Monday, November 20, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Hello fans, thanks for making this blog one of the top blogs on the net, If only in my mind or maybe in my childrens minds, The most visited it is not. I am posting a short essay from one of the best. I don't have his permission so I hope he doen't mind too much...
The Cost of Dying Wednesday, November 01, 2006
The cost of dying in Miami, according to a new study, is $23,000. That money is spent over a six-month period - the last six months. It pays for an average of 46 doctor visits and six days in the ICU. (And there is a 27 percent chance you'll die in the ICU.)It's better in Portland, Oregon, where the cost is only $14,000. It's less expensive in Oregon, because there are fewer trips to the doctor (only 18 compared to 46) and an average of one day in the ICU. Chances of dying in the ICU in Oregon are less too - at 13 percent, less than half what they are in Miami.The question, as Julie Appleby writing in USA Today points out, is how much if any of those extra expenses resulted in better medical care. Did they improve the quality of life during treatment? Did they extend life? And if so, did those extra days have any quality?The study - the Dartmouth Atlas Project (a program at Dartmouth Medical School) - didn't get answers to those questions.But when we are planning our own care in old age or taking care of our aging parents, they are questions that must be asked and answered.I don't have the numbers in reach, but I remember reading that some very large percentage of the money Americans spend on health care is spent for care that takes place in the final two years of life. Judging from the Dartmouth study and from what I've seen personally, most of that money is spent on all the wrong things: wasteful visits to family doctors who offer no help and expensive visits to specialists who charge more money for very expensive, very noxious clinical procedures that reduce the quality of life but seldom extend it.We don't need lots of data to convince us of what we know from experience - that all that expensive chemical and surgical intervention at the end of life improves only the lives of those collecting the bills, not those paying them.Another interesting bit of data I read somewhere: If you remove infant mortality from the equation, what is the average difference between the lifespan of someone from Burkina Faso (a desperately poor landlocked country in western Africa) and someone from the United States?Would you be surprised to learn it is only one year?When you get sick in Burkina Faso, you may see a local doctor or witch doctor who will give you some natural herbs. Then you spend your final year surrounded by family and loved ones. The entire cost of medical care during that critical last year of life is almost certainly less than $100.So, apart from infant mortality, the huge cost of Western medicine is providing only a single year of additional life ... and that year is one spent miserably, shuffling between doctors' offices, hospitals, and clinics. Instead of dying with dignity, as people can still do in the world's poorest countries.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:50 AM,
The Cost of Dying Wednesday, November 01, 2006
The cost of dying in Miami, according to a new study, is $23,000. That money is spent over a six-month period - the last six months. It pays for an average of 46 doctor visits and six days in the ICU. (And there is a 27 percent chance you'll die in the ICU.)It's better in Portland, Oregon, where the cost is only $14,000. It's less expensive in Oregon, because there are fewer trips to the doctor (only 18 compared to 46) and an average of one day in the ICU. Chances of dying in the ICU in Oregon are less too - at 13 percent, less than half what they are in Miami.The question, as Julie Appleby writing in USA Today points out, is how much if any of those extra expenses resulted in better medical care. Did they improve the quality of life during treatment? Did they extend life? And if so, did those extra days have any quality?The study - the Dartmouth Atlas Project (a program at Dartmouth Medical School) - didn't get answers to those questions.But when we are planning our own care in old age or taking care of our aging parents, they are questions that must be asked and answered.I don't have the numbers in reach, but I remember reading that some very large percentage of the money Americans spend on health care is spent for care that takes place in the final two years of life. Judging from the Dartmouth study and from what I've seen personally, most of that money is spent on all the wrong things: wasteful visits to family doctors who offer no help and expensive visits to specialists who charge more money for very expensive, very noxious clinical procedures that reduce the quality of life but seldom extend it.We don't need lots of data to convince us of what we know from experience - that all that expensive chemical and surgical intervention at the end of life improves only the lives of those collecting the bills, not those paying them.Another interesting bit of data I read somewhere: If you remove infant mortality from the equation, what is the average difference between the lifespan of someone from Burkina Faso (a desperately poor landlocked country in western Africa) and someone from the United States?Would you be surprised to learn it is only one year?When you get sick in Burkina Faso, you may see a local doctor or witch doctor who will give you some natural herbs. Then you spend your final year surrounded by family and loved ones. The entire cost of medical care during that critical last year of life is almost certainly less than $100.So, apart from infant mortality, the huge cost of Western medicine is providing only a single year of additional life ... and that year is one spent miserably, shuffling between doctors' offices, hospitals, and clinics. Instead of dying with dignity, as people can still do in the world's poorest countries.
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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:50 AM,
Monday, November 06, 2006
Another excellent recommendation for you......God Bless you all. My brother jost had a stroke and surgery for correction of his blood vessels....in rehab now..he is 2 years older than I am= Great guy...best friend....thanks for your prayers..
Exercise and Natural Hormones!By June M. Lay, Lifestyle Columnist - HealthNewsDigest.comNov 6, 2006, 07:11
Email this article Printer friendly pageExercise and Natural Hormones!
(HealthNewsDigest.com).. Do we need another reason to exercise? Well here's one. Exercise has been shown to elicit hormonal responses that may be especially beneficial to us anti-aging " Baby Boomers"! I wrote this tip originally two years ago right before the termination of research due to risks of synthetic Hormonal Replacement Therapy for women, and since the pros and cons about HRT still continue, let's take a look again at exercise, a non debatable natural activity. As we age, our sex organs (both women and men) produce less estrogen and testosterone. In fact, there is an abundance of books on the very subject of perimenopause and menopause for those of us women 40 and over (baby boomers are a major segment of our population). This is the time when our hormones are fluctuating and our ovaries are starting to produce less estrogen which may result in some unpleasant symptoms. Men over 40 may also experience symptoms from reduced testosterone levels such as fatigue. However, our adrenal glands continue to produce small amounts of these vital hormones throughout life. So how does exercise help us when our sex glands are producing less?One study reports that blood levels of estrogen, testosterone and growth hormone were significantly higher in women aged 19-69 years old after 40 minutes of either endurance or resistance exercise versus a control group who performed no exercise! We can see that even the older women produced more anti-aging hormones! The study concluded that "an acute bout of exercise can increase concentrations of anabolic hormones in females across a wide age range"(see source listed below). What does this mean? It means more anti-aging hormones for our muscles, bones and of course among other wonderful benefits, it means glowing news for our skin, energy and mental well-being (let's not forget about our libido)! Other research on the hormonal response to exercise in men, while less conclusive for testosterone levels, showed increases in growth hormone after resistance exercise. What does this mean? Growth Hormone touted as "the" anti-aging therapy treatment some celebrities credit their youthful looks to, increases muscle mass, bone density and reduces body fat. Sounds youthful to me (I'm off to the gym to pump some iron now!)! Now to the point of today's tip, exercise increases circulating sex hormones as well as the touted anti-aging growth hormone which may help to reduce some of those unpleasant effects of aging. And the best news is it does it naturally! Perhaps exercise may aid us women who are unable to take hormone replacement therapy, and perhaps it may help reduce the amount of synthetic hormones for those of us women who do take them. And we do know that increases in levels of estrogen and testosterone both aid calcium absorption which is vital for our bones. So, now we have another great reason to exercise in addition to all the others. Not 40 yet? As we all know, it's never too early to anti-age! So here's to one of "Nature's Fountain of Youth" tool's that is within our reach, exercise!Junewww.junefit.com(Please seek advise from your doctor before exercising, and/or changing any drug therapy). Want more info on women's health? Go to The United States Department of Health & Human Services for every health subject A-Z and check out this site Mayo Clinic Women's Health Resource Center -Experts address menopause, gynecological conditions, osteoporosis, and other physical and emotional health issues unique to women.Source: Hormonal responses to endurance and resistance exercise in females aged 19-69 years.Copeland JL, Consitt LA, Tremblay MS.Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada. Junefit ranks 2nd at Google for "fitness tips" search out of million of results! Junefit is included in Google's top ranked women's health resources http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women's_Health/Resources/
Exercise and Natural Hormones!By June M. Lay, Lifestyle Columnist - HealthNewsDigest.comNov 6, 2006, 07:11
Email this article Printer friendly pageExercise and Natural Hormones!
(HealthNewsDigest.com).. Do we need another reason to exercise? Well here's one. Exercise has been shown to elicit hormonal responses that may be especially beneficial to us anti-aging " Baby Boomers"! I wrote this tip originally two years ago right before the termination of research due to risks of synthetic Hormonal Replacement Therapy for women, and since the pros and cons about HRT still continue, let's take a look again at exercise, a non debatable natural activity. As we age, our sex organs (both women and men) produce less estrogen and testosterone. In fact, there is an abundance of books on the very subject of perimenopause and menopause for those of us women 40 and over (baby boomers are a major segment of our population). This is the time when our hormones are fluctuating and our ovaries are starting to produce less estrogen which may result in some unpleasant symptoms. Men over 40 may also experience symptoms from reduced testosterone levels such as fatigue. However, our adrenal glands continue to produce small amounts of these vital hormones throughout life. So how does exercise help us when our sex glands are producing less?One study reports that blood levels of estrogen, testosterone and growth hormone were significantly higher in women aged 19-69 years old after 40 minutes of either endurance or resistance exercise versus a control group who performed no exercise! We can see that even the older women produced more anti-aging hormones! The study concluded that "an acute bout of exercise can increase concentrations of anabolic hormones in females across a wide age range"(see source listed below). What does this mean? It means more anti-aging hormones for our muscles, bones and of course among other wonderful benefits, it means glowing news for our skin, energy and mental well-being (let's not forget about our libido)! Other research on the hormonal response to exercise in men, while less conclusive for testosterone levels, showed increases in growth hormone after resistance exercise. What does this mean? Growth Hormone touted as "the" anti-aging therapy treatment some celebrities credit their youthful looks to, increases muscle mass, bone density and reduces body fat. Sounds youthful to me (I'm off to the gym to pump some iron now!)! Now to the point of today's tip, exercise increases circulating sex hormones as well as the touted anti-aging growth hormone which may help to reduce some of those unpleasant effects of aging. And the best news is it does it naturally! Perhaps exercise may aid us women who are unable to take hormone replacement therapy, and perhaps it may help reduce the amount of synthetic hormones for those of us women who do take them. And we do know that increases in levels of estrogen and testosterone both aid calcium absorption which is vital for our bones. So, now we have another great reason to exercise in addition to all the others. Not 40 yet? As we all know, it's never too early to anti-age! So here's to one of "Nature's Fountain of Youth" tool's that is within our reach, exercise!Junewww.junefit.com(Please seek advise from your doctor before exercising, and/or changing any drug therapy). Want more info on women's health? Go to The United States Department of Health & Human Services for every health subject A-Z and check out this site Mayo Clinic Women's Health Resource Center -Experts address menopause, gynecological conditions, osteoporosis, and other physical and emotional health issues unique to women.Source: Hormonal responses to endurance and resistance exercise in females aged 19-69 years.Copeland JL, Consitt LA, Tremblay MS.Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada. Junefit ranks 2nd at Google for "fitness tips" search out of million of results! Junefit is included in Google's top ranked women's health resources http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women's_Health/Resources/
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