It Works!

Ever wonder if Washington, DC ever gets the message? Well, it does.

In Mississippi yesterday, another Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives was lost to a Democrat. This particular seat (like the ones earlier in two other states) was in a supposedly solid
Republican district. The special run-off election was to fill the seat of a Congressman who left to fill the unexpired term of Senator Trent Lott. It was the 2nd “safe” Southern seat to elect a Democrat over a Republican in the deep South.

Apparently, the GOP’s contempt for its Conservative base and its roots in smaller Government is going to cost the GOP dearly this fall. It should be noted that those Republicans losing all ran against Barack
Obama, Jeremiah Wright and Nancy Pelosi INSTEAD of running FOR those principles that have held the Reagan Coalition together for so long.

It really bears out the idea that if the voter has a choice between a Democrat and a Republican who acts like a Democrat, they’ll choose the Democrat every time. And, why shouldn’t they.

This is the purging many on my side have been yearning for for quite some time. Between this housecleaning and Bob Barr’s Libertarian candidacy, maybe the GOP will finally wake up and smell the coffee.

America is good AND great!

I was talking with a friend the other day about the state of the economy, gas prices, international competition, the dollar and a few other things.  Hisdespair was apparent.

But honestly, I am NOT discouraged.  America has been though much worse.  Certainly, the dollar sucks right now.  BUT, with all the other currencies so high compared to the dollar, it will make our goods a cheaper alternative to what many other countries are buying.  I also believe the spot price of oil is irrationally high.  Certainly, OPEC is enjoying this.  BUT when reality strikes, I think you’ll see the price of oil plummet causing panic among oil speculators.

The trade imbalance will (as it always has) correct itself.  Remember when the Japanese were buying up everything back in the ’80s?  That came to a screeching halt.  Same will happen with China and India.

The fact that Obama is going to get elected and the current crop of phony Republicans is about to get their clocks cleaned, will clear the way for a fresh new approach to the country’s problems.

I see a silver lining around the looming recession, war, etc.  The World is emulating America from China and India to France and all of Europe.  Our star is rising despite Bush, McCain and Obama.

Better days are on their way!

Dr. T!m

So, you REALLY want Government sponsored health care?

A new report from the FDA suggests that recent problems with heparin have proven to be even worse than originally thought.  The report concludes that deaths linked to all versions of heparin–including a tainted version of the drug sold by Baxter–have tripled. There now are 62 reports of patients dying who were infused with heparin from January 1, 2007 through the end of this past March who had a one or more allergic reactions. A prior FDA report had only listed 19 deaths. At present, the FDA isn’t sure what caused the spike in adverse reactions. Right now, they’re suggesting that this is more of matter of delays in reports from companies and a growth in reports from consumers reading about Baxter’s problems.

The FDA’s job is to PROTECT consumers from this kind of travesty!  Yet, it appears that the Government’s real job is to get drugs to the market as soon as possible and then cover its backside when things go wrong.  Unfortunately, the consumer loses!  If you can’t trust the FDA to prevent stuff like this from happening, how can you be confident of ANY FDA approved drug for whatever ailment for which you might be treated?

Stay healthy!  Avoid drugs when you can.

Singulair-suicide link?

When will this madness stop?!  Now the FDA is investigating a possible link between Merck’s asthma drug Singular and suicidal tendencies. 

Do we really know what causes asthma?  If we don’t, how can we possibly approve a drug BEFORE the potential side efects can be known?    And, why do we (our Government) keep putting drugs on the market that can be more dangerous than the problem they’re supposed to treat?  Too many questions.  Too few answers.

For years people have had great success reducing their asthma symptoms with chiropractic care.  If you need a referral to a good family chiropractor, please let me know.

Here’s the link to the story.

Study: Very few child drug trials get outside oversight

A new study suggests that drug trials involving children get shockingly little oversight from outside safety monitoring groups. The study, which reviewed 739 international trials mounted between 1996 and 2002, concluded that only one of every 50 such drug trials were overseen by outside safety groups. Of those that did use monitoring groups, six were stopped because of signs of toxicity. Also, adverse side effects were reported in 37 percent of all trials, and about one in ten produced moderate to severe–and sometimes life-threatening–side effects.
Why such a lapse in oversight? Experts note that drug trials for children are, themselves, a relatively new thing. In the past, children have been given the same medicines as adults without there having been any separate trials, despite the differing metabolisms.

NOTE: This should scare the heck out of you.  According to this study, only 1 out of 50 drug trials involving kids is monitored by anyone other than the drug company doing the tests!  AND, there were adverse events (meaning BAD side effects) in over 1/3 of those trials.

There IS a better way to raise children to be healthy WITHOUT dangerous drugs.  I take care of kids at no additional cost when the parent is a member of my practice.  I believe in truly DRUG-FREE families.

Increase seen in drug-resistant germs

I found this story on Modern Healthcare Online.  The overuse and abuse of antibiotics in this country is having unforeseen and potentially disastrous effects.  Already, strains of drug resistant staph infections are widespread in hospitals.  We run the very real risk of CREATING our own superbug resistant to everything and anything we have to throw at it.

Isn’t it better to build health naturally so that when (or if) you may need antibiotics they might actually be able to help?

Here’s the article.

Story posted: March 18, 2008 - 4:15 pm EDT

The number of germs resistant to antibiotics is growing, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

The institute, which will have an article in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, found one in five of the 94,360 patients who developed an invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infection in 2005 died. In addition, 20% of tuberculosis cases worldwide are drug-resistant, with 10% “extensively” drug-resistant, and in 2002 14% of certain bloodstream infections were resistant to antibiotics, up from 4% in 1993, the institute said in its report.

The national institute spends more than $800 million per year on antimicrobial clinical research, through which it hopes to understand the causes of drug resistance and develop specific diagnostic tests for infections that are likely to become resistant. — by Jean DerGurahian

Drugs in Your Drinking Water

This drug-culture thing has simply gone too far! The Associated Press released the results of a months long investigation into the drinking water of dozens of major US cities and found traces of various medications in the water supply. If every drug has a side effect, how would some of these drugs affect a healthy person, especially with prolonged undetected exposure?

How long before the Congress tries to pass legislation making it impossible to sue drug manufacturers or municipal water treatment agencies for health problems caused by exposure to dangerous drugs in our drinking water?

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water.

What’s going on with this economy?

A friend who knows my background in business asked what I thought is causing this slump in the economy.  So, I thought, I’d share my insights.

I attribute most of this to a few things.  Probably the biggest factor is the housing collapse.  There are several reasons for it, of course.  But, the fact is the market is correcting an overheated, prolonged boom fueled by easy lending.  Anyway, When housing slumps, jobs back off in almost every sector.  I believe one of the reasons the labor force shrank is that alot of those immigrants we’ve been bitching about, packed up their families and went back to Mexico.  AND this thing has been sliding for at least a year now.  It’s about wrung out.

Another is the oil situation.  With gas at the pump now over $3 a gallon and headed to $4, it’s really eating into discretionary income.  There’s no extra money to spend.  AND with the Government steering farmers to agriculture for fuel instead of food, the cost of groceries is moving up steadily further stressing the family budget.

I think uncertainty over the election is forcing companies to thin their ranks BEFORE the Administration changes.  Also, uncertainty over possible tax increases forces folks to hold on to what they’ve got “just in case”.

Finally, the so-called “wealth effect” is working in reverse.  When times are good and stocks and home equity are increasing, people “feel” like they have more.  They borrow against that equity.  The spend more.  And, the cycle feeds itself.  When values and equity are shrinking, just the reverse is true.  DEBT is killing the consumer.  So-called bankruptcy reform makes it easier for the banks to dump credit cards on the market, impose usurious fees and collect hard.  Consumers can’t bankrupt as easily.  So, more income is directed toward debt reduction.  I think we’re gonna see a wave of bankruptcy that is staggering.

Might take a year to pull out of this.  It will be a good time if you’ve got cash in the bank or buried in the back yard.  If not, it might be a challenging time.  Pity the old guys who’ve been downsized and actually NEED a job.

In the words of Tim McGraw, “Would you like fries with that?”

States combat drug reps to cut costs

A small but growing number of advocates have begun working to provide their own brand of drug education to doctors–without the sales message that pharmaceutical companies deliver. These “counter-detailers,” as they are known in some quarters, are paid by groups outside the industry to visit with doctors and provide neutral, hype-free information on medications. Previously, we told you about one effort, paid for by the state of Pennsylvania, which sent out 500 clinicians to discuss prescribing options.

Over the past year, it appears that the idea has become more popular. Today, a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, Vermont and South Carolina, have rolled out programs presenting drug cost and effectiveness information. Vermont’s program focuses on rural medical practices, and South Carolina’s focuses on mental-health drugs. Pennsylvania, which spends $1 million a year on its “unsales” force, has reported that it managed to cut costs on drugs for seniors with the program; for example, the state began saving $60 on average per doctor on pain relievers within six months after an unsales visit. However, it’s not clear the others are successful. (Small wonder, given that the pharmaceutical industry spends more than $7 billion a year on direct marketing to doctors.)

Here’s a link to the full article.

American Healthcare: A Failed Paradigm

One of the overriding issues in America is health care. It affects virtually every aspect of domestic policy, including politics, business, the economy and personal lives of Americans from the poor to the very rich.

Sadly, in this current political season the answer seems to NOT be on solutions other than offer us more of the same with so-called “universal coverage” for everyone.  In other words, the system we have now sucks, so everyone should suffer through it equally.  When I discuss this, my Conservative and Liberal friends respond with something like, “What do you mean?  We have the best health care system in the world!”  But still, both sides simply approach the problem as an insurance problem.  Too bad.

In my mind, the problem with health care in America is that the entire paradigm is flawed.   From birth, we’re indoctrinated into the disease model and that drugs can prevent or cure any mallady.  In other words, we must prevent and fight disease.

So, we start babies off with “their shots”.  While I believe vaccination should be a matter of choice, the number and types of shots recommended for babies and toddlers really is an assault on their developing immune system and is downright scary.  Then throughout their early school years, many kids are “diagnosed” with ADD/ADHD and given narcotics grade drugs to force them to sit still so they can do better in school.  And then (ironically)  complain about athletes taking drugs to enhance their performance.  Strange.

As we enter adulthood, we’re convinced that giving birth is a traumatic and dangerous event that must be handled strictly in a medical setting.  Why aren’t women in modern America told that giving birth is a natural, beautiful thing for which they were uniquely designed.  Instead of empowering women to do what they were naturally designed for, we scare them into compliance with a pathological, allopathic model of childbirth.

Further into adulthood, Americans are checked routinely for cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and a host of other chronic conditions.  And when measures creep outside established norms, they’re put on medications to force that particular reading to what the doctor thinks is right.  Unfortunately, every drug has a side effect.  And, we Americans hardly ever ask our doctors “What is in this drug?” or “What are some potential side effects of this drug?” or “How will this affect me with the other drugs I’m taking?”  Instead, we simply comply.

Then as we enter middle age, we start seeing problems like liver and kidney failure, congestive heart failure, etc. and become regular visitors to the local hospital.  As the drugs either no longer work or our bodies start to shut down from weird symptoms that can’t easily be classified, we begin to “doctor shop” to find someone who can come up with an accurate diagnosis.

Eventually, we end up in a nursing home being given dozens of different drugs and put through untold numbers of tests until our bodies finally give in and give up.  From birth to death we are taught to fear and fight fever, vomit and diarrhea.  And because our focus is on disease, we create disease.  Two of the largest and most profitable industries in America just happen to be insurance and drug companies.  have you noticed all the new “diseases” being advertised on TV, like “Restless Leg Syndrome”, GERD and a host of others?  And, have you checked to see how much money those industries invest in advertising and political lobbying?

So, what’s the solution?  Well first, we must recognize that our entire premise is wrong from the start.  Just like our education system and tax code, we need a whole new way of thinking.  Maybe it was Einstein who said “No problem can be solved with the same level of thinking that created the it in the first place”.

Instead of a system that makes someone else responsible for finding or preventing a disease; or your employer (or worse, the Government) paying for your “health” insurance; or expecting Medicare/Medicaid to pay for your dying care, we should give individuals responsibility for their own health.

In a wellness paradigm, you start with the premise that you’re supposed to be healthy!  Instead of sitting around watching TV, eating junk food and smoking cigarettes, we encourage folks to exercise, stay fit, eat better and do those things that keep them healthy and out of harm’s way.  Instead of a mangled care system that minimize the time you spend with “a” doctor, you find the doctor that’s right for you and develop the kind of relationship that makes you  healthier and gives you greater control over your health and your life.

After all, this is STILL America, “home of the FREE and land of the BRAVE”!  The American pioneer spirit has always been responsible for our strength and prosperity.  We should get rid of this “plantation mentality” where the Government or an employer should take care of us.  As one writer wrote, “you are endowed with the seed of greatness”.  By realizing and pursuing that greatness in every aspect of life in America, we can restore our nation’s health and vitality and reduce our dependence on drug makers and insurance companies.

Live the very best life you can.  Don’t give your freedom and power to anyone!