Anyone familiar with this product? Do I have to worry about taking this
vitamin and mineral supplement while on the diet?

I use the woman’s “edition” of this vitamin only because my husband picked
it out for me from the beginning. When I first started, I didn’t take any
supplements but found that without them I felt very weak. Not everyone may
experience that but Dr Atkins recommends a vitamin supplement for the diet
so I attribute that weak feeling to skipping the supplements.

No reason at all. I just don’t know that much about the subject. I did call
the 800 number on the bottle and talk to a customer service rep. I told him
I can have no carb and no sugar. He said absolutely no problem.

I’m registered to take the ANCC exam for certification in community
health / public health nursing on October 2 in Boston. Could anyone
recommend a good text or texts to prepare for this exam, as there is
no prep course for this test. My background is a RN BSN. I’m a nurse
in a large homeless shelter in Boston.

Considering that my background is working in a homeless shelter, I’m
confident about the public health portion of the exam, but I’m
concerned that I may be lacking konwledge and clinical eperience in
other areas for which my background does not prepare me.

It’s been a while since I took the exam, I got a basic text on community
health nursing. Which shelter do you work at, Pine Street? I’m originally
from Boston, got my ASN from Catherine Laboure, BS from Tufts.

I seem to remember ANCC having some info on the test, categories of
questions. I can’t believe there is no prep book you can buy.

ANCC cert in gerontology and community health nursing

The managed care industry has grown dramatically in recent years.
Employers, insurance carriers, hospitals and the general public have
sought alternative means or providing comprehensive health care at
reduced costs. The result in California has been HMO’s, which is the
most cost effective option for employers trying to find health insurance
for their employees. The HMO advertises that it will provide quality
health care. Unfortunately, in many cases, appropriate health care is
denied due to financial incentives the HMO gives to its doctors to
provide less care (ie. fewer blood tests, x-rays and referrals to
specialists etc.) In other words, to control costs, the HMO incentizes
“top sheet” analysis. In some cases this has resulted in improper
diagnosis, inadequate treatment and/or a complete denial of specialized
treatment. In these instances, permanent injury or death can be the
result

One of the biggest HMO’s in southern California made a 650 million
dollar profit in 1998. They also drew several lawsuits that resulted in
a loss of several million of those dollars. Putting profits ahead of
patient care is flat out wrong! Disguising their profit motives as
“fiscally responsible medicine” is at least condescending if not
sickening. If you would like to know more about your rights as a
consumer, let us know.

The choice of a HMO or fee-for-service medicine is simple to me. It’s a
choice of reasonable care at a HMO or bankruptcy caused by fee-for-service
medical providers.

Make no mistake about it, fee-for-service medicine is too expensive. It’s
just that simple. If you don’t think that the medical folks will take all
(and I do mean ALL) of your assets (house, bank account, auto, everything
you have), just get sick without insurance. You will be a believer quick!
There is no teacher as good as experience.

For plus-size patients, health care bias is a real issue

Thursday’s cooler temps notwithstanding, these are the steamy days that
some women of a certain weight dread.

Maybe it’s having to peel off the sweaters and expose those upper arms.
Or perhaps it’s the thought of fitting into this season’s ubiquitous
tankini, which manufacturers promise will flatter every figure. Right.

They’re trivial concerns, though, compared to recent news that should
worry the plus-size crowd, particularly those with breast cancer.

Dr. Jennifer Griggs, a breast cancer specialist with the University of
Rochester’s Wilmot Cancer Center and head of a study that appears in
the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, has found that
bigger women are more likely to get lower doses of chemotherapy than
needed for their body size to kill the cancer cells. That disparity
grew with the number on the scale: from 9 percent for normal-weight
women to 37 percent for severely obese women.

Griggs knows of what she speaks when it comes to disparities in
treating women with breast cancer. She led a study a few years ago that
found African-American women received lower doses of chemotherapy than
white women, which may partly explain why the disease is more likely to
kill the former while it’s more common among the latter.

The more recent study, which involved a national sample of 9,672 women
with breast cancer at 901 practices, did not consider patient outcomes.
But it did suggest that full doses of “chemotherapy in overweight and
obese women is likely to improve outcomes in this group of patients.”

The implications are important, Griggs points out, considering how
common obesity has become in America. It’s a risk factor in cancer and
other ailments such as diabetes and arthritis.

There are some caveats to the new study. The research is based on data
from 1990 to 2001, and doctors say they’ve changed their ways since
then.

Nor does Griggs believe something malicious is afoot. Physicians likely
feared the higher chemotherapy doses would hurt their patients, which
the study showed was not the case.

“I don’t think M.D.s have conscious biases against heavy patients,”
Griggs says. “We just don’t want to do harm. On the other hand, little
work has been done to determine optimal dosing in heavy patients, and
the lack of research may be due to underrecognition of (the) problem of
obesity.”

Bias in health care, though, is a real issue for heavier patients.
Studies have documented negative attitudes toward obese patients among
doctors, nurses, even dietitians.

Soon i will be off my meds that require me not get a large amount of vitamin A. So my question is, what is the best Multi-Vitamin I can get?

I would greatly recommend Solgar vitamins to you. In my opinion, they are the best on the market. They’ve been around for over 50 years. I take their VM-75 which has 15000 iu’s of Vit. A. I don’t know how much you would need, but they definitly have something to fit your needs.

It depends on what your needs are. For what it’s worth, a few years ago “Men’s Health” did a test of a lot of the multi’s on the market, including the heavily-pushed Mega Man vitamins. The one that got the best reviews by their doctors, was the One-A-Day Men’s Essential vitamin.Personally, I take either that or a Centrum, and then three 1000 mg Vitamin C’s and one 1000 mg Vitamin E.

There’s a list of health benefits when you quit smoking, and this *isn’t* it, but a list of my own observations of additional benefits…

1 day: Amazement; tiny bit of optimism peeks thru the gloom
2 days: Teeth get whiter
3 days: Thought occurs: (Is this possible?? Maybe this is do-able????)
4 days; Five seconds pass without thinking of smoking.
5 days: Hair starts to thicken
7 days: Brain puts in very short, brief appearance
9 days: Found your car.

10 days: Whites of the eyes start to lose that bloodshot-look
12 days: Can exhale without coughing
14 days; ‘Certain’ energy levels scale new heights,
15 days, Viagra discarded.
16 days. Cat comes out from under the house, missing since quit.
17 days: You sign up for a health club.
3 weeks: Hair starts getting curly; & shiny, perms, setting
unnecessary.
1 month: wrinkles start falling off
5 weeks: Mensa invites you to join.
6 weeks: The ominous Dark cloud stops following & disappears from view
7 weeks: Complete strangers flirt with you.
8 weeks; Taxes are lowered
2 months; Ticker-tape parade held in your honor in your home town.
9 weeks: You hit a 300-yard drive.
10 weeks: You get to buy new clothes
3 Months: RK sends you on vacation to Spain
4 months: You send RK on a vacation to Spain.
5 months: RK sends you a bull from Spain.
6 months: President declares a national holiday commemorating your
quit.
1 year: You get keys to a Lexus, and a magical hot-tub appears out of
nowhere, with your Buds saving you a spot.

A good example of where “private” health providers can increase the
efficiency of the single payer health system is the following.

Assume there is a clinic in the private sector doing MRI’s for
workperson’s compensation; automobile collisions, etc. This clinic would
not have a 100% “up time” for the machine. In other words, the capacity
utilization would be something like maybe 60 or 70%.

Bring in the single payer system, which can buy some MRI’s from this
private sector health provider at a good price. The MRI machine is being
used at now 90-100% utilization, and, the private sector as well as the
public is better off.

This is why sometimes, under the single payer system, private providers
would actually help bring us a better system. We cannot reject private
providers just because our politics says “oh we want to own this or
that.” Why does that matter?

In the example given above, that MRI machine would be wasted-ie. a
resource not being used to its full capacity, if the public single payer
system didn’t make use of it.

Unfortunately there is a two tiered system now.

As for the arguement that there will be people taken out of the public
system, like doctors, I agree that is a concern however this is the only
reasonable solution that I see out of our dilemma.

What can happen as well is that Doctor’s who choose to go totally
private will have to pay for the full cost of their medical education.
We can tinker with the system-but I look at the French or Swiss model
and they seem to have a good system. Why can’t we have one like theirs?

There is no doubt that our system is very efficient, but I want to make
it better, not worse. I don’t want a situation where anyone pays for
healthcare-no-that makes my skin crawl. One thing that I will fight to
the death for and that is free healthcare for everybody. This isn’t my
usual blather, but I really believe in free healthcare. Its the sign of
a compassionate society, a civilized society. Dogs and cats get better
healthcare than some people in the US, and that sickens my stomach.

I never, EVER want an American style system up here. It is wrong, wrong,
and WRONG! I hate the idea of their system!

But there are nuances in the debate…

What I’m saying is that I believe in the mostly public system but the
public system is not providing the goods at this time. Is that because
of a lack of money, a lack of efficiency, or both?

Lets look at France-they have a mixed system and their system is better
from the perspective that their health outcomes are a little higher.

So if the private system can provide something for a lower price and it
has the same outcome, what’s wrong with using the private system-maybe
they can find a better way of performing an operation. There is always a
better way to do things-and we can learn from each other.

We should try to emulate France or Sweden. Their systems have better
health outcomes than we do for less $.

I totally agree. Its just that I want the system to remain universal,
ie. without regard to how much money people have. If the state pays for
everything, there will be no problem.

My fear is that if the left (like me) doesn’t compromise, we will wind
up with a non-single payer system, and I don’t want that.

I don’t believe that you will be proven right, however, about the
private providers-I don’t think they will wind up providing much more
care, because they also have to make a profit, whereas the public sector
does not. But I could be proven wrong.

But involving private providers would ensure that the public system is
kept on its toes, and would help reduce waiting lists, I think.

What I don’t want is an american system where you are asked for a credit
card before you obtain healthcare. To me at least that is very very
wrong and I will fight to my last breath to ensure that doesn’t happen.
I just think that is so inhumane.

However, I’m sorta resigned now to having some private/public mix…

eco health minister visit rural health centers in iran

tehran, jan. 23, irna — health ministers of member states of the
economic cooperation organization (eco) today visited a number of
rural health centers in villages around tehran to learned about basic
health care, maternity and family planning services in rural areas.

representtatives from the united nations children’s fund (unicef)
and the world health organization (who) were also among the visiting
group.

a three-day assembly of eco health ministers for examining the
prospects for joining the international juvenile rights convention
started out at the esteqlal hotel here saturday.

eco groups iran, pakistan, turkey, azerbaijan, turkmenistan,
uzbekistan, kazakhstan, kirghizistan, tajikistan and afghanistan.

among the rural health centers visited by the group sunday was a
rural health center in the small village of ‘sounabad’ of kahrizak.

rural health technician ma’soumeh moradi told the group that the
village has a population of about 700 with full personal health
records of women and children.

she said rural health technicians identify persons needing special
medical aid and introduce them to better equipped centers in nearby
towns and cities.

national health planning expert dr kamel shadpour told the group
that the need for national health services has been reavis

The selling of socialized medicine (c’mon, let’s use the term…I’m not afraid
of it) must be done intitially in two parts: A). Sell it to the population at
large & B). Sell it to big and small business.

1. Proponents of socialized medicine should start educating the masses about
the benefits of this system vis a vis the current system.
2. For every argument against, you must come up with two arguments for.
3. Don’t allow the debate to be polluted with dead terms like “communist”.
4. Explain any tax increase against the cost they pay in health insurance now
and the benefits they’ll get once a system is put in place.
5. If you can convince corporations and small businesses about the cost
benefits to them, they will gladly hop on the bandwagon. And once the
corporations want it, their puppets in Congress will gladly go along.
I work in a company that won’t hire a person they need to fill a slot not
because of his salary, but because of the benefits that would have to be
offered to him. Socialized medicine would take care of that little problem.

As for the insurance companies? Well, the buggy manufacturers were none too
pleased about the automobile a hundred years ago, not to mention the horse
shoe makers. That’s what’s called progress. As the 212th Rule of Aquisition
says, “Too fucking bad”.

National health insurance would be a disaster. We are in the current mess because of the
government, it’s rear end kissing attitude to insurance carriers & it’s increasing meddling
in the delivery of health care. Many physicians would treat some poor without charge or
volunteer supervision at teaching hospitals if they could only get paid in a timely fashion &
appropriate sums for treating the non-poor. How can we currently do that when managed/mangled
care forces us to do volume work at negative profit margins. In Mexico it is a requirement of
licensure.

As a matter of principle, I think EVERYONE should be given the right to
strike. I think Doctors should strike, where ever they get a chance to
strike. It will be to everyone’s benefit, in the long run. Besides, Doctors
are not about to let critical emergencies go untreated. There have been
instances of Doctors going on strike. It’s very, very, very rare, but it’s
happened. The few instances when Doctors did go on strike, guess what
happened? The mortality rate went down in that town, and the general
population became much healthier. The reason for that was that the sick
people moved out of town, and everyone else started taking extra good care of
their health, for obvious reasons. There are a lot of examples of Hospitals,
and Nursing homes, where Nurses, and Nurses’ Assistants were able to have an
enormous impact on improving the health care system, by simply organizing,
and striking. I don’t think that ANYBODY should be denied the option of
going on strike in order to highlight their grievances. It’s the American
way, and in extreme examples, it’s the only way that the bosses, or the
public will take any notice. I certainly do feel that Doctors should get
paid more than what they are getting paid now, their input into improving the
Nation’s health care system is important. I have 7 Uncles, all of them
Doctors. Their main complaints seem to be that they are overworked, and that
the insurance companies are jerking them around, telling them how to do their
jobs.

We should probably TRY market-based medicine before we decide it won’t
work. Much of the problems of today can be traced to the days of WWII when the
gov’t tied health insurance so completely to the workplace (for self-serving
reasons we can get into later).

This did a couple of things. First it effectively divorced the
consumer of medical care from the payor of medical care. The employer not the
employee is really the customer of the insurance company. Now the employer
wants cheaper medicial insurance and the insurance company, true to the
economics of the situation, are listening to them

Secondly, it (with the help of Mcare in the 60s and employer
collective bargaining decisions in the 70 and 80s) brought about the MASSIVE
subsidies we see today (HCFA stats show decrease in out of pocket medical
expenses (including OOP part of the insurance premium) has dropped from 50% in
the 60s to less than 20% currently.

Throw in the current dichotomy between what is essentially an acute
care payment and delivery system on a chronic care model and the rest is
history.