Health care costs, Canada (and the World) Vs. U.S.

Here is a telling illustration with some text from the Health Insurance 2008 web page.

As health costs shoot into the stratosphere, the U.S. has turned to Canada for a steady supply of low-cost drugs and medical care. Overall, medical tourism -- in which U.S. citizens travel to other countries simply for cheap care -- doubled over the course of one year (from 2006-2007).
The Key Issue? Cost.

The key issue was cost. And the perfect illustration is a comparison with Canada. Our neighbors to the north have been able to spend the same amount of money administering free, universal coverage to its 27 million citizens as the single region of New England in the U.S. (which has a meager population of 2.5 million).

Obviously, costs have gone haywire. Have the added costs provided more quality in health care? Or are these costs simply attributable to mismanagement and inefficiencies. Expect this issue to come up more during this year's election coverage.

For grins, here is another illustration from the UC Atlas of Global Inequality:




Enjoy seeing at least part of the situation laid out clearly,

Bp

[via Uncle Ted]

Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world

Another great Ted Talk. This time it's mycological superstar Paul Stamets, founder of the great company Fungi Perfecti, talking about mushrooms and how incredible they are. Not just as organisms in and of themselves, but as means to clean up hazardous waste, create soil, and generate medicines.

Despite using language that's heavy on my pet peeve list ("save the world" etc), this talk is very interesting. Note that he's going to get pretty sciency at some points, but just stick with it, he wraps it all back together by the end. You can definitely tell Stamets is one of the presenters that struggles with TED's 18-minute time limit.



Enjoy the endless ways that nature can help us help ourselves,

Bp

[via Patrick Gracewood]

Absinthe cures ulcers

I have a great Microbiology teacher, his name is Radu Popa and I'm enjoying his class quite a bit. He's Romanian, and therefore sounds a bit like Dracula when he lectures -- it's fantastic. Today, he went off about Absinthe and inspired me to post about this psychoactive liquor.

Did you know that Absinthe cured ulcers? It kills a bacteria called Heliobacter pylori which causes many types of ulcers (but not all). Now I am not, of course, suggesting you drown your ulcer in Absinthe when a simple treatment of antibiotics will even more effectively treat the same condition. [get that AMA -- I'm NOT suggesting that, for the record] But it's a cool fact nonetheless.

The active ingredients in Absinthe (at least those what make it fantastically, radioactively green, and gives it the characteristic bitter taste) are toxic in sufficient quantities. This is part (but not all) of why it gained such a stigma in Europe and in the U.S. When distilled improperly, it is quite toxic. The other reason it got such a bad reputation, according to Dr. Popa, was its competition. Vinters, brewers and distilleries made a conscious attempt to smear the reputation of Absinthe. The fact that lax producers produced a sometimes-toxic product made their job easy. Only recently has it seen a resurgence in popularity across Europe.

When distilled properly, Absinthe is purported to have psychoactive qualities. These are imparted by the use of "Wormwood" -- Artemesia absinthium in the recipie. The substance which most likely gives these effects is Thujone. Stepping aside from the science of it, I'll say that apparently the Thujone provides Cannibis-like effects. I could geek out for a whole post on the theories about how these effects are created, but I'll spare ya'll the physiology of it. The simple fact is, it's trippy stuff to ingest.

Absinthe has recently been legalized in the United Stated -- but there's a catch. Of course, the only Absinthe legally available in the U.S. has to be free of Thujone (or at least in concentrations of no more than 10 ppm -- which is for all practical purposed zero). Yep -- all the taste and look of the original but none of the psychoactive goodness. C'est La Vie -- maybe this will be one of those famous 'slippery slopes' and real absinthe will be available some day. There are, of course, ways around this law.

The Wife is pretty fascinated by Absinthe, so I don't expect this will be the last post on the subject. For now, however, I've got papers to do and people to write so I'd better get to it.

Enjoy your Thujone-free day,

Bp


[Absinthe graphic via Madame Talbot's website. If you like the graphic, kick down for one of their posters.]

Acupuncture kicks ass yet again

Mr. Schell of Alethea acupuncture came over yesterday on his way out to a hike and treated me for this fever/cramps thing that was going on.

I was still running a steady fever, but I figure any fever below 102 or so is a good thing, because any temp. above 98.6 kills pathogens at an enormous rate, and anything under about 104 doesn't hurt your body. To be safe, I don't take fever reducers til around 102. Anyway, enough of my quackery.

Jon did acupuncture, I slept it off and sweated it out, and am feeling dandy today. I'm not 100% but I'm dam close. The trick now is to not overdo it and stress my body.

I'm going in today for one more visit and I expect I'll be ship shape after that.

Which means, soon I'll be in "The Palouse" with Mr. Stud Farmhand. Was worried I would have to cancel that trip when this first came down. A bit delayed, but not canceled.

ps: He also treated the cat, which is always a good thing for her old sore hips.

Enjoy your local bio-energetic health care professionals,

Bp

Homeopathy passes a rigorous test

I'm a big fan of homeopathic medicine. I've used it for years, to great effect. But it's just not easy to talk to folks about it, especially trying to describe that the more dilute the remedy, the more powerful it is. Vibrational medicine is counter intuitive that way.

This gory but well designed test shows that a homeopathic remedy had the intended effect, even though it was in a concentration that had been proven to no longer carry any of the actual molecules of the original source (in this case belladonna).

It is exciting to see a study working on it in a rigorous and scientifically recognized way.

Enjoy your paradigm busters,

Bp