Posted on Fri, Dec 04, 2009
Judge Andrew Napolitano commented on the Massachusetts legislation bill about "forced" flu vaccinations as unconstitutional. This bill would grant the governor the power to announce a state of emergency. Law enforcement can freely enter homes and vaccinate residents. According to Senator Daniel Akaka, he was not aware of any constitutional right that Congress would have for compulsory medical insurance.
NY Times stated that New Jersey has a new law which states that parents must have their children from 6 months up to 5 years old, vaccinated for flu by December 31st. The flu vaccine and the new H1N1 vaccine side effects are causing trouble for a number of susceptible people. Some healthcare teams insist that these flu vaccines are safe and needed.
There are shocking facts about the flu vaccine and they are as follows:
It may cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which leads to paralysis, respiratory distress and death. The ratio is that one out of a million who gets the vaccine develops it.
Thimerosal is an ingredient of all flu vaccines. It is a preservative that is mercury-based and is responsible for a significant figure of the side effects of those who get the vaccine. It also includes aluminum, which may cause Alzheimer's disease.
As of now, there are six major pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines and are permitted to keep their patent rights to themselves. Meaning they will be the only ones with the vaccine when the flu season arrives so they tend to raise the price.
The public has generally become the specimen to test the vaccine with since it was only tested for a few weeks on guinea pigs. Short and long term side effects are not known and could potentially be fatal.
The flu can be dangerous but days of fever, chills, and feeling of weakness is better than fatal complications that the flu shots might have. Having flu may not sound like a good thing but keep in mind that our bodies build up its defenses when we get sick. Vaccinations are most certainly not recommended for certain diseases especially to those with compromised immune symptoms, the elderly, and the children.
Summary: It is not safe to take in flu vaccination since the developers haven't tested it enough to know its short and long term side effects.
Posted on Tue, Jun 16, 2009
Face it; health care is expensive – no matter how you slice it. Affordable family medical insurance is a need for so many people. One of the best ways you can keep your medical insurance rates lower is to stay as healthy as you possibly can. BestHealthcareRates.com offers these tips for maintaining your family’s health, which will help you find and keep affordable medical insurance.
1. Don’t smoke. Smoking is undoubtedly the number one health hazard today. Smokers get sick much more often than non-smokers do and are more likely to suffer from ongoing chronic illness and disease than non-smokers are. Smoking affects your entire body, including your heart, your circulation, your healing ability and time and a host of other health hazards. If you choose to do only one thing to improve your health, stop smoking today. There are a number of different smoking cessation tools and aids to help you quit – and you can get many of them free through various programs, most of which are sponsored by medical insurance companies. Do a web search for smoking cessation and find a program to help you quit smoking today. You’ll also find more affordable health coverage and life insurance if you’re a non-smoker with lower premiums and discounts available from many medical insurance companies.
2. Eat Right. You’ve heard it repeatedly, but watching your diet is one of the easiest ways to get healthier, which leads to more affordable health insurance. Include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables – and plenty of variety. Not only will your plate look more attractive and appetizing with dark greens, deep oranges, reds, purples and yellows, you’ll also be getting the widest variety of vitamins and antioxidants by switching things up. Cut the fat and you’ll cut the cholesterol. Include lean meats, lots of fish and poultry and adding alternative proteins like legumes, soy and nuts. Drink your milk and add plenty of water to your diet. Limit your portions. Keep your blood sugar steady by eating five small meals throughout the day rather than three large ones. Allow yourself the occasional indulgence to avoid feeling deprived.
3. Move it or lose it – your health that is. As our lives get busier, we spend more time jumping in the car and rushing off to the next important thing we need to do. One of the best things you can do for your health and to maintain affordable health coverage costs is to incorporate more exercise into your daily routine. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park two blocks away and walk to your destination. Put on some music and dance. Ride bikes with your kids. Push a lawnmower instead of using the rider. Get out in the garden. Take a walk after supper. Bring a bag lunch of low-cal foods and use the rest of your lunch hour to take a stroll. There are many ways to add exercise into your daily routine, even if you don’t have time to go to the gym. Start by adding one new habit each week until you’ve built in an additional 30 minutes of movement into your daily routine.
Posted on Tue, Apr 28, 2009
More boys than girls are born every year in the U.S. But any lead in health men start with, vanishes with the first dirty diaper. From infancy to old age, women are simply healthier than men. These are the top health threats men face according to medical insurance claims.
Out of the 15 leading causes of death, U.S. men lead women in all of them except Alzheimer’s disease, which many men don’t live long enough to develop. Although the gender gap is closing, men still die five years earlier than their wives, on average. While the reasons are partly biological, men’s approach to their health plays a role too, experts say. “Men put their health last,” says Demetrius Porche, DNS, RN, editor in chief of the American Journal of Men’s Health. “Most men’s thinking is, if they can live up to their roles in society, then they’re healthy.”
Men go the doctor less than women, and are more likely to have a serious condition when they do go, research shows. “As long as they’re working and feeling productive, most men aren’t considering the risks to their health,” says Porche.
But even if you’re feeling healthy, a little planning can help you stay that way. The top threats to men’s health aren’t secrets: they’re known, common, and often preventable. Experts were consulted to bring you this list of the top health threats to men, and how to avoid them.
Cardiovascular Disease: The Leading Men’s Health Threat They call it atherosclerosis, meaning “hardening of the arteries.” But it could as easily be from the Latin for “a man’s worst enemy.”
“Heart disease and stroke are the first and second leading causes of death worldwide, in both men and women,” says Darwin Labarthe, MD, MPH, PhD, director of the division for heart disease and stroke prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It’s a huge global public health problem, and in the U.S. we have some of the highest rates.”
In cardiovascular disease, cholesterol plaques gradually block the arteries in the heart and brain. If a plaque becomes unstable, a blood clot forms, blocking the artery and causing a heart attack or stroke.
One in five men and women will die from cardiovascular disease, according to Labarthe. For unclear reasons, though, men’s arteries develop atherosclerosis earlier than women’s. “Men’s average age for death from cardiovascular disease is under 65,” he says; women catch up about six years later.
Even in adolescence, girls’ arteries look healthier than boys’. Experts believe women’s naturally higher levels of good cholesterol (HDL) are partly responsible. Men have to work harder to reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke:
- Get your cholesterol checked, beginning at age 25 and every five years.
- Control your blood pressure and cholesterol, if they’re high.
- If you smoke, stop.
- Increase your physical activity level to 30 minutes per day, most days of the week.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables and less saturated or trans fats.
“There’s a saying that ‘children should know their grandparents,’” says Labarthe. “This is fatal or disabling condition that causes lost family time and working time. But a large number of these events are preventable.”
Lung Cancer: Still a Health Threat to Men Lung cancer is a terrible disease: ugly, aggressive, and almost always metastatic. Lung cancer spreads early, usually before it grows large enough to cause symptoms or even show up on an X-ray. By the time it’s found, lung cancer is often advanced and difficult to cure. Less than half of men are alive a year later. So… are you still smoking ? Tobacco smoke causes 90% of all lung cancers. Thanks to falling smoking rates in the U.S., fewer men than ever are dying of lung cancer. But lung cancer is still the leading cancer killer in men: more than enough to fill the Superdome every year. No effective screening test for lung cancer is available, although a major study is going on to learn if CT scans of the chests of high-risk people can catch cancer early enough to improve survival. Quitting smoking at any age reduces the risk for lung cancer. Few preventive measures are as effective — or as challenging — as stopping smoking. But new tools are available that work to help men quit. Your doctor can tell you more.
Prostate Cancer: A Leading Cancer for Men Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men other than skin cancer . Close to 200,000 men will develop prostate cancer this year in the U.S. But while one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, only one in 35 will die from it. “Many prostate cancers are slow-growing and unlikely to spread, while others are aggressive,” says Djenaba Joseph, MD, medical officer for cancer prevention at the CDC. “The problem is, we don’t have effective tests for identifying which cancers are more dangerous.” Screening for prostate cancer requires a digital rectal exam (the infamous gloved finger) and a blood test for prostate specific antigen (PSA). But in fact, “Screening has never definitively been shown to reduce the chances of dying from prostate cancer,” according to Joseph. That’s because screening finds many cancers that would never be fatal, even if undetected. Testing then leads to aggressive treatment of relatively harmless cancers, which causes problems like incontinence. Should you get screened for prostate cancer? Some experts say yes, but “the best solution is to see your doctor regularly and talk about your overall risk,” says Joseph. “All men should understand the risks and benefits of each approach, whichever you choose.”
Depression and Suicide: Men Are at Risk Depression isn’t just a bad mood, a rough patch, or the blues. It’s an emotional disturbance that affects your whole body and overall health. In effect, depression proves the mind-body connection. Brain chemicals and stress hormones are out of balance. Sleep, appetite, and energy level are disturbed. Research even suggests men with depression are more likely to develop heart disease. Experts previously thought depression affected far more women than men. But that may just be men’s tendency to hide depressed feelings, or express them in ways different than women’s. “Instead of showing sadness or crying, men get angry or aggressive,” says Porche. “They feel it’s not OK for them to say, ‘I’m depressed,’ so they cope in other ways, like drinking too much.” Men are also less likely to seek help for depression. The results can be tragic. Women attempt suicide more often, but men are more successful at completing it. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among all men; for young men it’s higher. Most men and women respond well to depression treatment with medications , therapy, or both. If you think you might be depressed, reach out to your doctor or someone close to you, and seek help.
Diabetes: The Silent Health Threat for Men Diabetes usually begins silently, without symptoms. Over years, blood sugar levels creep higher, eventually spilling into the urine. The resulting frequent urination and thirst are what finally bring many men to the doctor. The high sugar of diabetes is anything but sweet. Excess glucose acts like a slow poison on blood vessels and nerves everywhere in the body. Heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, and amputations are the fallout for thousands of men. Boys born in 2000 have an alarming one-in-three chance of developing diabetes in their lifetimes. Overweight and obesity are likely feeding the diabetes epidemic. “The combination of diabetes and obesity may be erasing some of the reductions in heart disease risk we’ve had over the last few decades,” warns Labarthe. Exercise, combined with a healthy diet, can prevent type 2 diabetes . Moderate weight loss — for those who are overweight — and 30 minutes a day of physical activity reduced the chance of diabetes by more than 50% in men at high risk in one major study.
ED: A Common Health Problem in Men Erectile dysfunction may not be life threatening, but it’s still signals an important health problem. Two-thirds of men older than 70 and up to 39% of 40-year-old men have problems with erectile dysfunction. Men with ED report less enjoyment in life and are more likely to be depressed. Erectile dysfunction is most often caused by atherosclerosis — the same process that causes heart attacks and strokes. In fact, having ED frequently means that blood vessels throughout the body are in less-than-perfect health. Doctors consider erectile dysfunction an early warning sign for cardiovascular disease. You’ve probably heard more about the numerous effective treatments for ED than you ever cared to just by watching the evening news. Treatments make a fulfilling love life possible despite ED, but they don’t cure the condition. If you have erectile dysfunction, see your doctor, and ask if more than your love life is at risk.