Posted by
Rajjpuut's Folly on Thursday, July 09, 2009 6:02:26 PM
The American health care system is the most expensive in the world. One reason for this: it is among the most ineffective in the world.
Individual Americans need to take control of their own destinies and health.
Understanding the problems with the American health system is like understanding the problems with the Church's stand that the moon, sun, planets, stars and all heavenly bodies circled the earth.
Rajjpuut's Far Better Health
Care Alternative: Part Zero
Before we get into the nitty-gritty let's take an anecdotal look at just what's wrong with American health care:
Mr. Obama and the Politicians aligned with him are looking to throw more money at the American health care system, already the most expensive in the world. One reason for this, it is our system is among the most ineffective in the world. Medicare and Medicaid were earlier versions of the idea that government spending can cure the nation's health and health care system problems. They failed, they only made the system in place more expensive and less effective. Mr. Obama's newer version will do the same. All the present health care fallacies and weaknesses are poised to bankrupt the country as the baby boomer generation here in the U.S., the fattest, most out of shape and unhealthiest group of people the world has known@@: reaches traditional retirement age. Americans are nowhere near the longest-lived persons, and mother and infant mortality is not close to the best in the wold to point out two of the more glaring weaknesses in our system.
The problems with American's health, per se, can readily be shown to come from two sources: A. The patient himself, Americans need to take control of their own destinies and health^^. B. The American Medical Association and its doctors. The problems with inefficiency and counter-productivity (and the enormous associated costs) are associated with the 1. AMA and the doctors, but also with other institutions associated with the American health care system such as 2. HMOs, the 3. pharmaceutical companies, the 4. food companies and primarily with the 5.FDA overseer of the pharmaceutical companies and the food companies. Unless these institutions dramatically alter "business as usual," expense and inefficiency will continue to increase and likely accelerate under any program Mr. Obama creates.
How can I say all this? My name is Bob, I'm a health educator and I've had experience putting in place a program for Blue Cross and Blue Shiield of Kansas roughly three decades back that controlled costs, kept people healthier, educated them about health and reassured them about their health care decisions. I now live in Colorado.
Understanding the problems today in the American health care system is a lot like understanding the problems with the Church's stand that the moon, sun, planets, stars and all heavenly bodies circled the earth. That's how far out of balance the system has gotten. The system is run by profit, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but all the incentives that are now in place reward inefficiency, corruption and ignorance. Let me give you an example of some major health issues in the United States right now, mind you, this is the tip of the iceberg:
The American Medical Association is the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. They decide treatment orthodoxy and treatment heresy. In their typical authoritarian fashion, they have made the following decisions which canNOT be questioned with impunity, Doctors who treat patients by unorthodox methods can be severely punished:
A. Autoimmunity diseases are common (many times a virus is suspected, such as the HIV Virus we all know about, but none has been located in at least 60 of the instances) and as of right now there are 60+ auto-immune disease recognized or provisionally-recognized by the AMA. Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Crohn's Disease are examples of "auto-immune diseases" according to AMA dogma.
B. Auto-immune diseases can only be treated by physicians with prescribed potions, pills, powders, injections, etc. Treating these diseases with other approaches such as diet modification is not approved by the AMA.
C. Patients are thus given a life-sentence with an incurable disease in which only the symptoms can be treated, not the disease itself, while undergoing a lifelong regimen of expensive and often dangerous medicines and treatments.
D. Three questions naturally arise from all this:
1. Is the AMA correct? (there are huge doubts)
2. Even if the AMA is correct, is this best for the patient? and equally important . . . .
3. Is this most efficient (cost-wise) for the system?
Remembering that we're only talking about the "tip of the iceberg here" and the problems are much deeper and more extensive and entangled with corruption (as this series intends to show), let's quickly look at two of the most well-known "auto-immune" diseases: lupus (in passing) and multiple sclerosis (and incidentally at cancer as well).
I can talk about lupus "in passing" because that problem has already been largely solved (as a well-known conservative voice, Robert Ringer explains in talking about Max Gerson's dietary modification methods) as well as much of the cancer problem** but since the AMA has rejected these ideas for roughly 60 years without testing, virtually no Americans know about them. Of course the fact that these methods are inexpensive and not likely to make any doctors rich probably played no small part in the AMA's UNwillingness to explore them. Heretical organizations like Cancer Treatment Centers of America repeatedly cure "incurable" cancers by using a combination of certain conventional treatments (AMA approved) and holistic treatments based primarily on diet modification.
Most importantly many auto-immune conditions like lupus and rheumatiod arthritis are eliminated or PREVENTED by good diets or by diet modifications. HOW MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE FOR THE SYSTEM AND HOW MUCH BETTER FOR THE PATIENT IF THE DISEASE NEVER EVEN OCCURS? This is the equivalent of NOT starting smoking for 7/8 of the American populace. If you never start smoking, that alone will dramatically reduce your chances of ever getting lung cancer. If on top of that you avoid mining and several other high-risk occupations as well, then your chances of getting lung cancer drop to about a third of one percent. Enough on cancer and lupus . . . . let's look at Multiple Sclerosis (MS) . . . no disease in America shows the "superstitious self-serving nature" of the AMA moreso then MS. Because the AMA has established that the sun orbits the earth no further questioning is required . . . . bah, humbug, if they won't do science, Rajjpuut will!
I'm from Colorado, that’s important as you’ll see soon. Seven years ago my now ex-wife was diagnosed with MS. About 9-10 months back another friend also was told she had the disease. I found myself, once again, reading everything I could find on the internet and in libraries, etc. about Multiple Sclerosis. My first reaction after even the slightest bit of reading was that American medicine’s lumping of MS into the auto-immune category was mighty convenient for the drug manufacturers: patients become lifetime subscribers of risky, expensive medicine that will not cure them (since it’s their own body’s immune system that’s attacking them) and they'll have no recourse but to take them till they die: now there are 60 such diseases. This seems a very nihilistic and unscientific approach. The very essence of science is asking the right questions, but MS had been conveniently lumped into a category by the authority of the AMA where no further questioning was permitted. I determined to do exactly what science would require: ask lots of questions. To date the doctors and medical journals won’t listen to them, but here are my 15 Key questions regarding MS:
1. Why is Colorado the highest U.S. state for MS per capita?
2. What factors make Colorado Springs the highest incident large city in the highest incident state?
3. Why do women suffer from MS at a rate roughly 2-4 times as great as men?
4. Why is MS less prevalent on the coasts?
5. Why is MS far more prevalent in urban settings than in rural areas?
The questions get more technical from hereon : feel free to skip down to qustions #14 and #15 and the answers if you're overwhelmed . . . .
6. Stickiness of blood platelets has been repeatedly confirmed in MS patients; aberrations in bone marrow has been confirmed for MS victims; why?
7. The percentage of lineoleic acid found in the blood of MS patients is far lower than that in unaffected persons, furthermore patients suffering the most recent deterioration in their condition show the greatest drop in lineolic acid levels which was also true, to a lesser extent of those in the most advanced stages of the disease. Why?
8. Central Nervous System Dilators pioneered as an MS treatment during the 1950’s by Bayard Horton of the Mayo Clinic were apparently quite successful with few or no side effects in relieving acute attacks promptly and often prevented progression? Why?
9. MRI examinations today frequently depict a lack of correlation between symptoms and lesions in MS (often called the “clinico-radiological paradox). What’s going on? If demyelination is the fundamental essential lesion in multiple sclerosis, why is there often no correlation?
10. Trials of sex hormones show they improve lesions as well as symptoms and L-arginine, zinc and magnesium supplements also seem to lesson symptoms. Why?
11. What role do deficiencies of endothelial and neuronal nitric oxide and elevated levels of inducible nitric oxide play in MS? Is this symptomatic or causal?
12. Is better detection the only reason MS incidence has risen so dramatically in the last 40 years, or is some environmental factor exacerbating the situation?
13. What about the “brain leak” theory of MS? That theory says free hemoglobin scavenges nitric oxide avidly, which may create deficiencies especially in the central nervous system, with its greater vasodilator tone. Could depletion of endothelial nitric oxide shift blood from the arterial circulation to the venous circulation in MS sufferers as in diabetics? Could multiple sclerosis result from too little blood in arteries and arterioles leading to vasospastic symptoms? Meanwhile could too much blood in veins and venules lead to blood-brain barrier leakage and lesions?
14. Is there any logical reason for continued loyalty by many to the idea that MS is an anti-immune condition?
15. Is there one over-arching theory that might explain all these factors?
The more I read, the more certain I become that these questions needed to be explained and understood.
An obvious main or, at least, exacerbating factor seems to jump out from the first eight questions: OXYGEN! The clearest correlation for Question #1 is that higher altitudes = lower oxygen## levels. Colorado is the state with the highest average altitude among the 50 states. As far as Question #2, Colorado Springs, the 49th largest city in the country, is easily the highest large metropolitan area in the country roughly 750 ft. (14%) higher than “Mile-High” Denver.
The correlation continues with Question #3, Women’s bodies and their unique chemistry may make them far more vulnerable than men to MS for any number of reasons, but exploring the OXYGEN HYPOTHESIS among women more deeply . . . women tend to be smaller and society until recently encouraged female physical fitness far less than it did male activity so generally speaking females are less efficient VO max processors than men. Additionally, hemoglobin and iron are more problematical in females during their menses which makes females more likely sufferers of anemia again potentially lessening oxygen-use efficiency. A factor which I've also noticed and which may not have any bearing on the issue is that females are about eight or nine times more likely than man at any given moment to be engaged in dieting, skipping breakfast and sometimes fad dieting that is just plain nonsensical health-wise . . . which could spark nutrient deficiencies. I've seen nothing about dieting, eating 3-5 regular meals daily, good nutrition, or having a good breakfast in the MS literature, but common sense says, good habits are important and could play a role.
Question #4, the coasts, are by definition, found at sea level hence, lower than 99.9999% of the inland areas of the country with more oxygen available. Additionally, coastal diet is far more likely to include fish with its attendant fish oil (deficiencies implicated in Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure and heart attacks) which aids in oxygen processing.
Question #5, people in rural areas are less likely to face high levels of air pollution (smog) than city dwellers. In particular: diesel fumes, ground level ozone contamination and INHALED nitric oxide contamination are brutal every day facts of life in our largest cities. (By the way: INHALED nitric oxide is confusing in many respects to the layman. A. it is NOT nitrous oxide (laughing gas) once used as anesthetic. B. Our bodies naturally create nitric oxide and it is one of the most important gases found in our blood stream (as reflected in the Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to Dr. Louis Ignarro) which we will discuss later as it relates to MS. C. Many people realize that nitric oxide is also an important negative component of tobacco smoke. In any case, the obvious effect of air pollution is less oxygen allowed to reach the lungs, heart, brain and every cell of the human body than one would expect from clear, pure country air.
Questions #6 and #7 It’s the blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body and brain and specifically the red blood cells. It is the bone marrow where blood is made. Any problems with the blood including abnormal lipid and other levels could affect the body’s ability to process oxygen.
Question #8 Peter Good’s thought-provoking website on nitric oxide and MS seems to indicate that there was great success with the CNS vasodilator histamine diphosphate during the late 40's, the 50's and 60's. Today’s “fashion” calls for different meds with greater potential for dangerous side effects. CNS vasodilation with histamine not only consistently relieved a disease now thought to be incurable, it thereby demonstrated that its fundamental lesion may be something entirely different from demyelination???
Having looked at Questions #1-8, that let's examine Question #14, Is there any logical reason for continued loyalty by many to the idea that MS is an anti-immune condition? As a result we regard MS today as incurable because its primary lesion is thought to be relatively irreversible disintegration of myelin sheaths in the brain and spinal cord. That thought pattern has been in place for roughly 50 years. Neurologists who successfully treated MS with vasodilators thought the lesion was REVERSIBLE because the underlying cause – a diminished blood supply in the brain and cord (leading to oxygen lack there) was treatable. Because of the auto-immune assumption, workable theories and workable treatments (and cures?) have been relegated to the trash heap. Certainly some MS cases have reversed, documented cases with lightning strikes, for example, bringing temporary or in rarer cases, permanent reversal of MS. How lightning could ever "re-myelinize" the nervous system is a mystery even beyond the question of how lightning can reverse the symptoms. Unless MS is a psychosomatic disorder, neither the auto-immune nor the demyelination ideas appear to make sense.
Question #9, since MRI results seem NOT to show continued and progressive demyelination as the fundamental and unvarying effect of MS and they don’t rule out oxygen as a key factor, we can continue to keep an open mind toward blood and oxygen as the fundamental truth of the disease. Lest anyone decide that I’m seeking oversimplification of a complex problem . . . Siblerud and Kienholz (1994) compared red blood cell concentrations and hemoglobin levels of MS patients who had their mercury amalgam dental fillings removed against blood values of MS patients who retained their amalgam fillings:
MS subjects with amalgams were found to have significantly lower levels of red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit compared to MS subjects with amalgam removal.... The MS amalgam group had significantly higher blood urea nitrogen and lower serum IgG.... A health questionnaire found that MS subjects with amalgams had significantly more (33.7%) exacerbations during the past 12 months compared to the MS volunteers with amalgam removal. Obviously, while we’re still talking about the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen . . . every indication is that a wide variety of toxins and negative effects might stimulate that same over-arching undesirable effect. The specific trigger may vary from case to case, but the indications are that oxygen and blood might well hold the key to understanding MS.
Just as in AIDS, the possibility that the immune system is responding to an agent like a virus is countered by the reality that no such agent has ever been identified. We know that once identified, if transmitted to any animal or human in clinical experiments that theory could be proved. Retrovirus, where art thou????? In truth, endogenous retroviruses have not yet been proven to play any causal role in this disease. According to PO Behan and A Chaudhuri of Glasgow University, together with BO Roep of Leiden University (2002) contend there is little support for contemporary views that multiple sclerosis is an immunological disease. And not surprisingly, according to them, there is little benefit from treatments based on this misconception. In any case, since no "smoking gun" for MS has ever been found, isn't it a little short-sighted to UNCRITICALLY say that it MUST BE an autoimmunity problem?
Question #10 Some success has been had treating with either or both male and female hormones. Additionally, L-arginine creates nitric oxide in the blood which dilates blood vessels (like the bee venom employed by the Mayo Clinic). Zinc and magnesium are under-appreciated nutrients which play vital roles in human health and are vital for sexual health. In the Nobel Prize winning work of Dr. Louis Ignarro, nitric oxide has been found (as a “trigger gas” operating within the blood stream) to play a vital role in cardio-vascular and sexual health. Certainly the cardio-vascular system is the system where the rubber of oxygen meets the road of blood. Again, the specific trigger for MS may vary from case to case, but there are no indications here that oxygen and blood do not hold the key to understanding MS and certainly there is no outright refutation for that idea to be found in this question . . . .
Question #11 and 13 are best answered and best understood together through the insights of Peter Good: “Two signs that endothelial nitric oxide may be chronically depleted in multiple sclerosis are that patients tend to be very heat-sensitive, and their platelets are sticky. Sensitivity to stress may reveal depletion of the parasympathetic transmitter neuronal nitric oxide. Other reasons to suspect endothelial nitric oxide depletion in multiple sclerosis are apparent deficiencies of sex hormones, magnesium, and zinc. Estrogen, testosterone via estrogen, and magnesium all utilize endothelial nitric oxide, the primary endogenous vasodilator, to relax vascular smooth muscle. The (most simple and straightforward explanation) of multiple sclerosis might be that too little blood in arteries and arterioles leads to vasospastic symptoms, while too much blood in veins and venules leads to blood-brain barrier leakage and lesions.”
The recent Nobel Prize based upon L-arnithine and nitric oxide gas in the blood being a "trigger" for the body seems to offer a promising area for further study. In any case, Oxygen's potentially primary role would be in harmony with this data since every indication is that the blood’s inability to efficiently process oxygen plays a key role in MS.
Question #12, is easily dealt with, in principle the last 40 years have seen a precipitous rise in all manner of environmental toxins. Polluted foods (steroids in meats, for example), side effects of certain pharmaceuticals, residential toxins (such as arising from carpet liners, asbestos, etc., etc., ad nauseum), the preponderance of intimate electronic devices such as cell phones, and just plain stress all could easily be regarded as potential triggers somehow setting in motion the conditions leading to diminished blood and oxygen to the brain and spinal cord. Obviously, we live in toxic times, but is this really where MS comes from, or perhaps what exacerbates MS? In any case, no refutation of the oxygen hypothesis is found here . . . most likely there are an infinite variety of toxic triggers that may either initiate MS itself, or initiate MS flare-ups.
Question #15 (Is there one over-arching theory that might explain all these factors?) In answering the previous 12 questions we have laid the groundwork for open mindedly considering that “Yes, there could be . . . in particular an overarching theory that holds the key to understanding MS seems to be: a theory of diminished blood or oxygen supply.
Remember, all this is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg, we could go on and on criticizing the AMA and how they make doctors practice medicine. And the AMA is just one lounge chair on the beach of ineffective American medical practice. For everything we can say about the AMA we can say ten times over about the FDA and about the food and drug industries that it monitors . . . but you've had an introductory look at where the problems lie. Next time we'll get more into the solutions.
Ya'all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
##this could mean either of three things: lack of oxygen supply to the body; or the body's own inefficiency in processing oxygen; or both combined
@@ Rajjpuut doesn't resemble that remark, though he is chronologically one of the baby boomers
** http://www.robertringer.com/status-quo.html
^^ Followers of Rajjpuut's "Seven Golden Rules of Health" cost the system about 4/5 less each year than obese, and morbidly obese persons, typical cigarette smokers, and heavy alcohol abusers. They are usually gifted with 35 years of quality life that most Americans will never experience . . . more on this in later blogs