Posted inHealth Humor

PETA warns women about screwing a vegan guy

Geez, I didn't know that us vegan/vegetarian men were so dangerously erotically powerful. But thanks to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), I've learned the truth about BWVAKTBOOM, "Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the Bottom out of Me." Have a look.   Is it true? Of course! You've just learned about this via a blog post on the Internet. Don't you believe everything you come across in cyberspace? (This woman has a different attitude, but she writes for Slate, which is almost mainstream media. So trust the PETA video; go vegan/vegetarian -- sexually safely, though.)
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Posted inHealth Home life

Do my telomeres look longer? (I’m taking astragalus)

About four years ago I shared my supplements list with a mildly- to un-interested world. Seems like a good time to do it again, since there's been some Big News in the non-prescription nostrums I take every day to keep disability, disease, and death at bay. I've gone from 22 supplements to 19. Gone are two algae oil sources of DHA and EPA, as I've replaced these with Ultimate Omega fish oil. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I decided that consuming fish oil was OK, karma-wise, since there doesn't seem to be an equally good non-animal source of omega-3 fatty acids.…
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Posted inHealth Home life

Why I decided to still get a PSA test

I'm a believer in scientific research. I worked as a health planner for over ten years. I wrote a well-received analysis, "Quality of life in allocating health care resources." I understand that much medical care is wasteful, unneeded, and ineffective. Nonetheless, at my annual physical last week this 63 year old guy still decided to get a PSA test, which is used to detect prostate cancer. Only problem is, the test isn't very effective. In October the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended against getting the test, in most cases.  Healthy men should no longer receive a P.S.A. blood test to screen…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

Amazing! I’m praising Regence BlueCross of Oregon.

This is quite a day. After a string of highly negative blog posts about what a crappy excuse for a health insurance provider Regence BlueCross Blueshield of Oregon is (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), I've got something good to say about the company. Today I learned that Regence is going to pay 80% of the cost of the colonoscopy that I had in February, a big jump from the 0% my Regence Evolve Plus plan originally was going to pay. I complained about this absurdity in "Health insurance companies discourage colon cancer screening." The…
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Posted inHealth

Obscene! Regence of Oregon wants 22% rate increase

I find Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon deeply irritating. I don't feel this way about any other companies my wife and I do business with. Some I'm basically neutral about, such as State Farm Insurance, while others seem like a good friend -- notably Apple. But Regence of Oregon is a necessary evil in our lives. (Yes, I've called Regence "evil and heartless," along with plain heartless; my anti-Regence rants are cataloged by Google here.) I'd ditch this malevolent entity instantly if it weren't for the pre-existing condition trap on individual health insurance policies like we have, so we're stuck…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

Republicans seek to end Medicare with no debate

You'd think that killing Medicare as we know (and love) it would require some serious open discussion. But nope, not in the brave new world the House Republicans have brought us. Paul Ryan's proposal to force seniors to buy private health insurance that would pay an ever-decreasing share of their medical costs was announced last week. This week the House is expected to vote on a 2012 budget resolution that implements Ryan's voucher-based Medicare overhaul. No hearings. No debate. No opportunity for citizens to express their opinions on ending the current Medicare system. It's the political version of wham, bam,…
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Posted inHealth Home life

I’m saving money with a Canadian pharmacy

As a U.S. citizen, here's my bottom-line experience with ordering a prescription drug from a Canadian pharmacy: I'm saving hundreds of dollars a year, and the quality of the generic drug seems just as good. So, what's not to like? Well, only one thing so far. The drug I'm getting is Dutasteride, the generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Avodart, a prostate shrinking medication. (Like I said before, a prostate exam is the only time a man doesn’t want to hear from a female who is inspecting his genital area that he's larger than average.) The Canadian pharmacy I'm using is called…
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Posted inHealth

Health insurance companies discourage colon cancer screening

Colon cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer in the United States. You'd think that insurance companies would want to do their utmost to prevent it. But I've learned that almost all of them don't -- including my insurer, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon. On February 18 I had a colonoscopy. I didn't have any symptoms of colon cancer, but my Gastroenterologist recommended that I get another one, because (1) two years ago my first regular colonoscopy revealed a benign polyp (which was removed), and (2) an imperfect colonoscopy prep obscured part of my colon, so the doctor…
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Posted inHealth

How to (almost) enjoy your colonoscopy

I don't know if it's possible for anyone to say "my colonoscopy was fun," unless they're a masochist. I've had three now, two regular's and a virtual, the most recent a few days ago. None of them was enjoyable, except in this sense: I know that I'll feel much better getting colonoscopies rather than colon cancer. So like I said in a previous post, don't think twice about having the procedure if you're over 50 or otherwise in a high risk group. Once you're scheduled for one, I've got some tips for making your colonoscopy more pleasant. Some of what…
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Posted inHealth Home life

Regence BlueCross of Oregon: incompetent beyond belief

Yesterday my wife had another frustrating encounter with the Regence BlueCross of Oregon bureaucracy. (Previous ones have been blogged about here, here, here, here, here, and here.) This further convinced us that people who claim government-run health care would be more inefficient and mistake-prone than the current mostly private system never have had much to do with an insurance company. There is no way, absolutely no way, that any public organization could be more difficult, irritating, and time-consuming to deal with than Regence Blue Cross of Oregon is. And here's the scary thing: Regence likely is better than truly malevolent…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

“Obamacare” isn’t dead — most courts have affirmed it

Today one judge, in one federal court, ruled that the health care reform bill's mandate that most Americans buy insurance was unconstitutional. Before opponents of "Obamacare" (I don't like that term, since he didn't write the legislation, but will reluctantly use it) get all excited, they need to keep in mind this fact: Fourteen other judges have "either dismissed cases against the law's constitutionality or ruled against those cases." The mandate remains in effect as Judge Henry Hudson's ruling is appealed. It will take a couple of years before the constitutionality of Obamacare is decided by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile,…
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Posted inHealth

Hexane in veggie burgers is a concern, not a killer

A few days ago my health-conscious wife rushed downstairs from her computer, printed web site pages in hand. "My Boca Chik'n Burgers are made with a neurotoxin," she said, "They're going to kill me." She wasn't 100% serious... about the killing part. But after some initial skeptical mutterings of that can't be from me, my Googling confirmed that hexane is indeed involved in the processing of lots of veggie burgers which contain non-organic soy protein. This isn't new news. We just hadn't come across the hexane scare until now. Back in April of this year, Mother Jones magazine kicked off…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

Abortion laws show Oklahoma Republicans hate freedom

What happened to Republicans standing tall for defending our "land of the free"? We have a national election in 2008, Obama is freely elected, and now right-wingers are fond of calling him a tyrant.Huh? A tyrant is someone who takes control by his own means, not under constitutional power. Which precisely describes attempts in the not-so-great state of Oklahoma to take away the constitutional freedoms of pregnant women. Reading our local newspaper this morning, my wife called out to me, "This is disgusting. You're not going to believe what's going on in Oklahoma." Well, I ended up believing it. But…
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Posted inHealth

Read this before you choose a Regence “Evolve” plan

Like I said in a previous post, Regence of Oregon's enforced switching of individual health insurance policies to their new "Evolve" plans is bad news for members.Benefits are reduced considerably, while premiums are rising for many families, since each child now has to be on a separate policy. The Evolve plans' individual premiums for my wife and myself would only be a bit higher, but we were seriously disturbed by the benefit reductions.For example, the Regence Evolve Core plan only covers a maximum of $1,000 a year for prescription drugs. We're pretty sure that our current "Blue Selections" plans have…
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Posted inHealth

Regence of Oregon “Evolve” plans: bad news for members

Health insurance reform may be the law of the land, but health insurance companies like Regence of Oregon aren't done screwing over their members/policy-holders.My wife and I have individual Regence plans. Mine is the Blue Selections Premier, which I succeeded in switching to last year after going through a horrendous battle with the Regence underwriting department over some minor health problems (a.k.a. "preexisting conditions").Recently we both got a packet from Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon informing us that as of July 1 we'd need to switch to new plans, as our current plans will no longer be available.Naturally our first…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

“Health, Money, and Fear” shows weakness of reform bill

Last night I listened to a couple of Oregon physicians nail what this country needs to do to solve our health care problems. In short: a single payer system, Medicare for all.They convinced me that in many ways the health care reform bills being considered by Congress are going to move us in the wrong direction. I'd already had misgivings about this legislation; now I'm as worried that it will pass as that it will fail.Salem's Progressive Film Series, a class act, showed "Health, Money, and Fear" yesterday. You can watch the entire movie at OurAilingHealthCare.com. It was made by…
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Posted inHealth

Bill Maher dangerously wrong about swine flu vaccine

Oh, Bill, I'm so disappointed in you. I love your HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher." But last Friday's episode showed me that you've gone bonkers over your obsession with vaccinations. Which you said usually aren't needed, and are ineffective. However, you're wrong. Dangerously wrong, as Michael Shermer ("Skeptic" columnist for Scientific American") says in an open letter to you -- which hopefully you'll take to heart.Saying on your show that pregnant women and young children shouldn't get a swine flu vaccination is horribly irresponsible. The CDC says that pregnant women are at higher risk of serious illness and…
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Posted inHealth

Wow! A warm and fuzzy health insurance moment.

It's hard to believe, given my antipathy toward health insurance companies, but yesterday I actually felt warm and fuzzy toward one -- for a few moments.I've been arguing with Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon about its denial of my application to change from an individual Plus plan to the Premier plan. I fell into the dreaded pre-existing condition black hole, even though I'm an unusually healthy 60-year-old guy.After sending the Regence underwriting department records of my last two physical exams, I got a phone call from a manager. She told me that the denial was being reversed, as the two…
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Posted inHealth

Health insurers shun people with health problems

Here's a personal story -- a single vignette out of countless others -- that shows why the United States needs to reform our screwed-up health care system, pronto. Earlier I wrote about how we labored to fill out a lengthy on-line Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon application: a request to change our individual coverage from Plus to Premier, since that seemed to fit our needs better.Yesterday my wife and I got individual letters from Regence. Bottom line: denied. Here's how my letter started out.Thank you for your application requesting a change to your current coverage.After carefully reviewing your health application…
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