Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?

Another brilliant video from John Green . . .



Green discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other country in the world. Who's at fault? Insurance companies? Drug companies? Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple blame game?

Good stuff! Thought-provoking.

Do You Eat Silly Putty?

Amazing--and scary--what we put in our bodies. Here's a nice, quick introduction to the topic:



I didn't know that!

Perhaps, once we know, we won't completely stop insulting our bodies with these kinds of ingredients. But maybe we will slow down with our ingestion of such things. And maybe we can tell the suppliers exactly why we are reducing our consumption of their products.

But it's not just fast food at our favorite burger joints that cause problems. Look what Vani ("Foodbabe") finds in a typical kitchen pantry (you can get to the point somewhat faster by starting at 0:43):

Protect your body from your Laptop!

I've become increasingly concerned about EMR (ElectroMagnetic Radiation).

If high use of cell phones can cause cancer (see here and here, as well as the cautious (i.e., "not definitively proven, but may be the case") Mayo Clinic report), . . . and, ignoring the potential cancer connection, let's look at fertility issues related to laptops: is there something that those of us who use laptops or tablets on a consistent basis can do?

Here's a proposed "solution":

If you're interested, the best prices seem to be available directly from HARApad.

Getting Dental Work Done

Sarita and I went to a specialized dentist, Dr. C, last week. We went primarily in order to have our “silver” (i.e., 50%+ mercury) amalgam fillings taken out in a safe manner. And, related to the matter of having the "silver" out, we went to Dr. C because she is well aware of the dangers and takes appropriate precautions. (So, for example, besides placing special dams and cloth coverings for our basic protection from solid amalgam chips and dust that might [or absolutely will] fly from a drill site, Dr. C also hooked us up to oxygen and, I am told, hooks herself up to oxygen and runs some kind of special vacuum system (attached to her drills?; I was asleep, so didn't ask too many questions!) to suck up as much mercury vapor as possible as she is working with the stuff she removes from her patients’ mouths. . . .

But why would we want the "silver" out of our mouths?

Primarily because we want our bodies--and particularly mine, with its autoimmune problems--to have every advantage possible in fighting disease on their own.

But, says the ADA (American Dental Association), mercury amalgams have "been proven safe, affordable and durable" for over 180 years.

I beg to differ. And here are my reasons why. First, a story from while we were with Dr. C:

As we were eating lunch together with our dentist and her staff on Monday, we also sat with another dentist, Dr. B, a 20-year professional acquaintance of the doctor for whose services we had come. Just two weeks before, Dr. B had decided he wanted to join Dr. C in her practice. Dr. B has none of the background in nor long-term concern about the toxicological issues related to dentistry that Dr. C has.

One of the subjects that came up during our discussion: Why is dentistry one of the most suicide-professions in the world? (Actually, I have been told, and Dr. C assured us it is true, that dentistry is the most suicide-prone profession. But whether it is absolutely #1 or not, one must still wonder.) Why wouldn't we see more psychiatrists, for example, or emergency room doctors--professionals dealing with far more extreme and upsetting and high-pressure circumstances: Why wouldn't we see them committing suicide more often than dentists?

Dr. C’s suggested answer: Because of mercury.

She said, “I have never been in the presence of so many depressed people as when I have gone to ADA meetings.”

She also commented on the frequency with which she has dealt with dentists who are showing Parkinson’s Disease-like symptoms: major shakes/tremors . . . and they aren't “even” that old.

Why is that?

She suggested all of these results are related to the dentists’ continual exposure to mercury.

Of course, I have merely told you an anecdote about anecdotal/circumstantial evidence. For more scientifically-based reasons for concern and descriptions of specific risks of mercury related to dental amalgams, see this paper (PDF) by the IAOMT (International Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology), a dental industry group committed to seeing the repudiation of mercury amalgams in dentistry.)

Since our previous dentists really haven't cared one way or another about mercury, besides having our obvious amalgam fillings removed, we also went to have our crowns checked: did the previous dentists, by any chance, actually leave mercury amalgam under the crowns? (As it turned out, one of Sarita’s crowns was actually placed on top of an amalgam filling . . . and there was significant decay surrounding and under the filling under the crown . . . all of which decay and filling was completely undetectable to any x-ray because the porcelain crown was on a metal substrate!)

For me, we also went to have a root-canaled (and amalgam-filled-through-a-gold-crowned) tooth removed ("extracted"). I was (and am) planning to have an implant put in the now-missing tooth’s place.

Why have a root-canaled tooth removed? Quick answer: because, as Robert Kulacz, DDS, and Thomas E Levy, MD, JD, note in The Roots of Disease: Connecting Dentistry & Medicine: there are millions of dentin tubules inside every tooth (three miles of such tubules inside the smallest tooth), into which toxins from the nerve-canal space can go and hide. This has been shown by the electron-microscope. One of the common effects of root canals is to cut these tubules off from the cleansing action of the tooth nerve and tooth lymph systems. As a result, the tubules become little fermentation chambers that expel toxic material into the body through microscopic channels in the tooth or between the inner layer of the tooth and the inner gutta percha root canal material . . . which can then cause enormous problems in other parts of the body. Indeed, they suggest, this kind of infectious/toxic material is at the root of many cardiac problems and, even, deaths.

Of course, infections and toxic material seepage is not an absolute foregone conclusion as a result of root canals. But it is exceptionally common.

By the way: In case you are possibly facing a root canal, or are being urged to get a root canal, there are alternatives. See, for example, this page. Or look up root canal alternative on Google.

Virtually no “regular” dentists--and, certainly, no endodontists (who specialize in root canals)--will mention the idea that you could possibly heal your tooth. But, I am told, it is possible.

If you can't heal the tooth, some dentists--like Drs. Kulacz and Levy, or Dr. John Augspurger (whose brief article about healing a tooth I just referenced)--will urge you “simply” to get the tooth removed, as I had done. Better an extraction than all the complications and problems associated with infected, toxin-producing root-canaled teeth.

HOWEVER,

I urge you to look at Dr. Michael C. Goldman’s bracing article about Root Canal Treatment Choices. Interestingly, though definitely very aware of and concerned about the issues Kulacz, Levy and Augspurger (among many others) raise, Goldman suggests specific means by which dentists can do effective root canals. And he suggests reasons why one might want to go ahead with a root canal and how to avoid the (potential) problems the others talk about. I think this article has some very valuable things to say and includes comments about possible treatment modes you may want to discuss with your dentist or endodontist! Are they really proposing the best treatment protocols?

Prior to going to her office--actually, quite a while ago, September 19th, to be exact--Dr. C had Sarita and me have blood samples taken and sent to Clifford Consulting & Research of Colorado Springs. Clifford, then, did some assays on our blood by which they were able to test our bodies’ reactivity to well over 12,000 brand-name dental products and supplies—from cements, adhesives and bonding materials, to liners, sealants, etchant materials, pastes, varnishes, desensitizing agents, varnishes, porcelains, ceramics. . . .

You'd think, “What’s the big deal?” Well . . .

• Though we didn't know what they were made of, specifically, once they were removed, all of my crowns--both the “gold” crowns (I put the word in quotes because gold is only one of the materials in a gold crown, of course; gold is too soft to create a tooth replacement that has to withstand 200# or more of pressure) as well as the “porcelain” or “ceramic” crowns (lined with metal)--. . . all of my crowns were made of materials that were obviously (by visual inspection) highly reactive to my body. (How could we tell? The metal linings had turned black with some kind of--I'll call it--“growth.” You might compare it to oxidation (rust). But it looked more like a very thin, but completely black, film like the sludge that grows up on the inside of the downpipe of a bathroom sink--if you've ever cleaned out a plugged-up bathroom sink downpipe.)
  
  Sarita’s crowns and teeth were much the same.

Beyond that,

• The teeth themselves--both mine and Sarita’s--had begun to rot away beneath the crowns. . . .

In fact, as it turns out,

• According to Clifford, my body can hardly stand any of the standard dental metal materials. . . . (Dr. C gave both Sarita and me copies of our Clifford reports. Pretty amazing results.)
   
• As a result of the Clifford testing, we (Dr. C and we) knew what materials we could--and, more importantly, couldn't--use in the reconstruction process. I can tell you: there will be no ceramic- or porcelain-covered metal crowns in my mouth! Nor for Sarita.

Guess what? My root-canaled tooth was removed and there was massive infection in the underlying bone . . . all of which rotten bone Dr. C had to remove.

Oh. And since the roots of the tooth actually went up right next to or into my sinus, I now have a hole from my mouth, through the socket area, up into my sinus cavity.

Dr. C had planned for that (not only for a possible hole up into the sinus, but, "simply," for the hole that would be left by the extraction, by harvesting three growth factors from my own blood (she had a phlebotomist on her staff take my blood before doing the extraction, then spun the blood to separate the growth factors) and combining those growth factors with bone granules to aid healing in the extraction site.

. . . --Some of my experiences with the dental world in the last couple of weeks!

I have a couple of weeks of healing, yet, then Sarita and I return for permanent crowns to replace the crowns we had removed. I, then, am scheduled to return sometime in January to have an implant post placed into my jaw at the extraction site and, then, finally, three months from then, have the implant crown itself placed on the abutment.

I'll probably report on that in due time.

GM crops: Once you've bitten the apple, can you spit it out again? Or are you hooked?

Michael Hart, a conventional livestock family farmer, has been farming in Cornwall, England, for nearly 30 years.

In this short documentary, he investigates the impact on farmers [forget the health risks for consumers!] of farming genetically modified crops in the United States. We've had 10 years, now, farm users have been able to see what is happening. What do the U.S. farmers have to say? Should Europe permit GM crops in Europe?

Slightly less than 24 minutes:

Cannabis as a broad-spectrum, multi-function anti-inflammatory

The information in the following video, presented in calm, clinical precision, "makes sense" and is also maddening. Because a plant can be used foolishly, therefore our government (and, apparently, many (?? most?? all??) national governments worldwide) has banned the use of cannabis pretty much across-the-board.

Except . . . Wait a second!

Donald I Abrams, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco (0:47): "If cannabis were discovered in an Amazon rain forest today, people would be clamoring to make as much use as they could of all of the potential benefits of the plant."

Says Dr. William L. Courtney, MD, a dietary raw cannabis specialist (1:20): "Cannabis is a vegetable. It's not psychoactive until humans alter it chemically." (1:43) "It's a dietary essential that helps all 210 cell types function more effectively. And so I don't even refer to it as medicine anymore. It's strictly as a dietary essential. . . . In its best form, it's a preventative. Preventing diabetes is a lot better than treating it. Preventing cancer is a lot better than trying to treat it."

Back to Abrams (2:16): "I think cannabis is a medicine. It is anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and probably has some direct activity against cancer cells."

The United States Department of Health and Human Services, itself, has acquired a patent on "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants." (See the document at visible/readable size at 2:23.)

Dr. Courtney comments (11:26): "Clearly, we can't have a patent on its utility and say it has no utility. . . . [Such a claim is] patently absurd." --And yet that is exactly what our government wants to claim so as to paint any promoters of cannabis as "beyond the pale."

I don't want to quote the entire video. Dr. Courtney makes a tremendous case of appropriate use of the plant (2:42): "The majority of my patients don't want to get high at 8 o'clock in the morning and be high all day long. But a lot of them do have arthritis, car accidents, autoimmune disorders, rheumatoid, and they start out their day in pain and they're in pain most of the day. And so they're looking for relief but clarity." --I thought: "What a perfect summary! 'Relief but clarity.'"

So how does Courtney recommend one achieve this goal? "Eating the plant raw." (3:02) Or, actually, juicing it. --And there is an amazing discussion and on-screen "demonstration" of exactly how that is done . . . and how not to do it.

Perhaps the most astonishing segments of the video are those of Kristen Peskuski, a young woman who suffered (or, without cannabis, still suffers) what I am beginning to recognize as the "standard" range of autoimmune diseases: lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (since the age of 16), hypothyroidism, chronic infections, and asthma. Not to mention interstitial cystitis, endometriosis, cervical cancer . . . (Her list of ailments goes on. But you get the idea.)

She was bed-ridden, on over 40 medications (including such wonders as Prednisone and Methotrexate), told she was sterile and would never be able to have children . . . And now, she says, she is healthy, happy, has a baby daughter (and, apparently, at least one other child; she speaks directly of her daughter, the result of "being pregnant for the first time"), is off of all the drugs . . .

And the source of all of these miracles?

Cannabis, she says. Juiced.

Be skeptical. But watch--or listen--to her testimony. What is it about how she presents her story that, somehow, overcomes my doubts and says, "No. She is telling the truth . . . and I believe her evaluation of the source of her healing is accurate . . . even if her 'one story' isn't clinical proof"?

Unbelievable! . . . Or, actually, very believable. Check it out for yourself:

Vitamin B12 - From illegal substance to "hero"

I received this email from Dr. Jonathan V. Wright's Nutrition and Healing Health e-Tips on Thursday morning:

One frightening morning in 1991, Dr. Wright's Tahoma Clinic was violently raided. Two dozen heavily armed thugs blew past the patient peacefully waiting in her wheelchair and kicked down the door.

In a nightmare scenario straight out of an action movie, clinic staff members were held at gunpoint for two hours before being ejected from the building. The gang then went on to destroy medical equipment and ransack the clinic.

These thugs weren't criminals getting their kicks. The situation was far worse. They were sent by the FDA to harass Dr. Wright, all because he was giving his patients access to...not illegal drugs, not phony prescriptions. Oh no--his clinic was attacked because he was prescribing preservative-free B vitamins!

Now, twenty years later, the mainstream press is breathlessly celebrating the very substance that was the target of the 1991 raid!

Unbelievable? Well...probably not. I mean, we are talking about the FDA here.

Late last month, The New York Times broke the story that vitamin B12--one of those very vitamins that was at the root of Dr. Wright's receptionist having a gun put to her face--is good for your brain. Imagine that!

In the article, they detail the story of a woman who, at the age of 85, started becoming more and more confused. She was diagnosed with early Alzheimer's disease, and was prescribed Aricept. Her daughter says the drug made things worse, and no wonder--Aricept's (donepezil) potential side effects include depression, nervousness, changes in behavior, and...confusion (yeah, that's a head-scratcher for me, too).

Thankfully, someone thought to test her B12 levels. They found they were quite low, and her doctor started her on weekly injections. Her daughter was thrilled at how quickly her mother's condition started improving. But she had to wonder--why aren't B12 levels checked more regularly?

Excellent question! I'm sure the answer has nothing to do with Aricept being a cash cow and B12 being a lowly vitamin that isn't covered in dollar signs. No, nothing at all.

As we age, our bodies just can't absorb B12 from food as effectively as they once could. And the symptoms of B12 deficiency can easily be misdiagnosed or written off as a normal part of aging (muscle weakness, incontinence, low blood pressure, cognitive problems, and so on).

This is far from the first time I've told you about the cognitive protection offered by B-vitamins. But we certainly haven't seen such coverage in the mainstream--and of course they're acting like it's a breakthrough discovery--despite the fact that, 20 years ago, it was all pitchforks and torches for a doctor who dared prescribe B to his patients. Sheesh.

Of course, it's nice to see people spreading the word about potent natural healers, but the fact that it took so long for such a powerful vitamin to get some recognition makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

I mean, just imagine how many more people could have put the brakes on their cognitive decline without the dangerous side effects of "miracle" drugs if the mainstream would have been just a little more open to what Nature has to offer.

Instead, we've been handed dangerous drugs--or the excuse that memory loss is just a sad fact of aging--for years. Meanwhile, doctors who know the truth about Nature's healers--doctors like our own Dr. Wright--are forced into nightmarish scenarios that put their livelihood, and perhaps even their very lives, at risk.

It's not too late to harness the power of B12 and the other B-vitamins. Injections are often the best way to correct a B12 deficiency. Dr. Wright has also recommended taking a good quality "B- complex 50" or "B-complex 100" supplement (which also includes B12 in addition to the other important members of the "B" family) each day. Of course, before starting any vitamin or supplement regimen, you should consult a doctor skilled in natural medicine.

Yours in good health,

Christine O'Brien

P.S. Vitamin B12 is just one of the many natural secrets to living younger. Become one of the few "in the know," and you'll be on the fast track to looking, thinking, and feeling better than you have in YEARS. Click here to learn more.