syrinx

It is so painful witnessing the U.S. health debate. To our U.S. friends, here's the trade-off in our system: I waited 2+ years for a carpel tunnel procedure, but a more serious issue was treated immediately. Recently I went in to emergency with an attack of pericarditis, an incredible painful inflammation of the lining surrounding the heart. I had attacks of this condition several times before (they occurred after a flu or other virus and/or severe stress of some sort) although not for 10 years now...

tags: health care

Been a while since I posted some thoughts, but I've been in a whirlwind of health problems in 2009 which have extended horribly into 2010.
Since May of 2009 I have had a total of 4 biopsies to try to determine why a mass suddenly appeared in my thyroid. After ultrasounds, needle biopsies and node explorations it was determined that:
A. I probably got smacked with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) sometime around Sept/Oct 2008. The "flu" like episode was bad to the point that friends remember how sick I was at that time.

tags: migraine health thyroid

... according to a recent survey. Apparently much of the problem has to do with lower income and chronic health problems and disability. Higher income women aren't as bad off.

While we already knew these inequities exist, we are quite startled by just how large the gap is among different groups of women. The good news is that there is much that can be done to close this gap. The inequities we found are associated with chronic disease, so by focusing on chronic disease prevention and management, and improving the living and working conditions that increase the risk of chronic disease, we can improve health outcomes for all women and men."

tags: health inequity

Dear President-Elect Obama,
This is Bob. This week, I've got to choose my health options plan for 2009 for my family - Just one of the freedoms of choice I enjoy from not living in Canada, spending 30% of my income on health insurance. I see you are trying to make some decisions on how to provide affordable health care for all of your family - you know, the 300 or so million that you just sort of married into for the next 4 years. And you've asked for my advice...So, how do we choose a health care plan for our family, the United States of America?

• Plan A that covers every one in the family or Plan B that leaves some family members without coverage?
• Plan A that lets you choose your own doctor or Plan B that restricts who and where you can receive medical care?
• Plan A that doesn't deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or Plan B that denies coverage for pre-existing conditions?
• Plan A that charges the same rates for everyone or Plan B that charges higher rates based on how likely you are to actually need medical care services?
• Plan A that has been shown to be more cost-effective and deliver better medical outcomes on a wide range of measures or Plan B that has been shown to cost more out of pocket and has ranked lower on comparable scales of performance?
• Plan A that minimizes paperwork and administrative overhead or Plan B that increases complexity and paperwork, with about 25% of its cost eaten up by this aspect?

As a family, we would clearly choose Plan A, single payer health care, which has proven to be successful in delivering quality, affordable health care to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, the UK, and elsewhere.

tags: humor health care decisionmakingprocess logic choices

Call it the poor man's health insurance policy, if you will. Casting aside fear of cultural stereotyping as, uh, folks who don't believe in throwing away money, researchers at two Scottish universities delved into the statistics and noticed that the presence of green spaces reduces visits by the grim reaper,

Across the country, there are "health inequalities" related to income and social deprivation, which generally reflect differences in lifestyle, diet, and, to some extent, access to medical care.
This means that in general, people living in poorer areas are more likely to be unhealthy, and die earlier.
However, the researchers found that living near parks, woodland or other open spaces helped reduce these inequalities, regardless of social class.

Me, I've turned my little eighth of an acre of subdivision into a wildlife refuge and maybe both the native flora and fauna as well as this old man will chill out a little while longer...and without wasting resources, natural or imaginary, like monetary systems. The picture on the left is my front yard. The one on the right is from the NY Times. I'm not poor, but I'm not rich. I got laid off and retired earlier this year. The folks on the right are an illustration of a story of the highest unemployment rate in 14 years (and you know how they fudge THOSE numbers to make them look better than they really are!) I recently had a heart stress test on the treadmill and I'm good to go for another 5 years. Folks on the right - rich or poor or middle class - they look like they could use a little greens pace around them right about now. And remember: manure, like money, works best when it's distributed widely so that all the plants in the garden get a little and every flower gets a chance to bloom.

tags: stress health visual literacy greenspace