The Medical Freedom Channel

As noted last week, I’ve reached the point where filling this space weekly is not only a burden, but an impossibility! Either I have no good ideas, or I have so many I can’t choose among them … or I just don’t get the juice and the time to do them justice …

So for the time being I’m going to use this spot for those Editor’s Notes I keep trying to shoehorn into a few words in each daily posting. I can be a bit less brief, and I can keep this space moving along; a win-win situation.

So without further ado, the comments:

WEDNESDAY:

News

1. Lasik surgery: Worse vision & neverending pain? - Natural News

Note: I’ve been hearing horror stories (not many, just enough …) about Lasik and its negatives for some time now. It makes me glad in some ways that I have been unable to justify the expense to turn my myopia/astigmatism/ocular degeneration into clear and lensless vision 24-7. It would hardly surprise me, given my complete LACK of allergies and other ailments, to find I was among that 5-10% with adverse reactions to this procedure. At any rate, I shall certainly refrain from any of the “cut rate offers” for such services.

http://www.naturalnews.com/023344.html

=====

2. MA: Health insurance gains detailed - Boston Globe

Note: The news that “86,000 people paid a state tax penalty rather than buy insurance” almost says it all; what will they do next: start locking folks up for not playing along? Admittedly, it’s more than a slim majority (71%) who are complying, but among those not previously having insurance, it drops below that magic “mandate” (to 44%). This should be a warning to those who try to impose it nationally.

http://tinyurl.com/5e2kgb

=====

Commentary

1. More profit than progress in cancer research
MSNBC - Robert Bazell

Note: A good analysis of the failures of cancer research to actually “cure” anything, as well as a pinpointing of how the industry is really about increasing profits to Big Pharma, by maintaining a “user base” of ailing patients — keeping them barely alive a bit longer, as captive customers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24930000/

=====

2. Insured or not, few are secure
Daytona [FL] News-Journal - Pierre Tristam

Note: And it is here that the real problem lies: Even the insured folks are in constant fear of “pre-existing conditions” — as well as “coverage denied” for a variety of other (often arbitrary) reasons — and ignoring the fact that in many cases the cost of their “coverage” over even a fairly short time might have been able to go directly to … health and wellness! Mr. Tristam nails this issue cold.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/ColEssays.htm

=====

3. My mother was right about healthcare
San Francisco Chronicle - Luisa Morenilla

Note: Well, perhaps … Momma’s right that you might need some way of paying for emergencies, and the possibility of catastrophic illness, somewhere in the future; however, as a 20something now, if you chose to begin putting those premium-payments into a savings account (and leaving the funds there only for such emergencies) right NOW … you’d have a sizable cash fund built up by the time you need it, and I’ll just bet that you’d find a doctor or two willing to negotiate price for such a “paperless” transaction! (Seeing this kind of “help me, Massah!” attitude from even our nation’s young folks … just scares the hell out of me!)

http://tinyurl.com/62vppb

TUESDAY: (nothing special to say)

MONDAY:

News first this time …

1. Six natural cures that work MSNBC

This piece is actually pretty extensive, with six entire segments, one each devoted to Acupuncture, Biofeeback, Chasteberry, Meditation, St. John’s wort and Valerian. It’s worth a look if you want either advice or confirmation about these remedies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24526636/

=====

2. MA: A more welcoming model for care - Boston Globe

This one looks very promising, and is an example of what can happen when healers band together to help people, instead of just waiting for some official edict. As the story notes, “The ‘medical home’ being created at Union Square Family Health and at many doctors’ offices across the nation is an attempt to provide an alternative … designed to offer patients care when and where they want it and to give the team the money, the tools, and the time to do more than triage.”

http://tinyurl.com/5vovjm

Commentaries:

1. The ADHD scam & the mass drugging of schoolchildren
Natural News - Mike Adams

Once again we get hard evidence that “Attention Deficit Disorder” is far more a developmental stage in young children (one which fades away with some care and consideration about diet and stress-inducement), and that the “hyperactivity drugs” are more curse than cure!

http://www.naturalnews.com/023334.html

=====

2. Facts say one thing, food cops another
Center for Consumer Freedom - staff

And a follow up on the new study showing childhood obesity on the decline, which shows this decline goes back nearly a decade … just about as long as we have been being warned shrilly about the dangers of this “epidemic” …

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/3647

=====

3. Escape from New Jersey
Wall Street Journal - staff

A story about how the folks in Joisey are actually pushing for a lowering of barriers among states, allowing people to buy their health insurance wherever they wish, thus creating market pressure for lower costs and wider options. At least that is the apparent intent of one “Jay Webber, a Republican Assemblyman in Trenton, will introduce legislation to let Garden State residents buy low-cost health insurance from any registered policy in any of the 50 states.” His plan mimics the federal version, by Arizona Congressman John Shadegg, to let individuals buy insurance across state lines, an idea even John McCain has endorsed. The Journal’s editorial board affirms that New Jersey is a perfect testing-ground for the idea, since its legislative morass has created a snakepit of mandates and restrictions that cry out for reform.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121201600312927511.html

=====

4. “Libertarian paternalism”
John Goodman’s Health Blog - John C. Goodman

Other than the fact that this coined phrase is inherently (oxy)moronic — sorta like “government intelligence”? — the idea in this case (applied to healthcare) seems to have some merit. Goodman correctly notes that some parts of the concept (which purports to offer market choices to consumers/patients, while streamlining the menu to offer only basic alternatives) may still assume too much self-awareness in the average consumer. However, there is clearly some improvement inherent in the idea.

http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/libertarian-paternalism/

=====

5. Chinese medicine: The powerful heat-clearing antiviral herbs
Natural News - Christopher Gussa

This one is here simply because it needs to be; the more we know about alternative medicine and its techniques and wisdom (especially so-called “Asian medicine”), the better we will be prepared to incorporate it into a sensible program of wellness and prevention.

http://www.naturalnews.com/023322.html

=====