Dear Iris--Ease My Pain

Dear Erudite Editor, Sherwood Park News please pass this on to the Minister of Health.

Hello Iris:

I went to see your pal Curt Vos, the other day. He's fine, me not so much. I've this pain in my butt. It goes into my back, my legs and is messing up my kness. It really is annoying. So am I, when I have it. That's probably more detail than you need. Perspective is important though!

So Curt books me an MRI to get to the bottom, so to speak, of all of this. One problem, I can't get it till July 26th. It'll be six months before, I'm on the road to recovery. Time is scare. Function is pretty important, with a finite and declining number of days left, on the planet.

I know you're up to your butt, in Third Way dilberations, so I don't want to take up much of your time. However, as a representative "underwriter" of the current government supplied health care insurance system. I ('we') pay for it through taxes, premiums, and out of pocket for delisted services or alternative therapies not covered, at all.

Why does it take 4 months to get an MRI in the system?

Why can't I use my 'public system' insurance to pay for a MRI, at a private clinic? "They" tell me I can get an MRI there, in two days.

How much does an MRI cost, in the public system?

How will the third way shortern wait times? Reduce costs to me? Increase benefits to me (us)?

How will de listing services, declaring hip and knees as non essential, benefit those with hips knees, and other things that need to be fixed?

How does de listing benefit anyone? In 2005 Alberta Health dropped physiotherapy coverage from 6 to 4 visits. Iris, Why did you do that? Who benefited from that?

What's the benefit in third party Health Insurance? As I see it, subject to clarification of course, I'll pay a premium to a private insurance company, 'they'll' create a deductible, and "they'll" either de list me, or increase my premium when and if I use the insurance, just like the automobile insurance guys do.

Iris, I look forward to discussing this. I trust the Erudite Editor and August Publisher of this weekly journal will be happy to accommodate your response.

Regards Bruce Winter

PS
Friends of Medicare, and anyone who needs something fixed and can't get it, feel free to join in this discussion, here, or at wwww.selfheath.blogspot.com

School Days Stress Reliever

In the wanning of summer and falling ahead, it's the time of year when resolutions are revisited. School starts, routines bump up to accommodate an array of activities, not the least of which is keeping active. Here's an easily incorporated exercise approach via LifeHacker For more concentrated resource in getting rid of the stress around clutter try Get Organized Now .

TECHNOLO-GEE

How do they do that, is the medial question of the day. Check this out.


This is a heart monitoring pill It's being used by the NFL to monitor players, during training camp, in the wake of a couple of fatalities. It is rather amazing, however scary too. Imagine the dark side every pill contains a monitoring device hmmm. It's now possible. Thinking a little further, this technology could go along way to resolving the mystery around herbal therapies and what they do or don't' do. At the same time Vioxx might not make it. However no doubt someone can figure out how to 'tweak' the monitor.

And this is an interface for a laser surgery procedure that can be done and has been done over the Internet.



"In an effort to combine sophisticated laser and Internet technologies, scientists in Australia have successfully performed laser surgery and “optical trapping” in a Southern California laboratory via the Internet.

...In a proof-of-principle series of experiments, the scientists from UC Irvine, UC San Diego and the University of Queensland employed RoboLase to produce surgical holes in a distinct pattern of less than one micron in diameter (1/1000th of a millimeter) in single cells"

Waiting List For Herbs

Macleans reports Canada Health Food Directorate has approved 522 of 8180 applications for certification since its inception 2 years ago. All alternative health care products must be licensed by June 2006. There are 30,000 applications in the pipeline.

How do you spell boondoggle? The Health Food Directorate, arbitrarily created by Health Canada monitors the alternative medicine industry. It creates and applies standards similar to those applied to drugs, manufactured from synthetically created chemicals.

Alternative products are not drugs. They are food, plants, or minerals, which have medicinal properties established by practice as opposed to patent.

"Edmonton-based CV Technologies Inc. has a hit with its COLD-fX capsules, made from an extract of chemicals found in North American ginseng. ... For a new natural product like COLD-fX, scientific support is required to show that it does what it's supposed to and is safe to use -- similar to what's demanded for the approval of non-natural drugs and prescription medicines. "

Ginseng is not a chemical. Blending natural ingredients does not make them chemicals.

Compare alternative product policy regulation to this Health Canada advisory . Regulations that create waiting lists and statutory bias are impediments to good health.

Knee TV - update

A couple of clarifications are required from yesterday's Knee TV post. Dale Alton, from AMMS, says the extremity MRI is focused on foot- ankle-knee- hand- wrist and elbow. Also, internet distribution of the images will come via local internet providers, not Alberta Teleheath.



"The term Telehealth is used to describe the delivery of health services, educational programs, or collaboration in research using interactive video, audio, and computer technologies. It allows instantaneous consultation, physical examination, study of x-rays and laboratory findings, supervision of treatment or educational discussions among participants in diverse locations." Alberta Telehealth

Joint TV

Imagine, 'Knee TV' watching your own MRI, with instant commentary, from a radiologist 300 kilometers away



Knee TV' isn't going to generate 'Survivor' type ratings. However, if you've got a 'joint' or some other extremity, in need of repair, there's a leading edge Alberta solution designed to get you back in the game, quickly.Alberta public policy, in health care and communication, has intersected two image technologies-- digital image distribution and medical imaging.

The health care policy is Alberta's third way. Internet distribution comes via Alberta Telehealth Consider it a heath care dividend, for your portion of the $400 million invested in Alberta Supernet. The medical imaging technology comes from Advanced Medical Mobile Services, an Edmonton based medical imaging company.

AMMS is testing its' extremity MRI machine, at the NorMed Rehab centre, in Sherwood Park. Extremity MRI technology focuses on body parts: knees, shoulders, elbows, ankles.


The service isn't licensed yet. Capital Health is sorting out some issues. When it is, here's how you'll be able to use it. You'll need a medical referral. Your doctor or physiotherapist can provide that. Once you have it, you'll be able to book an appointment directly, or through Alberta Health. The direct service will be available on demand. It costs $395 for a single joint MRI.

"This will change physiotherapy procedures", says Audrey Bjornstadt, owner of NorMed Rehab. Currently, the first couple of sessions of physiotherapy are typically assessment and program development. " With this, we'll be able to condense rehab time", Bjornstadt says.

Imagine, what "Knee TV" may do for your health and well being. Looks good to me.

Supreme Court Champions Choice for Medical Care

"Access to a waiting list is not access to health care."

That is the key message from the Supreme Court's ruling this week.

The duplicity of Canada's (non) Universal health care system has been exposed. Not only is there private service delivery in the current system, there is privileged service too. Mindelle Jacobs reported there are four medical care tiers not two.

Monopolies do not foster innovation. They limit choice and charge high prices. Canadians have been duped. Government measures it success by how much of your money it spends. Then turns around and restricts access to what you can receive from so called universal medical care coverage by de-listing or creating approved services lists. On top of that, it creates criteria for clinically approved waiting periods, entrenching wait lists as opposed to eliminating them. Just a few weeks ago health Canada said it was spending $15 million to determine what is acceptable waiting time.

There is no acceptable waiting time. There is no need for it. Waiting list were created by politicians for their benefit. The next election is shaping up as more than just a referendum on political integrity it will determine the future of your accesss to medical care.

Half a Billion Dollars to market Vioxx

In the year 2000, Merck spent $590 Million marketing Vioxx. Total sales of $40 Billion, of which Vioxx's category comprised $2.3 Billion. These are just two pieces of financial data uncovered by Elisa Camahort in a piece called Pharmaceutical Marketing Costs.

Most of the marketing effort is targeted at doctors. So when the drug companies say "consult your doctor", know they already have. Transparency and the ethics of marketing might be good point to make to Health Canada. It has opened the floor to you, as part of a public hearing into Cox-2 Inhitibtors, anti inflammatory drugs. The public hearing is slated for June 9th . You can participate through a Health Canada website. It is rather detailed process to get to the survey form. However it is your chance to influence some health care policy. It is worth the effort.

Dandelion Good for you and your Garden

It may sound incredulous however, Dandelions are good for you, and your garden.

Pesky Weed

Perhaps the lesson is in the fact that all the effort to eliminate the plant has not worked very well. Juli Knight has insight on how to prepare the pesky weed for the salad bowl. Dealing with Dandelions is for those willing to consider options in the garden. Dandelion Wine may be worth a
try.

Dandilion Cures my Itch

So on my early morning constitutional with my canine companion on Saturday morning I picked up a skin rash following him through the grass. By this morning the itch was quite annoying. So I went for the dandelion. I read somewhere awhile ago that the old "weed" is good for a number of things and promptly unconsciously dismissed the notion.
However while venturing through the same field this morning I took the dandelion cure. Three applications later and no itch. I rubbed the flower on the itchy area. In the event this anecdote doesn't reach the new England Journal of Medicine, you may consider giving it a try for whatever psoriasis you stumble into this summer. It works for me on mosquito bites too.

So while Canadian science seeks ways to elminate the plant by killing it, harvesting it offers less invasive alternative uses wine and salad come to mind.

Sources:
University of Maryland Medical Center
Holistic Online

Organic Food Resource

If you are looking to eat a little better, and to learn what it takes to do that , click here

West Nile Headlines = Deet Commercial

Newspaper headlines can sure be misleading.

"Camp life can make you sick"

"Risk is Lower in the north but West Nile Virus is still out there"

Conditions ripe for outbreak of West Nile Virus health officials say

"West Nile Virus panel prepares for o5 on onslaught"


The best punch line to a headline ..."if you go out, make sure you wear products that contain DEET." Is there a better commercial than" expert" endorsement, in the news ?

There are lots of natural alternatives to Deet. It is not good for your skin and is bigger threat to your health than West Nile.

“But to put it in perspective, if 100 people were bitten by a mosquito that had West Nile Virus, 80 of them would show no symptoms. Out of roughly 20 percent that would show symptoms, about one percent of those would have serious symptoms.”

The West Nile 'buzz' is generated by concocting an issue. Mosquitoes are dangerous to your health. That effort induces you to buy repellent and local municipalities to use your tax money to buy mosquito eliminating pesticides. The campaign is adroitly marketed under the guise of public health and safety. It is repeated every spring and summer, producing guaranteed royalty revenue for Johnson&Johnson a health care company.

Will Rogers got it right

Just a sample of today's West Nile News ... Where's Amanda Congdon?

"Camp life can make you sick"
"Risk is Lower in the north but West Nile Virus is still out there"
Conditions ripe for outbreak of West Nile Virus health officials say
"West Nile Virus panel prepares for o5 onslaught"

Waiting Lists Befuddle Supreme Court

You may not have heard of Dr. Jacques Chaoulli, however you may very soon. He's a Montreal Doctor. Last June, he got a Supreme Court hearing challenging the constitutionality of the public medical system. He claimed waiting lists are unconstitutional . For some mysterious reason in the last week, this case has garnered the attention of a host of vested interests, the media, the Council of Canadians, and the Fraser Institute. The latter two are polar opposites, when it comes to what should be done to shorten waiting lists.

The Supreme Court creates its own waiting list. It has taken just about a year to make a decision on this case. It began7 years ago. Will it rule in favor or choice or in favor of publicly funded monopoly? Depends which vested interest is to be served. Remember each Justice notwithstanding their credentials and experience in law, is a Prime Ministerial appointee. That's the way it is in Canada and that may not necessarily be beneficial to your health.

Meanwhile Health Canada confirmed it is putting up 15 million over 4 years to study determined standards for "clinically" approved waiting periods. Translation the bureaucracy is going to tell you how long you will wait for service depending on what your medical condition is. If the public medical care monopoly is ruled constitutional, your options are removed you wait.

RAIN TODAY MOSQUITOES TOMORROW

We're into the very brief warm weather season in Northern Alberta. For the next 16-20 weeks, Albertans will make the most of the very short spring and summer. Given that most of northern Alberta is mainly a giant bog, mosquitoes are a problem. A big problem for me, if there is one in 500 hundred miles it'll get me. If you want to know why those ornery little critters bite some people and not others, and what you can do to to prevent them from doing it, check out Mosquitoes and Mosquito Repellents.

Here are some plant based products that have proven to work for some people.

Repel Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent (WPC Brands) – 120.1 minutes protection time

Fite Bite Plant-Based Insect Repellent (Travel Medicine) – 120.1 minutes protection time

Soybean Oil
Bite Blocker for Kids (HOMS) soybean oil – 94.6 minutes protection time

Citronella
The citronella-based repellents tested protected for 20 minutes or less.

Mineral Oil

Skin-So-Soft Bath Oil (Avon) - 9.6 minutes

If you got a remendy feel free to add it in the comments and we'll update the list


Reference

Bugs and Home
New England Journal of Medicine

Globe and Mail's Misleading Headlines are Bad for Your Health

Lazy journalists, complacent editors combine to perpetuate an eastern Canadian myth. Alberta is about to dismantle publicly funded medical care.

"Alberta denies picking fight with Ottawa", screams the Globe and Mail's head line for its' report on Alberta' Health Care Symposium. If you were looking for analysis, insight and trends in medical care service delivery, from the just concluded international conference sponsored by Alberta Health, you won't find it in the Globe and Mail.

You will find inflammatory language used to misinform. ... "pick a fight .. controversial plans to transform the province's health-care system' . Who is picking a fight? What controversial plans? There is in nothing in the report to support the fighting allegation. Mythology masquerades as journalism.

There is no Globe and Mail 'reporting' on Alberta's medical care pilot programs. Last month, Alberta Health created Alberta Joint and Bone to test new methods of delivering deliver orthopedic surgery, within the publicly funded medical care system. Nothing in the Globe and Mail on that program. However there is a fight going on somewhere!

To foster the great eastern Canadian medical myth, semi- erudite national reporters and their compliant editors, blithely attach Holy Grail status to the Canada Health Act. Have any of them read it? If so where's the analysis of the benefits it creates for Canadians?

What the Canada Health Act, does is to perpetuate the monopoly of government supplied medical care service. A service which governments can no longer deliver. So they ration it, creating barriers to getting it, called waiting lists.

The fundamental principle of the Canada Health Act is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.”

Here's an example of an unintended consequence of the Canada Health Act. It is illegal under the act for a patient to use Canada's leading edge telephony and Internet telemedicne technology for intra- province consultation. A patient cannot go outside their province to reference a Canadian medical expert. That is a barrier to receiving care. The act contravenes itself. So instead of embracing change and innovation, the act inhibits the development and application of leading edge technology that can improve medical care, create employment, and provide options for Canadians in their medical care decisions.

It is time Canada's lethargic national journalists and their smug editors, actually took the time to analyze the Canada Health Act. They and you, assuming they tell you, may conclude it has many unintended consequences for your medical care. The most important is; it limits your ability to choose what is best for you.

Parents Switching to Altnerative Therapies

Dr. Sunita Vohra, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta has published a study about parental use of alternative therapies for their children. She makes a couple of keen observations. Parents are reluctant to confide in their physician about the use of natural products. They have lost confidence in traditional medical treatments including vaccinations, which in some cases they view as harmful. What is impeding the physician/ parent dialogue is lack of natural health care product knowledge on the part of the general medical practitioner and an unbridled trust in 'natural' products. That latter may have more to do with distrust of pharmaceutical products.

Here's a short list of resources that examine Alternative Therapies for children

Motherisk - A Web based resource for evidence-based information about the safety or risk of drugs, chemicals and disease during pregnancy and lactation. Motherisk is produced through a program at the Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) in Toronto. The site includes studies and information on several NHPs, including Folic acid, and Echinacea.

Sick Kids Foundation - Proceedings from the first Sick Kids Foundation forum can be found at: http://www.sickkids.on.ca/Foundation/pdfs/grt_Proceedings_CAM1.pdf

HolisticKids.org - a US Web-based resource created in collaboration between Children's Hospital Boston, and other centres of health research in Massachusetts as a tool for educating pediatric medical residents. Its range of high quality resources is limited at this time, but under development.

UNFILTERED HEALTH CARE NEWS

Unleashing Innovation in Health Care Systems starts this afternoon. The Alberta Government is the sponsor of an international gathering of health care practitioners. The objective is to tap the expertise of 400 international delegates with the intent of improving the delivery health care services to us, the people who pay for it. You can watch or listen to it on the net. Get your unfiltered conference news here. No need to check with the Globe and Mail for an interpretation.

Eat Well- Be Active- Live Long- Live Well

Cook you own food, eat your vegetables, junk the junk food, including the daily double double at "Tim's, Starbucks, Second Cup et al ." Keep in touch, exercise a little, that's the mantra of the Adams siblings all 7, aged from 76- 90 . They've celebrated 582 collective birthdays, so from experience they speak, if we listen and hear, there's a useful message.

Source Edmonton Journal

There's a pretty good chance we'll all live a little longer, if we chose to make the investment, now. See yourself at 90, what's the picture? It's bright if we can walk, talk, read, and connect. Small adjustment now leads to productivity, living well, at the back end of the timeline.



Research Sources
Senior Peer Mentoring
Older Women and Excerise
Attitude and Aspirations of Older People

Media Bombast =Distortion= Bad for Your Health

Thomas Wolkom is influential writer for the Toronto Star. He's an apologist for Canada's failing medicare system. He uses his Toronto Star pulpit to distort and disparage . He had this to say about Canada Strong and Free, a policy paper on Health Care in Canada presented, last week, by Mike Harris and Preston Manning.

Mr Wolkom wrote... the pamphlet is classic Preston Manning, with funding and research — much of it dubious — provided by British Columbia's right-of-centre Fraser Institute.

Who says the research is dubious? That statement is columnist opinion presented as fact. The international research presented in Strong and Free, measuring how effective Canada's medical system is, and how it ranks in the world, came from the OECD.

Mr. Wolkom wrote .... Manning and Harris want to get rid of universal, comprehensive, public health insurance and replace it with a pared-down system that covers only catastrophic health problems and so-called "core" services.

Here is what the report said.

"... Most importantly, you and your family will be fully insured against catastrophic illness, just as you are now, and will have continued access to all medically necessary services regardless of ability to pay. These features of our current system will not only be re­retained. They will be made far more sustainable. But in addition, you will have more choice in health-care services resulting in shorter waiting times, access to the latest medical technology and better care"

Mr Wolkom wrote ...Everything else would be paid for out of pocket or through private insurance. Even the slim-line public scheme would be financed in part by user fees. The Canada Health Act, the federal law governing medicare, would be scrapped.

Here is what the report said.

"In most provinces, when you are sick you will still most likely enter the health-care system through the door to a doctor’s office, clinic, or a hospital that is part of the public health-care system. But if your needs cannot be attended to promptly or satisfactorily, you will have the option of being referred to another facility offering equivalent or more specialized care where you can be treated sooner, and that facility, while licensed by the government, may well be financed and operated by a qualified private operator."

"If the services provided by the private facility are core services covered by your provincial health-care insurance plan, upon presentation of your Health Care Card the cost of your treatment will be covered by the province in accordance with the same fee schedule used at publicly run facilities. If the services you require or desire are not covered by your provincial health-care insurance plan, they may be paid for directly or through any private supplementary health-care insurance plan (which is the case now)."

Core services and user fees, for services not covered by the public insurance program, are in play now. Alberta, just de-listed physiotherapy from six medicare covered visits to two. Physiotherapy is provided by private practitioners operating for profit business, within the medicare system. Government insurance pays for very little. You may have private insurance that pays for more. That insurance policy carries a deductible, which keeps the premium cost at the level you choose. Those who can't afford private insurance, and are not covered by an employers program, are restricted to two medicare paid physiotherapy sessions, in Alberta.

Mr Wolkom wrote ... It's similar to the kind of scheme that former Alberta Social Credit premier Ernest Manning, Preston's father, pushed in the 1960s. And it is straight out of the play book of the Fraser Institute, which has long had a true hate on for Canadian medicare.

Currently, Canadian Medicare makes Canadians less healthy, as they wait for government supplied services, which take longer and longer to deliver.

Alberta Health's website says waiting times in Calgary are as follows:

- 62 weeks for a hip replacement at Peter Lougheed Centre;

- 62 weeks for general surgery at Rocky- view General Hospital;

- 30 weeks for MRI scans at Foothills Medical Centre;

- 54 weeks for knee replacement surgery at Rockyview General Hospital;

- 11 weeks for cardiac surgery at Foothills Medical Centre.

The impact of waiting is completely dismissed by Canadian Health Act propagandists. The apologists stifle reform by trying to scare you.

Medicare Time Bomb- Media Bombast

Canada Strong and Free is worth a read. The report, co authored by Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and Reform Party Leader Preston Manning, was presented April 13 the and brought all the health care nationalists, who perversely wrap Canadian Culture and Canadian values into the delivery of a essential service. A service that is not being delivered very well.

The Prime Minister said: "The Conservative agenda is no longer hidden, it is no federal role in health care, it is no Canada Health Act, it is no one saying no to the privatization of health care.''

The report has one major premise. Canadians need more freedom of choice in their lives. The concept promotes, greater use of private insurance to cover the costs associated with health care, incentives for those who take care of themselves, and a guarantee of universal access.

Here are the main recommendations..

• Remove jurisdictional roadblocks to better health care for patients by sub­substantially amending or replacing the Canada Health Act and transferring responsibility for health-care delivery and financing, including federal tax points, entirely to the provinces. Make Freedom of Choice a fundamental principle of any future health-care legislation.
• Expand health-care facilities and cut waiting times by removing all federal restrictions that prevent provincial governments from using private capital­, non-governmental providers, and market-based pricing mechanisms in the development of health-care facilities and the delivery of health-care services to Canadians.
• Focus federal support for health care in the areas where it can do the most good: health-care science and research, no-strings-attached equalization payments to have-not provinces to enable them to meet national standards­, and the collection and dissemination to health-care users of information­ on the performance of the Canadian health-care system including the portability of benefits between provinces.
• Reduce the federal personal income-tax rate from 6% to 5% for the low­lowest bracket, eliminate the next two brackets, and reduce the top rate from 29% to 25%. The reduction and elimination of these brackets would equal the current federal spending on health care and allow the provinces ex­expanded tax room to finance health care. The equalization for­formula will provide additional revenues to those lower income provinces for which a “tax point” is worth less than for higher income provinces.

What will the adoption of these measures mean to you and your family in practical terms? Most importantly, you and your family will be fully insured against catastrophic illness, just as you are now, and will have continued access to all medically necessary services regardless of ability to pay. These features of our current system will not only be re­retained. They will be made far more sustainable. But in addition, you will have more choice in health-care services resulting in shorter waiting times, access to the latest medical technology­, and better care.

In most provinces, when you are sick you will still most likely enter the health-care system through the door to a doctor’s office, clinic, or a hospital that is part of the public health-care system. But if your needs cannot be attended to promptly or satisfactorily, you will have the option of being referred to another facility offering equivalent or more specialized care where you can be treated sooner, and that facility, while licensed by the government, may well be financed and operated by a qualified private operator.

If the services provided by the private facility are core services covered by your provincial health-care insurance plan, upon presentation of your Health Care Card the cost of your treatment will be covered by the province in accordance with the same fee schedule used at publicly run facilities. If the services you require or desire are not covered by your provincial health-care insurance plan, they may be paid for directly or through any private supplementary health-care insurance plan (which is the case now).

Source
Canada Strong and Free