Are Americans the worst patients in the world?

“Recriminations tend to focus on how Americans pay for health care, and on our hospitals and physicians. Surely if we could just import Singapore’s or Switzerland’s health-care system to our nation, the logic goes, we’d get those countries’ lower costs and better results. Surely, some might add, a program like Medicare for All would help by discouraging high-cost, ineffective treatments.

But lost in these discussions is, well, us. We ought to consider the possibility that if we exported Americans to those other countries, their systems might end up with our costs and outcomes. That although Americans (rightly, in my opinion) love the idea of Medicare for All, they would rebel at its reality. In other words, we need to ask: Could the problem with the American health-care system lie not only with the American system but with American patients?”

Atlantic July 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/american-health-care-spending/590623/

Anna Loska Meenan, who lives in the Rockford area and used to be on staff at the Mt. Morris clinic, says:

This excellent article explains why Medicare for All in the US would quickly lead to one of two scenarios: Either the health care system would be immediately bankrupted, or the resulting rationing would lead to riots in the streets. Having been involved in health care, I can confirm that this author speaks the truth, and from conversations with docs who are still seeing patients, I can see that things have only gotten worse since I left medicine 10 years ago.

Some religions are sanctioned for teaching at state universities

"Ohio State's Integrative Medicine Clinic offers acupuncture, Ayurveda, chiropractic, massage, mindfulness instruction, and yoga."  Wexner Medical Center brochure, go.osu.edu/integrativehealth

If you wish to practice the religious observances and techniques of Ayurveda, mindfulness or Yoga, should it be through a state university that probably wouldn't include Christian prayer, music or liturgy in its medical program and course offerings, even though there is enough research available to show Christians live longer and enjoy better health?

Brief definitions from Wikipedia:

“Mindfulness as a psychological concept is the focusing of attention and awareness, based on the concept of mindfulness in Buddhist meditation.”

“Yoga, from the word “yuj” (Sanskrit, “to yoke” or “to unite”), refers to spiritual practices that are essential to the understanding and practice of Hinduism.”

Ayurveda is a discipline of the upaveda or "auxiliary knowledge". It is treated as a supplement or appendix of the Vedas themselves, usually either the Rigveda or the Atharvaveda. The samhita of the Atharvaveda itself contains 114 hymns or incantations for the magical cure of diseases.

                 

Happy Thoughts, Happy Molecules

Dorothy Rabinowitz has an excellent review of the Deepak Chopra/CNN/Larry King discussion of the tragedy in Mumbai/Bombay in today's WSJ, "Deepak Blames America." If the topic weren't so serious, it would be beyond belief. But I want to tag along on her Deepak description and qualifications

healer, New Age philosopher and digestion guru, advocate of aromatherapy and regular enemas . . .If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules. . ."

to launch my snark at Ohio Health Dimensions Winter Classes and Programs. It looks like a curriculum developed by Ms. Rabinowitz' caricature of Dr. Chopra it is so overloaded with new ageism and alternative eastern therapies and religions.

• Ageless beauty from within: incorporate self-healing practices to support your entire being with ancient wisdom of the East
  
• Alexander Technique--learn to rejuvenate your mind and body, enhance your thinking
  
• Bring your soul to work--connect your natural gifts and values to the demands and sacrifices of your job
  
• Enhance your wellness with guided imagery--create positive changes--bring a floor mat
  
• Green living--discover how easy it is--create a sustainable future for the seventh generation (indigenous people's concept)
  
• Learn hypnosis for a change--what? No hope too?
  
• Natural therapies for women's health issues--alternative remedies from irritable bowel disease to mood disorders
  
• De-stress with active relaxation
  
• Planting seeds of wellness--body, mind and spirit, culminating in the joyful group experience of Mandala
  
• Seasonal detoxification--season-specific herbal remedies, purifying supplments (colonics?)
  
• A lot of Yoga classes--too many to mention--chair, Hatha, baby, fertility
  
• Magical moves of NIA--this is yoga with low impact aerobics and a sweat
  
• Releasing Problems--blend a mind/body relaxation session with a land/water experience
  
• Tai Chi--ancient Chinese exercise
  
• Tai Kwon Do--fitness for self-defense
  
• MBSR--based on ancient practice of mindfulness--homework!
  
• MBSR graduate program--meditation, wisdom teachings
  
• Self-healing through classical meditation--guided exploration of techniques, Loving Kindness Meditations
  
• Taste of Mindfulness Meditation--individual sessions for only $50 a pop

And there are useful programs too like How to buy a home, Understanding auto insurance, digital cameras and retirement planning.

OhioHealth is Riverside Methodist, Grant, Doctors, Grady, Dublin Methodist, Hardin, Marion General, etc. Since they can't get you from ER to a room in less than 11 hours (which creates massive stress), I don't understand why they are offering yoga and guided imagery to reduce stress!

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Alternative Medicine--buy this book!

Alternative medicine; the Christian handbook, updated, expanded, Zondervan, 2006 by Donal O'Mathuna, PhD and Walt Larimore, MD (£13.57 / US$26.37 /EUR19.99) is a good investment for your home or public library. I know the author personally (he lives in Ireland, but got his PhD from Ohio State and married the daughter of friends) and Zondervan is a publisher I trust. It is written in a rather dry, non-confrontational, common sense style that I'd almost forgotten existed in books for the general public, especially for a topic that exalts in sound bites and teaser phrases like "secrets to," "seven steps to," "never before revealed," "they don't want you to know this," "as seen on television," "all-natural," and "suppressed." If you are familiar with the term "evidence based medicine," or "literature review," this would be that. These authors take the claims of alternative therapies (acupuncture, chiropractic, energy medicine, herbal medicine, garlic, noni juice, etc. and many others) and then look at the clinical and research studies (if they exist) and give the therapy, claim or technique ratings. At first I found the rating system of 1 to 4 a bit off-putting--check marks (4 for multiple high-quality randomized controlled trials), x-marks (evidence against, 4 for multiple high-quality randomized controlled trials), recommendation scale of happy faces (4 for 75%-100% confidence that the therapy is potentially beneficial), area of spiritual concern of interest to Christians is designated with thumbs down (4 thumbs down is a therapy involving spiritual practices in direct conflict with biblical teaching). But once I got used to it, found the system easy to follow.

Noni juice, for instance, a product I've only tasted, gets 2.5 pages--what it is, what the claims are, the study findings, the cautions, recommendations, dosage, treatment categories, whether its claims are scientifically questionable, is it quackery or fraud (these differences are explained in another chapter) and further reading.

Some concerns are: 1) there are no quality standards unlike most herbals, so there is no way to judge what you're buying; 2) some companies take the leftover by-products of juicing and sell as "100% noni fruit powder," and so the product would not have the ingredients of noni juice, 3) the published literature is for a tree native to Hawaii, but most of the products come from trees grown on other South Pacific Islands which probably have different chemical constituents, 4) "wild harvested" is not of consistent quality or origin, 5) when commercially grown, it has pesticides and herbicide residues, including some not allowed in the U.S. and Canada, 6) some, but not all, noni juice is pasteurized, which kills pathogens but may inactivate some compounds, but no studies have been done.

Noni juice can interact with other medications (and drinkers may neglect to mention it to their doctor who is prescribing a diuretic or blood pressure medication) causing nausea or cardiac arrhythmias, and shouldn't be used by anyone with kidney or liver problems, and the authors don't recommend it for breast-feeding women. There were no spiritual claims for this product.

However, the authors say it does have many vitamins--just no curative properties for arthritis, menstrual cramps, digestion or cancer, and if what you're buying hypes that, disregard it and just enjoy it as a juice that smells like rotten cheese that tops the list of worst tasting and best selling to a very gullible public.

The book has 510 pages, is well indexed (by subject, scripture and therapy) and formatted, has lengthy bibliographies, a rating system, and the authors are a medical doctor and a pharmacist whose PhD research was in identifying potential new drugs from herbal remedies and an MA in theology from Ashland Seminary in Ohio and who taught at Mt. Carmel College of Nursing here in Columbus. And as mentioned above, I know him--went to his wedding which was during the worst spring snow storm in the history of central Ohio. The minister couldn't get there.