More Americans getting multiple chronic illnesses

More Americans getting multiple chronic illnesses

www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More Americans are burdened by chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, often having more than three at a time, and this has helped fuel a big rise in out-of-pocket medical expenses, a study released on Tuesday showed.

With prescription drugs playing a key role, average annual out-of-pocket medical costs -- those not covered by health insurance -- rose from $427 per American in 1996 to $741 in 2005, researchers wrote in the journal Health Affairs.

Adjusting for inflation, that translated to 39 percent more in out-of-pocket spending per person over that time, according to Kathryn Paez of Maryland-based health research organization Social & Scientific Systems Inc. and colleagues.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It looks like obesity and an increase in sedentary lifestyle are the two main contributing factors. It really is a tragedy that so many are ill and getting financially screwed for it. I for one just put down the egg McMuffin and I'm a fit guy. Obesity seems to really be plaguing us, we need to take better care of ourselves.

www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

We need to take better care of ourselves... We need to do what we can do to increase the nutritional value of our food back to where it was 100 years ago, for one, we need to look for drugs that actually help (as opposed to ones that mask issues and create additional issues - all for profit's sake), find ways to combat SV-40 (a cancer virus that was found to be in all "vaccines" up until the 1970's), and otherwise demote profit in the Corporation's prime goals.

Until we can accomplish that, starving will happen even as we eat ourselves to obesity, and we will see diseases brought on by "medicines" that are engineered to add to our problems (thereby increasing what we spend for "medicines...")... And so on.

If we don't address the real issues, if we force people to "get up and be active," and blame them for the nutrient-poor diet served to the poverty stricken... We will see no concrete results.

[edit on 1/6/2009 by Amaterasu]

One needs to educate themselves about nutrition rather than relying on the "food" industry do do it for them.
Learn what ingredients are not really "food"
Eat unproccessed food as much as possible.
Soda, chips, candy bars are not FOOD. Nor is the majority of the products at the grocery store "food"
Eat what grows from the ground. Raw (uncooked) is best.
I eat mostly from the produce section and farmers markets. I was surprised when I first started eating this way about 10 years ago that I could go 8-12 hours between meals without any feeling of hunger. When eating the cooked and packaged foods as well as fast foods I was lucky to go 3 hours until I felt hungry again.

[edit on 6-1-2009 by Muundoggie]

My family and I did a 180 on our food habits a couple of years ago and have seen dramatic results. We cut out most frozen foods, items with HFCS, no artificial sweeteners if we can and the least amount of preservatives. We focus on fresh foods/produce, do tons of cooking at home (my vice) and rarely eat out at chain-restaurants.

Since this change we have had a notable decrease in colds/flu/seasonal ills, weight isn't as hard to maintain or adjust and overall we FEEL much better.

I truly believe that health has become less of a science and more of a business and that alongside the medical community, have done all they can to keep our society as sick as possible.

reply to post by Muundoggie


It's funny you mention that eating raw food keeps you feeling satiated longer. I have noticed that too, but thought I was just weird. When I eat junk food I am clamoring for more within a few hours. When I eat vegetables and fruit during the day I feel full. While I am a fit guy, I really do want to cut out the crap I eat. I think I probably eat fast food at least 4 times a week and worry it's going to bite me in the ass someday.

We've cut down drastically on fast food outings simply because it no longer fits into our budget. It's very convenient but when you stop and think about it, do you want convenience or good health? I'm 40 and my husband will be 46 this month and neither one of us have to be on any sort of medication.

I hope it stays that way as we couldn't afford any sort of medicine even with insurance. We manage our premiums but anything extra such as a prescription would probably have to go on the back burner.

I've been doing a lot more cooking at home and I now make my own bread, biscuits and the like and I have no doubt that we will see benefits in the long run.

I know some people think they don't have time (and I used to be one as I have three kids at home) but in the long run, cooking and baking at home is far less expensive and a lot better for your health. And when you throw in gardening so you can eat pesticide free veggies it's all the better.

Just think of all the additives and preservatives you're not putting in your body. Not to mention all the grease you consume with fast foods.

Doing these things might seem daunting to a lot of people but when it comes to your health and the rising cost of health care and medicines I'd invest a little extra work as opposed to that spare tire and a huge pharmaceutical bill.

reply to post by soldiermom


I think I'm going to take what you guys are saying to heart and go by myself a cookbook. Eating poorly just leads to big health bills, wasted money and a spare tire (no offense intended). After reading that news story it really made me want to cut out the crap. Sure I'm healthy and trim now, but in five years my 23 year old metabolism is probably going to change.

Yip,all that food we eat,which isnt really food its nutritionally bunk,many other foods are usually loaded with more e's than a rock bands dressing room.And we are all getting lazy.As for obesity,well apart from the very small percentage of genetics at fault it comes down to lazyness and eating too much crap.Its not actually that hard to change your diet from fast/processed food and despite the myths its cheaper if you know how to cook properly and not throw away perfectly good scraps of meat etc

I agree. Just reading these forums seems like everybody is "sick of" this or that.

reply to post by Mainer


Nice. Very punny.
2nd

im sooo glad people are learning this stuff.
what i try to do is think about what humans really are, where we evolved from etc.. would a wild animal eat hotpockets? there is no reason for the additives they put in "food" these days. for example, take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, if you make one from home made bread, peanuts, and fruit like your supposed to its fine, but the "smuckers" brand PB&J sandwiches you buy in the freezer section have an ingredient list thats a paragraph long.

its the food friends.
if you cant pronounce it, dont eat it.

Of course we are getting sicker -

Our water, air and food are contaminated and full of all sorts of unhealthy additives.
We pass things like asparatine through - when we know it causes cancer.
GMO foods will likely cause greater illnesses than we have ever known.
Ill - informed and greedy leaders continue to add fluoride to our water.
We have quite the job ahead of us - staying ahead of those who run this planet.

Some causes and suggestions:

www.diabetescure101.com...

By yourself a breadmaker too. I got one for Christmas and it makes bread making a lot easier.

I don't fry food anymore either (unless it's okra or hamburger meat for tacos). Grill, bake or broil and rinse your hamburger meat under hot water to get rid of the grease after you fry it.

Neither my husband nor I have high cholestrol, high blood pressure or anything along those lines. I have family members that spend upwards of $500 a month on medications for the above mentioned diseases and diabetes. Those three things can be controlled by diet and exercise if people would try to live a little healthier.

I can't imagine the toll on the pocketbook for those that have no insurance and need medications every month.

In all seriousness prepared foods are a great evil in your diet. Somewhere alone the line these companies stopped viewing what they were making as a product for human consumption rather units of individual profit.

Goods are made about a cheap as possible now, greater profits squeezed in now come at the expense of your health. If there is a way to make the product cheaper (more profitable) that has not been legally proven harmful to humans it will be done (in China it doesn't even matter that much).

Did you know the chocolate in M&M's are made in China?

Mars North America said in a statement that its operations in China do not get any ingredients from companies found to be selling melamine-contaminated dairy products. It says the Chinese food-safety agency tested samples of Mars China's milk powder suppliers and found them to be free of melamine.

- International Herald Tribune

How do you feel about them now? Do you trust the Chinese food-safety agencies as much as Mars does?

Profit. At the expense of your health.

reply to post by Mainer


Ahh, I was unaware that M&M's were made in China. I certainly do NOT trust them with my health. It seems like everything is bad for you nowadays. I guess I'll have to start raising cattle and growing vegetables in my backyard. Neighbors won't like it much but my body will. Thanks for sharing information guys, I always learn a lot from these posts.

Originally posted by Raustin
It looks like obesity and an increase in sedentary lifestyle are the two main contributing factors.

In my case it's extremely poor DNA. I got all the bad stuff from both parents. My body is like a dumping ground -

My mom's shin splints - all the stink'n time.
My dad's glaucoma.
My mom's heart problems.
My dad's skin cancer prone - and I got it.
My mom's bad reactions to many, many drugs (including OTC).

etc etc

I'm one of those 'multiple chronic illness' people - and it is not due to lifestyle.

#1 cause of the ills and pains of the citizens of developed Western nations is stress. Everything else is just a side effect or symptom of this stress. When I stress out for a few weeks over anything, I notice a tightening of the waistband of my pants and a noticable increase in my gut. I also tend to get a cold, suffer from alergies, headaches, the jitters, etc, etc, etc during and immediately following those stressed out periods of life.

Following Obama being elected I became an absolute mess, I was sicker than hell, felt like crap, gained weight, had an acne problem I hadn't had since college 8 years ago, and was just generally in poor health. I picked up the book "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie, read it, and have been trying to apply the various principles to my business and home life and have noticed a marked difference. My metabolism runs faster when I'm not worrying all the time, so I can eat as I always have (which is pretty much whatever I feel like having, fast food, 'junk', steak, whatever) I am not as tired, and I feel healthy.

The lifestyle we've grown into in this country is one of constantly on the go interspersed with periods of inactivity. That inactivity should be a time for relaxation, but we're not allowed to do so because everywhere we turn we're told something is going to kill us, maim us, or destroy our lives. The TV tells us watching TV may lead to an early death, but then advises us in the next breath that there's something else in our homes which is even deadlier... but we have to sit through the next 5 hours of TV programming to find out what it is because they're not going to tell us about it until the 11:00 newscast. The newspaper tells us that eating a Big Mac will clog our arteries and cause us to keel over at the age of 35, but on the facing page is a full page ad reminding us that Big Macs are now 2 for $3 for a limited time, oh... and the McRib is back! It isn't enough that people have quit personally smoking, now we have to be afraid that someone who walked through the downdraft from a smoker on their way into the building will fart as they walk past us and dislodge some particulates of carcinogen which will travel the fart jet stream across the room and find their way into our lungs, killing us within a few decades. We're told that exercise is mandatory to maintain good health and that if you do not exercise enough you will die, but then we reach the gym and see a sign about MRSA virus being prone to live on gym equipment, so after weighing the risks of dropping dead thanks to an underworked out cardio system or laying in a hospital bed while a sawbones hacks off infected body parts to try and stop the spread of MRSA, we see an ad for a home gym... which we buy, but then are stuck worrying about making payments for the next 36 months on, followed by the damn thing breaking the day after the warranty is up.

WORRY, WORRY, WORRY, STRESS, STRESS, STRESS. Lay blame wherever you wish, on fast food, on the economics of health care, or on poor general dietary and exercise practices, but in the end you'll simply end up making yourself sicker if you don't eliminate the real culprit... the stress.

most disease is infact caused by nanobots,its one of the main methods of depopulation.
look into morgellons and nanobots.

how do i know this?,for the ais have attempted to give me multiple ilnesses yet as i know its nanbots i know how to cure them myself and always come out on top!.

did you know you can actaully stimulate illneses by mind control frequencies,have a look!
www.lunarsight.com...

many are there,from gloucoma to many cancers,all it takes is the right freq and haza your a sufferer of an apprently natural ailment!
this is because the nanobots are prerecorded to act to specific frequencies in a certain way,
for example applying a 68hz sqaure waveform for 3 seconds will trigger thier command sequance to cause a certain ilness such as herpes.
applying a certain electrcal freq to the brain to cause a complex ilness should be utterly imposslbe,it defies all logic,but its true if you see it as nanobots command codes!

the nanobots are essentially disease and mind control systems,hence why incurable diseases are cured by anti nanobot methods
www.ufodigest.com...

its depopulation folks,the cure to all diseases is in anti nanobot methods,and i intend to cure you all!

heres the de activation frequency codes of some ilnesses,you must remmebr though they can and probably will be re actived not long after so it has to be a daily thing,or you kill the nanobot infestation all humans are inflicted with
www.electroherbalism.com...