healthcare Blog and Journals

It's time to blow this thing up. The widespread use of high fructose corn syrup is a huge problem in the United States, and most folks don't even know about it -- nor do they realize how much of it they consume.

You will be amazed to discover what foods contain this stuff: soft drinks, fast food, processed food, snacks, certain brands of bread (including bagels, muffins, etc.), sauces, etc. This is one of THE driving forces behind rampant overweightness and obesity in the U.S., as well as the ill-health of many many people.

If you want to curb your intake of this stuff, check the ingredient list of the products you buy.


For your reading and research pleasure:

1 - The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup (http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html)

2 - Sugar-coated: We're Drowning in High Fructose Corn Syrup (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL)

3 - Wikipedia: High Fructose Corn Syrup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup)

4 - Fast Facts About High Fructose Corn Syrup (http://www.hfcsfacts.com)

5 - Six Reason Why Corn is Making You Fat (http://www.mercola.com/2004/apr/10/corn_fat.htm)

6 -  High Fructose Corn Syrup: Why Is It So Bad For Me? (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588)

I just watched Sicko. This country--the United States--is so corrupt. D'you know, in France and England, and even in Cuba (which is a communist country, so I don't think it counts), the people receive completely, 100% free health-care? If you're sick, walk into any hospital and you'll get all of the care and medication you need for no cost at all. Doctors in France even make free house calls, which I know is true because when we were visiting my aunt in Paris, she came down with vertigo and a house-call doctor came over and took a look at her. Also in France, workers get unlimited sick days. "When you're sick, you're sick." And if you're injured at work, the employer has to pay for all of the medical expenses related to the injury. In England, there's even a cashier's booth, not for you to pay your medical bill, but so that they can give you money for transportation back to your house.

That movie's really put the U.S. in a bad light for me. WTF is wrong with this country? It's a greedy, corrupt, arrogant country, I'm telling you... at least its government is. A government that cares only about profit and doesn't give a crap about what happens to the people, as long as all the citizens' pocket money ends up in their hands one way or the other. Haha, yeah. We're moving to France in a few years. XD

I'm not making this up. I swear!

We've all seen President Bush reject SCHIP legislation because it's too costly, and then immediately ask Congress for billions of dollars to fund the war in Iraq. There were many facepalms and headdesks that day. (Were you one of them? Maybe I should start a support group for all of us who have suffered immense physical pain due to the Bush administration's constant stupidity and absurdity.)

So imagine my surprise reading this teaser bit on Yahoo:

• President Bush ratcheted up his confrontation with Democratic leaders Wednesday, laying out what he said is a stark ideological divide between a fiscally prudent, free market-loving GOP president and a Congress that aims to raise taxes and nationalize health care.

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YOU ARE NOT FISCALLY PRUDENT AT ALL, YOU STUPID IDIOT. HOW IS SPENDING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON A MISGUIDED, FALSIFIED WAR FISCALLY PRUDENT?

I simply don't understand this anymore. Never in my lifetime has corruption and moronic logic been so blatant to me.

Read through the rest of the article. Bush is now taking shots at the Democratic Party; while I'm not their biggest fan at all, you've got to atleast appreciate that they've done something since holding the majority in both houses.

But bah. This is sickening.

A big thank you both to Wonkette, the most hilarious political blog on the planet, and to Shakes for pointing me there before I got to my RSS feed of it.

1. Bush declares Oct. 1 Child Health Day: "Our Nation is committed to the health and well-being of our youth. … My Administration supports programs that give parents, mentors, and teachers the resources they need to help and encourage children to maintain an active and healthy way of life."

2. Bush vetoes children's health care bill Oct. 2: "President Bush on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have extended the coverage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), objecting to the additional funding that the expansion would require. … The measure would have extended SCHIP, which was created to provide health insurance to poor children, and allowed children currently not eligible to be covered as well."



EDIT: FamilyUSA released a new ad condemning Bush's veto.

From here.

Bush: Kids' health care will get vetoed

WASHINGTON - President Bush again called Democrats "irresponsible" on Saturday for pushing an expansion he opposes to a children's health insurance program.

In the Democrat's response, also broadcast Saturday, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell turned the tables on the president, saying that if Bush doesn't sign the bill, 15 states will have no funding left for the program by the end of the month.

At issue is the Children's Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program that subsidizes health coverage for low-income people, mostly children, in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private coverage. It expires Sept. 30.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced a proposal Friday that would add $35 billion over five years to the program, adding 4 million people to the 6.6 million already participating. It would be financed by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.

The idea is overwhelmingly supported by Congress' majority Democrats, who scheduled it for a vote Tuesday in the House. It has substantial Republican support as well.

But Bush has promised a veto, saying the measure is too costly, unacceptably raises taxes, extends government-covered insurance to children in families who can afford private coverage, and smacks of a move toward completely federalized health care. He has asked Congress to pass a simple extension of the current program while debate continues, saying it's children who will suffer if they do not.

"Our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage — not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage," Bush said.

The bill's backers have vigorously rejected Bush's claim it would steer public money to families that can readily afford health insurance, saying their goal is to cover more of the millions of uninsured children. The bill would provide financial incentives for states to cover their lowest-income children first, they said.

Many governors want the flexibility to expand eligibility for the program. So the proposal would overturn recent guidelines from the administration making it difficult for states to steer CHIP funds to families with incomes exceeding 250 percent of the official poverty level.

Rendell said thousands of children will lose health care coverage if Bush doesn't sign the bill.

"The administration has tried to turn this into a partisan issue and has threatened to veto. The health of our children is far too important for partisan politics as usual," he said. "If the administration is serious about solving our health care crisis, it should be expanding, not cutting back, this program which has made private health insurance affordable for millions of children."

 

You've got to be kidding me!  I grew up working class, thankfully I did have health insurance (although it wasn't that great) through my Dad's job.  But the fact that he actually had the balls to say "the measure is too costly, unacceptably raises taxes, extends government-covered insurance to children in families who can afford private coverage, and smacks of a move toward completely federalized health care. " after we've spent $453,721,664,041 (as of 12:15 p.m. EST) on the war in Iraq.  Someone needs to figure out how to get Haliburton in on this insurance thing but then again they might fuck it up even more.

What the hell is this world coming to?! I'll try not to yell through this whole journal post at how fucking stupid everyone seems to be.

I'll start with an update on the school shooting. Guess what? The shooter had a history of mental illness! Yup possible schizophrenia. You think the school knew? Probably not and if they did, they probably wouldn't check to see if he was safe. Now I'm not saying that just because someone has a mental condition they should be denied the right to go to a public school, I'm just saying that they should check to see if they are in danger of hurting themselves or others.

Now the shooter has admited to killing the boy but is pleading not guilty. He is being held on $1 million bail.

"Penny Hobson of Pierce County Jail's mental health staff interviewed Chanthabouly after his arrest and wrote that he was confused at times, somewhat depressed and having hallucinations.

He "appears to have difficulty with concentration" and said he has trouble remembering things since he began suffering psychotic symptoms about two years ago, she wrote. She said he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital two years ago after attempting suicide.

Chanthabouly told her that medication helped but did not eliminate his symptoms, she wrote. "Based on his history, there may (be) competency concerns."

Hobson noted that Chanthabouly's judgment was within normal limits and "currently appears adequate." He also had a good understanding of his current circumstances, she said."

Oh yeah his judgement is within normal limits! The guy is having hallucinations! He is seeing things! Yes that sounds like a guy with a just judgement!Yeah having a good understanding of his current circumstances yet he gets confused and has trouble remembering things.

"Chanthabouly was put into a "crisis cell" his first night in jail so he could be closely monitored, Troyer said.

Attorney Ed Murphy, said Chanthabouly "did not know Mr. Kok, but knew of him." Witnesses told police that Chanthabouly pointed a handgun at Kok, said "What's up?" and fired a shot into his face, Murphy wrote. Police believe the shot was fired from no more than a foot away.

The shooter stood over the body and fired twice more, hitting him in the lower left side and left buttock, the statement said."

So he was bad enough so the jail but him in a "crisis cell"...wow people. And this attorney says that the shooter didn't know the guy, yet he greeted him and then shoot him in the face. Some how I'm not convinced that he didn't know the victim.

My friend told me that on thursday, when school ended, he was leaving his last class and saw the victims bother and son looking at where it had happened. My friend didn't want to do anything to disrupt them so he just stood there and waited them to finish. While he waited he heard the little boy ask, "Where's daddy?" This kid is going to have to live without a dad for the rest of his life just because another chose to take another person's life.

People don't realize that what they do isn't going to just effect them. It's like throwing a rock into a pond, your actions are the rock and that will ripple to the people around you. I truely don't see how we have lived this long.

Well above you might recall me saying, "I'll start with..." So here's the second part. Our healthcare system sucks ass...like major. My dad's girlfriend has four ribroid tumors and a few other complications all in her Uterus. Now she's had many doctors tell her she needs a vasectomy. Theses are the emergcy room doctors and such because over the last couple days we've had ambulences at our house and such and all these people say she needs to get a vasectomy. But her doctor is like there is a new thing out called an EUD which ejects hormones out and is suppose to help the pain and make the tumors srink plus the million and one pills they have her on.

Well they gave her this EUD about a month ago and its not working because she is lossing blood like crazy (liver sized clots are coming out) and still has the pain. Well here comes the part about humanity being stupid.

They can tell she needs a vasectomy but they don't want to admit that the EUD isn't working so they say they want to give it 6 months to see if it's working. SIX MONTHS! She is losing blood like crazy and is in immense pain. She had to get a blood transfusion on thursday! And she has an extremly low blood count. She told them she wanted the vasectomy and just to get it over with. The doctor kept making exuses and then my dad got fed up and told the doctor, "She needs a vasectomy. She can't work and she's losing too much blood because the tumors are rubbing against the wall of her Uterus. If you wait, the brain, even when the tumors gone, is going to tell her there is still pain. You need to give her a vasectomy now!"

The doctor was blank and told her to come back on Monday. Hopefully they will get their heads out of their asses and give her the treatment she needs. Now I have a horrifing story to tell you.

She had to stay a couple nights at the hospital and during her stay she had to change rooms and they also moved her to bed 2 to bed 1. Another lady was moved to her spot on bed 2. She was scheduled for an ultrasound whereas the other lady was scheduled for a catscan but some how it was switched and my dad's girlfriend was head to get a catscan and the other lady, to get an ultrasound...if they got that mixed up, what else did they get mixed up? Medication? And what else is that she is addicted to pills and when my dad was there the nurse went to get Kathie, my dad's girlfriend something to ease the pain because it had been 5 hours since the last one. She came back with an oxycotton! The nurse hadn't even read Kathie's chart to see she was addicted to pain killers and then she comes back with one of the most addictive medication pills. After being yelled at by my dad she didn't make the mistake again and gave her something not so addictive.

I really can't believe the lack of responibility that our society has. These people have control of people's lives and they aren't even looking at people's charts before giving them medication. What if they have given her something she was allergic to? Or something that could have killed her?

Well there you go, another thing to add to the list stupidity in our society.

                                       ~SingToMeTheirElegy