Regularly Expressing

Category: health

  • A Modest Healthcare Reform

    If you read my posts at all you know that I don’t wear my political views on my sleeve, nor post about how everyone on the other side is an idiot. In fact, I think such posts are counter-productive. I want to win people to the cause I believe is right, not deliver an insult that makes me feel superior.

    So this post isn’t for or against Obama’s healthcare legislation. This is about one simple issue on which maybe, just maybe, there can be bipartisan agreement. Here it is: Healthcare providers should not have the right or ability to take back money for a treatment, unless they can prove fraud.

    I’ve had some personal experience with this. We obtained treatment through Humana. We talked to the providers, went to the place they recommended and saw the doctors there for several months. Eventually, Humana came back and told us they shouldn’t have paid, and they took back all the money. I appealed the decision through my employer, and the decision to take back the money was upheld. After the appeal, a person from Humana called me up to talk about the problem. He all but called me an idiot for not reading the laws and coverage terms more carefully.

    In my case, the cost was several thousand dollars. It was painful, but it didn’t break me. I know other people with similar experiences for whom it was much worse. Think about this means. We all have the responsibility for knowing all the rules about our medical coverage spelled out by our state and by providers, or we can be made to pay the full amount for any medical procedure at some later date. As far as I can see, all of us are vulnerable. We should do something about this.

  • Gold Rolled Lung Cancer Vaccine

    Cuba, country famous for its cigars is now providing the first vaccine against lung cancer. The vaccine does not cure or prevent the disease, but it makes the disease more manageable in stages 3 to 4. See Next Big Future for more details.

  • A Cure for Cancer

    People have been talking about cancer vaccines for a long time, but a recent company thinks they have the answer. The key is in a rare type of mollusk found in California. Read the interview. It’s fascinating.

  • Natural Family Planning, the Church’s Best Kept Secret

    When I began my journey to becoming Catholic I was focused mainly on doctrinal issues, e.g. what is the nature of the eucharist, did Mary remain a virgin her whole life, did Christ intend for the Pope to be the head of the church, etc. After I was fairly far along in my studies I asked the priest, “Doesn’t the Catholic Church have some funny teaching about birth control?”

    What began as a naive question turned into a life-changing experience. I was told that the Catholic church condemns artificial birth control and surgical sterilization as sinful, no exceptions. My wife and I had a serious medical reason to avoid future pregnancies, so we followed the only option approved of by the church: Natural Family Planning (NFP). In NFP, the couple monitors and charts symptoms of fertility in order to identify fertile and infertile times. There are a number of different NFP methods. The one we learned is called “The Sympto Thermal Method” and it is taught by the Couple to Couple League.

    Learning the method consisted of attending four one hour classes, and doing some reading. In class we received counseling, studied charts, and watched presentations. We discovered that NFP was not just a birth control method, but a marriage building activity. It has some of the following benefits:

    1. 99+% method effectiveness, comparable to the best artificial birth control.
    2. For married couples, sex can easily become routine. By adding a time of abstinence, new interest is generated. I heard a comedian say, “I am over thirty. I still like sex, but I want to know what’s on cable first.” Practitioners of NFP will not generally care what’s on cable when the period of abstinence is over.
    3. Many couples have mis-matched sex drives. This simple thing can lead to a world of bad feeling. Having a regular time of abstinence is a natural compromise.
    4. Because of its very nature, NFP encourages communication about family planning and helps to make it more of a mutually shared concern.
    5. NFP does not involve putting possibly harmful chemicals or drugs in your system, so it is potentially healthier.
    6. Using NFP creates no waste products, so it is better for the environment.
    7. Many of the methods can be taught and practiced with no special equipment. This means that they can be used in third world countries without cost. The only method approved by the Catholic church is also the most practical.

    When we first started the classes, my Protestant wife was upset about the way my religious studies were impacting our lives. But soon after we started using NFP she fell so in love with the method that she wanted us to start teaching it. We’ve been at it for 16+ years and it has worked perfectly. We’ve never known anyone who had an unwanted pregnancy while using it (although we have read about such cases).

  • Exercise Glasses

    Eye exercises have been around for a while. You will have no trouble finding high priced books, videos, “systems” or whatnot to help you set up a regimen. But this is not to say that it is hokum. I have heard of eye exercises of various kinds being recommended by doctors, and I believe that I have benefited by my own exercises, which consist mostly of practicing focusing on objects at different lengths (although I have not followed any official program). A significant problem with eye exercises is the same as the problem with any exercise: finding the time and the discipline to actually do it.

    Can gadgets come to the rescue? Various forms of eye glass monitors are available now. Imagine a system based of eye glasses that could change the distance your eyes needed to focus to see the screen regularly through the day. It could change every fifteen minutes, every hour, or whatever. Your eyes would get the needed practice without any conscious effort. I see a bright future in this.

  • A Cure for Obesity

    I’ve stated previously that I think obesity will be cured by 2040. I imagine all the thin people of the future planted spud-like in their couches gawking at images of fat people from yesteryear.

    Well, the future may nearly be here. The recent discovery of the MIC-1 protein, the molecule responsible for suppressing appetite and causing extreme weight loss in late stage cancer, may be the discovery that brings this about. I haven’t seen anything written about what side effects this might have, or how hard it will be to produce MIC-1 at a commercial scale however, so its not a sure thing.

    Of course, that will not solve physical fitness problem. But I think that can readily be done by combining World of Warcraft and the Virtusphere. If that catches on, it will be impossible to stop some people from exercising.