Good news for Seniors: A Death Knell for the Death Panel

From Lifenews.com:

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted to repeal a portion of the Obamacare law that pro-life advocates strongly opposed because it could lead to rationing of health care for patients across the nation.

This is the first step toward giving the elderly a better chance that their end date will come when God makes the decision - not a panel of "15 unelected members of the President’s choosing."

If you or someone in your family is currently fighting an incurable disease, but hope, in the way of new treatments and new drugs, is on the horizon, it would be beneficial to make yourself aware of IPAB: one of the most heinous elements of Obamacare.

You can start by reading the entire piece from Lifenews.com, HERE.

You can also go HERE and HERE for additional information.

Attention Seniors: "There are no Coincidences."

H/T: luv2sing

Ernie Els Talks about Autism

Ernie Els, known on the PGA Tour as "The Big Easy," has won three major championships, was ranked the World Number One Golfer, won the World Match Play Championship a record seven times, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in May, 2011.  Still he feels that he would rather be remembered more as a man who did something about Autism, by raising public awareness, than as a golfer.

He was, and is, as any follower of the game can attest, one of the top golfers of all time, and, as his fellow golfers will attest, one of the nicest guys on the Tour.

Starving Cancer by Diet: TED Talk by William Li

William Li "co-founded the Angiogenesis Foundation in 1994. The foundation’s Project ENABLE -- a global system that integrates patients, medical experts and healthcare professionals -- democratizes the spread and implementation of knowledge about angiogenesis-based medicines, diet and lifestyle. Some 40,000 physicians have been educated on new treatments, ranging from cancer care to wound care, by the foundation’s faculty of medical experts, and they are bringing new, lifesaving and disease-preventing techniques to people around the world."

"Imagine that one medical advancement held the promise to conquer cancer, perhaps within your lifetime … the potential to also end more than 70 of life's most threatening conditions, affecting one billion people worldwide. This is the promise of angiogenesis, the first medical revolution of the 21st century."

William Li

Cancer Causing Light Bulbs?

The Telegraph published a piece today about the soon-to-be mandated compact fluorescent light bulbs, and how they could cause a series of maladies - including cancer. Just what we need in our homes: yet another cancer causing element.

Some clips:

Fears have been reignited about the safety of energy saving light bulbs after a group of scientists warned that they contain cancer causing chemicals.
Scientists claim that several carcinogenic chemicals are released when energy saving light bulbs are switched on.

Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on.
Peter Braun, who carried out the tests at the Berlin's Alab Laboratory, said: “For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment.”

The latest report follows claims by Abraham Haim, a professor of biology at Haifa University in Israel, that the bulbs could result in higher breast cancer rates if used late at night.
He said that the bluer light that CFLs emitted closely mimicked daylight, disrupting the body's production of the hormone melatonin more than older-style filament bulbs, which cast a yellower light.
The Migraine Action Association has warned that they could trigger migraines and skin care specialists have claimed that their intense light could exacerbate a range of existing skin problems.

Click below to read the whole article.

Energy saving light bulbs 'contain cancer causing chemicals'

More on Miracles

That's Dr. Chauncey Crandall. He's a world renowned cardiologist who practices in Palm Beach County, Florida. For more for information on Dr. Crandall, go here, and here.


H/T: jpa1948

Obamacare: A Perfect Storm

(Click to enlarge)

Dr. Marie Wolfgang, M.D., has been a medical doctor for 22 years. She practices internal medicine in Seaford, Delaware. She happens to be a close friend of my niece, and has given us permission to post this letter she wrote to her local newspaper. In it she gives her very professional analysis of HR 3590: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (which has come to be referred to as Obamacare), and specifically its drastic effects on medicare and medicaid patients and the doctors who treat them.

Medicare—A Perfect Storm in the Making

A crisis in Medicare threatens to deepen for all those who depend on Medicare, whether it be our seniors and the disabled who are insured by the program, or the health care providers who accept it in payment for their services. While our Congressmen and our President congratulated themselves on what they call a “massive healthcare overhaul,” and “healthcare reform,” existing coverage for millions of Americans is quietly imploding. In the coming months, many independent physicians like myself will be facing difficult decisions. Can I afford to continue taking Medicare?

The massive health care “reform” bill did nothing to fix the problems of Medicare, the nation’s largest health care program. Many problems exist, problems that threaten a Medicare recipient’s access to physician care. Already, many physicians are limiting the number of Medicare patients they accept into their practices. According to the AMA, 17% of 9000 physicians surveyed in 2009 restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practice. Among primary care physicians, that number is 31%--nearly a third of these practices, including my own. My office gets calls on almost a daily basis, people looking for a doctor but unable to find one taking patients with the nation’s largest health care program!

What is wrong with Medicare, anyway? As a physician who, over the past 18 years, has grown a practice that is more than 50% Medicare, I have some perspective on the issue. Most seniors are unaware of the threats to their coverage or access, largely because the press has given the issue little attention, or has presented it in such small pieces that the whole is not apparent. This is an election year, and it behooves all who have an interest in Medicare to take notice of what is at stake. Here’s an example of what has happened in the past year.

The History of Medicare Cuts in 2010
On January 1, 2010, fees paid to physicians for Medicare office visits were scheduled to be cut by 21.3%. Both the House and the Senate voted to block this cut in December, 2009. But only for one month. In late January 2010, they voted to block the cut for 2 more months. On April 1, the cut was implemented, as Congress failed to act before going on their Easter break. CMS, The Center for Medicare Services, placed a freeze on processing physician fees for 2 weeks, at the end of which Congress finally acted, giving another 2 month reprieve on the cut. However, April hurt most physician practices—no claims were processed--or paid--for two weeks, wreaking havoc on cash flow. Another two months passed, and the reprieve on the cut expired once again.

In late May, the House voted to block the cut for 18 months, a much needed breather, with a 2.2% increase. The Senate, considering their Memorial Day week vacation, did not take up the issue, ensuring that CMS would again stop processing physician claims beginning June 1. There was no 11th hour rescue this time. After two weeks, the longest legal time that CMS is allowed to hold claims, no vote was made by the Senate. In fact, a test vote failed to pass, and the issue was tabled. Both physicians and Medicare recipients were left in perilous straits. CMS voted to hold claims yet another week, unheard of in the history of Medicare. Finally, unable to hold claims any longer after 21 days, CMS started paying claims with the disastrous 21.3% cut. A large physician specialty group in Salisbury sent letters to its referring physicians, vowing to not take any new Medicare patients. Days later, the Senate met and voted to block the cut, but only for 6 months, with the 2.2% increase as voted in the House. However, now it had to go back to the House, as both parts must sign off on the bill before the President can make it law.

The House leadership, after a period of what can only be described as pouting, finally agreed to the terms outlined by the Senate, and the President signed the bill. The net effect was millions of dollars added to the bill taxpayers must foot to fund the reprocessing of those Medicare claims incorrectly paid at a lower rate. Before CMS was ready to process new claims, it needed to be tested and retested. For my practice and many others, the net effect was no payments at all from our largest insurer for the entire month of June, with the same expenses of any other month. Worse yet, the same problem is scheduled to recur at the end of November, when the current payment system expires, and a 23 % cut goes into effect. On January 1, 2011, it will be 28 %, and the following year, 33 %. Many of us in primary care medicine run profit margins that won’t allow business to continue with a 23% cut in our fees. Is it any wonder so many physicians are turning away Medicare patients?

This is only the latest chapter of the Medicare saga. In the 1980’s, Medicare used to be the highest payor, and physician practices loved new Medicare patients. Now Medicare pays only about 78% of what private insurers pay, and Medicare recipients are searching for a home. How did it get this way?

Needless to say, costs for medical care have skyrocketed over the last 3 decades. People are living longer due to improved health care and control of childhood disease, and once deadly diseases are now chronic illnesses. This costs more. The baby-boomers are now on Medicare, swelling its ranks, which costs more as well. There are more people who are not over 65 who have Medicare for disability, and these ranks have grown. One can now anticipate some recipients to be on Medicare 40 or 50 years, or even more. This costs more. Malpractice fears fuel the issue as well, as more defensive medicine is practiced for fear of missing something. More x-rays and labs and referrals to specialists, and more labs and x-rays and on and on. This costs more, often much more.

Historical Perspective
In an effort to control costs in the late 1990’s, in conjunction with the Balanced Budget Act, something known the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula was enacted by the then-Congress. It linked growth of the economy to Medicare physician reimbursement—as one went up, the other went down, in a cumulative and ongoing fashion. In the early years, the cuts were 1 %, or 2%. At least 10 times since then, when successive cuts have come due, Congress has acted to block them, save for a 4.8 % cut in 2002, which was allowed to go into effect. Blockage of the cuts are short term patches--they “fix” nothing, They only postpone the need to find a permanent solution to the problem. In the long run, this results in exponential growth in the cost of eliminating SGR..

The bill the House of Representatives approved in May 2010 would have laid the groundwork for permanently repealing SGR and replacing it with a better and more stable Medicare physician payment update system. It would also have allowed the opportunity to increase reimbursement for primary care services, to help address the worsening shortage of primary care physician services, and would have provided a statutory guarantee that preventative services would not be cut. But the Senate left those things on the cutting room floor with its alternative bill that became law in June 2010.

I wonder, how much does it cost in terms of money, and time, for the House and the Senate to debate the same issue every year? Or, as in the case of 2010, to debate it in January, April, June and November? How much taxpayer money has been squandered in politics? In reacting, rather than fixing problems? In posturing and shooting down other ideas because they didn’t originate in one’s own political party? In business as usual? In voting increases for one’s own salary and ‘discretionary funds’, while Social Security benefits remain unchanged for another year? In voting oneself exempt from the laws and health insurance that every other American must accept?

HR 3590: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Medicare issue is not improved at all in the health care reform legislation voted into being earlier this year. In fact, Medicare and Medicaid payments will be cut by a total of $43 billion under the law. Medicare provider cuts will include home health facilities, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care hospitals, and hospice programs. It includes new taxes on prescription drugs and on specialty wheelchairs, pacemakers and other medical devices. While it does increase payments up to 10% for primary care physician practice expenses in health care shortage areas, when measured against the 33% cut that is due at the same time, there is still a net loss in revenue for such practices. The act also will result in implementation of 159 new offices, bureaus, commissions and programs—that means a lot more government employees.

As health coverage is expanded to cover the estimated 34 million Americans who currently do not have health insurance, the current nationwide shortage in primary care services will reach critical proportions. With fewer and fewer doctors in training choosing primary care, primary care may cease to be provided by physicians at all. It is not inconceivable that such care will be delivered by non-physicians, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, who are employed by the government.

The Perfect Storm
Dramatic cuts in Medicare reimbursement are expected by many physicians. The election in early November will likely result in fewer incumbent retaining their seats. It is from this group of Congressmen that the next vote on the Medicare cuts will come, if it is addressed at all. It is also the time during which physicians have the opportunity to change their participation status with Medicare for 2011. Many will opt out of Medicare. Remember, as many as 31% of primary care practices surveyed limited the number Medicare patients in 2009. In a separate online survey of American physicians in 2010, 84% of physicians responded that they would stop seeing new Medicare patients, stop seeing all Medicare patients, or consider closing their practices if these cuts were not reversed. These numbers are frightening in their scope. If even half of them followed through, the crisis in access to care would be, indeed, a perfect storm.

H/T: luv2sing

20 New Anticancer Rules

20 New Anticancer Rules
By Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.

Michael Pollan's recent little gem of a book "Food Rules" inspired me to compile my own "rules" about what I'd like every person to know about how they can help avoid cancer - or slow it down if they have it.

FOOD RULES

1. Go retro: Your main course should be 80 percent vegetables, 20 percent animal protein, like it was in the old days. Opt for the opposite of the quarter pounder topped with a token leaf of iceberg lettuce and an anemic tomato slice. Meat should be used sparingly for taste, as when it used to be scarce, and should not be the focus of the meal.

2. Mix and match your vegetables: Vary the vegetables you eat from one meal to the next, or mix them together -- broccoli is an effective anticancer food, and is even more effective when combined with tomato sauce, onions or garlic. Get in the habit of adding onions, garlic or leeks to all your dishes as you cook.

3. Go organic: Choose organic foods whenever possible, but remember it's always better to eat broccoli that's been exposed to pesticide than to not eat broccoli at all (the same applies to any other anticancer vegetable).

4. Spice it up: Add turmeric (with black pepper) when cooking (delicious in salad dressings!). This yellow spice is the most powerful natural anti-inflammatory agent. Remember to add Mediterranean herbs to your food: thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, marjoram, mint, etc. They don't just add flavor, they can also help reduce the growth of cancer cells.

5. Skip the potato: Potatoes raise blood sugar, which can feed inflammation and cancer growth. They also contain high levels of pesticide residue (to the point that most potato farmers I know don't eat their own grown potatoes).

6. Go fish: Eat fish two or three times a week - sardines, mackerel, and anchovies have less mercury and PCBs than bigger fish like tuna. Avoid swordfish and shark, which the FDA says pregnant women should not eat because they contain a high concentration of contaminants.

7. Remember not all eggs are created equal: Choose only omega-3 eggs, or don't eat the yolks. Hens are now fed on mostly corn and soybeans, and their eggs contain 20 times more pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids than cell-growth regulating omega-3s.

8. Change your oil: Use only olive and canola oil in cooking and salad dressings. Go through your kitchen cabinets and throw out your soybean, corn and sunflower oils. (And no, you can't give them to your neighbors or your relatives... They're much too rich in omega-6 fatty acids!)

9. Say "Brown is beautiful": Eat your grains whole and mixed (wheat with oats, barley, spelt, flax, etc.) and favor organic whole grains when possible since pesticides tend to accumulate on whole grains. Avoid refined, white flour (used in bagels, muffins, sandwich bread, buns, etc.) whenever possible, and eat white pasta only al dente.

10. Keep sweets down to fruits: Cut down on sugar by avoiding sweetened sodas and fruit juices, and skipping dessert or replacing it with fruit (especially stone fruits and berries) after most meals. Read the labels carefully, and steer clear of products that list any type of sugar (including brown sugar, corn syrup, etc.) in the first three ingredients. If you have an incorrigible sweet tooth, try a few squares of dark chocolate containing more than 70% cocoa.

11. Go green: Instead of coffee or black tea, drink three cups of green tea per day. Use decaffeinated green tea if it gets you too wired. Regular consumption of green tea has been linked to a significant reduction in the risk for developing cancer.

12. Make room for exceptions. What matters is what you do on a daily basis, not the occasional treat.

NON-FOOD RULES

1. Get physical: Make time to exercise, be it walking, dancing or running. Aim for 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 days a week. This can be as easy as just walking part of the way to the office, or the grocery store. A dog is often a better walking partner than an exercise buddy. Choose an activity you enjoy; if you're having fun, you're more likely to stick with it.

2. Let the sun shine in: Try to get at least 20 minutes of daily sun exposure (torso, arms and legs) without sunscreen, preferably at noon in the summer (but take care to avoid sunburns!). This will boost your body's natural production of Vitamin D. As an alternative: discuss the option of taking a Vitamin D3 supplement with your doctor.

3. Banish bad chemicals: Avoid exposure to common household contaminants. You should air our your dry-cleaning for two hours before storing or wearing it; use organic cleaning products (or wear gloves); don't heat liquids or food in hard plastics; avoid cosmetics with parabens and phthalates; don't use chemical pesticides in your house or garden; replace your scratched Teflon pans; filter your tap water (or used bottled water) if you live in a contaminated area; don't keep your cell phone close to you when it is turned on.

4. Reach out (and touch someone!): Reach out to at least two friends for support (logistical and emotional) during times of stress, even if it's through the internet. But if they're within arms reach, go ahead and hug them, often!

5. Remember to breathe: Learn a basic breathing relaxation technique to let out some steam whenever you start to feel stressed.

6. Get involved: Find out how you can best give something back to your local community, then give it.

7. Cultivate happiness like a garden: Make sure you do one thing you love for yourself on most days (it doesn't have to take long!).

To review an earlier post about Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, and his book: Anticancer: A New Way of Life, go here.

Anticancer: A New Way of Life

Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, a French born naturalized American citizen won two personal battles with brain cancer, and initiated his quest to find a way to prevent a third encounter. He found it, and wrote a book about it. It's called Anticancer: A New Way of Life, and it can be purchased at Amazon.Com for $17.79.

New CPR Method - Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic Presentation of Continuous Chest Compression CPR - a new approach to patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that has been shown to improve rates of neurologically intact survival by 250%--300% over the approach advocated by the 2000 American Heart Association guidelines.


H/T: ga76821

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