There is a lot of talk about how to fix the broken medical systems we have in this country. I would like to offer a few thoughts for obvious ways (but not talked about) to increase health and well being in this country. They include but are not limited to the following:
1. Mothers should practise exclusive and long term breastfeeding for their infants. Evidence shows that this practise gets infants off to their best start in life: physically, emotionally, cognitively, health-wise and for optimum growth. There are benefits for Moms as well. To know more read the Art of Breastfeeding.
2. Sex ought to be confined to loving, marital relations between a man and a woman. Promiscuity - a lost word - is proven to cause cervical cancer, STD's, emotional damage, divorce, and more. God's reason for inscribing the Sixth Commandment & the notion of marriage as permanent, loving, monagomous, and faithful.
3. Marilyn Shannon writes in her book Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition that the 80/20 rule will keep most of us very healthy- this means 80% of the emphasis on health needs to address eating right, getting exercise, and getting adequate sleep; it is essential to maintain a healthy BMI through eating properly and getting exercise.
4. Smoking and unhealthy alcohol consumption is bad for one's health. Just say No is important here as well. Illegal drug use is obviously a detriment to one's personal and public health. What happened to the war on drugs?
5. NFP is the ticket to maintaining health. Wonder what NFP is? Check out http://www.ccli.org/ for more information.
6. Forget about delaying pregnancy until the late 30's and early 40's. There are many complications, harms to health, and heavy medical costs associated with any combination of the following: delayed marriage, delayed pregnancy, birth control use, promiscuity, and artifical conception techniques such as invitro fertilizations, sperm donation. Wonder how much each invitro fertilization costs insurance companies? Zillions! Consider this piece of information found on the internet: "As the average IVF cycle charges are between $10,000 and $15,000, analysts have reported costs of about $35,000 per delivery in younger women, while medical costs per delivery are over $132,000 for women over 40. " The medical costs for the eight "octo" babies are many more times the costs of 8 healthy, term babies conceived naturally!
Some natural things to consider!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Town Hall Meetings
We attended last night's town hall meeting with Congresswoman Betty McCollum at Macalester College for two reasons. We wanted to see what the meetings were all about and we also wanted the chance to express our opinions on the "state of the union". The first purpose was satisfied but the second was definitely not - our ticket number was never called out in the random selection process.
Curious to me was the fact that there was more rancor displayed while standing in line than displayed inside as various opinions were expressed. We were surprised by the fact that more people expressed either outright concern, caution, or reprimands in a heavily Democratic-leaning congressional district. All comments - regardless of position - were interesting and thoughtful and their stated opinions were well worth listening to! We are glad we attended.
We felt there were several noteworthy observations:
1. It was obvious that organized efforts came from the Democratic party - they had their perfectly coifed signs saying Thank you and We need Health Care Reform Now. Didn't see any "right wing" organized efforts as so often reported in the various media.
2. Our sign suggesting that the unborn, the elderly needed protections, and term limits for all politicians raised a number of "snotty" & off-based comments from people. One elderly man said he isn't worried about anything - a woman suggested the plump man beside me (who was obviously supporting our sign) "lo0ked like he needed an abortion!" It definitely brought out the worst in people - including myself. I left with less than a positive opinion about many fellow Americans! Mea Culpa.
3. Betty stated her opinion on the medical care bills but failed to explain what Obamacare covers. She stated "no one was trying to ram something through Congress; in fact there wasn't even a bill to consider yet". What was the 1000 page deal then? She also stated we don't need language regarding citizen benefit only because that's the way it is. She also stated that abortions would not be covered because it is like Medicare coverage right now. I am willing to bet that most politicians want to avoid the abortion debate & the citizen issue - they are satisfied in leaving it "temporarily understated" only to be tackled and pushed through another day. I hope my readers know that this is very similiar to the creation of school based clinics - they were never created to deal with sex issues according to the infamous Jocelyn Elders at a Senate hearing I attended years ago! Surprise, surprise - today they hand out contraceptives, do sex counseling, and more without parental notification - it is legal in the state of MN for minors to provide their own consent in areas of drug, alcohol, and sex matters!
When I questioned one woman about the details of the bill, her reply was that's the way of the legislature- details come later! Woe to us if that's the truth! Who of us would write a contract with the details later after securing the $ and the signatures!
Betty suggested that insurance companies were crooks - she didn't read the paper which stated that they are lobbying blue-dog Democrats hard, giving them money more than any other group for their war chests and the blue-dogs are accepting this money from these so-called crooks. Doesn't that make them a "crook" also? Is this calling the kettle black?
There were many more contradictory statements which leaves me wondering why? I left knowing nothing more!I still don't know what the heck this debate is really all about - is it economics, health care, insurance companies, medical care? Facts are few, emotions run high. Sales people know that they need a straight, clear message when selling a product - it's called the elevator talk. Politicians need this as well. One man summarized it well last night: while Corporations make money they can't take your home, your property, your money, only the Government can do that! Let's make sure the government takes from us what we want them to and doesn't take what we don't want them to!
On a brighter note- go see Julie and Julia; it's a great movie!
Curious to me was the fact that there was more rancor displayed while standing in line than displayed inside as various opinions were expressed. We were surprised by the fact that more people expressed either outright concern, caution, or reprimands in a heavily Democratic-leaning congressional district. All comments - regardless of position - were interesting and thoughtful and their stated opinions were well worth listening to! We are glad we attended.
We felt there were several noteworthy observations:
1. It was obvious that organized efforts came from the Democratic party - they had their perfectly coifed signs saying Thank you and We need Health Care Reform Now. Didn't see any "right wing" organized efforts as so often reported in the various media.
2. Our sign suggesting that the unborn, the elderly needed protections, and term limits for all politicians raised a number of "snotty" & off-based comments from people. One elderly man said he isn't worried about anything - a woman suggested the plump man beside me (who was obviously supporting our sign) "lo0ked like he needed an abortion!" It definitely brought out the worst in people - including myself. I left with less than a positive opinion about many fellow Americans! Mea Culpa.
3. Betty stated her opinion on the medical care bills but failed to explain what Obamacare covers. She stated "no one was trying to ram something through Congress; in fact there wasn't even a bill to consider yet". What was the 1000 page deal then? She also stated we don't need language regarding citizen benefit only because that's the way it is. She also stated that abortions would not be covered because it is like Medicare coverage right now. I am willing to bet that most politicians want to avoid the abortion debate & the citizen issue - they are satisfied in leaving it "temporarily understated" only to be tackled and pushed through another day. I hope my readers know that this is very similiar to the creation of school based clinics - they were never created to deal with sex issues according to the infamous Jocelyn Elders at a Senate hearing I attended years ago! Surprise, surprise - today they hand out contraceptives, do sex counseling, and more without parental notification - it is legal in the state of MN for minors to provide their own consent in areas of drug, alcohol, and sex matters!
When I questioned one woman about the details of the bill, her reply was that's the way of the legislature- details come later! Woe to us if that's the truth! Who of us would write a contract with the details later after securing the $ and the signatures!
Betty suggested that insurance companies were crooks - she didn't read the paper which stated that they are lobbying blue-dog Democrats hard, giving them money more than any other group for their war chests and the blue-dogs are accepting this money from these so-called crooks. Doesn't that make them a "crook" also? Is this calling the kettle black?
There were many more contradictory statements which leaves me wondering why? I left knowing nothing more!I still don't know what the heck this debate is really all about - is it economics, health care, insurance companies, medical care? Facts are few, emotions run high. Sales people know that they need a straight, clear message when selling a product - it's called the elevator talk. Politicians need this as well. One man summarized it well last night: while Corporations make money they can't take your home, your property, your money, only the Government can do that! Let's make sure the government takes from us what we want them to and doesn't take what we don't want them to!
On a brighter note- go see Julie and Julia; it's a great movie!
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