Tag: health care

Where your relationship can be a pre-existing condition…

Posted on Posted in Deliberate ConsumptionTagged , ,

A few people have posted about this, but I thought I’d share with you. SEIU (Service Employees International Union) posted on Friday that “Insurance companies have used the excuse of “pre-existing conditions” to deny coverage to countless Americans.”

What’s that?

I remember hearing about this before, but had conveniently forgotten it due to the fact, that as with many things, I’m privileged enough to not have been in a DV relationship, and that kind of privilege can lead people to ignore the very real discrimination going on against others who aren’t as privileged.

Bottom line folks – I’ll say it again. Speak up. If not for you, for someone else. Let the insurance companies, doctors offices, hospitals, politicians, friends, family, etc. know how you feel about health care in America. If you have a specific issue with your health care, your coverage, your condition, write it out and send it to all of the above. Use social networking tools to get the word out. Corporations get away with this stuff, in part, because WE let them get away with it. If you sit back and say, “this doesn’t impact me,” and stay silent until it does, when the time comes, it may be too late for you.

Placebos are Awesome

Posted on Posted in Fitness and DietTagged , , , ,

It’s not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It’s as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.

Some of you may have seen this article in wired about the placebo effect, but if not – I highly recommend it.

Now, after 15 years of experimentation, he has succeeded in mapping many of the biochemical reactions responsible for the placebo effect, uncovering a broad repertoire of self-healing responses. Placebo-activated opioids, for example, not only relieve pain; they also modulate heart rate and respiration. The neurotransmitter dopamine, when released by placebo treatment, helps improve motor function in Parkinson’s patients. Mechanisms like these can elevate mood, sharpen cognitive ability, alleviate digestive disorders, relieve insomnia, and limit the secretion of stress-related hormones like insulin and cortisol.

I stand by my previous assertion that placebos are my favorite drugs. It may be nothing but lactose in those little blue Bioron vials, or brandy and water in the Bach Flower Essences, or lumps of rock in a quartz pendant – but if it makes me or anyone else feel better, I’ll take it.

There’s obviously no assurance that homeopathic remedies will work better than allopathic remedies, and when facing life or death, I’ll go for the substance with the most verifiably, scientifically sound data from clinical trials. However, it’s going to be another doozy of a flu season, I’m guessing. I’ll take my FDA approved vaccine with a side of Oscillococcinum.

My Favorite Medicine: Placebo

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I love placebos. They’re my most favorite drug in the world. Part of my love, no doubt, comes from an episode of M*A*S*H , which Wikipedia notes is episode 24 of the 6th season, “Major Topper.” In this episode, a shortage of morphine leads the fine doctors of 4077 to count on the placebo effect to help the wounded.

When I worked at a psych hospital, there were a few vocal critics of homeopathic therapies. (By homeopathic, I’m specifically referring to those remedies with NDC codes including the range of Boiron pellets to Bach Flower Remedies.) This isn’t surprising on a few levels – first of all being that the medical establishment has it in their own best interests to poo-poo homeopathy, second being that homeopathic remedies have a heck of a lot of pseudo-science (and magical thinking) backing their efficacy. I wouldn’t dare say that homeopathic remedies have the same power and efficacy as modern pharmaceuticals, but one thing that they do have is the worst case scenario that is better than Big Pharm – at it’s worst, it just won’t work at all.

Not a bad side-effect, huh? Homeopathic remedies can often be used in conjunction with pharmaceuticals, can be combined together, and at best will work, and at worst, will have no effect, with no side-effects or interactions. The actual efficacy of homeopathic remedies is debatable, and may be attributed ONLY to the placebo effect. The third major argument is that it’s a waste of money to take a placebo. Maybe, the transaction of money, plus ingestion of the little sugar pills, is what makes you stave off that cold and flu or lower your anxiety.

Since I worked at Whole Foods, specifically with these remedies at my fingertips, I have tried a few of them and have found some work better for me than others. There’s actually a difference between how some remedies, for the same problem, work for me. For instance, Hyland’s – Calms Forte did not help me at all with getting to sleep, but their other formulation, Insomnia works so well that I sometimes wonder if there’s a secret narcotic ingredient. It could be that my own expectations of efficacy has influenced my body’s response to the placebo. I did read an article, which I can’t find right now, that showed that the expectations of a medication/placebo can influence the reaction a person has, including doing the opposite of what the person may expect.

The past six months have been allopathic-medication heavy. I appreciate the need for modern medicine, and definitely appreciate the need to use it when appropriate. When I was discharged from the ER with a 15 page document telling me the full dangers of my new medication regimen, I both understood the need to take the medication as prescribed, and longed for the simplicity of my ‘bos. During those first few months, I took full advantage of my Bach Flower Remedies, which are, by far, some of the most ridiculous homeopathic remedies around. The way I understand, these concoctions, in brandy, are pretty much just the dew off of specific flowers carrying a vibrational energy that is conducive to emotional health.

I’m fond of them, nevertheless.

Specifically:
Bach Essence Star of Bethlehem
Bach Essence Aspen
Rescue Remedy Sleep

I don’t go for that woo-woo stuff, mostly cos my belief in the supernatural is that it’s all in the mind. However, I’ll take the vibrational properties of flower essences over getting hooked on Xanax any day. (Disclaimer: there is a medical purpose for Xanax, but doctors need to be very careful in doling it out, and need a defined exit strategy. That’s another post for another time, though.)

“Non-profit” Hospitals in Seattle

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KUOW has a lovely piece on the profits of some of Seattle’s non-profit hospitals. Not surprising, but Swedish Medical Center (which is currently on my sh*t-list) is one of the hospitals they talk about.

Nurses at Swedish start at about $25 an hour. But for top doctors and executives at hospitals like Swedish, the paychecks dwarf that figure.

KUOW has learned that 15 nonprofit hospital leaders in the Seattle area earned at least $1 million in 2007. This elite group includes the CEOs of Swedish, Providence, Virginia Mason, Group Health, Seattle Children’s and MultiCare in Tacoma. Another three dozen hospital officials in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties earned at least half a million that year.

I think the question we need to be asking, when we’re talking about health care reform, is where is the money going? I mean this from every single point, from the doctor’s time and his liability insurance, education, home, golf, etc. to the prescription meds or procedures – the elements to make them, legal costs, patents, etc. How much money does Astra-Zeneca spend on pens for doctors alone?

Maybe I’m the only one curious about this – but I think these are important things to ask when you’re asking for an overhaul.