Beaver beats Eagle!

[GordMay]

NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE
http://www.cha.harvard.edu/news/news.shtml

Cambridge Health Alliance Researchers Find that U.S. residents are less healthy, less able to access health care than Canadians.

ATLANTA (AP): http://www.cqservices.com/MyCQ/News/Default.asp?V=27442
”You can add Canadians to the list of foreigners who are healthier than Americans. Americans are 42 percent more likely than Canadians to have diabetes, 32 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, and 12 percent more likely to have arthritis, Harvard Medical School researchers found ...
... The study comes less than a month after other researchers reported that middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England...”

[Ferg]

Aw, Gord, don’t point it out, you tryin’ to get us bombed or what? Just kidding. I suppose we should enjoy it while we can, Conservatives in power and all ….

Later, eh!

Ferg

Yet one more vote for socialized medicine. All of these are conditions that can be prevented or at least reduced in severity and impact on quality of life by readily accessable health care.
A few less McD's per mile probably doesn't hurt either

[delmarrey]

The problem with US doctors is they are quick to diagnose. My doc says I have diabetes but my blood sugar is normally 107 and has been that way for years. They also say my wife has glaucoma but she's always had high eye pressure. There's a lot more to the story but I'm not going to write a book.

Anyway, US doc's manipulate the insurance companies and the diagnoses to get as much $$$ as they can, which can alter stats.

We've basic told the doc's to "shove it". They gave some eye drops to my wife to supposedly bring down the pressure. When she went back they said "Oh, the pressure has come down, keep using the drops" While in fact she never even used them at all. We figured it was just the lack of sleep she was having at the time.

In my case I drank a bunch of water before a glucose test and it dropped my sugar 20 points. So how accurate are the tests??????????

So these tests and diagnoses are just a bunch of ways to extract money from the naive suckers that don't know any better. No one in my (big) family has ever had diabetes that I can find, so why now. I don’t even have the symptoms of diabetes.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are individuals out there that obviously have problems. But I seem to see it so commonly. Especially in the past 5-6 years talking to people who are experiencing the same crap that we are. Last year I quit all the damn pills they were having me take and I feel a whole lot better. I was getting rashes, diarrhea, lost of sleep & nausea. That's all gone now. Exercise and just plan keep moving is the secret! Not Doctors!!!!!!!!!

Besides who stats can you believe anyway?

Reading, after a certain age, deverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Albert Einstein

[CaptainK]

One thing I noticed over the years. Is that all over America. The fast food market has grown so much. And all these people flocking to them on a daily basis. Not even hardly cooking their own meals at home.

It makes you think why Americans. And other countries following Americans due to poor eating. Eating too much processed sugars and saturated fats etc. etc. . Can lead a person to become overweight and get diabetes more easier. And it's a epidemic here in the US.

[markpj23]

I recently had my faith in Doctors restored when they announced this week that "IED" is a bona-fide medical condition. No, not the roadside bomb IED, but the flaming a'hole kind.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is a condition where people sometimes just go berserk yelling and screaming and cannot control themselves... like when your bow anchor has just raked the side of that megayacht because your mate didn't hear you say "back down dear" .... without yelling of course

The good news is that I expect the cure for IED to be a few cold ones in a quiet anchorage in the Bahamas. Or maybe a less-than-successful man overboard drill on the next passage....

Of course these were not real doctors who discovered IED, just psychiatrists. Can't wait to hear the next pronouncement from the International Proctologists Society later this year.... Maybe we can develop a condition where I get to excuse all of my inappropriate behaviors... call it Screaming Butt-Head Sailor Disorder or something... and then let them prescribe some meds for it. Of course, I'll have to cross the border to be able to afford the meds, but hey - life is always GOOD when there are pharmacueticals involved.

And to think that - like Delmarrey - I had almost given up on Doctors and their medications....

[GordMay]

I expect you were trying to make some sort of meaningful and enlightening statement, but (in my ignorance), I don’t get your point.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder is a medical term that describes an impulse-control disorder that is characterized by specific episodes of violent and aggressive behavior (usually diproportionate to the “trigger”) that may involve harm to others or destruction of property.
Your term, “flaming a'hole”, is certainly less precise, and not found in the American Psychiatric Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM).
Psychiatrists are Physicians who specialize in mental illness. Hence, Psychiatrists are “real” medical doctors licensed to prescribe medicine (psychopharmacology), and (often) they do not provide psychotherapy or counseling services.
Proctologists are Physicians (“real” Doctors) specializing in diseases and disorders of the rectum, anus, colon and pelvic floor. Most proctologists are surgeons by training.

[jstevens]

Delmarrey cited what I felt when i read the news release and the statements from the doctors who performed the study. We non-Candadian, non-Mexican North Americans (I think that means USA citizen) are generally over-diagnosed and over-medicated. If that means we are sicker than citizens of other countries the solution is doesn't require a change in the provider system, but a change in the receiver system. That is be very skeptical of whatever your doctor tells you, and seek second opinions before beginning an expensive and difficult medication.
Anyway I view the study as bogus because of the pejorative way they represented the results ("US citizens are sicker than their counter parts in other countrys" - as far I could tell they provided no evidence of this assertion) and because the interviews with the doctors who conducted the survey revealed a clear prejudice for the result they determined.
That said, I hope it is true that Canadians and Brits are healthier than than we in the USA. Why should that be considered anything other than positive for all involved?

John

[CaptainK]

The Brits. The Aussis's. The Canadians.

Are no more healthier than we Americans. They too have their drug addicts. And their overweight, fast food eating people too!!

They also don't exercise enough just like the rest of the developed nations. Who depend too much on public or personel transportation. Sitting in front of their computers or TV's, and not getting out for walks or simple exercise.

I think that says enough!!

But the doctor's in the US are either trying to help you out. Or just nickel & diming you for what they can get out of you. Of course they can figure out most problems that people suffer from? Why do they always keep prescriping either the same or differnet medications everytime you visit them?

[Charlie]

As Willie Nelson said, "There's more old drunks than there are old doctors. I think I'll have another round."

I think "if" there is a difference between the health of us yanks and the rest of the world there is a good chance that it comes from corporate farming practices. Feed lot cattle, chickens that have never left there pens, using chemicals/drugs on all our food. It's got to have some ill effect.

[CaptainK]

Charlie once whispered in the wind

Feed alot of cattle, chickens that have never left the pens, using chemicals/drugs on all our food. It's got to have some ill effect.

Charlie.

That's one of the main reasons why I think that we and other nations who eat these animals, who were given these drugs are affected in some way.

Have you noticed cancer has risen in recent years. Diabetes. And other health related issues.

It's makes you wonder what the meat you just bought form the store will do to you and your family down the road?

Not forgetting about the vegetables and fruitd as well. And those pesticides that they spray all over them?

[Charlie]

I AGREE CAPTAIN K

VIVA ORGANIC FARMING

[Alan Wheeler]

But you guy's have got the most amazing doctors. I watch one every Tuesday evening at 8.30. His name is House.

[Jentine]

Delmarry, Your wife may not have glaucoma, but the ultimate effect of high ocular pressure is blindness. Is it worth the risk? Your eyes, your choice.

Generally, as to the poorer health of Americans, we have only to look at the number of automobiles registered in the US. I believe at last count there were two per driver. If we get off our fat asses, we will live longer and better.

[CaptainK]

Jentine once whispered in the wind.

Generally, as to the poorer health of Americans, we have only to look at the number of automobiles registered in the US. I believe at last count there were two per driver. If we get off our fat asses, we will live longer and better.

Jentine.

You won't get an arguement from me from what you have said. I said this to one of my neighbors just a few months ago. And one of my relatives about a year ago.

Laziness without daily exercise, is not a option. Obesity is death. It leads to a complication of health problems. And almost half of the family I grew up with are obese. Two of them are diabetics!! DANGER< DANGER WILL ROBINSON!! That's the calling card. And it's the truth!!