MAY 30, 2012

A dietary disaster?

dr dave My wife and I love nothing better than to sneak into a movie with contraband Snickers, jujubes, baked Alaska or anything else I can stuff down the front of my trousers. The joy isn’t so much in the snacking, but rather in outwitting the tenacious teen security on the way in.

“Sir, what is that stuffed in your pants?”

“Umm, it’s a bottle of red wine.”

“No worries, but you’re sure you don’t have any Glossettes or Nibs down there?”

So far their cavity searches have usually failed to uncover anything but cavities. But one thing we’ve failed to sneak in successfully is ... popcorn. We did once but we forgot the muffler to our portable radar range and so we were asked to leave, none too politely.

Red wine, chocolate and popcorn. Sounds like a Sealey breakfast. No doubt a dietary disaster. Or is it?

Popcorn
Popcorn is the only real food that is 100 percent unprocessed whole grain. Lots of fibre and tons of polyphenols. Polyphenols are a good thing unlike polyester and Pauly Shore. They are antioxidants that run about inside you looking to beat free radicals like a Southern Baptist cop at Woodstock. Free radicals are bad things unlike free lunch, free Willy and free beer. While polyphenols are significantly diluted in the 90 percent water that constitutes fruits and veggies, they are quite concentrated in popcorn, which is only about 4 percent water.

The annoying, floss-inducing hulls of popcorn, the shards we discover the next morning wedged between our teeth have the highest concentrations of polyphenols and fiber. So floss, gag, swallow, gag again.

Air-popped popcorn is the only way to go as microwave popcorn is 43 percent fat.

Chocolate
I have written several articles now on the health benefits of chocolate, primarily to assuage my guilt. While my current recommendations of 37 Snickers bars for breakfast have not been validated in any scientific studies, (I continue to conduct an ongoing study to be certain the data is not misleading,) there is little doubt that a couple of pieces of dark cacao (sounds so much healthier than “cocoa” or “Kit Kats”) a day can diminish blood pressure, heart disease, painful nerve disorders and even possibly cancer. The special secret of cacao is flavanol, also an anti oxidant.

Cacao lowers LDL [‘bad’] cholesterol, raises HDL [‘good’] cholesterol and improves insulin resistance. Cacao also might have a role in dilating vessels to improve blood flow.

Red Wine
Speaking of flow, urologists and cardiologists really like this stuff. Cardiologists note the protective effect red wine has on the heart and urologists just like to drink. (It helps them forget what they actually do for a living.) The magic in red wine lies in resveratrol.

Resveratrol has potential as a therapy for diverse diseases such as type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease. Though nobody has figured out how it works exactly, it works well enough at preventing heart disease that scientists may be close to actually developing a “red wine pill.”

Non doubt this will change the way we prescribe in the future. “OK Bloggins, I’m going to prescribe you two red wine pills, best taken with red wine, two squares of a Hershey’s dark and if that doesn’t work I’m going to refer you to a specialist ... Dr. Redenbacher.

Learn more and meet Dr. Dave or contact him at www.wisequacks.org.

MAY 30, 2012

Increasing healthcare cost in weak economy forced even more Americans to delay healthcare

A recent report from the Healthcare Cost Institute indicated that though the economy has remained weak since 2008, healthcare cost has continued to rise, at double the rate of inflation.

How do Americans respond to the increase of health care cost? As unemployment percentages continue to be in the two digits in most states, and economic recovery remains uncertain, consumers are slashing expenditure left and right and that of course means delaying health care as long as they could.

A New York Times article reported that even insured Americans are cutting back on their doctors' visits because of not able to afford their co-payments. This cutting back of visits has boosted the bottom lines of insurance companies and yet has put Americans into a poorer health condition.

Los Angeles healthcare practice management consultant and author, Mr Helmut Flasch, has consulted private dental and medical practices of all specialties for 20 years in the U.S. and other countries.
“While I can help a private dentist or doctor by improving his marketing visibility in the community and thus driving new patients to the practice, there is still this glaring problem that many patients cannot afford treatment and thus they delay their needed healthcare." said Flasch.

One does not need to be a trained doctor to know that delays of needed care will often create a much larger and even more expensive health problem. For example, dental care delayed could cause gum diseases which affect the immune system. A weakened immune system could lead to heart and liver diseases etc, and for pregnant mothers, pre-matured babies and still-born babies.

According to a Japanese University study, an untreated gum disease could even turn HIV viruses into AIDS.

According to Flasch, doctors are getting the short end of the stick as well. Doctors are working harder and harder, and making less. They are trying to keep up with the rising cost of their malpractice insurances, the costs of equipments and mainly government regulations and insurance companies' re-imbursement cuts. This year, CNN reported a growing trend of doctors going broke.

“The middle class is still living in nice homes, driving good cars, and having coffee at Starbucks, but falling extremely short on the much needed healthcare. This situation has grown to a level where I feel I MUST come up with a way to help the patients to get affordable treatment. ” Flasch continued.

That said, Flasch launched a health site Healthcare4pennies.com that specialized in getting patients affordable healthcare at up to 70 percent off regular price.

This is a penny auction bidding site where the public could place bids to acquire discounts in health packages which they could use in any doctors’ office of their choice and even outside of America should they wish to seek more affordable healthcare options in other countries like Costa Rica etc.

“Healthcare4pennies.com gives Americans an option for getting healthcare at a discount without sacrificing the quality of care. This is important. Usually, when an individual has a cheap health plan, the plan would not cover any major needed treatment. This site is not about plans or insurances. It simply lets the individual have a chance to acquire discounted healthcare to be used at any doctor’s office. “ explained Flasch.

One cannot ignore the contrast that when the times are good, consumers have less reservation of plunging down the money especially for elective health care and when times are tough, consumers are hanging on to their wallets and scrutinizing every big and small purchases.

“Health care delayed for Americans is bad news. Poor health affects work and affects economics. Healthcare4pennies.com is a solution for Americans towards rising healthcare cost. I know this will make a difference of helping someone who need treatment but cannot afford it.” concluded Flasch.