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| The role of the "self-educated non-professional" in medical and legal decision making 23 May 2001 The web link is geocities.com/creatingthefuture/health2001.html |
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| whatdoyaknow.com www.talkinusa.com africanandtribalarts.com whereinbroward.com supergrammar.com gaiglobal.org learnandlaugh.com teacherstoteachers.com |
| See "Recommendations for a Long Life" and See the Medical Office of the Future CLICK HERE web link is geocities.com/creatingthefuture/drkahn.html |
| NEWSLETTER June 2001 Here are the notes from the discussion on June 28, 2001 The Web link is geocities.com/creatingthefuture/newsletter6-28-2001.html |
Some points made during the evening's discussions.... [A] More people want more expensive, life-extending health care than in years past. Expectations are rising. [B] Our person health is getting better and worse. (Longevity is rising. Obesity is up.) [C] Our health care system is getting better and worse. (Millions more people and more health care services are being dispensed than ever before. Never has the health care system been so expensive.) Why are people turning to alternative medicines? [D] Myth: "Nationalized health care in Canada and European countires is far better than the private health care given in the US" For example, infant mortality in the USA is much higher than in Switzerland. Reality: 1. An infant born prematurely and under 3 pounds is not counted. It is left to expire. No expensive and extraordinary efforts are made to save the life of a premature baby. 2. A baby that dies within 24 hours of birth is not counted in the Swiss infant mortality statistics. [E] FINANCES In the past, people retired around 65 years old and lived to be 70. That's 5 years of pension and Social Security support. Now people live to 90 years old. If they retire at 67 years, that's 27 years of Social Security support. If we live to be 110 years old, when will we retire? If we retire at 60 years old, will we live half of our life in retirement? Ask a group of scientitsts: "Would you like to live forever?" ANSWER: "Sure" Ask a group of people in Buffalo (who are focused on family): "No, I wouldn't want to live without my family around me." Since the Industrial Revolution and up to the 1950s, most people held one job for most of their working careers. In the 1960-1990s, most people remained in one profession but moved to various jobs. In the new millennium, will more people consider their working career to be a series of training and new professions? [F] RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DOCTOR Currently, many people go to the doctor's office with a list of problems...and somehow talk themselves out of actually asking the doctor about the problem. There appears to be a need for a change in psychology. OLD WAY: "The doctor is too busy to deal with this minor problem." :"I can live with this, it's not really a problem." "He will think that I'm complaining if I bother him about this minor inconvenience." "Macho guys don't need to go to the doctor. We can tough it out." "Play football with pain." In driving, we expect to be able to live where we want to live (on a piece of ground without people around us) and drive where we want to go without dealing with the people around us, and park in front of the 24-megaplex cinema. In health care, we expect to get the AAAA health care, sophisticated testing, the latest treatments, and have other people pay for the treatments. "If I don't ask for the treatment, someone else will ask for it, so why deny myself?" [G] MENTAL ACUITY 10 percent of people over 70 years old have Alzeimers. 20 percent of people over 80 years old have Alzeimers. 30 percent of people over 90 years old have Alzeimers. How do people stay more healthy in the mind? (Alzeimers has physiological, not psychological, roots.). Observation: He who has a WHY can deal with any HOW (Nietsche). A person who has a reason to live can remain engaged in life.\ Mental Acuity appears to be enhanced by contact with others, contact with animals. This calls into question the ban on pets in many retirement communities (such as condominums, where flea-carrying pets are not allowed). [H] Health care system appears to be less caring that in the past. In the past, people went to the doctor and learned that they had Disease A. "You've got 6 months to live" and he'd hold your hand. You'd leave the doctor's office and think, "That doctor is a very caring and considerate man." Today, when you get the dignosis for Disease A, the doctor writes a prescription and goes to the next patient. "What a rude and abrupt ;ldoctor" we think. In the past we would have died. Now we live and we expect the doctor to spend more time with us. [I] Testing is increasing. Patients hear that there's a test to see if a rare form of colon cancer is present. The test is expensive. Does it make sense to spend $1 billion to save 5 lives? (hypothetical case) [J] People need to take greater responsibility for their own health. In the past, you went to the doctor, gave some blood, and you got the diagnosis. Some treatment was prescribed, and sometimes it worked and often it didn't. Now more tests are available. [K] Health care in the USA is generally better in many cases than in countries with nationalized medicine. Unfortunately, when the health care system fails to serve the individual, and you know the individual, then the previous paragraph seems false or hard to believe. [L] Is health care a right? A desire >>> a need >>>> a right >>>> a paid entitlement [M] Testimony: "I was slimmer when I lived in New York. I could eat anything and I rode the bus in Manhattan." Is there a connection between people who live in a city with reliable mass transit and lower rates of obesity? This suggests the BUS DIET -- use mass transit, walk to the bus stop, walk from the second bus stop and eat all you want... Comments: Younger bodies have a higher metabolic rate, which accounts for the ability to remain slim while eating what you wanted to. You can think of your current body as being more efficient in the treatment of food energy, since you can retain more energy in your body (fat) since you are burning energy more efficiently... [N] Attitudes in HEALTH We are responsible for everyone's health. Nobody is responsible for themselves. The future of health is: everyone will be responsible for their own well-being. Book in Progress: The doomsayers have all been wrong (so far) A recounting of prophets of doom whose predictions have failed to arrive (yet) -- AIDS was predicted to be not just a disaster but the end of our society. Amediical examiner predicted in 1985 that AIDS would infect half the population by 2005 and the other half would go broke paying for it. See comments in the Book Report about Laurie Garrett's books. Reminder: The topic for the next month July 26, is The Future of Parking Side comments: "We're running out of water. We're in a drought!" No, the same amount of water is on the planet as there was 50 million years ago. We're not running out of water. We just need to treat it and get it to the public. It will be more expensive. We're running out of free or nearly free water. P.S. Due to our peninsular location, no drought will last in Florida as one can in the middle of the country. Our present (June 2001) water crisis was exacerbated by the release of excess water from Lake Okeechobee when it was too full. |
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| One purpose of these notes is to capture the essence of the evening's discussion for readers who couldn't attend. Another reason for these notes is to stimulate you, the current reader on the Internet, to make comments by e-mail. Make a reference to a point made below (mention the letter in the [brackets]) and we'll include your commment on the right margin. ...write to: [email protected] |
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