Posts Tagged ‘health’

Pets and Allergies

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Pets and allergies for some reason seem to go together. How sad when you have a family and everyone agrees they all want very much to add a pet to the family and when you do the war of the allergies takes over. The allergies stem from the animal dander and not all the health insurance in the world is going to stop this from happening.

However, there are some allergies, like asthma, that are now considered a pre-condition. If your child or children are developing an allergy to the pet dander, do you then return the pet? Probably not, but this is becoming an issue for the health care industry to pay attention to. There are a few steps you can try to help alleviate this issue with the help of the health insurance community.

1.    Discuss the allergy symptoms with your medical health care physician

2.    Bathe your pet regularly to reduce the pet dander

3.    Refrain from allowing your pet to enter the bedroom for an allergy free night

4.    Thoroughly vacuum carpeting and flooring regularly

5.    Clean and dust regularly

6.    Consider using a vacuum with a HEPA filter to pick up pet dander

First, you must figure out how to relieve the symptoms of the allergy and this is a logical topic to discuss with your medical health care physician.

There are many over the counter medications that are mild that you could try to see if they eliminate the itchy eyes and runny nose after consulting your medical health care physician. However, if the one member of your home who is allergic to pet dander is a child, it is a wise idea to discuss this with your pediatrician. If your child is older then discuss this with your medical physician and even your affordable health insurance carrier.

Sometimes you will need a prescription medication for allergies, specific to pet dander and then you will need to talk with your health insurance provider to find out if they will cover the prescription. The reason why you need to find out is that if the prescription is an expensive one, you must continue to purchase a new supply each month.

Always take care though, do not mix medications when you are not sure if they are compatible. You can always consult your medical health care physician when you are not sure, especially when children are involved. You can also consult with your low cost health insurance provider to ask if they have a pamphlet for more advice to protect the children and reduce the susceptibility of pet dander allergen.

The health insurance providers usually have information they will be more than happy to pass along to you to help with the necessary adjustments of introducing a new pet into the home. Good, sound advice is what you really need most right now and they just might have what you are searching. Once you are able to grasp a new workable system you will soon find the allergy will begin to subside, but never allow yourself to let down your guard.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Health Insurance, Uncategorized, health, health care | Comments Off

Breast Cancer and Emotional Stress

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Emotional stress going through your mind during your time in medical treatment for breast cancer is weighing heavily. You need time to discuss the pros and cons with your affordable health insurance provider and your medical physician. You need to know if you have insurance coverage to see you through this unsavory ordeal.

You are traveling such a long and difficult road, but the outcome will be a positive one. This ordeal though will remain with you for the rest of your life. Emotions do take their toll, and you remain very apprehensive and unsure of the direction to take next which is leaving you in a depressed state.

Health care surveys indicate part of the difficulty is your age when diagnosed with breast cancer. Clinical, biological, and pathological features of breast cancer as per the health care provider vary between younger women and older women. When you receive a diagnosis of breast cancer before reaching age forty, this is an indication of a more palpable mass rather than the mammographic indications.

In younger women, statistics through the medical community and with your low cost health insurance provider will show the breast tissue is generally dense therefore by the time a small lump is even noticeable, the cancer spread and became more advanced.

Your health insurance provider will have a list of those medical professionals that will help you to cope with the stress you are currently experiencing. Are you feeling nervous and apprehensive when you are surrounded by your family and friends? Make time to read your affordable health insurance policy to find what they offer in your case.

There are support groups in your local area that will help you to re-adjust back into the community and feel confident. When you join together with other women who have experienced the same ordeal, it gives you a sense of belonging. It makes you realize that you survived for a reason.

The health care medical community can only go so far and then you have to pick up the ball and run with it. Your health insurance provider and the medical community, understands your plight. Many younger women had chemotherapy and now face the problem of an early menopause, but they all find the will power to get through, as you will.

The exposure to chemotherapy has caused many changes such as the loss of hair, the perception of yourself, and how you believe those around you see you now. You will experience more difficulty finding employment than finding acceptance from your family members. Unfortunately, your health care renewal policy is one of the more noticeable changes you will experience because of the increase of rates.

However, regardless of what happens, even if your health care rates increase upon renewal, the point still remains that you survived. Now you must have the faith and confidence to continue your life from here and share your story with other women so they will also learn to remain strong and pass their stories along to their children and grandchildren.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in health, health care | Comments Off

Alzheimer’s Long-term Care Options

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

All the individuals around the country who have parents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease soon learn very well how serious and debilitating this disease really is to the person with the disease and for you the caregiver. As you reach for the medication and try to make the home more adaptable for your parent or parents, you are also reaching for the health insurance policy and beginning to read what your parent or parents are covered.

Traumatic as it is for you to observe the progression and find that you must deal with your own emotions you are also trying desperately to help your parents through this transition too. Everyone who is involved soon learns what a difficult progression and experience this really is. Soon you begin to understand that long-term care is needed and that you, the caregiver, also need assistance to survive this ordeal.

What is long-term care and what will this mean for your family. You will find most of the answers within your parent’s health insurance policy. The remainder of the answers you seek can be found by discussing this situation with the family medical physician. Long-term care can be defined by many avenues to help families cope.

1.    Regular assistance from other family members and perhaps close friends

2.    Requesting the assistance of a home health care aid to assist in the daily or weekly routine

3.    The most obvious is researching the assisted living centers to find the one that is most compatible with your concerns, the current health insurance policy, and that of your parents.

Search for and investigate an assisted living center that will provide twenty-four hour medical attention to all patients as well as close to the original living area so as not to confuse your parents.

When your medical health care allows, there is also respite care to offer families a chance to discuss what the best next step is for the parents. It is an opportunity to discuss with the health care professional different ways to become more efficient in helping your parents even when they are permanently in a living center with other elderly citizens.

Respite health care is only another option that you can add to your arsenal of ways to help and protect your parents. There are other forms of assistance such as Adult Day Services and Home Health Services, which are also filled with many professionals to help make this journey a smooth one for all the family members involved.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Health Insurance | Comments Off

Alzheimer’s Disease

Monday, March 29th, 2010

How many of you are trying to make a living, raise your family, pay bills best you can, participate with your children in after school activities, and taking care of your parents at the same time? Statistically, there are many and the stress levels are running high. You find yourself on the telephone with the health insurance provider on a regular basis to find out if your parents are medically protected under their health insurance plan from certain procedures and new medication.

You are finding yourself torn between trying to do what is in the best interest of your parents and your children, right. Do you find that along the line you are losing the sense of self? You have tried to read the low cost health insurance policy your parents are enrolled.  Yet, you still find it very unclear as to what is and what is not covered.

You are thinking about inquiring about the home health services to ease some of the burden you find yourself involved. You begin to wonder if this is how you will become when you become elderly and it scares you to begin researching the topic. Now with everything else you must do you want to learn exactly what Alzheimer’s is and how it evolves. You also are interested if there is any way to stop it.

The low cost health insurance provider has sent you a few booklets, pamphlets, and medical web sites you can refer to in order to learn. As you begin your homework, you learn that Alzheimer’s disease involves the neurotransmitters within the brain with low levels of chemical messengers.

Talking with your health insurance provider you explain how your mother had five older sisters and your father was the fourth child born out of nine children and never was there any hint of Alzheimer’s disease in the family until now. Unfortunately, the answers are few because the medical community themselves are not able to pinpoint the why.

The various health insurance providers do have a list of some of the more noticeable symptoms as does the medical community.

1.    The most noticeable symptom is memory loss and difficulty making decisions

2.    Confusion begins to set in as to what time of day it is

3.    Appear lost in familiar places and forget where items like a health care policy was placed last

4.    Learning and remembering new information becomes a difficult lesson in futility

5.    Speaking incomplete sentences and confusing or combining topics senselessly

6.    Performing daily activities become confusing

As a caregiver, you need to reach out to the health care community because this is a difficult time for your entire family. The health care community will help to guide you and offer assistance as to medication, group therapy, and suggest investigating the living centers in your area because Alzheimer’s disease never improves. The best anyone can hope for is to slow down the progression, but sometimes even that is impossible depending on the parent with the Alzheimer’s disease. This is such a difficult time for all who are involved and there is no easy path to travel.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Crisis Situation, Health Insurance | Comments Off

Is New York following Massachusetts

Friday, March 26th, 2010

The health care process in New York has been on the revamping slide for a few years now. With Massachusetts as a role model, New York has investigated and kept a close eye on how the implemented health care reform measures have been working. At the same time, they have been instituting some of the health care measures within the state health care system as well.

Although not to the extent that Massachusetts has, for the time being it is working. For how long this system will continue to function positively is anyone’s guess. To continuously take in more applicants on all levels and have so few paying into the system is a system that will fail. This is what is happening in Massachusetts at this present time. The low cost health insurance that was promised in the beginning is slowly getting much more expensive driving more people to leave the state.

Yes, they too celebrated when State wide nationalized health care was instituted for all the citizens, but they all forgot to factor in who was going to pay for the process to continue and flourish. Today, they are floundering in a sea of red tape because the funds are scarce and growing scarce with each passing day.

Many residents fled Massachusetts for neighboring states, and today you could say they were the lucky ones. Ah, but New York is a completely new ballgame. Universal health care is a very bold and thoughtful ideal, but that is where it begins and ends.

This ideal of all for one and one for all is a utopian ideal that is not sustainable. You must have more money coming in than is going out, any business in the New York area already know that. Why does the state of New York think it do a better job of health insurance provisions than other states?

Then to consider mandating, as Massachusetts did, that all residents living and working in the New York area must comply.  The state of New York, like the state of Massachusetts really has no business in trying to run a universal health care plan when they understand very little of the concept. We already have failed government programs that are going broke at a rapid rate:

1.    Medicaid Insurance and Medicare Insurance

2.    Social Security

These are all going broke and for the same reason. There is more money being paid out to recipients, than taken in by those who participate in these plans. When did it ever say that every one is entitled to everything free? This is really unfortunate for those within the health care system that really do need it or they will not survive. There are others within the health care system that can most assuredly take care of themselves, but for some reason it is so much easier to put a hand out instead.

When are individuals going to understand that although help is out there for those who truly are in need, the mass majority can be quite self-sufficient? There are many in New York who understands this and they go through great lengths to take care of their own.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Health Insurance | Comments Off

Don’t Leave Home Without It

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

The XXI Olympic Winter Games (or the 21st Winter Olympics) is a global multi-sport event held from February 12 to February 29, 2010, in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Eighty-two countries have entered the games, sending altogether over 2,700 athletes—all competing for medals in eighty-six sport events. The numbers attending the Olympics are significant—including such figures as: 7,000 athletes, coaches, and team officials; 10,000 journalists; 50,000 Olympic workers; and tens of thousands of spectators. Of course, for any major event held, those who organize it must also make preparation for any potential incidents requiring medical assistance such as accidents, injuries, sicknesses, food-related illnesses, and even the possibility of fatalities. Therefore, it is pertinent that medical care and emergency treatment are always available during such events.

Consequently, there are about 1,200 medical volunteers and 15 full-time paid medical services staff who are serving during the Olympics. Additionally, there are similar numbers of allied health professionals which include nurses, chiropractors, lab technicians, and physiotherapists. These medical personnel have estimated (based upon the 11,575 medical cases treated during the 2002 Winter Olympics) that approximately 12,000 individuals will need some type of medical attention during the Olympics. They also believe that of this estimate only about 15 percent will be participating athletes who will require medical assistance.

Unfortunately, prior to this year’s Olympic official opening, two accidents have already necessitated medical treatment. One such accident involved a painful shin injury for Lindsey Vonn who is generally known as an American ski “star” and Olympic gold medal contender. Another concern is the tragic death of a 21 year old men’s Olympic lunger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, from the Republic of Georgia. This young man had been training when he lost control of his speeding sled and his body was flung into a metal pole. Within seconds rescue workers gave emergency medical treatment to the young man who afterward had been immediately airlifted to a trauma center. Despite the best of medical care, the young athlete was pronounced dead at the trauma center.

Medical care has become a priority at the Winter Olympics. In fact, the VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games) has included a medical services budget within their Sport and Games Operations budget of $247 million. A 10,000 square foot polyclinic with up-to-date health services is at each Olympic athlete village at Vancouver and Whistler. Also, other venues that are part of the Olympics also have medical stations for both the athletes and the spectators.

Complete medical service is provided for Olympic athletes. Emergency health care, first aid, and, if necessary, ambulance transfer to a suitable hospital are all provided without charge for the Olympic spectator by VANOC. However, VANOC will not cover the medical costs that spectators incur from hospitals or walk-in clinics. Thus, those individuals who come to watch the Olympics will definitely need to purchase their own health insurance. Otherwise, if medical care is necessary, the Olympic visitors may be subject to rather large medical expenses.

The visitor should prepare for the worst even though the worst may never happen; thus, visitors medical insurance policy (travelers insurance) becomes a wise choice for the traveler to the Olympics. The visitor will be assured that if any such situation does occur, he or she will not be burdened with excessive health costs. The travelers insurance will provide health coverage for such costs resulting from prescription drugs, physician and surgeon care, emergency dental care, ambulance, and hospital care.

The visitor can shop for a policy by comparing several visitors health insurance plans and their varying premium costs, exclusions for international visitors, and benefits. Once the best plan is chosen, the individual can purchase the plan before leaving his or her country. Although it is not the subject of a well-known commercial, visitor medical insurance should travel with the visitor to the XXI Winter Olympic Games. Just as that commercial’s slogan states to anyone who listens, the visitor should seriously consider: “Don’t leave home without it.”

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Crisis Situation, Health Insurance | No Comments »

Ingesting Drugs has Become the New American Diet

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

The crisis is consuming America and it is also consuming the rest of the world.  All you have to do is google “ a nation of pill poppers” and you will see the crisis is affecting the UK to Singapore.  More and more people around the world are turning to drugs as their solution for their physical and mental health care issues.  It makes the big pharmaceutical companies happy, but it does not necessarily make the individuals using these medications very happy.  There is no such thing as a “happy pill.”    Could it be that individuals especially with mental health issues are just trying to drown their sorrows with medication instead of the traditional alcohol? Furthermore what is the impact on the lives of people that are using medication and alcohol?

The media is a facilitator in this quest to medicate for mental and physical ailments.  At one time you went to the doctor with your complaints and he or she would prescribe medication if it were needed.  Now you go to the doctor and say, “I want this medication or that medication.  I saw it on TV and it explains my symptoms completely.”  Although it is a wonderful idea to take an interest in your symptoms and know exactly what it is you have and what are the treatment plans for it.  There are several things to look out for. Could the ailment be managed other than with chemicals? For example, Irritable Bowel Syndrome often responds to a change in diet and a reduction in stress.  Implementing these treatments and or prevention strategies will have a positive affect upon the general health care of the American people.

The question often left unanswered is, are these medications for everything and anything always safe?  Painkillers are so prominent in America; they can be purchased over the counter or by prescription. Yes, the advertisements warn of the side affects, but at what cost to our health care? It seems to take several years before you finally hear that certain drugs have been pulled from the market and this only because they wait to see what the affects on the public will be.

In October 2009, American Regent Voluntarily recalled Ketorolac Tromethamine Injection, USP 30/mg/ml; 1ml single dose vials. Ketorolac Tromethamine is a nonsteriodal anti-inflammatory used as a painkiller for mild, but not chronic pain. Sometimes it is used for severe pain, but only used for a few days. Ketorolac Tromethamine is sold under the brand name Torodol. The product was recalled because of the crystallization, which could obstruct the blood vessels and produce a heart attack or stroke.

In October of this year, the FDA recalled Heparin, which is an anticoagulant.  One of the concerns was the unit dosage.  The contaminated dosage has been associated with certain adverse affects including death of its users in the USA.  There you have it, two products recalled within the same month for different reasons and both products endangering the health care of some many Americans who rely on these drugs.

On Sept 16, the FDA issued a warning about the labeling for the product Promethazine Hydrochloride Injection, which is sold under the brand name Phenergan. This product is a sedative used for treating nausea and vomiting. Promethazine Hydrochloride is also used as an antihistamine for hey fever. When the injection form is not administered properly it will cause serious tissue damage.  There have been reports as far back as to 1969 – 2009 where cases of gangrene and amputation have been reported after using this drug.

The question remains, what is more beneficial to our over all health care, relieving nausea with this drug or risking its harmful affects when the health care professional makes a boo boo and boo boo’s our lives?

The list of products, which have been, recalled over the years go on and on. Sometimes as consumers we get to hear about them and sometimes we don’t. In the mean time we continue to pop pills, inject chemical drugs, but really do we feel good? Is the state of our health care better for it?

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Health Insurance | 6 Comments »

The Diabetes Crisis in America is on the Rise

Friday, October 16th, 2009

It has long been known that the obesity epidemic in America today will cause all kinds of medical complications and a drain on the medical system due to rising health care costs.  The expanding waistlines of Americans reaches far beyond aesthetics, it is a national health disaster.  Obesity is the known factor in type 2 diabetes, also called sugar diabetes or diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus or onset adult diabetes mellitus generally hits a person who is obese and over forty years of age.

Each year new cases of diabetes mellitus are reported in America.  More and more patients flock to their doctors and are put on medications to control their blood sugar levels.  Actually the crises is not isolated to America, as Canadian and UK medical experts report alarming increases in reported cases of type 2 diabetes as well. Almost 8 percent of the American population has diabetes and that translates to 23 million people. These cases are taxing the health insurance companies with various claims. According to the American Diabetes Association, there are still 5.7 million people who remain undiagnosed, and still another whooping 57 million people who are in the pre-diabetic stage.   Over 11 million women have diabetes and do not have any idea that they do.  Over 12 million men have diabetes.  Also, certain races are more prone to diabetes than others.  These groups include: Hispanic and Latino Americans, American Indians, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Islander women. Furthermore the health care of children is compromised. There are more cases of children and adolescents who are now getting type 2 diabetes, which, was once considered an adult onset disease.

There are several serious health care complications for diabetics. For example, there are 65 percent of deaths resulting from heart attack or stroke. Adult diabetics are at a two to for times higher risk to contract heart disease than the non-diabetic population.  Stroke is another common complication from diabetes and diabetics are also at a 2 to 4 percent higher chance of getting a stroke with nearly 3 percent higher chance of dying from it.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Crisis Situation, Health Insurance | 7 Comments »

The Issue of Acrylamides in Foods

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

No matter where you turn there is research coming out indicating that the foods we eat are slowly killing us.  Cancer is on the rise and much of the latest research on cancer points to a link between cancer and the foods that we eat.  We have come a long way since old farmer Brown raised his own crops and livestock and boasted a clean healthy living style.  Actually, with the dusting of pesticides upon the crops to keep the insects away, we consumers are ingesting these toxins as well as the bugs and even farmer Brown’s crops are not as healthy for us as they once were.  How healthy is our food and if our food is not healthy how then can we as a society remain healthy?

The issue of acrylamides in certain foods made media coverage in 2008.  Science Daily reported a Danish study linking acrylamides and breast cancer (Henrik Frandsen, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.)

Here in America, consumer groups are backing up the claim that acrylamides cause breast cancer in women and government bodies are still doing research to find out if there is a health hazard.  In the meantime we continue to eat the foods in blind faith not knowing if we are causing our own demise.

Acrylamides are a chemical component used in polyacrylamide gels such as grouting agents, papermaking, soil conditioners, glues, cosmetics, and ore processing. It has been added as a water treatment for drinking water and water waste disposal. Acrylamides are also found in cigarette smoke.  More recently it has been discovered that this chemical is naturally found in certain foods.

When a certain amino acid called asparagine mixes with sugars in foods then heated we get the cancer causing acrylamides. The deadly chemical requires high heat temperatures of at least 120°C or 248°F, If these high temperatures are present it really does not make a difference as to how the food was cooked, meaning it could be fried, baked, broiled, grilled, roasted, and toasted etc.

John Levitt, the director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration states that acrylamides are a natural by product of cooking foods.  When we examine that statement we as consumer must ask, what are we supposed do, stop heating up our foods and start eating our foods raw?  We also have research pointing in the direction that raw foods are not good for our health either. If our foods are undercooked there is the treat of salmonella, and other toxins to worry about.

The good thing in this potential health crisis is that acrylamides are not found in raw foods, boiled foods with a high carbohydrate content, meat, fish or poultry or even baby formula.

Ah we sigh with relief so what is the big deal anyhow?

The big deal is that acrylamides are found in the foods that Americans love best.  The foods with the highest concentrations of acrylamides include foods rich in carbohydrates such french fries, potato chips, toast, bread, cookies, cereal, and even brewed coffee. Americans are hooked on fast foods such as french fries and chunk food such as potato chips.  Children especially are reared on cereal and toast, and what child does not like a cookie?  Much media coverage has warned against fast foods and how unhealthy it is for us, yet fast foods outlets are jammed packed even in an economic recession. Many mothers want to know what else to feed their children for breakfast if cereal and toast is eliminated.  The way Americans eat is indeed a cause for alarm, and a crisis in the making.

What do we know about the risks of Acrylamides from the studies so far?

We know that they cause cancer in lab rats.  Though the cross over from rats to humans is not always a sure thing it is certainly a cause for alarm.  Studies have also shown that it is toxic to the human and animal nervous system. In an age when cancer is rampant and there are so many correlations between cancer and the environment, we cannot take anything lightly.  We must continue to study the risks of cancer and acrylamides.

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the threat from acrylamides and cancer strong enough to warrant alarm and urges more study to valid the threat.  The food industry also is concerned about the possible threat of cancer.  Proctor and Gamble researchers had found the link between asparagines and the formation of the acrylamides compound. Frito Lay and other companies are reducing their levels of acrylamides within their food products. The Germans are reducing their temperatures for heating their foods, but not everyone in the food industry is on board.

The frozen food industry maintains that there is not enough evidence to date to make any conclusions at this time. Yet, if not all food producers come on board, and the risk is determined, there will be wide scale litigation and insurance rates will continue to rise as the cancer rates in individuals continue to increase.

The Center for Science and Public Interest urges the FDA to set appropriate levels for acrylamides in foods but so far that has not been done. Other recommendations would be to provide label warnings on packages and offer an acceptable daily allotment for foods containing high levels of acrylamides.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Health Insurance | 3 Comments »