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February 24, 2010

Healthcare to “Die” For

Posted by Zoe V under Health, Politics | Tags: Conventional Medicine, death from drugs, diet, drug-related death, Healthcare, medical errors, Nutrition, The China Study |
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Right about now, you are probably sick and tired of hearing the word “healthcare.” I certainly am! After months and months or political debates, many of which conducted behind secret doors, neither party members have come to a collaborative decision on what to do next. Meanwhile, the number of uninsured Americans has almost doubled to staggering 86.7 million in comparison to 45.7 million in 2007, according to U.S. Census Bureau. To put this roughly, one of every three Americans is left on their own when it comes to their health coverage.

Until a few months ago I used to think that Universal healthcare was the answer to the problem. If we could be given health coverage as a birth right somehow all our aches, pains and issues could at least be paid for by the government. The financial burden would be lifted of our shoulders and we could take a deep sigh of relief. I no longer believe in Universal healthcare as the answer to long and healthy life and here is why.

Let’s first examine how effective is the current healthcare system. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated that in 2007 U.S. health care spending was about $7,421 per resident and accounted for 16.2% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); this is among the highest of all industrialized countries. Yet the World Health Organization ranks us 37th in overall quality. The growing rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity probably explain why we spend so much on healthcare and get so little health out of it.

In an eye-popping report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in July of 2000, Dr. Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, stated that medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

The report apparently shows there are:

2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery;
7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals;
20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals;
80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals;
106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications.

All those total up to 225,000 deaths per year in the US from iatrogenic causes which ranks medical error deaths as the # 3 killer behind heart attack and cancer (Iatrogenic is a term used when a patient dies as a direct result of treatments by a physician, whether it is from misdiagnosis of the ailment or from adverse drug reactions used to treat the illness.)

Incidentally, this same report found that 7% (one out of fifteen) of all hospitalized patients have experienced adverse drug reaction, one that “requires hospitalization, is permanently disabling or results in death.” These are people who took their medicine as directed.

Big pharma has a lot to do with extinction of human species indeed. Dr. Marcia Angell, author of The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It, warns about the incredible drug bias in medical research. It may not be obvious that if most of the funding for medical research comes from drug companies, then most of the research is going to be on drugs. That is why it takes so long for research to be done to show that a drug is dangerous. Just think how long it took to research hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and find out that it is harming more women than it helps. In fact, Dr. Angell points HRT research as a classic example of the manipulation of modern medicine by pharmaceutical companies.

The inconvenient truth is that conventional medicine in the United States has a rather dysfunctional approach to treating illnesses. Doctors are trained to treat the symptoms and rarely address the cause of the problem. Worse yet, they prescribe pills for illnesses that you may not even have. Due to the lack of electronic records multiple doctors may prescribe drugs that counteract each other and create unwanted health problems. The premature deaths of Hollywood celebrities such as Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith and more recently, Brittany Murphy, which stated prescription drugs overdose as the cause of death, illustrate my point here.

As you can see, relying on our politicians to choose what’s best for our health has been a recipe for disaster. The problems with our healthcare system are so deeply rooted in monetary and ethical corruption that the present healthcare proposal does not even mention.

Believe it or not, many of our health disorders stem from poor diet and stressful lifestyle. The relationship between nutrition and diseases is well-researched and documented in T. Colin Campbell’s book The China Study. I highly recommend that you read this book so you can understand how you can prevent and reverse diseases through changes in your eating habits. Dr. Campbell writes:

“If nutrition were better understood, and prevention and natural treatments were more accepted in the medical community, we would not be pouring so many toxic, potentially lethal drugs into our bodies at the last stage of disease. We would not be frantically searching for the new medicine that alleviates the symptoms but often does nothing to address the fundamental cause of our illnesses. We would not be spending our money developing, patenting and commercializing “magic bullet” drugs that often cause additional health problems. The current system has not lived up to its promise. It’s time to shift our thinking into a broader perspective on health, one that includes proper understanding and use of good nutrition.”

Dr. Campbell couldn’t be more right about the need for shift in perspective when it comes to our health. Even Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said, “Let food be thy medicine.” But don’t expect your doctor to give you diet tips when you go to see him or her next time. They are not interested in preventing diseases because that will eliminate the need for their services. It’s better to keep the patient dependent on drugs so ongoing business is secured. You may not want to accept that but preventative medicine is bad for the profits.

Instead of waiting for others to choose what type of healthcare we get, which treatment is covered, what doctor we can keep, etc., it’s time that we move from the passenger to the driver’s seat. It starts by accepting responsibility for our health and making it a top priority. We can eliminate our chances of developing cancer, stop heart attacks from happening, minimize the possibility for diabetes and maintain healthy weight simply by changing our diet. When our bodies receive optimal nutrition diseases have no chance of survival. And that is the BEST health insurance one can get.

November 10, 2009

The fall of Communism through my own eyes

Posted by Zoe V under Life, Politics, Vlogs | Tags: 20th anniversary, Bulgaria, communism, Communist Party, democracy, East Germany, Eastern Europe, fall of Berlin Wall, fight, freedom, oppression, video, West Germany |
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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Bulgaria – November 10th, 1989. For those who don’t know yet, I was born and raised in Bulgaria before coming to America with my family in 1997. I was 10 years old when the Berlin Wall came down, an event that snowballed the fall of Communism throughout other Eastern European countries including my native Bulgaria. Although young I fully understood the magnitude of the event. Witnessing the fight of the Bulgarian people to establish democratic nation has deeply influenced my views on politics today. My deepest gratitude to those who paid with their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom today.

In honor of that anniversary, I have created a video accounting my personal experience of the event, as well as some interesting stories from my life in a Communist country.

November 5, 2009

FOOD, Inc. – Movie Review (video)

Posted by Zoe V under Green Matters, Politics, Reviews, Vlogs | Tags: corruption, eric slosser, fast food nation, fda, food, food inc, genetically modified seed, meat industry, monsanto, movie, organic, review, robert kenner, smithfield, stonyfield, usda |
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I am proud to make an announcement that I started my own Youtube channel GreenMomZoe dedicated to educating and sharing information on green and spiritual matters. Last night I created my first vlog (video blog) and I’m very excited to share it with you.

My Youtube channel will serve as an extension of my blog. I will still write but occasionally, I will make videos, which I enjoy tremendously. Hopefully, with my blog and new channel I will be able to reach a larger audience and spread the message of truth, hope, love, unity and enlightenment.

Stay tuned for more blogs/vlogs in the future.

September 16, 2009

Wait! Don’t cut that credit card!

Posted by Zoe V under Finances, Green Matters, Myth Busters, Politics
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A couple of years ago I decided to cut up my credit cards and discontinue using them for good. My goal was to pay off my already accumulated debt and live a debt-free life. It felt so good to cut up those evil cards in tiny pieces and discard them in the trash can. But today I feel ashamed for my actions.

Don't Cut!

I have just learned that most credit cards are typically made of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. For those who are unaware of what PVC means, below is a short summary from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), which coordinates the PVC Consumer Campaign:

“PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic, commonly referred to as vinyl, is one of the most hazardous consumer products ever created. PVC is dangerous to human health and the environment throughout its entire life cycle, at the factory, in our homes, and in the trash. When produced or burned, PVC plastic releases dioxins, a group of the most potent synthetic chemicals ever tested, which can cause cancer and harm the immune and reproductive systems. PVC can be recognized by the number 3.”

PVC
In addition to being extremely toxic and carcinogenic, PVC is not recyclable. You might cringe after reading the next part of the description:

“PVC cannot be effectively recycled due to the many different toxic additives used to soften or stabilize PVC, which can contaminate the recycling batch. Most consumers do not know that a 3 in the recycle symbol indicates that the plastic is made of PVC, and therefore recycle those products, inadvertently rendering thousands of potentially recycled containers useless. In fact just one PVC bottle can contaminate a recycling load of 100,000 PET bottles.”

Open your wallet and look inside. PVC is the building material behind all those plastic cards in there – ID cards, credit cards, driver’s license, library card, video rental card, membership cards, shopper discount cards, retailer gift cards. All of them.

Each year, there are 10 billion new cards placed in circulation. When these cards are replaced or reach their expiration dates, most of them are thrown in the trash, contributing more than 75 million pounds of PVC material to the waste stream every year. Subsequently, PVC ends up in our drinking water despite the vigorous cleaning tap water goes through.

Still not alarmed? Consider this. In 2006, the United States Census Bureau determined that there were nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space — and be almost as tall as 13 Mount Everests. If this number of credit cards were thrown away every three years, the stack of credit cards would reach almost 43 Everests high after a decade.

So each time you cut up and throw away one more plastic card from your wallet, you are adding to that PVC Mount Everest and causing irreversible damage to the environment. Talking about making an impact. I don’t know about you but I feel very guilty over the plastic cards I’ve discarded over the years.

Fortunately, there is something you can do to prevent further damage to our environment. The next time you get an inciting offer from a credit company, think twice before signing up. Save you credit and save your environment by passing on it. As for store cards, you can live without them. You can also opt out of Blockbuster and sign up on Netflix. No membership cards are required there. Some gyms can enter your membership manually instead of swiping a card. If you are creative, you can find even more ways around plastic cards.

Also, you may want to discontinue buying and giving gift cards as presents to family, friends and coworkers. Gift cards are short lived and usually discarded immediately upon depletion. Instead, buy an actual gift or just give them cash.

If you have old plastic card and are looking for away to dispose them, please DON’T CUT AND THROW AWAY in the trash bin like I did. Dumping them with the rest of your recyclables won’t help, as you already read PVC is neither recyclable nor biodegradable. Instead go to Earthworks™ to donate your useless plastic cards. They provides a green alternative to PVC by producing cards made from 100% recycled PVC material. Using this American-made recycled card material conserves energy by reducing the demand for new PVC, and goes a long way toward reducing landfill volume and protecting the environment.

Another company that is revolutionizing the biodegradable plastics market is Discover. In December of 2008, the credit card issuer introduced its first biodegradable credit card. The card plastic is durable for up to four years. After that it degrades quickly when exposed to landfill conditions and breaks down 99% in five years without leaving a toxic effect on the environment.

The Discover initiative could be implemented by other credit card companies as more consumers become aware of the dangers of PVC and demand more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Colleges, libraries, government agencies and stores can follow suit.

One thing to note, however, is that Earthworks and BIOPVC, the company behind the Discover biodegradable cards, both use already existing PVC material to build the renewable option. Their approach, though innovative, is more of a temporary fix. A better solution would be to find an alternative to PVC that has its own renewable origin. This way our government can ban the produce and use of PVC once for all. Until then, we should focus on what we can do individually to decrease your PVC footprint on our planet.

May 20, 2009

Chemotherapy kills more than cancer

Posted by Zoe V under Health, Myth Busters, Politics | Tags: alternative medicine, cancer, chemotherapy kills, death, holistic, Matthew "Jett" Schaefer, pharma, refusing chemo |
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After watching a controversial video report on CNN this morning, I couldn’t keep silent and wanted to share some thoughts with you. The report was about a mother of a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with a type of cancer called Hotchkins Lymphoma. Supposedly, the mother and the boy refused to get chemotherapy and chose a natural, holistic treatment based on Native Indian philosophies to heal the body. The boy said that he doesn’t want any chemo because he tried it once and believed it would kill him. Since the boy and the mom opted out for alternative medicine now court has issued warrant for the mother.

With all due respect to all my friends who are battling cancer and to those whose relatives are battling or have died from cancer, I think there is something fundamentally wrong with this report. First of all, the government has no business “forcing” anyone to get chemo. That’s a personal decision that should be left private. It’s no different than abortion, same sex marriage or choice of religious belief. Just because your views may not be shared by the majority it doesn’t make them wrong or less valid. Government intervention in such cases is nothing more than seizing our constitutional rights. If America still wants to hold the title as the Land of the Free, government should leave cancer victims to decide for themselves if chemo is the right choice.

Second of all, chemotherapy is not the ONLY way to treat cancer. If fact, it kills more patients than it helps, 27 percent according to a recent report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, published at BBC. That’s roughly 1/3 of all people who get chemo! Disturbing statistic, isn’t it? If I was a mother of a child diagnosed with cancer, with this kind of fatality rate, I would opt out of chemo and go for alternative medicine too. There are much more natural and less dangerous cures out there but the general population doesn’t know because 1). the doctors who propose alternative treatments are ostracized by the medical field, 2). the mass media blackout on alternative and holistic medicine, 3). it’s estimated that an average chemo regimen costs between $300,000 and $1,000,000 so obviously the pharma field has no value in curing cancer. Just follow the money trail and you will understand why there is still no cure for cancer.

The problem with chemo is that is a temporary solution to cancer. It may prolong the life of the victim but it doesn’t cure the illness. Think of it this way, let’s say your car needed some major repair. Instead of targeting the cause of the problem and eliminating it altogether, you kept spending few bucks here and there to maintain the stability of the car. Sooner or later, your car will break down and you not only wasted money on small repairs but your car will no longer function. Now imagine that car was your body. Cancer is the major repair that needs to be eradicated. But conventional medicine only offers small repairs along the way called chemo. Just when you think your cancer has gone into remission it comes back again.

Earlier this year I wrote a blog about Matthew “Jett” Schaefer, an actor, model and private pilot. Matt was an inspiration to many especially after his battle with cancer last year. He underwent chemo too and thought he beat cancer. In January 2009, Maximum Fitness magazine featured him on their cover with a title, “How I cheated death.” Ironically, that month Matthew passed away unexpectedly not from the cancer, but from a rare sinus infection. According to his memorial web site, the infection would have not been as deadly had Matthew produced enough white cells to fight it off. But his body was too weak from the latest chemo therapy which killed all of his white cells. It makes you wonder, did chemo really helped Matt or killed him.

Here is another important point to consider. Cancer may not be curable but it’s surely preventable. For example, carcinogens such as parabens (another name for artificial fragrances), phthalates and aluminum are abundant in conventional beauty care products. They get absorbed by our skin into the endocrine system and produce cancerous cells. Genetically modified foods (GMO) and antibiotics/hormones treated animals are ever more present in our food. Humans are not meant to eat or drink such ingredients without the danger of developing cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and other disorders. It makes sense why such prevalent health problems today were virtually unheard of prior to 20th century. Had FDA applied stricter laws to food and beauty care products, cancer rates would drop drastically.

I may not be a doctor or even a cancer expert but my intuition tells me that there is another way. There must be! My wish is that more cancer researchers will turn to alternative medicine and shed light on those treatments. Perhaps there is already a cure, lingering right before our eyes, but we have not thought about it yet. It can even be simple and inexpensive. Or perhaps the cure to cancer is to prevent it from entering our bodies in the first place.