Sunday, March 31, 2013

Low-Carb Diet May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease

Story at-a-glance
  • A deficiency of healthy fats, combined with too many carbs may be at the heart of the Alzheimer’s epidemic
  • A growing body of research suggests there may be a powerful connection between the foods you eat and your risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, via similar pathways that cause type 2 diabetes. In one recent animal study, researchers were able to induce dementia by disrupting the proper signaling of insulin in the brain
  • Previous animal research has shown that calorie restriction protects against aging, oxidative stress and neurodegenerative pathologies, and that reduced levels of IGF-1 mediate some of these protective effects.
  • Recent research has also shown that intermittent fasting triggers a variety of health-promoting hormonal and metabolic changes similar to those of constant calorie restriction—including reduced age-related brain shrinkage

Low-Protein Diet

By Dr. Mercola

Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. This fatal and progressive condition destroys brain cells, resulting in memory loss and severe thinking and behavioral problems (aggression, delusions, and hallucinations) that interfere with daily life and activities.

The cause is conventionally believed to be a mystery. While we know that certain diseases, like type 2 diabetes, are definitively connected to the foods you eat, Alzheimer's is generally thought to strike without warning or reason.

That is, until recently.

A growing body of research suggests there may be a powerful connection between the foods you eat and your risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, via similar pathways that cause type 2 diabetes. Some have even re-named Alzheimer's as "type 3 diabetes."

Top Dietary Factor Now Implicated in Skyrocketing Dementia Rates

Faulty insulin (and leptin), signaling caused by a high non-fiber carb diet is an underlying cause of insulin resistance, which, of course, typically leads to type 2 diabetes. However, while insulin is usually associated with its role in keeping your blood sugar levels in a healthy range, it also plays a role in brain signaling.

In a 2012 animal study,1 researchers were able to induce dementia by disrupting the proper signaling of insulin in the brain.

All in all, it seems clear that your diet plays a tremendous part in Alzheimer’s, and the low-fat craze may have wrought more havoc than anyone could ever have imagined. It was the absolute worst recommendation possible, limiting the nutrient you, and your brain, need the most in your diet.

The disease is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans — including one in eight people aged 65 and over — living with Alzheimer's disease. By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years it is projected that Alzheimer's will affect one in four Americans. If that comes to pass, it would then be more prevalent than obesity and diabetes is today!

How Carbohydrates Can Activate Disease Processes

Dr. Ron Rosedale, a prominent expert in the low-carb, high-quality fat approach to improving your health, was possibly the first person to advocate both a low-carb and moderate protein (and therefore high fat) diet. Most low-carb advocates were very accepting of, if not promoting, high protein, and protein was, and still is, often recommended as a replacement for the carbs.

However, a high-fat, low-carb diet is very different than a high-protein, low-carb diet and this is a major source of confusion by both the public and researchers when doing studies and publishing conclusions as if all low-carb diets are the same.

You cannot live without protein, as it’s a main component of your body, including muscles, bones, and many hormones. We also know that protein was instrumental in advancing our intelligence. However, most people today are indulging in hormone laced, antiobiotic loaded meats conveniently available at fast food restaurants and processed meats in grocery stores.

How Much Protein is 'Enough?'

Dr. Rosedale believes the average amount of protein recommended for most adults is about one gram of protein per kilogram of LEAN body mass, or one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body weight. (As an example, if your body fat mass is 20 percent, your lean mass is 80 percent of your total body weight.
If your total weight is 200 pounds, you would divide 160 by 2.2 to convert pounds to kilograms and come up with 72.7 grams of protein. If you are doing vigorous exercises or are pregnant you can add up to another 25 percent or another 18 grams in this illustration to increase your total to 90 grams per day.)

This is something that makes sense to me and something I seek to apply personally, but this is partly because I foolishly had my amalgam fillings removed 20 years ago by a non-biologically trained dentist that caused serious kidney damage, so I can’t tolerate high levels of protein anyway. However, it seems obvious to me that most people consume too much low-quality protein and carbohydrates, and not enough healthy fat.

So it would make sense that the majority of your diet should be comprised of good fats, followed by good proteins like whey protein concentrate from grass-fed cows, and organic grass-fed beef, pastured organic eggs and chicken, and fish like wild caught salmon.
Your healthiest option is to ensure your carbs come primarily from fresh, organic vegetables, high-quality protein, and eat primary a high fat diet. Depending on the type of carbs (high fiber or not), most people need anywhere between 50-75 percent fat in their diet and sometimes even higher for optimal health.

Another Brain-Boosting Alternative: Intermittent Fasting

Recent research has also shown that intermittent fasting triggers a variety of health-promoting hormonal and metabolic changes similar to those of constant calorie restriction — including reduced age-related brain shrinkage. According to Professor Mark Mattson,2 head of neuroscience at the U.S. National Institute on Ageing:

“Suddenly dropping your food intake dramatically — cutting it by at least half for a day or so — triggers protective processes in the brain.”

He likens the effects to those from exercise, stating intermittent fasting could help protect your brain against degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Constant calorie restriction typically includes restriction of protein, and as discussed above, some of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction may actually be due to the reduction in protein. Likewise, intermittent fasting, where meals are either restricted to a small window of time each day, or calories are restricted on specific days of the week, will also typically lead to a reduction in the amount of protein you consume.

Again, going back to the featured study, the animals were only given a protein-restricted diet every other week for four months — essentially, they were on an intermittent fasting-type diet. So we’re not promoting going vegan here. Just cutting your protein back to what your body really needs, and no more. The science on this is relatively new and there are many different protocols but I personally have evolved to the point where I do it on most days. I will make exceptions a few times a month.

Alzheimer's Might be 'Brain Diabetes'

No discussion of brain health can be complete without emphasizing the need to dramatically cut down on the sugars in your diet. It's becoming increasingly clear that the same pathological process that leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may also hold true for your brain. As you over-indulge on sugar and grains, your brain becomes overwhelmed by the consistently high levels of sugar and insulin and eventually shuts down its insulin signaling, leading to impairments in your thinking and memory abilities, and eventually causing permanent brain damage.

You may already know I have become passionate about warning of the dangers of fructose. There is NO question in my mind that consuming more than 25 grams of fructose regularly will dramatically increase your risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Consistently consuming too much fructose will inevitably wreak havoc on your body's ability to regulate proper insulin levels.

Additionally, fructose has other modes of neurotoxicity, including causing damage to the circulatory system upon which the health of your nervous system depends, as well as profoundly changing your brain's craving mechanism, often resulting in excessive hunger and subsequent consumption of additional empty carbohydrate-based calories. In one study3 from UCLA, researchers found that rats fed a fructose-rich and omega-3 fat deficient diet (similar to what is consumed by many Americans) developed both insulin resistance and impaired brain function in just six weeks.

More Tips for Avoiding Alzheimer's Disease

The beauty of following my newly revised Nutrition Plan is that it helps treat and prevent all chronic degenerative diseases, from the common ones like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer's to the ones you have never heard of or can't even pronounce. It is divided into three helpful sections, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced to help you start at the right level.

The plan is the first step in addressing Alzheimer's disease. In spite of how common memory loss is among Westerners, it is NOT a "normal" part of aging. While even mild "senior moments" may be caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, these cognitive changes are by no means inevitable! People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it's entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place… and one of the best ways to do this is by leading a healthy lifestyle.

  • Limit fructose. Most people will benefit from keeping their total fructose consumed below 25 grams per day.
  • Only use moderate amounts of protein. The featured studies provide compelling evidence that in most cases you will want to limit your protein to the levels discussed in the article. Most people consume 200-300 percent more protein than their body can use and the altered metabolism and metabolic breakdown products can be pernicious to human health.
  • Improve your magnesium levels. There is some exciting preliminary research strongly suggesting a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain barrier, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition.
  • Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer's patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed.4 Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.

    Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer's through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer's.

  • Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3. This is indirectly related to fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance. However other sugars (sucrose is 50 percent fructose by weight), grains and lack of exercise are also important factors.
  • Vitamin B12. According to a small Finnish study recently published in the journal Neurology,5 people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer's in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 (holotranscobalamin) the risk of developing Alzheimer's was reduced by 2 percent. Very high doses of B vitamins have also been found to treat Alzheimer's disease and reduce memory loss.
  • Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate, such as the one described in my nutrition plan. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.
  • High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding regular consumption of most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
  • Coconut Oil may offer profound benefits in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. One of the primary fuels your brain uses is glucose, which is converted into energy. When your brain becomes insulin resistant, atrophy due to starvation can occur. However, ketone bodies, or ketoacids can also feed your brain, perhaps better, and prevent brain atrophy. It may even restore and renew neuron and nerve function in your brain after damage has set in. In fact, ketones appear to be the preferred source of brain food in patients affected by diabetes or Alzheimer's.

    Ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy, and a primary source of ketone bodies are the medium chain triglycerides (MCT) found in coconut oil.

  • Astaxanthin is a natural pigment with unique properties and many clinical benefits, including some of the most potent antioxidant activity currently known. As a fat-soluble nutrient, astaxanthin readily crosses your blood-brain barrier. One study6 found it may help prevent neurodegeneration associated with oxidative stress, as well as make a potent natural "brain food."
  • Eat plenty of blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanidin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.
  • Gingko biloba: Many scientific studies have found that Ginkgo biloba has positive effects for dementia. Gingko, which is derived from a tree native to Asia, has long been used medicinally in China and other countries. Sixteen years ago, in one of the first issues of my newsletter, I posted the results of a 1997 study from JAMA that showed clear evidence that Ginkgo improves cognitive performance and social functioning for those suffering from dementia. Research since then has been equally promising. One study in 2006 found Gingko as effective as the dementia drug Aricept (donepezil) for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer's type dementia. A 2010 meta-analysis found Gingko biloba to be effective for a variety of types of dementia.
  • Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) can help stabilize cognitive functions among Alzheimer's patients and may slow the progression of the disease.
  • Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
  • Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
  • Exercise regularly. It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,7 thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their brains8 and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
  • Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
  • Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.
  • Avoid anticholinergic and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.

    Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.

Related:

Buttered Popcorn Flavoring Linked to Alzheimer’s

Diagnosis & Treatment of Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease

Activities for Alzheimer’s Patients

Alzheimer’s Disease - Caregiver Tips

Final Stages of Alzheimer’s

UCLA on Alzheimer's Disease - young or old should read

Advances for Alzheimer's, Outside the Lab

Warning Signs: A New Test to Predict Alzheimer's

Super Spice Secrets: Can This Miracle Spice Stop Cancer, Alzheimer's and Arthritis?

Drinking Coffee Slashes Risk of Alzheimer’s

Stop Using 'Natural' Deodorants Until You Read This

Alzheimer’s Disease and Inappropriate Sexual Behavior

Pet Therapy

Animals Helping the Ailing, the Elderly, and the Young

Pets are way better than Therapy!

Activities for Alzheimer’s Patients

The Secret; Care Givers are the ‘Silent’ Boss

The Hoax at the Bottom of Autism and Alzheimer’s

Remember 'The Girls' - Views by Ann Hood

 

Friday, March 29, 2013

Official: Inconvenient For Babies To Be Kept Alive After Botched Abortion

Video: Planned Parenthood endorses post-birth abortion

When I first saw the headline on this story I assumed that this was one of those secret videos where the ghouls don’t know they’re being recorded. But this woman, Lisa Laport Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, was arguing for post-birth abortion at a hearing before Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion. The legislature there is considering a bill that would require doctors to provide care to infants born after a botched abortion. This woman testified that it should be left up to the woman and her doctor. She didn’t come right out and say it, but she argued to allow women and doctors to murder infants…. or just leave them to suffer. One legislator who questioned her stated he was in “disbelief,” but unfortunately, this really is how the radicals on the left think. What’s really unbelievable is that our tax dollars fund this horrific organization and that our society has fallen to the point that we would even have to have a hearing of this sort. But if you listen below, our President agrees with her and Planned Parenthood.  God help us!!

Video: Obama Supports Born Alive Abortion

Illinois state Senator Obama in 2004 Defending Born Alive Abortion.

Comment: Barry Fail

America I weep for you! We were once a land of morals and heroes who gave of themselves for other(s) out of love, pure heartfelt charity and the laws of God! We've gone from the era of the Brady Bunch family values to Mylie Cyrus self destruction, corruption and selfish desires of what can I get for nothing! As we continue to "progress" away from the values that made us great our leaders continue to push for more progression towards our destruction! Oh how the great shall fall!

Related:

Planned Parenthood’s Roots

Abortion Survivor Blasts Obama

Who Would Fail to Help a Baby Fighting to Survive?

Fallen… House Rejects Sex-Selection Abortion Ban – White House Agrees and Media is Silent

Protecting Babies Who Survive Abortions

What do Beethoven, Justin Bieber and Tim Tebow Have in Common?

As We Face 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Justin Bieber’s Mom Hopes to ‘Encourage Young Women All Over the World’ Wi New Anti-Abortion Film

Planned Parenthood’s Roots

Video:  Planned Parenthood's Roots

Planned Parenthood's history goes back to the eugenic ideals of its founder, Margaret Sanger.

Video: Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood's Racist Founder

Related:

Abortion, Margaret Sanger and Eugenics

The Fluke Thickens… Are Sanger and Fluke Related and Was Rush Right Afterall?

Official: Inconvenient For Babies To Be Kept Alive After Botched Abortion

Black Conservative Leaders Discuss How the NRA Was Created to Protect Freed Slaves – Video

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Don't Leave ObamaCare Alone - Republicans Need to Get Back to Repealing ObamaCare

U.S. News - By Peter Roff - March 27, 2013

Even after three years, the nation remains divided on Obamacare. The people who already had health insurance—as well as those who have lost their insurance since Obamacare became law—still seem to hate it. The people who didn't have insurance before, and don't yet have insurance now, seem to love it because they think it means free health care. Obviously they have never heard the old saw about the free lunch.

Health care and health insurance are two distinctly different things. Having health insurance helps insulate a family against the costs of a catastrophic illness, for example, but really does nothing to guarantee any kind of quality care. All the insurance in the world will be of no use to the person who has a fatal illness science has not yet figured out how to cure.

Too much of the discussion about health care is really about the cost of health care and not enough is about quality. Some of the big thinkers out there, like former Bush White House senior aide Jim Pinkerton, have been sounding the call for even more spending on health care and on research. He makes the very salient argument that the economic costs of not doing so could be crippling 50 or even 25 years out as the nation grapples with the declining health of an aging population that is, overall, living longer—which is exactly why Obamacare is the wrong prescription for moving forward.

As many health care experts have explained, the route that the president's signature legislative achievement puts the country on is one that makes stops at places like rationing, denial of care, quality of life determination boards and other backwaters where, it will become clear uncomfortably soon, people go to die. To put it simply, America needs to spend more money on health care, not less, an idea that really is at the heart of most of the conservative proposals to transform the nation's health care industry.

Nevertheless it is the GOP that gets the rap for being parsimonious and uncaring. It's the GOP that gets ads run against it showing prominent elected officials pushing grandma out of her wheelchair and over a cliff. It's the GOP that needs to get to work talking up real reforms that will replace the sham that is Obamacare; reforms that will improve the quality of the health care available and, over time, make more health care available to more people.

The first step down this long road is for the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to once again take up the mantle of "repeal and replace" and take Obamacare apart brick by brick, beginning with the individual purchasing mandate.

Whether it's a tax, like Chief Justice John Roberts says it is, or a penalty for not buying insurance, like the Obama Administration said when trying to get its bill through Congress, the individual purchasing mandate is the singularly most unpopular part of Obamacare. Previous efforts to repeal just that section were set aside while the constitutional challenge made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that no one wanted to change the law before the court had a chance to rule.

Well, the court ruled and, contrary to what just about everyone expected, the law stands. So Congress is free to attack the mandate, head on. The House should vote on repeal of the mandate just as soon as it can. It will pass. And it should vote on it again in the fall, when key parts of Obamacare are supposed to be coming on line.

In fact, House Speaker John Boehner should make it a monthly event, forcing a wedge between the supporters of Obama and his health care plan, who like the mandate, and the folks back home, who hate it. Make congressional Democrats go on record again and again until Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is willing to let the issue come up for a vote on the other side of the Capitol. Get everyone one record as to just where they stand on the issue of the individual mandate. Then check and recheck to see if anyone has changed their position. The political media may laugh, may think it's all just political theater, but it will underscore to voters the essential point that one party really does want to repeal Obamacare, just like they do, and the other doesn't.

There may be some on the other side of the issue who would welcome this, thinking it would make the GOP look ridiculous. And they would be wrong. Right now, with the Obamacare bureaucracy still in its infancy, no one has really had to deal with how dysfunctional it will be. Over time, as the health care exchanges fail to come on line, as the system malfunctions, as it proves to be worse than anyone but its most severe critics believed it could be, public attitudes in favor of repeal will grow stronger. And when that happens it will be, for most politicians, good to have been on record as a "long time critic" of Obamacare rather than a "Johnny-come-lately" advocate for reform.

The voters may not have long memories, but the people who run the public interest groups and super PACs do. And they're still willing to spend millions on ads and grassroots development to get rid of this awful, awful law—before we all really do have to send grandma out on the ice floe and toast her memory.

Related:

Read the U.S. News Debate: Is Medicaid Expansion Good for the States?

Read the U.S. News Debate: Should Congress Repeal the Affordable Care Act?

Darrell Issa: Obama can't break his own health care law

The Examiner: Three years after its passage, the unpopularity of the president's health law is complicating his administration's attempt to implement it. In the absence of support once predicted by the law's supporters, a majority of state governments are declining to establish their own health insurance exchanges, the primary vehicle through which many of the law's subsidies and taxes will affect the American people.

To combat the sticker shock of Obamacare's numerous requirements on health insurance premiums, the law creates expensive subsidies, which take the form of tax credits, for individuals who purchase a government-approved insurance plan. In order to avoid the appearance of a federal takeover of health care, the law ties the availability of these premium tax credits to an "Exchange established by the State." Importantly, the way the law was written, if tax credits are not available within a state, then the expensive employer mandate tax does not apply to companies within that state.

With so many states refusing to play the role the law's drafters envisioned, the Obama administration has embarked on a legally dubious effort to bypass the plain language of the law. Obama's IRS has issued a rule that delivers the expensive subsidies through federally run exchanges as well. If it stands, this extralegal rule will undermine the decision-making role offered to states by Obamacare, and cause hundreds of billions of dollars of taxes and spending not authorized by the president's health care law.

Although Obamacare requires the federal government to establish an exchange in states that decline to do so, a legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found, "[t]he plain language of [the law] suggests that premium tax credits are available only where a taxpayer is enrolled in an 'Exchange established by the State.' A strictly textual analysis of the plain meaning of the provision would likely lead to the conclusion that the IRS's authority to issue the premium tax credits is limited only to situations in which the taxpayer is enrolled in a state-established exchange."

Simply put, Obamacare does not authorize tax credits unless states set up their own health insurance exchanges.

The IRS rule would, without legal justification, compel businesses in states without state-based exchanges to comply with the employer mandate or else face stiff tax penalties. This has prompted the state of Oklahoma to sue the federal government. The Sooner State's attorney general argues that the rule retroactively eliminates a policy option explicitly given to the state under the law, and denies the state the benefit of its decision not to establish an exchange.

Treasury officials have defended their extralegal rule by saying it was consistent with assumptions made by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation. However, Treasury officials have not pointed to a single piece of legislative history that supports their interpretation of the law, other than the assumptions made by the CBO and the JCT. And both of those organizations have made clear that they did not conduct a legal analysis or form a legal opinion on this issue. Their analysis was focused exclusively on the law's economic impact.

The language that limits tax credits to state-established exchanges should not now shock Obamacare's supporters. Early in 2009, legal scholar Timothy Jost, one of Obamacare's leading proponents, explicitly suggested linking the tax credits to state-established exchanges as a way to encourage states to set up the exchanges.

The Obama administration may be surprised and disappointed that many states have not found the refundable tax credit to be a sufficient incentive to set up their own exchanges, exposing their citizens to the other taxes and penalties associated with the law. But this does not justify the administration's effort to ignore the plain language of the law that Obama championed and signed.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Even the AP Thinks This Finding Will Result in a ‘Big Headache for the Obama Administration’

McConnel-ObamaCare-600x4059

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD – MARCH 15: U.S. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers remarks next to a tall stack of Obamacare regulations during the second day of the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) March 15, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. The American conservative Union held its annual conference in the suburb of Washington, DC, to rally conservatives and generate ideas. Credit: Getty Images

The following story is from the Associated Press, cross-posted at The Blaze:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Insurance companies will have to pay out an average of 32 percent more for medical claims on individual health policies under President Barack Obama’s overhaul, the nation’s leading group of financial risk analysts has estimated.

That’s likely to increase premiums for at least some Americans buying individual plans.

The report by the Society of Actuaries could turn into a big headache for the Obama administration at a time when many parts of the country remain skeptical about the Affordable Care Act.

While some states will see medical claims costs per person decline, the report concluded the overwhelming majority will see double-digit increases in their individual health insurance markets, where people purchase coverage directly from insurers.

The disparities are striking. By 2017, the estimated increase would be 62 percent for California, about 80 percent for Ohio, more than 20 percent for Florida and 67 percent for Maryland. Much of the reason for the higher claims costs is that sicker people are expected to join the pool, the report said.

The report did not make similar estimates for employer plans, the mainstay for workers and their families. That’s because the primary impact of Obama’s law is on people who don’t have coverage through their jobs.

The administration questions the design of the study, saying it focused only on one piece of the puzzle and ignored cost relief strategies in the law such as tax credits to help people afford premiums and special payments to insurers who attract an outsize share of the sick. The study also doesn’t take into account the potential price-cutting effect of competition in new state insurance markets that will go live on Oct. 1, administration officials said.

At a White House briefing on Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said some of what passes for health insurance today is so skimpy it can’t be compared to the comprehensive coverage available under the law. “Some of these folks have very high catastrophic plans that don’t pay for anything unless you get hit by a bus,” she said. “They’re really mortgage protection, not health insurance.”

A prominent national expert, recently retired Medicare chief actuary Rick Foster, said the report does “a credible job” of estimating potential enrollment and costs under the law, “without trying to tilt the answers in any particular direction.”

“Having said that,” Foster added, “actuaries tend to be financially conservative, so the various assumptions might be more inclined to consider what might go wrong than to anticipate that everything will work beautifully.” Actuaries use statistics and economic theory to make long-range cost projections for insurance and pension programs sponsored by businesses and government. The society is headquartered near Chicago.

Kristi Bohn, an actuary who worked on the study, acknowledged it did not attempt to estimate the effect of subsidies, insurer competition and other factors that could mitigate cost increases. She said the goal was to look at the underlying cost of medical care.

“Claims cost is the most important driver of health care premiums,” she said.

“We don’t see ourselves as a political organization,” Bohn added. “We are trying to figure out what the situation at hand is.”

On the plus side, the report found the law will cover more than 32 million currently uninsured Americans when fully phased in. And some states – including New York and Massachusetts – will see double-digit declines in costs for claims in the individual market.

Uncertainty over costs has been a major issue since the law passed three years ago, and remains so just months before a big push to cover the uninsured gets rolling Oct. 1. Middle-class households will be able to purchase subsidized private insurance in new marketplaces, while low-income people will be steered to Medicaid and other safety net programs. States are free to accept or reject a Medicaid expansion also offered under the law.

Obama has promised that the new law will bring costs down. That seems a stretch now. While the nation has been enjoying a lull in health care inflation the past few years, even some former administration advisers say a new round of cost-curbing legislation will be needed.

Bohn said the study overall presents a mixed picture.

Millions of now-uninsured people will be covered as the market for directly purchased insurance more than doubles with the help of government subsidies. The study found that market will grow to more than 25 million people. But costs will rise because spending on sicker people and other high-cost groups will overwhelm an influx of younger, healthier people into the program.

Some of the higher-cost cases will come from existing state high-risk insurance pools. Those people will now be able to get coverage in the individual insurance market, since insurance companies will no longer be able to turn them down. Other people will end up buying their own plans because their employers cancel coverage. While some of these individuals might save money for themselves, they will end up raising costs for others.

Part the reason for the wide disparities in the study is that states have different populations and insurance rules. In the relatively small number of states where insurers were already restricted from charging higher rates to older, sicker people, the cost impact is less.

“States are starting from different starting points, and they are all getting closer to one another,” said Bohn.

The study also did not model the likely patchwork results from some states accepting the law’s Medicaid expansion while others reject it. It presented estimates for two hypothetical scenarios in which all states either accept or reject the expansion.

Larry Levitt, an insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, reviewed the report and said the actuaries need to answer more questions.

“I’d generally characterize it as providing useful background information, but I don’t think it’s complete enough to be treated as a projection,” Levitt said. The conclusion that employers with sicker workers would drop coverage is “speculative,” he said.

Another caveat: The Society of Actuaries contracted Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, to do the number-crunching that drives the report. United also owns the nation’s largest health insurance company. Bohn said the study reflects the professional conclusions of the society, not Optum or its parent company.

Featured image via AFP/Getty. Carousel photo by Olivier Douliery/ABACAUSA.com

Related:

The ObamaCare Document Stack Photo: Obamacare’s Regulations in One Giant Stack - 20,000 Pages Already

Congressional Report: Obamacare Leads to Skyrocketing Premiums, 200 Percent Possible

Paul Ryan Reveals His Plan to Balance the Budget in 10 Years Includes Repealing Obamacare

ObamaCare Survival Guide

Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for the New Healthcare Law

Monday, March 25, 2013

Obamavote: Healthcare application registers voters, too

Washington Examiner: The 61-page online Obamacare draft application for health care includes asking if the applicant wants to register to vote, raising the specter that pro-Obama groups being tapped to help Americans sign up for the program will also steer them to register with the Democratic Party.

On page 59, after numerous questions about the applicant's identity and qualification for Obamacare, comes the question: "Would you like to register to vote?" The placement of the question could lead some to believe they have to register to vote to get health care.

In the introduction of the document, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services declare: "This document-the 'questionnaire'-represents each possible item that may need to be asked for successful eligibility determinations."

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Monday, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., chair of the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee, said HHS is overstepping its bounds by a mile.

"The draft documents wander into areas outside the department's purview and links applications for health insurance subsidies to voter registration," he wrote in the letter provided to Secrets. "The position of the question could lead some to think voter registration is somehow tied to subsidy eligibility," he added.

Boustany, a Louisiana Republican, said the application raises two alarming issues: What does HHS plan to do with all the information it collects on each applicant and will pro-Obama groups like AARP and Families USA that might be tapped as "navigators" to sign people up to Obamacare, steer them to register as Democrats. Others have indicated that groups like Planned Parenthood and ACORN could also act as a navigator.

In his letter, Boustany demands from HHS guidance for the navigator program, especially whether they will be encouraged to ask applicants about their voting status. He set an April 8 deadline for HHS' response.

He added that the Affordable Care Act does not let HHS probe into an applicant's choice to vote. What's more, he said the Paperwork Reduction Act requires that federal agencies seek only information needed to do their job.

"While the health care law requires that government agencies collect vast information about Americans' personal lives, it does not give your department an interest in whether individual Americans choose to vote," wrote Boustany.

Obamacare Draft Application

Letter: http://www.scribd.com/doc/132265184/Obamacare-Draft-Application

The Hoax at the Bottom of Autism and Alzheimer’s

Short take:

There is yet another reason the medical cartel wants to maintain this fiction about Autism and Alzheimer’s. It’s about controlling the research, of course. Keeping a lid on the fact that chemicals and inserted genes in the food supply; water contaminated with chemicals, including fluorides; heavy-metal particles sprayed in the skies; radiation; vaccines; medical drugs; industrial pollution and dumping; and other factors have been producing the symptoms of what is being called Autism and Alzheimer’s.

autismontherise chart

Bar chart of the number (per 1,000 U.S. resident children aged 6–17) of children aged 6–17 who were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) with a diagnosis of autism, from 1996 through 2007. / Image by By Eubulides, via Wikimedia Commons

Latest reported stats:  1 in 4 will suffer the affects or Alzheimer's or dementia.

InforWars.com: For the medical cartel, Autism and Alzheimer’s are big, big business. Profits are soaring.

These two conditions are promoted as specific diseases. That’s where all the trouble starts.

If you read the Alzheimer’s and Autism definitions, which are the criteria for diagnosis contained in the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), you find there are no physical tests of any kind.

No blood tests, no saliva tests, no urine tests, no genetic tests, no brain scans.

Instead, what you see are lists and menus of behaviors.

What does this mean?

First of all, it means researchers haven’t found the cause of these conditions. If they had, they would state it.

So how do you say you’ve located a specific disease if you don’t know the cause? Answer: you can’t.

Take four people who are 70 years old and are experiencing severe memory loss. You’re a researcher. You don’t know why these people have this problem. You can guess, you can talk about maybe-this or maybe-that, but you don’t know.

Therefore, you can’t say the cause of the memory loss in each case is the same. It might well be different for each person.

Should you make up a label like Alzheimer’s and slap it on all four people? Of course not. A single label means a single cause. Otherwise, why use the label?

But you don’t know the cause. No matter how many behavioral characteristics of memory loss you name, you don’t know the cause.

Therefore, you have no business applying a single label to those four people. That’s not science. It might be marketing for drugs, it might be a lot of things, it might be about obtaining grant monies, but it isn’t science.

Take four young children who have suddenly withdrawn from the world. Same principle applies. If you slap them with the Autism label, you’re lying. You don’t know the cause of that withdrawal in any of the children.

Now, if you were the parent of one of these children, and you noticed that soon after the child was stuck with multiple vaccines, he developed a fever and then he withdrew from the world, you would, indeed, know something vital.

But if you’re an unbiased researcher a thousand miles away from these four children, all you know, at the outset, is that they all withdrew.

In two cases, the cause might have been vaccination. In another case, it might have been severe and chronic malnutrition or a reaction to heavy metals in food. In another case, the child might have developed a brain lesion. There are a number of possibilities.

Why then slap all four children with the label Autism?

Just because they exhibit the same general characteristic? That’s patently ridiculous.

Let’s take this a step farther. Suppose you had a group of 500 children, all of whom withdrew and folded up after receiving a load of vaccine. You know these vaccines contain toxins. You know the toxins were injected. You know the toxins can cause neurological damage.

Well, what are you waiting for? These are cases of VACCINE DAMAGE. It’s not Autism caused by vaccine damage. It’s not Autism or Cd3syt or Vcti45 or any other arbitrary label. It’s not a disease or a disorder. It’s poisoning. Do you say a person who develops a severe and chronic problem after eating fish loaded with poison has a disease? Is it the fish-eating disease?

Of course, we know that exonerating vaccines keeps a giant industry from destruction. And we know that putting a disease label on people opens the door to enormous profits. Drug-company profits. “Well, we’re researching several promising medicines for Autism…”

You don’t hear, “We’re investigating remedies for vaccine poisoning and exposure to industrial pollutants.”

Alzheimer’s researchers are very fond of talking about “biomarkers” and “imaging.” They keep testing blood and the spinal fluid. But they don’t know enough to include the results of those tests in the official definition of Alzheimer’s.

And think about this: suppose one biomarker finally emerges as a common denominator in a study examining 5000 people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s? Who is to say the cause of that biomarker is the same in all 5000 people? This is not a trivial point. It’s crucial.

If, for example, chemicals can cause genetic changes, and then cancer researchers hail “new genetic findings in investigating the cause of cancer,” at what level are they plugging into the true situation? If they keep ignoring the chemicals, how far are they going to get?

Researchers and the press keep promoting a fairy tale: “If we diagnose people who show the same behavioral factors with a single disease label, and if we keep examining these people for common biomarkers, we’ll find the cause of the disease.”

Well, look at the DSM. It contains 297 official disorders, all labeled. Many of these so-called disorders have been investigated for decades. And yet, not one disorder lists a specific across-the-board diagnostic test that can define it.

Taking all this to a conclusion, we have this: there is no reason to suppose that Alzheimer’s or Autism exists.

Damage exists. And there are cogent reasons to infer that, in different individuals, the causes are different.

Therefore, what we need are very capable and independent-minded health practitioners who can investigate one patient at a time and find out what really caused his/her problem.

That is why, when somebody tells me he’s found the cause of Alzheimer’s or Autism, and the cure, I know he’s on the wrong track. He failed to notice that these conditions don’t exist. Damage exists.

In the alternative field, I’ve read journal articles that begin: “New discovery may revolutionize the treatment of Alzheimer’s…”

The author of the article was bamboozled. He accepted the idea that Alzheimer’s was a single disease. His opening sentence should have read: “New discovery may revolutionize the treatment of that thing that doesn’t exist…”

Then he and everybody else would see the error.

Damage exists. Memory loss exists. Withdrawing from the world exists. Suffering exists. Pain exists. Finding what caused it in a single patient, one at a time, is a step toward healing.

And healing is what it’s supposed to be all about.

The correct metaphor here is the detective. Suppose he says, “Well, we have a murder, and we know that murder is caused by bullets. So we’ll find the bullets and that will constitute the solution to the case.”

The detective investigates each case on its own facts and merits. He brings a wealth of experience to his work. He knows patterns in murders. He knows what sometimes turns out to be the answer. He applies what he knows. He uses clues. He uses logic. He tries one avenue, and if it doesn’t pan out, he embarks on another avenue. He keeps looking. He provisionally uses generalities, but he also avoids them. This is called intelligence. It’s called discernment. It’s called caring about finding the truth.

If genuine healing were the objective, practitioners would approach so-called Alzheimer’s and Autism patients very differently.

The fact that most medical doctors don’t is, at the very least, criminal negligence.

Back in the 1990′s, I interviewed the mother of a boy who had been diagnosed with Autism. He wasn’t a case of vaccine damage, because he’d never been vaccinated.

His health practitioner, during an extensive conversation with the mother, did discover a forgotten head injury at the age of three. The boy was now 16.

The practitioner tried a course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments, based on the hypothesis that some brain cells were in an “idling state,” and had never awakened after the injury. The treatments helped somewhat. The boy became a bit more communicative.

The practitioner then shifted the boy’s diet several times, and in the process found out he was having a severe and chronic reaction to milk and other dairy products. So they were eliminated from the diet. After a month, the boy came a bit more out of his shell. His awkward physical movements lessened.

Supplementation with minerals produced further results. The boy’s speech cleared up gradually. He mumbled less. His spoke more forcefully.

At this point, for the first time, the boy was willing to undertake a light exercise program. After a month or so, it produced dividends. His muscle tone improved, and he enjoyed short runs. He’d return from these runs with fierce enthusiasm. He was happy that his coordination was increasing.

Several new supplement protocols were tried. One of them included a meal-replacement drink that he liked. He came further out of his shell. His mother began home schooling him. His writing was no longer a dense scribble. He could focus on his work.

The boy went through another series of hyperbaric oxygen treatments. This time the results were more visible. His face, which tended to be mask-like, relaxed. He became more animated.

The supplement regime was enhanced with a ginseng adaptogen and a different type of magnesium. The boy received several adjustments from a chiropractor, who had been trained in the original techniques of the art.

A month later, the boy’s communication with his parents and his neighbors reached a new level. He had recovered a significant part of his life.

I asked the practitioner whether he would apply that entire course of treatment across the board for all children diagnosed with Autism.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I don’t do ‘across-the-board’ anything.”

When I told a doctor what happened to this boy, he said, “It wasn’t Autism to begin with. He was misdiagnosed. It was a head injury.”

“No,” I said. “Nothing is Autism.”

He stared at me and then he smiled. “I know where you’re going with this,” he said.

“So?”

“Yeah,” he said. “They don’t have a cause for Autism.”

“So they have no right to say it’s a disease with a single cause.”

He scratched his head and walked away.

There is yet another reason the medical cartel wants to maintain this fiction about Autism and Alzheimer’s. It’s about controlling the research, of course. Keeping a lid on the fact that chemicals and inserted genes in the food supply; water contaminated with chemicals, including fluorides; heavy-metal particles sprayed in the skies; radiation; vaccines; medical drugs; industrial pollution and dumping; and other factors have been producing the symptoms of what is being called Autism and Alzheimer’s.

Covering all that up is a major priority. One dirty hand washes another.

Sources: “Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type Symptoms and Diagnosis,” psychtreatment.com; “DSM-IV Criteria Pervasive Developmental Disorders,” firstsigns.org.

By Jon Rappoport - The author of an explosive collection, The Matrix Revealed, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

Additional books by Jon Rappoport:

The Secret Behind Secret Societies

AIDS Inc.

The Ownership of All Life

Lifting the Veil

Related:

78 percent increase in autism rates over past decade coincides with new vaccination schedules

68 % increases in Alzheimer’s deaths in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010

Autism Epidemic

U.S. Court Rules Thimerosal Not Linked to Autism

British Researcher Wakefield Defends Link Between Vaccine and Autism

How Mercury Kills The Brain: Vaccines & Autism

Lancet Retracts Study Tying Child Vaccine to Autism

Buttered Popcorn Flavoring Linked to Alzheimer’s

83 percent of brain injury vaccine compensation payouts were for autism caused by vaccines

The Secret; Care Givers are the ‘Silent’ Boss

Autism Assistance Dogs

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Secret; Care Givers are the ‘Silent’ Boss

How care givers can handle the frustrations that dementia and other senior health problems can manifest! Staying sane, while you give them care. …Francy Dickinson

Senior Care Tips:  Anger and upset from seniors in care…how to help calm this and give their days peace and enjoyment

Dear Francy; It’s the nasty looks, the angry words and the refusal to even move when I ask him to! This has driven me to the edge. How do I keep going; when I have only been caring for dad a month and I’m out of my mind?

Well, my idea is to remember; who is the senior in care? And who is the care giver? The care giver is the boss…but the hard part? You have to do it silently.

I want you to think of your senior as a young child. Now this is not to demean a senior adult. They are full-grown and with or without dementia they have lived a life that is to be honored. NO, do not demean them. You simply think of them as emotionally equal to a young person of 3-6 years. When there is a problem to handle…you ask yourself what would I do if I was caring for a younger person?

EXAMPLE:

Your dad is still trying to wear cargo pants during the day and his favorite shirt all week-long. He has trouble getting to the bathroom on time and then dealing with taking down his pants is adding to the constant accidents. Even if he does a morning clean up…his clothing is starting to smell. (Does that sound familiar Have you ever seen a 5-year-old that will not get out of his Spiderman pajamas and cape?) So, what you do is lay out two outfits for the next day and take his clothes and clean them. In the morning he has two tops and two pants (hopefully comfortable around the house sweats) to choose from. The other clothes are in the wash. He may be upset…but you have given him two choices and he has the feeling of freedom. Now that means that you have to sort through his clothes and get rid of a lot of things he no longer can safely or sanely wear. But once you get the routine down, the senior feels the honor of choice – even when the choices have been designed for the senior’s better good.

EXAMPLE

Your senior, is a sugar girl. But she has (diabetes, bad teeth, over-weight, or sugar highs at night) so you have to control the intake of sugar. Find a glass candy dish with a lid. Then find a few things that will hit her sweet tooth. Maybe a couple of cookies, a couple of sugar-free gummys, a mint, raisins, etc. Put two or three each in the dish each day. I would place it on her TV side table around 3PM. Let her chose and she gets to eat it fast or slow through the evening. You let her know…”This is your sweet dish for the day, remember this has to last”

Make sure you remove all signs of the sweets in her kitchen area…or your kitchen area. Keep them put away in a large plastic storage bin. So you have to hand out, but just like a young child…you only give them out in small quantities (Do you remember small baggies of goldfish or Cheerios for your toddler? This is the same idea…a treat, but not over-doing it)

PS/ Diabetic sweet products use sweeteners that can give the senior ‘the runs’ – it is very important that they only eat a small amount of the “candy style– sugar substitute” in those snacks. Keep an eye on this so you can learn to judge the amount your senior can handle.

What I am talking about is to think ahead to the day. What time does the senior have to eat or sleep to have a day that is calm? Have you been in the grocery store around 11′ish and heard a few children crying and carrying on? Why?…they are getting tired…they are getting hungry. The mother’s has miscalculated the time issue…they think a quick trip to the store and then take them to lunch. Wrong…the kids are on the edge of no return at that time. Children and seniors need to stay on a daily routine to give them a sense of security and well-being.

If you want to take a senior out. Make sure you have a cheese stick in your purse and water bottle ready for them to take a pill or just drink. Make sure you stop for food and insist they get home in time to nap. DO NOT MAKE MULTI-STOPS. Go to a doctor appointment and to lunch–then home. Another day, you go out and go for a walk around a store and then get ice cream. Another day you take them to a movie and make sure you feed them lunch and they go to the bathroom before they go into the theatre. “Thinking ahead” that is the job of the care-giver.

Your senior needs just the basics. They need a good bed that is comfortable and easy to get in and out of for night time bathroom runs. They need a good day comfort chair by the TV with a side-table. The side-table needs one or two drawers to keep their things in to keep them from a lot of ups and downs. Example: tuck in a nail file small scissor, pens, notebook, hand cream…those are just ideas to keep the need to constantly be asking you “to bring” them things..is reduced.

Plan, to give the senior their space…but you MUST check on them every 12-20 minutes. All mothers have this time frame in their minds; when they’re raising young children. You know that quiet can be good…or can mean the child is getting into trouble. So a check-in every few minutes means you are staying in contact with your senior’s needs, changing moods, and bathroom trips.

This means that you need to learn to plan your actions around the house to that time frame. It may seem overwhelming, but it works. You will get used to it. Then once you are on the same program as your senior…you know to take in their afternoon coffee or tea–or, to ask them to fold the clothes in the morning when they have energy. To keep the house quiet after lunch so they can nap. Not to mention; you can invite them to walk to the mailbox with you — to get their exercise in before 4PM when their energy naturally dips.

Most arguments and bad behavior is a sign of the senior wanting to be the BOSS. The senior is feeling that they are loosing personal power and they want to get it back. You are the person around for them to push buttons and try to be the boss. So when you change your thought pattern around…it allows them to ‘think’ they are making the decisions. The resistance goes down and the upsets depart. YOU, are the boss…and you have to keep the movement of the day and choices of the senior ‘pre-planned’. You do not find grade school teachers just walking into their classroom with 30 children – without a daily lesson plan. So think of your care-giving as a time to be prepared. The daily rituals will fall into place and you can then repeat the weekly plans with small changes. Both you and your senior will feel calmer.

After lunch each day…when the house is quiet and your senior is napping. Sit down and make a plan of action for your day and week. Then you can construct it to give the senior time to rest, play, eat and be calm. You can make time for yourself with visits to relatives senior centers and invite others to your place to give you a ‘time-out’. You can do it…it does take energy…it takes pre-planning–but you can do it. Once you have the rhythm down…it truly can be quieter in the life of both you and your senior.

If your senior continues to be really difficult — remember to write down examples and take them into the doctor the next trip. Let the health care team know you are on the edge and you need help…and they can advise a medication that can help lessen the stress for the senior. *** When I told the doctor and he gave George his medications for emotional stress…it made such a huge difference that I can not believe it took me so long to share the personal upset I had been fighting. Now, George feels calmer and every small issue is not a debate.

You are very kind to be sharing your patience, love and attention with your senior. Give yourself breaks. While the senior is watching their favorite TV shows…you walk out the door and go around the block…or just sit on the porch and breath a little. If your senior refuses baths–hire a bath person. If your senior has been in a snit all week, call a friend, cousin or sibling and ask them to come and give you a break. When they do…go out. Get in the car and drive to the store and just walk around. Or drive to the park and just relax…or drive to the coffee shop and give yourself a quiet treat. These little re-news…will make a huge difference in your ability to cope with rising stress levels.

Do not forget that music is your friend. Learn how to use a light tone in the morning….to get the day going…a quiet tone in the afternoon and early evening…and then a quicker tone when you want the senior to have dinner and be up in energy. Then tone the music down again in the later evening to prepare the senior for the quiet of the night. Music will lift you up and will calm you down…so keep it close and use it often.

Blessings on all that you do…Francy

Related:

Diagnosis & Treatment of Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease

Activities for Alzheimer’s Patients

Alzheimer’s Disease - Caregiver Tips

Final Stages of Alzheimer’s

UCLA on Alzheimer's Disease - young or old should read

Advances for Alzheimer's, Outside the Lab

Warning Signs: A New Test to Predict Alzheimer's

Super Spice Secrets: Can This Miracle Spice Stop Cancer, Alzheimer's and Arthritis?

Drinking Coffee Slashes Risk of Alzheimer’s

Stop Using 'Natural' Deodorants Until You Read This

Alzheimer’s Disease and Inappropriate Sexual Behavior

Pet Therapy

Animals Helping the Ailing, the Elderly, and the Young

Pets are way better than Therapy!

Activities for Alzheimer’s Patients

Remember 'The Girls' - Views by Ann Hood

A Natural Herb That Fights Cancer, or Chemotherapy for Your Sick Pet... Which Would You Choose?

Story at-a-glance
  • Dr. Nancy Scanlan, Executive Director of both the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVHMF) and the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA) talks with Dr. Becker about holistic therapies in the treatment of cancer in pets, and the role of the AHVM Foundation.
  • Major drug companies pay for most of the cancer research (human and animal) in the U.S. Unfortunately, these companies are only motivated to fund studies that facilitate the development of new drugs to sell. Natural anti-cancer agents are of little or no interest to them.
  • Raising independent funding for research into holistic and integrative cancer therapies is a very important focus of the AHVM Foundation. The goal is to provide scientific proof to veterinarians and the public of the uses and benefits of alternative therapies to treat animal cancer and its symptoms.
  • Between now and March 17, 2013, every $1 donated to the AHVM Foundation will be automatically tripled. That’s right – Mercola Healthy Pets will contribute $2 for every $1 donation to the foundation from March 11 through March 17, 2013.

Video: Dr. Becker Interviews Dr. Scanlan

By Dr. Becker  - Cross-Posted at Just One More Pet

In this week’s third and final video, I’m chatting with another very special guest, Dr. Nancy Scanlan. Dr. Scanlan is the Executive Director of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVHMF) and also the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA).

Dr. Scanlan has been a small animal practitioner for most of her veterinary career. She also spent 10 years teaching veterinary technicians. Dr. Scanlan is an authority on the use of nutraceuticals in veterinary medicine, and was certified as an acupuncturist in 1988. She gradually increased her use of holistic therapies in her practice and ultimately spent 16 years as the sole holistic veterinarian in a seven-person practice in Southern California. Since then, she’s been very involved in a variety of wonderful endeavors for the AVHMA and the Foundation.

Dr. Scanlan currently lives in the woods of northern California. Her home is off the grid, meaning that among other things, she uses solar panels as her source of electricity. I think that’s very cool!

Studies in holistic veterinary medicine – including the prevention and treatment of pet cancers -- get very little funding.

The theme of this year’s AHVM Foundation Be One in a Million fundraising campaign is “Advancing Research and Education in Holistic Veterinary Medicine.” I asked Dr. Scanlan to talk about why cancer research for companion animals is such a vitally important area for the AHVMF to be involved in.

Dr. Scanlan explained that studies in holistic medicine get very little funding. If she has an herb that is beneficial in treating cancer, chances are it will be ignored by the big drug companies, which are the major source of funding for most human and animal cancer research. Drug companies only fund research that results in new drugs they can sell, so natural healing substances like herbs are of no interest to them. And this is truly a shame, because many holistic therapies used for cancer have fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments. They are less toxic to the patient and the environment, and are generally better for the patient’s overall health.

So raising independent funding for holistic and integrative cancer therapies is a very important focus of the AHVM Foundation. The goal is to provide scientific proof to veterinarians and pet owners of the benefits of alternative therapies. Currently there is no “proof” of the type the medical community relies on. It’s really not enough to say “The Indians used it all the time,” or “In China they’ve used this for thousands of years.” MDs and DVMs want and need this research.

Another reason we need independent studies of holistic remedies is to determine how natural substances can and should be used. For example, what parts of a plant are beneficial to treat different diseases and symptoms … what strengths or dosages are most effective … what type of growth environment is best … should we source only the wild-crafted plants, and so on.

As Dr. Scanlan points out, this type of research would be helpful not just in advancing the field of holistic veterinary medicine, but also for current and future holistic practitioners who want to understand the most effective ways to use natural healing remedies. And in general, good standardized research in holistic treatments is needed.

When it comes to raising funds for research and education in holistic veterinary medicine, there's only ONE resource in the U.S. – the AHVM Foundation.

Next I asked Dr. Scanlan to give her perspective on why there is a need for a foundation for holistic veterinary medicine. She explained that the AHVM Foundation is the only organization in the U.S. specifically dedicated to research into holistic methods of treating animals. No other group currently in existence raises funds for research into holistic or alternative or integrative veterinary therapies exclusively.

As Dr. Scanlan points out, there are plenty of organizations out there dedicated to raising money for conventional medicine research (human and animal). But if you as a pet owner, pet caretaker, pet guardian or animal lover believe holistic and integrative veterinary medicine has value, then the organization you want to give your hard-earned money to is the AHVM Foundation.

I asked Dr. Scanlan what projects are on the horizon that the AHVMF is involved with. She responded that one of the Foundation’s biggest supporters is Dr. Greg Ogilvie, a DVM in southern California (you might remember his name from my recent interview with author Ted Kerasote).

Dr. Ogilvie developed the foundational research on the anti-cancer effects of omega-3 fatty acids, especially fish oil, on dogs. He has a long list of projects he would love to do if he had the funding.

I’d like to thank Dr. Nancy Scanlan, Executive Director of the AHVM Foundation, for making time in her busy schedule to chat with me today. I look forward to working with Dr. Scanlan and all the members of the Foundation to raise awareness of their Be One in a Million fundraising efforts.

How you can make a difference.

I’m tremendously excited to announce that now through March 17, 2013, all donations will be automatically tripled. That’s right! For every $1 donated, Mercola Healthy Pets will donate an additional $2. So please, take a moment right now to Be One in a Million and make a donation to the AHVM Foundation.

Related:

Using Alternative Therapies to Fight Cancer How to Check Your Pet for Signs of Cancer

Acupuncture for Dogs (Pets)

Part 3 of Dr. Becker’s Interview with Bestselling Author Ted Kerasote: Fixing America’s Broken Animal Shelter System

Part 2 of Dr. Becker’s Interview with Bestselling Author Ted Kerasote: The Seven Factors that Determine How Long Your Dog Will Live

Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs, by Bestselling Author Ted Kerasote – Available in Bookstores This Week!

Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs

Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

Pukka: The Pup After Merle

StemPets and StemEquine – Stem Cell Enhancers for Pets

If I Should Die Before My Dog…

Alternative Dog Arthritis Treatment Series Part 1 – An Introduction

Do Vaccinations Affect the Health of our Pets?

Natural Pet Remedies For Everyday Problems

Animal Chiropractic Success Stories

Why is This Dangerous Infection on the Rise in Pets?

8 Out of 10 Pet Owners Didn’t Recognize These Signs of Illness – Will You?

Dog Massage? Isn’t Petting Enough?

Never EVER Punish Your Pet for This ‘Accident’…

Dog Chiropractor Helps Dogs Retain Mobility

Pancreatitis in Dogs

Urinary and Fecal Incontinence in Pets

Megacolon: A Terrible Outcome for Constipated Pets

Stress in Dogs (Pets)

Pets Being Left Behind to Starve by Their Families

Pet Food Stamps

A Patchwork of Food Assistance for Pets

How the Pet Food Industry Has Helped Create "Carnivore Metabolic Syndrome"

Laser Therapy is Good Medicine for Humans and Their Companion Animals… Any Animals

Surprise, Surprise… the Best Food for Dogs Is Homemade Food

Pet Age

The Nutrient Your Pet Needs More of As They Age: Protein