POWER WANDS
| Health In The News by Joan Estelle High |
| Well there is some good news in the media today.
There are also some developments we need to keep an eye on. |
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11-19-2010
Good News |
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Good News There is also some pilot programs that are testing a different method of paying doctors for their service. If it is accepted by the doctors, it could lead to giant saving. Instead of a fee for service that bills for every visit. Doctors will get a fee per patient. This could lead them to be paid bonuses for better care and cost saving. This way doctors might catch and prevent patients from developing more costly ailments. The patient could feel free to see the doctor earlier and that might head off problems Seniors especially have a problem dealing at the first of each year because of the large deductible which keeps getting larger every year. So visits to the doctor have to be postponed during cold months ( keeping warm) until money is available later in the Spring. More doctors are requiring their money up front even with long term patients. Even with Medicare a lot of Senior don’t get the basic tests they need. If your income is limited you often put off tests that should be done for years. It is very embarrassing to get nasty letters from the hospital, if you can't immediately take care of what is left over after Medicare pays their part. Even when you get an infections from being there you still get threaten letters. You should definitely get a discount if you get an infection. Until the Republicans can come up with a better plan they might try to see if they can give a little support to us, the general public. "Have nots" don’t have the same resources , what those in power have. Those in power don't have a clue of the struggles of the:" have nots”, |
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So So Good News Headlines informing us about the use of Radio Waves to help lower blood pressure |
| News To Watch Keep an eye on this one. They want to over haul Medicare. If I understand what I read they want to take Medicare private with a type of voucher system that would put this program into the hands of insurance companies. Seniors would get higher costs and less care. The insurance companies, who are business to make money, would rake the money in by the buckets.| This plan would also effect Medicare grants to states. Note: The opinions stated on this page are mine unless stated to belong to another person. I just tell it like I see it! You are free to disagree with me! If you have any information or comment please feel free to contact me. E-mail thecrystallady@hotmail.com or you can write me: Joan High P.O. Box 1333 Sulphur Springs Texas, 7548 |
| Alcohol and Caffeine by Joan Estelle High 11-18-2010 |
Apparently the latest fad of adding Caffeine to Alcoholic drinks is stirring up quite a bit of talk here in Texas as it has already caused four other states to ban the beverages. Washington, Michigan, Utah, and Oklahoma have already banned them. Last week some teenager from the Dallas area were out joy riding and drinking. The end results was the death of a 14 year old girl who was thrown from the vehicle , when the 14 year old driver crashed the vehicle. Another passenger age 16 was not hurt. Now the boy driving is charged with intoxication manslaughter charges. Although these kids were underage they managed to buy this concoction at a local convenience store. The Food and Drug Administration is looking in to these canned drinks to determine if caffeine is an unsafe additive to alcoholic drinks. As of last year they were advising manufactures that they were studying if the practice was unsafe. If you have teenagers or college age children you need to keep an eye out for these products as they are very appealing to under age drinkers. There is some evidence that students who combine caffeine and alcohol are more likely to end up with related injuries. One of the main problem is the size of the drink. The 23.5ounce fruit flavored drink has 12 percent alcohol. It is like drinking 4 beers. When the caffeine wears off it packs a punch like a mule. One of the manufacture said they would pull be pulling "Four Loko" off the market and remove the caffeine. Other brands are "Moonshot, Max and Joose" |
| News For Breast Cancers By Joan Estelle High ©1-31-2010 |
| It is a very scary thing for a women to find a lump
in her breast tissue. Getting a mammogram is usually the next step. Getting Mammograms yearly is causing some disagreement between the health care professionals. That and PSA tests for men's prostate problems maybe given further study. When you are young with firm breast mammograms range from uncomfortable to hurt. I used to think that the man that invented them should have his testicle x-rayed that way. The problem with them is false negative, they miss some cancer, false positives they find other things than cancer and they expose women to more radiation than was originally thought. If something suspicious is found the next step is getting a biopsy. In the past and currently the treatment for breast cancer has been a trial by fire for women. Although there are a few men who get breast cancer this disease is life threaten mostly to women. I remember as a young women hearing the screams of a neighbor lady who was suffering some thing awful with breast cancer. Surgery had left her arm swollen to twice the size. Thank God we have come a long way down the road, from those days 60 years ago. Now there is a 90 percent survival rate, if the cancer is found early. Yet only lung cancer kills more women each year. Mastectomies are not the only treatment used today. Surgery, chemo, Radiation, immunotherapy , vaccines can be part of the treatments as well. They are looking at possibility that some of the bone drug used for bone thinning osteoporosis may be adapted to use in preventing breast cancer in healthy women. At this time these medicines have sided effects that can cause bone and joint pain. In rare cases they have caused the patient being treated to have their jawbone decay. A interesting study that sounds like something from a Sci. Fi. story is using microwaves with chemo to shrinks breast cancer which may eliminate the need for mastectomies up to 90 %, in as little as 5 years. This could be a major break through in preventing lost of a women's breast. Clinical trials are scheduled for this coming year. (Don't try this at home. It is not an microwave oven as you know it.) Researcher looking for the cure and prevention of breast cancer have to take a lot of different factors involved. Age, weight, smoking, diet can all be part of the problem. Women who drink regularly have a 50 percent greater chance of getting breast cancer than women who do not drink. Of course drinking also increase your rate of liver, head and neck, esophageal cancers as well. So even if you have heard that light drinking might help your heart, the damage it does to other organs is worth thinking about. The risk facto is directly tied in to genetic factors. |
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January Update
Health Reform by Joan Estelle High ©1-17-2010 |
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