years.
If you ever want to eat salad for breakfast, look into a Vitamix. Delicious baby spinach shakes.
pods
Good advice! I've had one for 2 years and use it every day--just finished my smoothie, in fact: mango, lemon, apple, a few grapes, 1tbs chia, 1tbs ground flax, 1tbs ground hempseed, 1tsp Amla (Indian gooseberry), loads of baby kale, spinach and chard. Chia, flax and hemp are all good Omega 3 sources -- especially hemp. I believe Amla is one of the densest sources of antioxidant, known.
Why does everyone have to complicate things so?
Put dandelions and carrots in a Vitamix. Along with some beets. And plantain. And other crap just laying around on the ground. And other cheap stuff from the store (flax seeds, for example, for omega-3). Grow some strawberries and throw them in, too, so it doesn't taste like crap. Broccoli. Kale. Couple apples (the whole thing, including the core [seeds, that is to say]).
Eat/drink nothing but that for a couple/few weeks and evaluate the results. Do it for a lifetime, and wonder why everyone else is fat, sick, ugly, and/or dying.
Save a buncha money, too.
True; also maybe cardiovascular disease, the number one killer - preventable, controllable and usually reversible with diet alone, as proven by Dr. lCaldwell Esselstyne (and others - but I mention Esselstyne because he is the only one I'm aware of that published his clinical results in a peer-reviewed journal).
Quick search of Fuhrman shows he references him in articles on heart disease.
http://drfuhrman.master.com/texis/master/search/?s=SS&q=Esselstyn
The information is out there. Sometimes it is the conclusions that people cannot accept.
People will go a long ways to prove their preferred way of eating is healthy.
pods
Yep, it is extremely difficult for people to change their eating habits. Several of the docs listed below have extended (two weeks, I think for Campbell) educational retreats for patients, including cooking lessons.
My list of reliable sources:
Colin Campbell, co-designer of the study and author of the books The China Study and Whole
Caldwell Esselstyne, as mentioned above
John MacDougall, author of the The Starch Solution
Joel Fuhrman, Eat to Live (just starting it)
Dean Ornish, too many to list, see Amazon.
Michael Greger, founder of nutrionfacts.org
Neal Barnard, too many to list see Amazon.
All, except Campbell, a laboratory and population study research nutritionist, are practicing "lifestyle" physicians.
You really only need one but I got into it!
I may still die of cancer from the SV40 tainted polio vaccine and varous environmental exposures but I'm doing what I can to live healthy and avoid the medical system. It won't diabetes and it won't be cardiovascualr disease. The goal isn't to live forever but to live well while you live: twenty years of increasingly desperate and miserable pills and procedures is NOT the way to go out!
We got a couple Fuhrman books, an older Eat to Live, and Disease Proof your Kids. I like his videos more, as he can tell you how to eat in one chapter, basically they all can. Good references though, and he will change depending on new literature.
One example, for his anti-cancer soup he called for an onion to be cooked, then diced. Well, turns out, onions produce organosulfur compounds which are super protective against cancer, but only if the cell walls are broken. An enzyme does it, so if you cook then chop, the enzyme is deactiviated, thus negating production.
His videos are pretty engaging, he has energy like a crack head. I first heard him on the radio and he was vey engaging.
He does a couple of PBS freebies during pledge season, but we just bought a set off his website. Good information all around though.
Thanks for the list! I will have to look into those others.
pods
I've seen him on TV and you're right about his energy level!
Interesting about the onions; I read something like that about garlic: best to chop, grate, or press at least 15 minutes before using.
Eggs are healthy, bacon is not. Omega 6 and Omega 3 balance is critical. Healthy forms of cholesterol are good for you if your not eating too much calories. Arterial plaque and heart disease are typically caused by inflamation from insulin shocks from the coca cola and pepsi lifestyle.
Arterial plaque and heart disease are typically caused by inflamation from insulin shocks. Really?
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol...
Sorry Cosmo, but no, he's not.
http://www.naturalnews.com/030616_junk_food_diet.html#
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
Same guy, two different stories. Realistically, is it healthy? No. But one can loose weight by simply cutting what comes in and burning more than consumed.
Sorry Cosmo, but no, he's not.
http://www.naturalnews.com/030616_junk_food_diet.html#
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
Same guy, two different stories. Realistically, is it healthy? No. But one can loose weight by simply cutting what comes in and burning more than consumed.
Look, it's simple really... If you plot a rise in obesity levels against the decrease in the number of smokers, the correlation is truly amazing.
America - Fuck yeah...
Warning: the following image will require copious amounts of eye bleach...
http://diabetesdm.iowatracs.us/images/retinopathy-exam-diabetes-2-dhea-t...
Standard Case-in-point Disclaimer: Have you ever met a smoker that didn't gain weight after quitting?
There is a segment of American society that drags down every statistic we "Americans" rank amungst the rest of the world.
IE Healthcare, Education, Wealth etc...
You shave off "that" piece of the pie and we don't have it as bad as the statistics alude
It's all those "blah" people as Rick Santorum so eloquently pointed out. I'm glad he's running again. He's sure to bring some rational debate to the national dialog.
Zactly correct.
Examples:
Homicides rates among American Caucasians, Asians and Jews is <3 per 100K which is same as Western Europe and lower than eg., Stockholm Sweden. (But for America blacks its 18 per 100K --- 600% higher. For Hispanics it's about 9 per 100k -- 300% higher).
2 million Homeschooled American kids cost about $900/yr average to educate and they academically score the highest in the world as a group (higher scores for far less cost than Finland, the officially recognized top schooler country in the world. Finland has about 500K total kids in their system). In Baltimore, MD it costs $17,000 every year for every public school kid going to school and their scores and drop out rates are frighteningly abysmal.
" $17,000 every year for every public school kid going to school and their scores and drop out rates are frighteningly abysmal."
$500 for the children
$16,500 for the government Zombies.
and no one really gives a rats ass for the kiddies.... Schools are a babysitting service and nothing more.
But they are more: indoctrination centers and dope dealers.
CHS, Chris'sakes stop blaming American lifestyles for health care costs.
50% of Americans stopped smoking cigarettes in the last couple of decades so where are all our health care savings? There aren't any! They were supposed to drop more than 50% because smoking was Black-Plague-evil and so pervasive that others just being in the same room would fall ill.
As long as health care is another Ponzi Scheme driven by government intervention on behalf of the medical industrial complex it will always outstrip the CPI and go exponential after years of compounding. Like Student loans. Like military spending. Like welfare payments.
Answer is to cut government spending. But the patently obvious thing to do is never uttered out loud.
Sad but possibly true. If we stopped subsidizing and 3rd party billing for medical costs, they would quickly drop into line. Of course, I suspect we would have much worse health outcomes, but the system is teetering as it is.
Nah, not so much.
At a typical modern clinic In the Philippines I paid $70 for chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasound, EKG, and complete blood and urinalysis tests done. This alo included MD consultations and written reports for each of the work done (Radiologist, cardiologist, internist). I happened to be very healthy, but all of that would have cost >$3000 in the USA.
More, a friend of mine got in a motorcycle accident over there and was a hospital inpatient for a week. His complete, total bill was only $1100 and this included all the doctor's work, MRIs, blood work, ambulance ride and a semi-private room.
We just have a bloated system that rewards expensive health care over good health care. We don't have to to have worse outcomes at all.
"Answer is to cut government spending."
Get government out of the health care and insurance industry,,, any industry for the matter!
Government is just a tool the industrialists and other corporate bandits use to squeeze the turnip... you. Been that way since the beginning of time I suppose as the plebs just never seem to "get it".
I use the unaffordable anti-care Act (O-Care) as a prime example. Back in the day I was against the states imposing mandatory auto insurance as I knew once the genie was out of the bottle bullshit garbage like the ACA wouldn't be far behind.
One reason healthcare costs are escalating is the fact that there is no market, just as we see with other commodities. People seeking healthcare are faced with two alternatives. One is that they attempt to pay out of pocket and completely freak out, and the other is they pay with insurance and don't give two shits what the costs are. Now that we have huge deductibles, once that deductible is met, the bill can be a million and no one cares. Of course health insurance prices are going up like mad, but few have any connection between insurance costs and actual healthcare costs. When everything is paid for with other people's money, no one cares what the cost is....one of the biggest enablers of massive increases in government spending....other people's money. The answer is not only to get government out of healthcare but get rid of insurance. Insurance is strictly a redistribution scheme, transferring wealth from those who are healthy (and have a job) to those who are not. There is ZERO incentive for the system to do anything other than what it is doing. And government is simply the biggest insurance racket in the world, trying to take over the second largest insurance racket in the world.
But all the fat girls keep telling me I should just "accept them the way they are..."
Ok I'm just going to say a few things because I am not an expert in anything these are just my observations about things in general. CosmoJoe is correct about the deliberate disinformation about proper diet. Millions of people who are honestly trying to lose weight cannot becuase of the misinformation. When I was being treated for cancer last year I was sent to a nutritionist. This was at a NCI rated hospitial that is considered top 20 in the country and is part of a very large state university. The nutritionist was a registered/licensed and I think had at least one advanced degree.
She was huge -- almost as big as I was. I was simply stunned. She showed me alot of food products that were low calorie and manufactured along with the food pyramid. I was simply stunned. A few months later I started a low carb diet and I now use safetly pins to hold my pants up. Don't even count calories much.
Even Crack Whores in The D are fat. Flat chested, but fat.
There is a lot of social stigma that goes along with this as well. When I began maintaining a strict keto diet, my mother was fretting over what she thought was my impending heart disease. I recently had blood work done; my HDL was 81 (off the charts), total cholesterol was "high" but trigylcerides were below 60. My blood pressure is 65/110. My father had a heart attack in his 50's eating your typical American diet of high carbs and low fat. I am not walking that same path. Listening to 'the experts' obviously isn't working, but it sure is making some people very rich. I am open about my diet but I don't preach to people. I am happy to discuss with co-workers, friends and family but when I get that deer in headlights look or typical incredulous reaction I leave it at that and don't push it. I am happy to be considered someone on a 'fringe' or 'weird' diet, since apparently being healthy clearly isn't the norm anymore.
My son was in the hospital after a bad accident. The "nurse" was so huge that her fat got in the way of reaching toward him so she could change his bandages. A really disgusting thought? How do these people "clean" themselves?
After a supposed heart attack, (I did not agree with the diagnoses), a foul up occured, we received a bill for $53,000. In the hospital for 3 days,,, had a un-needed cardiac catherization.
After the insurance problem was corrected the bill was reduced to $13,000. A drop of $40,000. Closest answer I could get was the insurance company and hospital had a cost agreement. Now I can understand a small reduction in pricing because more patients will be steered their way but $40,000?
The medical profession, Doctors, Nurses, Hospitals and so on are gouging people with frightening bills if not insured. Medical services costs should not depend on who is paying. It's all a scam like about everything else in this country. It not just the pharmaceutical companies, it's everyone from the smug receptionist, to inconsiderate Nurses, to the uncaring Doc. They know they're screwing you, which is why few of them will look you in the eye.
These Ferengi quacks are out to soak you for every scintilla of wealth you managed to accumulate over your life.
Another example: I have a rash I contracted a couple years ago. Neither the General Practitioner nor the Dermatologist are interested in that problem. The GP wants to run blood tests to look for Diabetes which I suspect he will undoubtedly find in order to push pills and more tests. The Dermatologist completely ignores my reason for coming an proceeds to freeze some skin blemishes on my face which I never complained about. Of course I was charged for this treatment. The rash still persists.
Some say "Find another Doctor"... True for the past but now with Mr. Digital tracking your every medical move one cannot get an unbiased opinion as the new doctor simply reads what the other doctor has diagnosed and 99% of the time will not differ as he doesn't want others to question any diagnosis of his.
Be very cautious. They will kill you for a buck and not think a thing about it.
Doctors and Hospitals are the #1 cause of death in the USA.
Avoid them like the plague they are.
Only one exception- life threatening trauma.
Yeah if you lose a limb or something else drastic, hooray for life saving surgery and intervention. Beyond that, GTFO. My brother in law's most recent stay at the hospital was the gift that kept on giving when he went home with a C.Diff infection.
Adverse drug reactions alone are the 6th leading cause of death . . . and this is prescription drugs taken properly.
After the insurance problem was corrected the bill was reduced to $13,000.
Had a similar experience.
Consider your "health insurance" to in reality be "protection money" against outrageous billing.
Ferengi quacks.. lmao.. great post
A main reason for the lack of growth in the US economy is shown in the growing rate of obesity.
The population will continue to grow sicker - and fatter - so long as we continue to eat GMO foods, hormone- and antibiotic-laced foods, and corn syrup.
Digestive diseases have doubled in incidence since GMO's have been added to foods. Digestive diseases promote almost all the other diseases as well.
Hormones and antibiotics are given to livestock to FATTEN them. The hormones don't stop working when we eat them. The same is true with antibiotics. Livestock are given 70% of al the antibiotics administered. Eating antibiotic laced foods can't be good fou your health.
Corn syrup triggers hunger and increased fat storage. Enlarged fat cells promote pain compounds called cytokines.
You can force your children to run all day, but these other factors are fighting against them - and you - at the same time.
Either that or there's less individual capability to eat proper amounts. It kinda coincides with lower education levels, and the broadening desire for the government to take car of the individual from cradle to grave.
Either that or there's less individual capability to eat proper amounts. It kinda coincides with lower education levels, and the broadening desire for the government to take car of the individual from cradle to grave.
As a retired paramedical (Registered Respitory Therapist) I learned a few things while working in various hospitals.
Things to stay away from:
-hospitals & clinics
-doctors
-nurses
-nutritionists
-dietitians
-use NO drugs of any kind unless it's absolutely necessary. This includes vaccinations.
-GMOs, corn (GMO or otherwise), soy(GMO or otherwise)
I am now 67, in perfect health and still have all of my teeth.
U.S. healthcare is unsustainable. That it will break in the next decade is predictable.
But the interesting question is if it will break all of the lower 95% earners first...
The Drs and hospitals are just culpable. If you ever yourself or know someone in a hospital stay...watch the steady stream of drs and nurses coming and going.
Each time one enters...usually without any purpose t all, they will log their time.
When you see the page after page of itemized bills charging 100s for 5 minute, hello how are doing...you'll undrstand the scam better.
“U.S. healthcare is unsustainable… That good health is insanely unprofitable…”
I think someone is confused here. To equate “US healthcare” to “good health” is “unsustainable”.
Good health cannot be achieved or maintained by current versions of US healthcare.
These healthcares are confined strictly to prescriptions drugs and related services and products; and every such drug contains small portions of poisons.
The adjective, “prescription” means that the drug in question has been approved by the Food and Drug Admin. Before the FDA will accept a concoction for evaluation, the applicant must submit a so-called “Lethal Dosage 50%” form; which details the amount of concoction that will kill 50% of those who take it.
If it is not possible to kill anyone with the concoction or substance (such as vitamin C), the FDA will not accept it.
Those who rely on healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare et cetera) to maintain their health are, in fact, pursuing a regimen that destroys health, and hastens death.
There is a much better alternative… a health regimen that can REDUCE – not SLOW – the aging process. In my case it has REDUCED my biological age at least 50 years; and my proof is well-nigh irrefutable: former professional and college baseball players tell me that I have the healing power, coordination and physical condition of a professional athlete about 20 years of age (see my video (about 4 min) and webpage – each leads to the other). They started making these compliments 15 years ago, when I was “older”, less coordinated and had less strength and stamina than I now have.
. "'The benefits of bypass surgery and angioplasty “are at best temporary and erode over time, with most patients eventually succumbing to their disease.' In cancer management, we call that palliative care, where we just kind of throw up our hands, throw in the towel, and give up actually trying to treat the disease.
Why does this juggernaut of invasive procedures persist? Well one reason he suggests is that performing surgical interventions has the potential for enormous financial reward. Conversely, lack of adequate return is considered one of the barriers to the practice of preventive cardiology. Diet and lifestyle interventions lose money for the physician."
http://nutritionfacts.org/2015/06/02/why-do-heart-doctors-favor-surgery-...
Interestingly enough, the "surgical interventions" are tantamount, sometimes, to torture. One of my friends was just diagnosed with a very bad cancer, 30% survival rate at the end of first year. 1% at end of five years. The philosophical question is: Does all that radiation and surgery and whatever mean it's worthwhile if you suffer so? Are you being given the best chance...? Or are you being a lab rat? Just asking...
If you never try you'll never advance...Some people cling to this life and want everything done. They help advance knowledge so that a leukemia that once had 80% mortality now has a 90% survival. Other people have faith that this life is temporary and don't want to prolong the inevitable; they are best served palliatively so they can pass in peace...There's no absolute right or wrong within reason...
If you've seen the third worlders being stuffed into our medical system, you know that Oprah's "a bunch of old white people have to die..." has been implemented. Why anyone would believe that third worlders want to care for, and will care for, white people is baffling? In the last couple of years, I've known several people who are now dead, or dying because their should-have-been-obvious cancer wasn't "caught." It looks like the word is out, pretend you don't know someone is ill and then you can kill them off; AKA how-to-save-social-security "The Look The Other Way and So Sorry You Will Die" policy.
Good luck if you are over 50, you have been targeted for elimination.
Love healthcare. F*ck all the Wall Street types and their Ferraris for doing bullshit value to society. Whatever the ills of the larger system, I have never gone home thinking I didn't try to do well by someone. And most of time, I actually make a difference in people's lives one person at a time. Even those you can't help can be solaced with a kind word or touch. Never regret my decision to be a physician.
You cannot get medical costs under control as long as we have these rising rates of obesity
Utter bullshit statement, trying to detract from the main culprit in health care: cartels everywhere.