“Health care” is the largest expense U.S. businesses have today. The current economic climate will force individuals and companies to carefully evaluate their costs. The way most of Americans currently approach their health it is definitely an expense. The investments of today should appreciate(recent market flux notwithstanding)while the expenses will depreciate. For example, if you buy a car for $10,000 today it will lose its value very quickly – this is an expense. If you buy anything that loses value with time it is an expense. If you have health insurance, you or your company pay an average of $8,000/year for your health care – really for your insurance and not anything but that. Somewhere along the line we confused having insurance with being healthy. This approach to health should be viewed as an expense because it does not accrue any value. In fact the U.S. approach to health care is not only the world’s most expensive, but dollar for dollar the worst. Think about the model we use: we pay a third party (the insurer) so that they can invest this money, which used to be your money or your company’s money and earn huge returns (see health insurance profits) and than they may pay the doctor or hospital with your money.

Here is a better model. Imagine if every company or individual were using those dollars to invest in their health. You go to a health club (investment) eat healthy (investment), see a wellness based Chiropractor (investment), buy bottled water (investment), learn great time and stress management (investment). If we followed this model- would our health insurance costs go up or down? Do we still need catastrophic coverage in this model? Yes- in fact with this model the care at hospitals and emergency based care centers will improve - less people are coming in with non- traumatic emergencies in this model. The Wellness Center of NY promotes this brand of health care. Learn more at www.thewellnesscenterofny.com.

In his book “The Wellness Revolution“ economist Paul Zane Pilzer, says, “Wellness is not about a fad or trend, it’s about a new and infinite need infusing itself into the way we eat, exercise, sleep, work, save, age, and almost every other aspect of our lives.

http://thewellnessrevolution.paulzanepilzer.com/index.php
Pilzer succinctly articulates the difference between sick care and health care: “The sickness business is reactive. Despite its enormous size, people become customers only when they are stricken by and react to a specific condition or complaint…the wellness business is proactive. People voluntarily become customers — to feel healthier, to reduce the effects of aging, and to avoid becoming customers of the sickness business. Everyone wants to be a customer of this earlier-stage approach to health.”

When we sit down to figure out our budgets, we must ask ourselves the right questions as to what is an expense and what is an investment. Health care- the actual care and how we take care of ourselves is surely an investment and not an expense!

I have been in the Wellness Industry for over 15 years. In that time span many trends have come and gone. Somehow; for only a minute Yoga got swept up into fad stage. As a result yoga was everywhere. It was: in the corporate boardroom, the health club, the spa, the hotel, on the cruise ship, in the home, on the video, and in your face. This was not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of good came from that era. And we must take the good and keep it and leave the bad behind.

You will still hear people say: “Oh, I tried yoga- it wasn’t for me.” Or- yeah my core abs class incorporates a few deep breathing exercises.” This is some of the leftover residue of that fad phase.

I recently had the great fortune of meeting and spending some time with the people at Yoga to the People. Yoga to the People (YTTP) is about the principle. What principle: Giving, loving and serving.

They have a suggested donation of $10 for a class. This “trend” is a good one. They now have second studio in Berkley, California. Where is the NYC one, you ask? If I tell you, there won’t be room for me. I’ll tell you anyway. It’s on St. Mark’s and it is worth the trip from anywhere. Here’s the link: www.yogatothepeople.com

Obesity is an excess of body fat, and is one of the most common health problems in the United States. About one-fourth of all American adults are considered to be obese. Obesity is measured using a scale called a body mass index, or BMI. A BMI greater than 30 is classified as obese. Obesity doesn’t affect only adults. Approximately 4.7 million (about 11 percent) of American children aged 6 to 17 are obese, a percentage that has doubled since the 1960s. Obesity can shorten your life and put you at risk of developing a number of conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer.

The good news is that even modest weight loss can improve or prevent complications associated with obesity. Weight loss is usually possible through dietary changes, increased physical activity and behavior modification. For people who don’t respond to these lifestyle changes, other more involved obesity treatments are available to enhance weight loss. These include prescription medications and weight-loss surgery.

Causes

Although there are genetic and hormonal influences on body weight, ultimately excess weight is a result of an imbalance of calories consumed versus calories burned through physical activity. If you consume more calories than you expend through exercise and daily activities, you gain weight. Your body stores calories that you don’t need for energy as fat.

The following factors — usually working in combination — can contribute to weight gain and obesity.

• Diet. Regular consumption of high-calorie foods, such as fast foods, or increasing their portion sizes contributes to weight gain. High-fat foods are dense in calories. Loading up on soft drinks, candy and desserts also promotes weight gain. Foods and beverages like these are high in sugar and calories. In general, eating away from home also increases calorie intake.
• Inactivity. Sedentary people are more likely to gain weight because they don’t burn calories through physical activities.
• Quitting smoking. Smokers tend to gain weight after quitting. This weight gain may be partially due to nicotine’s ability to raise the rate at which your body burns calories (metabolic rate). When smokers stop, they burn fewer calories. Smoking also affects taste; quitting smoking makes food taste and smell better. Former smokers often gain weight because they eat more after they quit. However, cigarette smoking is still considered a greater threat to your health than is extra weight.
• Pregnancy. During pregnancy a woman’s weight necessarily increases. Some women find this weight difficult to lose after the baby is born. This weight gain may contribute to the development of obesity in women.
• Certain medications. Corticosteroids and tricyclic antidepressants, in particular, can lead to weight gain. So can some high blood pressure and antipsychotic medications.
• Medical problems. Uncommonly, obesity can be traced to a medical cause, such as low thyroid function or excess production of hormones by the adrenal glands (Cushing’s syndrome). A low metabolic rate is unlikely to cause obesity. In addition, it’s unclear whether polycystic ovarian syndrome contributes to obesity. Some medical problems, such as arthritis, can lead to decreased activity, which may result in weight gain.

The Wellness Center of NY has an amazing weight loss program called Take Shape For Life.

www.wellnesscenterofny.tsfl.com

Calculate your Body Mass Index

Dr. Craig Fishel is a leading Wellness Expert. He can be reached at drfishel@thewellnesscenterofny.com.

Six different prescription medications were found in actor Heath Ledger’s Manhattan apartment on Tuesday January 22^nd , 2008.This was the last day that he ever knew. Six different prescriptions!

In the coming days close friends and family members will make statements and memorialize his life. Some will give us insight to the tragic downfall that lead to his demise. Most will talk of what he was and all that he could have been.

Ledger starred in such films as: The Patriot, Monster’s Ball and most notably his Oscar nominated role in Brokeback Mountain. He was a skyrocketing superstar.

If the Six degrees of separation theory were to hold true here, then you and I were 5 people away from helping Mr. Ldeger. (Six Degrees of Separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six “steps” away from each person on Earth.)

How could we have helped him? Well any lay person, let alone a Wellness Expert knows that chemicals such as those found in Leger’s apartment have deadly side effects. This has been well chronicled by the FDA, CDC and the AMA.

Death from Prescription drug use is spiraling upward: According to newstarget.com: “Poisoning from prescription drugs has risen to become the second-largest cause of unintentional deaths in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers found that deaths from prescription drugs rose from 4.4 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 7.1 per 100,000 in 2004.

This increase represents a jump from 11,000 people to almost 20,000 in the span of five years.

Among the 20,000 that died, more than 8,500 – double the number from 1999 — were from “other and unspecified drugs.”

Psychotherapeutic drugs, like antidepressants and sedatives, nearly doubled from 671 deaths to 1,300.

Age-wise, the biggest jump was among people aged 15 to 24, which the CDC report says relates to recreational prescription drug use and a jump in cocaine use.

However, all other age groups except the elderly over-75 group saw increases of more than 35 percent on a per 100,000 scale in prescription drug deaths – including a nearly 90 percent jump for the late Baby Boomer generation (ages 45 to 54) and a more than 90 percent for people aged 55 to 64. Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and outspoken critic of pharmaceutical companies, said that the drug industry is freely killing Americans.

“The entire drug industry, including the monopolistic drug giants and their FDA co-conspirator, has clearly become the single greatest threat to the health and safety of the American people,” Adams said. “And yet the FDA continues to push more drugs onto more Americans than ever before, all while pretending these drugs are safe and effective when, in reality, they are neither. Today’s pharmaceutical industry is a massive fraud being perpetrated against the American people, propped up by illegal trade practices, monopolistic behavior and outright criminal behavior on the part of the FDA.”

One caveat of the report is that the data used did not allow suicides to be separated from other drug deaths, meaning there may be inherent errors because it was impossible to tell after death the intent or reason for a person’s death from prescription drugs.

“Some of these deaths might have been suicides, although not classified as such, and some deaths categorized as suicides or of undetermined intent might have been unintentional and therefore not analyzed in this study. The extent of this error is not known,” the report states.

However, statistics from the web site suicide.org state that in 2001, nearly 5,200 deaths came from self-poisoning, which includes not only abusing prescription drugs but also overdosing on over-the-counter drugs and ingesting lethal chemicals.

The CDC report can be read in full at this link.”

One group in the United States that has consistently helped to lead the public toward Natural Health, are the Chiropractors. Chiropractors are the most visited “alternative” health care providers in the U.S.A. A visit to the Chiropractor usually will consist of a thorough review of all medical history, with a focus on the Physical, Chemical and Emotional interferences that may affect the body.

In Mr. Ledger’s case any thorough Chiropractor would have looked at his history and would have narrowed in on his Chemical interferences. They would have called the prescribing Physician(s) and discussed the approach to slowly eliminate the Chemicals.

If only one person were to lead him to the right place. While he is gone hopefully his death can save lives. If you want to help save lives email me at drfishel@thewellnesscenterofny.com

Dr. Craig Fishel is a leading Wellness Expert. He can be reached at drfishel@thewellnesscenterofny.com.