The Stand-up Philosopher

Seth Godin on Anxiety

Seth Godin had an interesting post on anxiety this morning. I'll just quote the whole thing here, because it's really short:

Anxiety is nothing...

but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance. What a waste.

Seth is right.

I'm living under a crushing anxiety right now. It's making my insides hurt. It's pretty bad. I'll be honest and say that I'm not far from calling the doctor. I don't know what he could actually do about it.

But Seth's blog post added some perspective. That's what I was going to write about today. I might post on that later. I haven't failed yet. Failure is coming, but it's not here yet. I'm experiencing it in advance over and over ever minute of the day.

I guess I should stop though. It's definitely not getting me anywhere. But how do you stop being anxious?

Water: A Simple Energy Pick-up

I'm currently on travel. When I got back to my hotel room this afternoon, I was wiped out. All I wanted to do was turn the air conditioning on and flop on the bed and just lay there. But that could not be the course of my night. I still needed to get dinner, I had some work to do, and I had tons of email and RSS feeds to catch up on. Since I'm starting vacation tomorrow, I know if I don't get these caught up now, I'll be buried when we get back. Yes, I'm taking my iPhone and netbook with me, but I am trying to keep my expectations realistic.

I had to get myself off that hotel bed and get moving again. I had an idea. I keep forgetting that being dehydrated can often affect my energy level. I also figured an extra dose of vitamins couldn't hurt at this point. I took my vitamins this morning, but OTC (Over the counter) vitamins can be taken at increased doses.

Turns out, that gave me enough energy to get m oving. Not enough to run a marathon or anything, but enough to get my laptop out of my bag and hooked up to the hotel's network. It also gave me enough motivation to call Applebee's for dinner, and walk over there to pick it up.

When your energy is too low, try water. Seriously, it does help in a lot of cases.

So, Like, Do I have ADD?

I’m not sure how best to put this. Several years ago, my wife suggested that I have myself checked for ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I took an online test and ended up somehow subscribing from email updates from Statera. At the time, I was also going through my Kevin Trudeau phase and I was distrustful of the pharmaceutical industry. To a point, I still am, as far as I still wonder when I hear about something, does the financial interest of the person or industry that is trying to get me to buy into something outweigh my own interests in purchasing the product or service?

In any case, any time I have ever taken an ADD test, within a book or online, I always come out very high as having it. Not ADHD, I don’t find myself hyperactive, at least not at my current weight and level (or lack of) physical activity, but I definitely come out high on having ADD.

Many bloggers joke about ADD. I stopped doing it for many years. For some reason, personality types like me tend to gravitate toward careers in computers, engineering, or programming and such. We like new, shiny things, we enjoy being able to hyperfocus on some tasks, and switch what we do from time to time. I still can’t help but wonder what life would be like if I could actually stick to something long enough to to do a decent job on it.

For those of you geeks who think you might have ADD, did you get checked out? Have you taken any medication or supplements for it? Do they help, or do you just wish you’d left things alone? For those of you who know me, do you think I might benefit from a professional analysis for this condition? Or is my currently level of interest and distraction a good match for me?

Technorati Tags: ADD,getting checked for ADD

Weight Watchers Update

I figured I'd post an update on my Weight Watcher's progress. From my original blog post, I joined on May 12. Since that time, I've taken a couple of trips, been through Memorial Day, spent a couple of weekends at my in-laws' to save gas on the 14 mile drive back and forth, and have been through some other situations that led me to slip up. So, how am I doing?
Honestly, I'm doing better than I thought. I went on the Flex plan, which allows points for everything you eat. I haven't been very good at bothering to calculate my points, but I have been trying to pay more attention to portion sizes and avoid snacks. Since my wife is on Weight Watcher's Core plan, she does the cooking. For the most part, she's been making some pretty interesting foods and I normally take my lunch from our leftovers, although she did buy a few frozen Weight Watcher's dinners for those days when I have no leftover, which is the easiest time for me to slip.
I've lost about 8.5 pounds over the last month. That's not bad considering that I haven't been trying all that hard. I've slipped several times. I still enjoy treats like ice cream and cold beer occasionally. I've had burgers, pizza, and cheesesteaks. However, since I've started to see results, I've starting taking things much more seriously. There is nothing like a result to encourage you to work harder.

Weight Watchers, Day 2

I technically started Weight Watchers yesterday afternoon, but even by a 24 hour standard, I'm on my second day. I'm hungry. I know that I'll be heading home soon, and my wife usually has dinner waiting when I get home. Since she recently started Weight Watchers, she's not likely to want to eat out.   
This is always the hard part for me, being hungry. I also get sluggish sometimes, and tired. I'm a little fidgety. I was playing around with some of the tools on the Weight Watchers Online for Men site, and found that my ideal weight is somewhere between 135 and 162. I'm like 238 right now. That's scary. The least I've been since I was about 15 is 175, and that was about the time I got out of the Navy when I was running 3-4 miles a day.   
I'll keep posting. I'm just trying not to think about the vending machine. This isn't quite as hard as quitting smoking, but it's not far off the mark.

I Joined Weight Watchers

My wife started going to Weight Watchers meetings a couple of weeks ago. I gave it some thought, and my doctor has even recommended it a few times. I was poking around on the website today, and found that they have a new program: Weight Watchers Online for Men. It didn't take much more to get me to sign up. I've been challenged by weight most of my adult life, and I have tried many different plans from deprivation to excessive working out to Atkins to restricted calories to inpatient treatment (Navy provided) with Overeaters Anonymous. I probably had my best short term gains under Atkins, but I could only stick with it for three weeks the first time. I tried many times to get back on. Weight Watchers Flex plan promises me that I can eat what I want (although obviously not the portions I want), so I figure I'll give it a shot. The men's site talks about beer and pizza and "man stuff", which I could get to enjoy. As I said in a previous entry, men and women are different and especially in areas of physiology, we are far from similar. I guess in the interest of accountability, I might post a few things here on my blog about past weight loss attempts. I'm going to shoot for a 10% loss, which will put my weight under what it was when we conceived Joshua, our first born.

Technorati Tags: Weight Watchers,weight loss

Darn It Jim: Attention to Detail in the Health Care Industry

A while back, I wrote a series of posts about how it took two years to get a single pediatrician's bill settled with Aetna. I spent two years and many hours on the phone. I titled my series "Darn It Jim, I'm a Computer Geek, Not A Medical Billing Specialist". I based that, of course, on Dr. McCoy's famous "I'm a doctor not a..." lines from the original Star Trek series.

When I was in boot camp (United States Naval Recruit Training), I was introduced to the phrase "attention to detail". I did a lot of push-ups over the concept of attention to detail, both for my failure to pay attention to detail and for other members of my company failing to pay attention. In the military, failing to pay attention to detail can cost lives.

What happens while lives aren't exactly at stake? What about livelihoods that are at stake? What about a family budget? I've ranted before about my run-ins with health care. This is a very vital industry, yet it does cause a lot of hate and discontent in society.

Last week, my two year old decided to stick his hand in the car door as it was being closed. This resulted in an emergency room visit. Don't worry, the ER did fine. He broke one of his little fingers. The ER put a splint on him, wrapped his hand, and referred him to a doctor. My wife went straight to the pediatrician, who has an office close to the hospital, to get a referral. She then called to set an appointment. When she called to set the appointment, the staff went through the typical questions including PATIENT'S DATE OF BIRTH.

My wife showed up for the appointment, and when the doctor came in, guess what the first thing out of his mouth was (as reported by my wife)?

"I don't work on children this young."

Sure, AFTER his office collected a copay and billed our insurance for the visit, he lets my wife know that he doesn't deal with two year olds. Anyone care to guess where the attention to detail broke down? At least he rewrapped the hand and referred my wife to another doctor who *might* work with two year olds (which he does).

I think doctors and their staffs should have to do push-ups for every attention to detail error that they commit.

Technorati tags: Health care, medical billing, pediatrics

 

Labels: Hall of Shame

Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe

I came across this article about Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe. I thought it was interesting reading. That common belief in particular about "we only use 10% of our brains" always seemed like bovine fecal matter to me, and this article specifically mentions that belief. Just like my previous post on "Does Watching TV Really Cause Short Attention Spans?", I've always figured that statement about unused brain capacity has never really been put through the wringer of critical thinking. It's just been parroted throughout the years, even by doctors on PBS and Discovery Channel shows.

 

Technorati tags: Myths, Medical Myths

 

Labels: Health, Media, Socio/Political

Does Watching TV Really Cause Short Attention Spans?

On the news, in the media, on commentary pages, and among friends, many of us hear the same mantras repeated. Call them conventional wisdom, call them common knowledge, call them what you will. But can you call them true? In November 2006, Steve Olson posted a blog entry titled "10 Things I wish I had Never Believed". In this post, he touched on such common beliefs as "money is the root of all evil" (the actual Bible verse says the love of money is the root of all evil; huge difference), "a job is the best way to earn money", and "school is the best place for kids to learn". That last one is particularly anchored into public belief. When my wife and I tell people that we plan on home schooling our children, even people who are highly educated often gasp in fear and shock.

In any case, the other night I was watching an episode of Cranky Geeks. John C. Dvorak had a panel on specifically to talk about video podcasting. While they talked about the appropriate length of a video podcast, the discussion inevitably came around to attention spans. Sure, most video podcasts or YouTube videos do best when under 10 minutes (Cranky Geeks runs about 30). The comment came up that television and computers have shortened our attention spans. I suddenly found myself wondering if this is really true. Although most people would automatically agree with the statement without any thought, I suddenly wondered how this conclusion was arrived at. Did a group of scientists take a group of latchkey children and a control group of Amish and observe them growing up in a controlled scientific study? Or is this statement merely conventional wisdom arrived at by societal observation with a little bit of wishful thinking because the blame for a perceived problem has to fall somewhere?

I've recently begun to study philosophy. Philosophy is a subject that I have always avoided primarily due to stereotypes. Seriously, how many of you, if I invited you to my church, would refuse because you have a stereotypical image of evangelical Christians? I had the same thing about philosophers. When I thought about philosophy, I always saw an aging hippy professor sitting in the lotus position going "It's like we're totally not really here, man. Am I a man dreaming I'm a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I'm a man?" I also had the image of the 18 year old wasting daddy's money on philosophy classes rather than a more "practical" subject. I've found those stereotypes to be exactly what a stereotype is: mostly wrong. I'm finding philosophy to be a vibrant and fascinating study applicable to all areas of life. I'm also learning that a philosopher is a professional thinker. A philosopher asks questions, often with child-like wonder. We often lose our wonder as we grow up. Philosophers often don't have the answers, but their exploration of the questions can make for an interesting study. That's all I will say for now as I have a long way to go in reading about philosophy, not to mention reading some of the "great" philosophers.

With this interest in philosophy, I would like to ask the question: does watching TV really cause short attention spans? Obviously, I have not been successful in getting a grant, much less a group of latchkey children and another group of Amish children set aside from birth (by the way, I love the Amish and Lancaster County, PA is one of my favorite places on Earth). All I have to go on is my own observation. Before I continue, let me lay one last bit of foundation.

In October, Newsweek ran a story titled Why Money Doesn't Buy Happiness. One statement from that article which really stood out to me is about choice. The statement is below:

The trouble is, choice is not all it's cracked up to be. Studies show that people like selecting from among maybe half a dozen kinds of pasta at the grocery store but find 27 choices overwhelming, leaving them chronically on edge that they could have chosen a better one than they did. And wants, which are nice to be able to afford, have a bad habit of becoming needs (iPod, anyone?), of which an advertising- and media-saturated culture create endless numbers. Satisfying needs brings less emotional well-being than satisfying wants.

OK, from my own experience and observation will come the rest of this post/essay. I was born in 1974. I'm a product of the original MTV generation. I can remember watching about 5 or 6 hours of TV on a school night as early as the age of 11 or 12. We lived in Germany from 1980 to 1985 and had only one English channel, AFRTS, and one radio station, but people in "the states" would send us video tapes which my brother and I watched endlessly. In 1986 and 1987, I would come home from school to watch GI Joe and Transformers, followed by Star Trek and shows like the Facts of Life in syndication on the Fox affiliate (Fox was brand new at the time). Prime time brought programming like the A-Team and MacGuyver among others. By high school I often had better things to do than watch TV, but I still made sure to catch my favorite shows like Star Trek, The Next Generation. In the Navy, my television watching dropped off dramatically, but picked up after I got married in 2001. Currently, my family does watch a lot of TV. My wife keeps PBS and Nickelodian on for the kids all day. We'll often put on The Wiggles or Thomas the Tank Engine to keep the kids happy while we get things done. When I go to bed, I usually watch the History Channel, or Discovery Channel, or shows like Law and Order, or House. Lately, thanks to TV on DVD, and of course my WinTV and video iPod and programs like iPodifier, I can watch TV anytime and anywhere that I want. I'm just trying to establish that I have paid my dues in front of the television, and keep my membership active. I never really watched MTV though.

I do not believe, from my own experience and observation, that watching television decreases my attention span, nor the attention span of my children, whatever an acceptable attention span for two and three year old boys should be.

Apparently there is an attention span problem in our country, but if that attention span problem is not caused by TV, then what could be causing it? I'm obviously not a scientist or sociologist or psychologist, but I do have a blog, so that alone qualifies me to put forth a few observations on this subject. Here are some of the reasons that I suspect cause a short attention span:

• Expectations set too high- seriously, to say that the attention span today is short we must have some kind of quantifiable data from times past. Did school children in ancient Babylon sit for eight hours on end (boys especially) through such exciting subjects as poetry and pottery? Honestly, I think a lot of complaints about attention spans are because we have our expectations set too high for ourselves and our nation's school children. We're trying to expect and force ourselves and our children to sit for long periods of time doing tasks that frankly aren't all that interesting or exciting, or in many cases, meaningful. I used to think that I had a short attention span until I realized that like many other computer geeks, I had the ability to hyper-focus on some tedious tasks like playing video games or straightening out file system issues. I can't tell you how many blog posts I was able to crank out while I was supposed to be working on a paper for one of my University of Phoenix classes.
• One word: sugar. We can't deny that the American diet consists of way too much sugar. I notice when I'm not eating very well that I can't focus for anything. When I'm eating better, I have an easier time at work because my blood sugar levels aren't crashing.
• Another word: choices. There is a reason why web videos are short: because when we're sitting at our computers, there are a lot of other things we could be doing so we're not going to sit still for one thing. I listen to a lot of podcasts on my iPod. In fact, right now as I'm typing this I'm listening to Cyberspeak. I wouldn't be willing to stop what I'm doing for an hour while I finish this podcast. Frankly, it's not all that exciting, so I pick up a little bit here and there while I'm doing something else. I notice when I'm laying in bed late at night and I have no other choices I can sit through an hour long TV show. When I transcode that show to my iPod and I'm trying to watch it sitting at my computer, I tend to want to do other things. I have email to sort through and Google Reader feeds to read. When I have too many choices, I often can't settle on just one or two and I float because no matter what I'm doing, I'm constantly afraid that I could be doing something "better". When I have fewer choices, I am able to sit still and focus better. This goes back to the blockquote earlier from Newsweek about how happiness doesn't necessarily come from having too many choices.

I could probably keep going, but these are only observations. Critical thinking involves never taking anything you read or hear for granted. I'm sure I could turn on CNN or FoxNews and hear commentators say at least 10 times today that TV causes shorter attention spans. Rather than accepting that I'm asking questions, because my own experience doesn't seem to match up to conventional wisdom. What about you, reader? Does TV shorten your attention span? If you believe it does, are you willing to cut down or cut out TV in order to regain an attention span?

Technorati tags: TV, attention spans

 

Labels: Family, Health, Internet, Media, Socio/Political

Darn it Jim III: Why Do I Have To Do Aetna's Job For Them?

The saga of my battle to get Aetna to perform the service that I'm paying them for continues. On Thursday, I realized that the seven to ten business days have long since passed from August 2 when I was told that my claim would be resubmitted. I wanted to find out if the claim would be approved or denied. If denied, I guess I'm stuck paying a bill by the crappy medical system (no, I don't advocate a socialized system, but this corporatized system has got to STOP!)

After giving the customer service representative several minutes to review the notes on my claim (they are getting very extensive) I waited on hold for several more minutes while she tried to track down the status of the claim. Here is what happened this time:

The claims department sent the claim back to the representative that I talked to last time to add some more data. She added the data, AND THEN DID NOT SEND IT BACK TO CLAIMS! It has been sitting in her cue for weeks! The representative that I talked to on Thursday said that she would route it back to claims.

This is getting ridiculous. Here is a large, national billion dollar company and yet a simple claim can't go through unless I have to keep calling and calling and calling to stand over the shoulders of the call center every step of the way.

Have you ever had a customer service issue that didn't seem to go anywhere without your direct and constant intervention?

Technorati tags: Aetna, Health care, medical billing

Labels: Hall of Shame

Darn It Jim Part II- Finally Found The Cause

This is in reference to a post I wrote previously which can be found here. I'm mostly writing this post to vent but maybe I can offer some help or advice along the way. You can read the other post, but to summarize, when my youngest son Caleb was 11 days old, we went to visit the pediatrician for baby's first office visit. For most of the last two years, I have been battling both the pediatrician and Aetna to get that visit paid. After the call that prompted the last blog entry, I thought the charge was resolved. I saw on the Aetna member site that it was paid, at least, I thought I saw that. This afternoon, my wife called to say that we got yet another bill (this makes 6) that states if we don't pay within 15 days they will report it to the credit bureaus. The fastest way to chill an American's blood is to threaten his credit rating. (This is only partly a statement of our greed and materialism; far too many things in American society are tied to credit ratings including car insurance, security clearances, etc.) I decided this time to try a change of pace: rather than call Laurel Pediatrics and yell at them, I would call Aetna first. Before I continue, I will say that the Aetna operator was very diligent and patient and we at least now know what the problem is but cannot guarantee that it will be resolved.

The problem appears to be that an entry dropped from the database along the way. To recap, as of this visit, Caleb was 11 days old. It is impossible to register an 11 day old baby for health insurance because you can't get a Social Security card back in 11 days and you need an SSN to register for health insurance. I know darn good and well that as soon as Caleb got his SSN I registered him with one of the doctors at Laurel Pediatrics as his PCP. In October we changed doctors. Laurel had moved to an office farther from us and became a large practice. My wife didn't care for the coldness of some of the nurse practitioners. We also found that where there are three doctors there are five opinions, and she thought she was being told something different every time she took the kids to the doctor. We found a single-pediatrician practice closer to us so at least we would only hear one story.

What happened is that somehow the database record was backdated showing Caleb's primary care physician (PCP) as the doctor we switched to in October effective from his birthday. I told the operator that can't be right and asked her to check Joshua. Sure enough, Joshua's PCP reflected our current doctor going back to March of 05 when my insurance became effective. That wasn't possible. I asked her to check what bills had been paid for Joshua and we were able to establish that his PCP was Laurel Pediatrics through October. After spending a good half hour on the phone working this issue, I asked her to check any record submitted and paid for Caleb prior to October. What came up were the bills for his hospital stay, including a bill paid to a doctor that I clearly remember from Laurel Pediatrics. Because that bill was paid, she checked the tax ID of the claim paid to him against the tax ID of the claim denied to Laurel Pediatrics, and found a match. The claim was resubmitted to the claims department with the explanation but there is no guarantee that it will be paid, although the chances do improve.

After working this for almost two years, I now know the problem was on Aetna's end the whole time. I would like to publicly apologize to Laurel pediatrics for my accusations of incompetence. We still don't intend to bring our kids back to your office, but it wasn't your fault.

I've spent so much time working this issue that I'm tempted to add a two your stint as a "medical billing consultant" to my resume.

Labels: Hall of Shame

Darn It Jim, I'm A Computer Geek, Not A Medical Billing Specialist

For those who don't recognize the paraphrase, this title reflects the sayings of Dr. McCoy (played by DeForest Kelly) in Star Trek TOS (The Original Series). This is brought on by my latest foray into a medical billing issue that is covered by my plan and yet after almost two years is not resolved. I am adding a new category to my blog, Hall of Shame, for products, services, or people that I write about which belong in a Hall of Shame somewhere.

My youngest son, Caleb, was born in August of 2005, almost exactly 54 weeks after his older brother. About a week after being discharged from the hospital, we took him to "baby's first pediatrician's visit" at Laurel Pediatrics. This office used to have a small branch near our house, but they moved to a much larger office several townships over, about a 15 mile drive from us. We all know that although medicine is based on science, doctors "practice" medicine and sometimes there are no hard answers. I learned very quickly after the birth of my first born that where there are three doctors you'll find five opinions. Although the office by our house was small (in fact, my wife's pediatrician was the father of the doctor who practiced there when we first began using their services), the larger office had many doctors and nurse practitioners, and my wife got tired of hearing something different every time she went in so we selected an office with one doctor, so that at least we won't hear a different story every time we go in.

In any case, that first visit went well enough, but the bill was a problem and as of this afternoon continues to remain a problem. Most hospitals, at least in 2005, don't have wireless Internet access and because daddy (and especially mommy) tend to take off work for the birth of a baby, chances are it will be a few days until the child is added to the insurance policy. A child can't be added until a Social Security number arrives, so often by baby's first doctor's visit, baby isn't officially covered by insurance. It's often customary to bill the insurance under the mother's coverage for the first thirty days, and that is what I instructed this office to do when they asked about insurance. Well, why would the person working behind the desk at a doctor's office listen to a computer geek who is married to a former benefit's specialist who has actually researched this with his current coverage? They sent the bill into Aetna under Caleb's name, although Caleb was barely a week old, did not have a Social Security number yet, and surely wasn't covered. Aetna did what any good insurance company would have done when they receive a bill for somebody who isn't covered: they denied the claim.

Well, if the insurance company denies the claim, then the doctor's office sends a bill, which I got. I was confused and sleep deprived, and immediately assumed it was Aetna's fault. I called them, ready for a fight. I found out that the services were of course covered and they would be happy to pay, and the doctor just needed to submit the claim again. No problem, I called the doctor, passed that along, and put it out of my mind. That is, until I got another bill. I called Aetna again, and sure enough, they hadn't seen a bill yet but will gladly pay it when they do. I called the doctor's billing again, and told them to resubmit.

I got my third bill after that. This time, I called Aetna and had them get on a 3 way conference call with me and the doctor's office and between them, it looked like everything was resolved.

NOT!

I got a fourth bill last June. I was ready to go down to the billing office, stand over their shoulders until they got the claim submitted properly, and bill them for my time. They said they'd resolve it.

Now, a year later, I got my 5th bill. I was livid because now there is a late charge attached to a bill for services that are covered and should have been paid long ago. I called the doctor on Saturday when the bill came. Today I called Aetna. Guess what I found?

The doctor did properly submit the claim on the date of service, but because Caleb had not been added to my policy yet, it's been sitting in the cue for almost two years. This time, I'm told that it will be resubmitted for payment.

Almost two years, 10 or more phone calls, you'd think I should be able to bill both the doctor and Aetna for the time I've had to put into solving this billing problem that both of their ends should be trained and equipped to handle. If I wanted to be a medical billing specialist, I'd call one of those 1-800 numbers that come on late at night. This one is definitely going in the Hall of Shame, not quite because the services or quality on either end was bad, but because I shouldn't have to do these people's jobs for them. I have no doubt that the doctor's at Laurel Pediatrics are dedicated, and I've had Aetna coverage for years and have had few problems (except for our current prescription plan, which is really bad). This billing should have gone easier. You'd think nobody has ever processed a medical bill for a baby who hasn't been added to daddy's policy yet...

Technorati tags: Medical billing, Aetna, Laurel Pediatrics

Labels: Family, Hall of Shame, Health, Misc comments

Imagine Kevin Trudeau With Substance

Earlier this year, I wrote two blog entries and dedicated my only podcast to Kevin Trudeau's book, Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About. A lot of people think the material in Trudeau's book is quackery. I did not really come across anything in his book that I had not heard somewhere else and better documented.

I was incredibly frustrated, however, to find at every turn Trudeau claiming that he can't give specifics so you have to join his website if you want more information. He did give s nice springboard from which to continue your investigation into natural cures and alternative medicine, but in the end I thought it was a big let down. Trudeau does claim that he is building up money to "fight" the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies, but as much good information as he claims to have it is impossible to get your hands on any of it unless you're willing to pay.
Enter Dr. Mercola, author of The Total Health Program. He has an animated video, The Town of Allopath, which is designed to get you thinking about what might be going on. After you've watched the video, check out his website and his free newsletter. It contains a lot of good and useful information. He maintains a lot of good info on his website as well. He also sells products. You can buy products from Trudeau also, but you can't even find out what products he has without paying for a membership.

Labels: Health

A Headache Cure That Is Not For Sissies

I was recently reminded of a cure for headaches that is very effective, but not for everyone. Twice this week, I had a headache so bad that I felt nauseous. On Monday, my headache was so bad that I left work to run to Target for some sinus headache medicine, as acetaminophen was not doing anything for me. On Tuesday, Valentine's Day, a headache pretty much ruined my night, but I still had to get my kids to sleep. After it was too late to save Valentine's Day, I remembered a cure that I found on the web about the time I started getting interested in nutrition and natural cures. Yes, I started a series on Kevin Trudeau's book and I intend to one day finish it. The cure?

 

Cayenne Pepper

That's right, plain old Cayenne Pepper. I can't exactly say why, but it has worked for me every time, even though I often forget about it. I believe that it causes the constricted blood vessels in your head to open up. In any case, it works just fine.  I guess in light of my recent reading of "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About", I should state that I am not a doctor and my advice is not medical and to cover all bases I should add a disclaimer such as "For Entertainment Purposes Only".

Now that you've been disclaimed, how do you take Cayenne Pepper? There are several ways. You could buy the peppers and eat them. That's fine, but it's hard to keep them on hand for those times when you need them. What if you go months in between severe headaches? The peppers won't last. I have come to us the pepper in ground form:

Ground Cayenne Pepper

I sprinkle some in my hand and lick it. Yes, it's not easy to do, and I drink some water or anything else within reach immediately afterward. Like I said, this cure ain't for sissies. Now, you could take an easier way out and sprinkle it on food. That would probably be better. I just don't seem to be eating when I decide to use this on a headache.

I hope this is of help to someone.

Labels: Health

8 Hours Of Sleep?

Perhaps my current sleep deprived state is a good reason to begin this blog entry. I try to make my writing relevant, but sometimes a good, old fashioned rant has it's purpose. Anyone who has been following my blog (seriously, does anyone read this thing?) knows that I have devoted about 3 entries and 2 podcasts to Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About. I notice a theme in his book that I've seen in many others. It is a theme that I have almost always found to be impossible to live by. I could sooner change my diet completely over to grapefruit and soy milk before I could actually live by this often given advice.

Let me recap. I served 6 years in the Navy. I tend to gravitate toward jobs that require my presence before 0700. OK, my current job is very flexible, but I find that getting in at 0630 saves me a lot of trouble in traffic on both ends of my commute. I'm not a morning person, but this works. I have two small children, currently 17 months and 5 months. My 17 month old has been sick lately, which makes for troubled sleep. He can't just take Nyquil like I can, and I can't really take Nyquil anymore because even when sick I need to be able to function to help my wife out if need be. The baby, of course, is not exactly sleeping through the night. No matter how the kids sleep, I'm up at 0500 each workday. Oh, yeah, I'm also in my "spare" time taking classes toward my degree from the University of Phoenix.

And so, with my family and work responsibilities, and my military background, when I read over and over again in books such as Trudeau's that you should get 8 hours of sleep a night, I honestly wonder who in this country has time to get 8 hours of sleep a night? I would like to take a flying leap with my foot (it doesn't matter which one; whichever is extended at the time) into the stomach of someone who can say with a straight face that I should get 8 hours of sleep a night. I have come to the conclusion that most people who are able to get 8 hours of sleep a night

1) Can't be married
2) Definitely don't have children (at least small ones)
and
3) Don't have a job with enough responsibilities.

I can understand retirees and maybe childless couples who don't watch TV and can set their own work schedules being able to sleep 8 hours is one thing, but to tell an early or mid career family man (or woman, gotta take that into account) with children that they should get 8 hours of sleep a night is frankly a denial of reality. Would you like to come watch my children and keep up my house maintenance while I get those 8 hours?

Labels: Misc comments

Natural Cures Update

I've been reading more of "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About". As I said in my earlier post, I have yet to come across anything that I haven't heard yet, although Kevin Trudeau does seem to not feel a need to document some of his claims. He claims to have been present in board rooms while CEOs were loving money more than the welfare of customers, but he has not laid out qualifications to make me believe he would be in those board rooms in the first place. I'm not saying he hasn't, just that I don't think his background has required him to back up claims with documentation. When he begins talking about cures, he will give a little bit of information and suggest his website, which requires a paid membership, or another website that more often than not is little more than an advertisement for a book or product. However, thanks to the miracle of a web search engine, it's easy to find free and useful information to learn some more about what Kevin Trudeau claims.

If you're at the point in health where you're wondering why prescription drugs just aren't helping you, this book is a great place to start. Everything is laid out in a simple and easy to understand manner with plenty of repetition to allow it to sink in. You can start here and work your way to more comprehensive and informative sources of information.

I'll report again as I read some more.

Labels: Health

Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About- First Impresssions

I have seen Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About on infomercials for quite a while. The book raised my interest at first, as I have done some reading into natural cures and some of the "conspiracies" surrounding the health care and food industries. I Tim 6:10 says "For the love of money is the root of all evil:..." Many decisions made are not always made with anything other than money at heart. It's unfortunate, but true.

I had wanted the book, although when it hit the shelves in mainstream retailers it kind of lost it's value to me, since the FTC had not completely buried it as the author seemed to allude to on the infomercials. I opened it this past Sunday and began to read it. I am currently on page 79 in Chapter 5, "Why are we sick?" So far, I have not come across anything that I did not already know. However, a lot of the book to this point is repetition. The author, Kevin Trudeau, mentions corruption and love of money among the FDA (why is it the Food AND Drug Administration?), the FTC, and the drug companies. He will repeatedly mention that the love of money is the root of all evil and repeat "so now can you see why I'm mad and I'm not going to take it anymore?" That last statement is not an exact quote but a composite.

The thing that bugs me the most about this book up to this point is the lack of references. I do a lot of reading about the New World Order, global conspiracies, and other wonderfully dark plots to try to take over the world, and I'll be the first to tell you, when you're dealing with allegations like this, references are your life's blood. Even with documented evidence, nobody will believe you anyway, because "it just can't be true. There's no way our government doesn't have our best interests at heart." "We're from the guvment, and we only wanna hep you." So far the two best documented comments made refer to "early this year on Fox News" and "in the New York Times in January". Try running those down to verify them. I remember as a 19 year old sailor falling for a very well known yet shall remain unnamed network marketing program because "The Wall Street Journal said this business is the wave of the future". Aw, to be naive and too unsophisticated to ask which edition ran that article again.

I always avoid trying to pass off information like this if it can't be corroborated, no matter how much I believe it. Fortunately, as I said, Kevin Trudeau has not yet mentioned anything I have not heard before.

I will report back as my reading progresses.

Labels: Health

Eat Yourself Thin

Statistics vary, but you may have noticed by looking around that many Americans are overweight; even obese. You may even be one of us. You may find yourself getting heavier and heavier each year and you may have even given up on trying to do anything about it. Maybe you've told yourself that it's your lot in life. You may have rationalized that it's your DNA, your family history, your lifestyle, or anything else.

Once the waist size starts creeping up, there does not seem to be much that you can do about it. And yet, something needs to be done. We're putting more stress on our hearts, lungs, circulatory systems, knees, backs, and pretty much everything else when we're obese. It's not good. We're also shortening our lifespans.

So what can we do about it? Maybe you've tried every diet out there, but you can't find one that has the staying power.

I have spent the better part of my life fighting this battle myself. I've been there, and done that. I've learned practically everything I should need to know to win this battle, and yet I can't seem to.

Before I go any farther, I will add the disclaimer that I'm not a doctor and nothing I say should be taken as medical advice. However, though our society certainly needs doctors, I don't believe that all medical knowledge belongs in the hands of white smocked "priests", who like in pagan religions must make intercession with health for us. We must bear a responsibility for our own health. That means that we must do our own homework. It won't be easy either. You can't exactly trust the mainstream or entertainment media. They're often poorly informed and have their own agenda anyway. We've been fed the benefits of the low fat diet for decades, and yet there is evidence now that it was based on bad science. However, though there is a lot of good information regarding alternative medicine, there is also a lot of quackery. It's up to YOU to sort it out. Nobody can do it for you. But we as consumers can start educating ourselves and demanding truth in reporting and beneficial products.

Doctors have to spend a long time in school. And yet, often they really only know what they're told by their instructors and medical journals. Many doctors know little about nutrition or about supplements. I had a doctor tell me that there's no credible evidence that Vitamin C has any effect on coughs. Actually, there are plenty of case studies, but nobody has paid for the "double blind" study without which the orthodox medical community won't take anything seriously.

Our bodies are equipped with the ability to repair and heal themselves. Often, phamecuetical intervention can actually cause more harm than good. It is sometimes needed; I'm not disparaging that. However, though our bodies are equipped to heal and maintain themselves, unless we provide the materials and environment, we're fighting an uphill battle. To borrow terminology from my time in the Navy, if the repair locker isn't stocked you can't repair the breech in the hull.

As I write, I'm at 240 pounds on a medium build male's 5'9" frame. My ideal weight is calculated at around 165. I'm really pushing the limits here. I admit, I do bear a lot of responsibility. I sit at a desk all day. I don't exercise. I eat way too many carbs and sugars. I would rather have a bowl of pasta than a chicken breast and vegetables. But I also realize that way is counter productive.

I've spent time doing research. As I've always battled weight, I've been throught quite a few programs. In the Navy, I was constantly bouncing off the top of the weight standards. I would weigh in out of standards, be placed on mandatory PT (Physical Training), get my weight back down, then end up right back as, what we used to call, a "Mando Commando".

So far, I've had my best success on the Atkins Diet, which is now referred to as the "Atkins Nutritional Approach". I have a lot of admiration for Dr. Atkins. He went against the mainstream for decades, constantly scoffed at and charged with all kinds of medical heresies, yet he kept getting results with his patients and so charged ahead knowing he was right. I have several of his books, and I have grown quite an admiration for the man. His death was a great loss to us all.

The problem I've had with Atkins is that, soon after starting, I will cave in to sweets or pizza or a Chinese buffet and not get back on again.

But, recently I'm starting to face my own mortality. I've had high cholesterol for years. It's not even worth getting checked again. I know it's high, and my weight has climbed since then. The last few months I've been getting frequent headaches. I couldn't figure out why, until a friend mentioned that my blood pressure could be too high. Oh, boy, now it's time to do something. I also noticed that I don't have much energy and I've been walking especially sluggish lately.

And so, once again, I have embarked on the Atkins journey. I have not yet started a formal "Induction", but I've been sticking to low carb foods such as meats and salads. We've had a couple of low carb wraps this week. My wife doesn't care for low carb pasta, but I don't mind it. After only three days, my headaches have stopped and I have a marginal amount of energy.

I will continue to report on my progress for those interested. In the meantime, do your homework. If you've battled obesity, don't despair. It is possible to do it without starving yourself, hence the title of this blog entry, "Eat Yourself Thin". You have to eat, you just have to learn how to eat right. I'll add more thoughts in the days to come.

Labels: Health

Maintaining a Healthy Brain- Dr. Sears

Maintaining a Healthy Brain: " "

I have an interest in health, and from time to time I'll do research. Today I came across this article about fish oil and brain health. It was very interesting. I have been taking Omega-3 supplements for a few years now, and this reinforces what I've learned so far.

I don't know much about Dr. Sears' diet (I'm an Atkins guy myself) but this article is sound.

As a side note, some people have trouble with the after taste fish oil produces. You can take Flax Seed Oil instead, as it contains the same nutrients without the fish oil burp aftertaste.

Labels: Health