MyLifeMyBody

Let me make this disclosure up front: I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. In fact, I have no medical training whatsoever. What I do have, like most of you, is experience being sick! I've also been successful at fighting off nasty colds.

If you are like me, you know when you are getting sick. You have that "drained" feeling where you are tired and may not be able to eat well. Your sinuses may start acting up -- some initial fits of sneezing; then, the cold sets in. For most of my life these colds have almost always turned into sinus infections which are much worse and can last for quite a while.  Doctors typically fight off infections with antibiotics, which may or may not help shorten the infection and can lead to antibody resistance which is bad when you have something worse and you need stronger antibiotics to fight it off.

I've found a few techniques that I have used to fend off these sinus infections that I wish to share with you in case they may help.

1. Keep your nose clear with cold or allergy medicine.

Clogged sinuses often lead to infection, so keep them clear. You may want to get doctor's recommendations for type and dosage. I know what works for me personally but day-time and night-time decongestants are what I typically use. If I have allergies, which can lead to infections, I take an allergy-specific medication.

2. Use a neti pot

A neti pot lo0ks like a mini-tea kettle with a narrow spout. It's used to clean out your sinuses with saline solution. You can also buy nasal saline for this purpose as well. If you want to learn more, there are Youtube videos and plenty of websites that explain how this works. When I have a cold, I use these twice per day. It's yet another way to keep your sinuses clean.

3. Rest

Your body will work overtime to repair itself and will do its best work while you are sleeping.

4. Drink lots of water

You should be doing this anyway for general health reasons, but it is even more important while you are sick. You need to flush out all of the impurities.

5. Take immunity booster vitamins

I've tried various vitamins that claim to help shorten the cold. Some people swear by vitamin C or zinc. I've read in several articles that the vitamin C cold cure is a myth. I'll leave that to the medical profession to sort out, but it certainly couldn't hurt, since vitamin C easily flushes out of your system. As for zinc, I like to take Zycam. It is made from zinc and does a good job for me at helping shorten colds.

Got any tips? What has worked for you? Please comment and let me know!

Note: I’ve written this blog to talk about the general concept of a government-run health care program. There is no use talking about all of the individual points in the proposed health care legislation if you believe government should get their hands out of the pot entirely!

MyLifeMyBody is all about fitness and health. This blog takes a slightly different approach than others written, but I felt that it was very relevant to talk about the most important thing on everybody's mind when it comes to staying healthy -- health care, particularly the proposed health care plans in Congress today.

I think we all have the same desire – everyone wants to have health care available to us. Actually, today we do. All US residents – legal or otherwise have access to medical care. With or without health insurance, we can all see a general practitioner, specialist, or hospital. Those of us who live in big cities have even greater opportunity to choose where they go. It just requires one thing – money. Those of us who have medical insurance pay less for each visit and prescription medication than those without. Money aside, we all still have that opportunity.

The health care available today is superior to what it was not too long ago. Think about the days of blood letting where our first president’s death came more quickly because of the treatment he received, or the days when it was thought that opening the skull would release demons that caused the patient’s ailments. It sounds insane, but at least today we have the opportunity for much more reasonable health care. Be thankful you are alive in the 21^st century!

Obviously, money is important because we all don’t have the same amount to spend on health care costs and we all don’t have the same medical issues. Some people may not need medical services more than once per year such as a general checkup, while others have serious health problems. As with almost anything in life, money is an important factor to staying in good health or even keeping alive. There should not be a one-size-fits-all plan.

Where did we go wrong?

It wasn’t one particular incident. Over time, affordable medical coverage no matter what the ailment has become a “right.” This is a relatively new phenomenon.

Think of what the word “insurance” means. To insure something like your house or your car, you are insuring against major damage. Your cost is consummate with the deductible that you have to pay to get reimbursed for your costs. If your deductible is higher, your cost will be lower. Figuring out what deductible to receive is based on your adversity to risk. What’s different about car insurance as opposed to health insurance is its simplicity. If we treated car insurance like we expect health insurance, we would be paying co-pays every time we got oil changes, simple car repairs, flat tires, etc. 

Great idea right? We would probably have healthier cars this way, but how many could afford insurance? There is no way cost could remain the same. Insurance companies would have to raise their rates to keep up with all of the incidental costs. People would also increase the times they get “stuff” done to their car because it would become cheaper for them – after all, the insurance company is paying for it. Really, everyone is paying for it. With this scenario, there would be fewer people who would purchase insurance and fewer cars on the road because of the government mandate for insurance before car registration. We would essentially be limiting poorer people from driving – inadvertently limiting freedoms. This is what we’ve done with health insurance. Who do we blame for this? Corporations, government, us? Probably all. If we could get back to the auto-model for health insurance, we may be able to reverse all of this. But, convincing people to spend more for individual care is harder than convincing them to get "free" care.

With the costs continuing to increase, why not just let government take over? There are many reasons for this – some ideological, others being economic and general health. First, if you are a believer in the Constitution, you know that there is nothing that states “Congress shall provide health care coverage for all.” Yes, I’m being somewhat sarcastic with that statement, but there is a reason for that. Our founders were very explicit that government was limited – providing for limited functions. The Constitution was written to prevent government rather than empower government.

With Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, welfare and a myriad of other social programs we are way beyond the initial intent of what the government would provide. As time goes on, I imagine that we will continue to move away from the founding fathers.  The reason for this is natural – human nature. Government naturally wants power and control, while some citizens want government to take care of them. That’s the government’s role right? Provide for the common good of all Americans. Not possible. Let’s see, I would like for everyone to have free healthcare for every scratch and bruise, one working car per adult, a decent house with satellite TV, comfortable bed, a refrigerator full of food. Did I miss anything? Where do we stop? Fortunately, our Constitution was so well written that it has prevented the complete take over of the country by those in power. Instead, they are using incrementalism to continue to move us in that direction.

Advocates for the ObamaCare plan (which is actually CongressCare because Obama had very little say in what was written in the current proposals) claim that a federal public plan will increase competition and reduce costs. Well, it might and it will probably put the private insurance companies out of business. Government doesn’t have to worry about profit and losses and can control what doctors and hospitals charge for care. They claim that you can keep your insurance plan – well, that is if they don’t put private insurers out of business or your company doesn’t opt for the cheaper public plan than the private one. How’s that for choice and hope?!

How do we pay for any of this? Keep in mind that the only way that government can do anything is through taxation. It has to distribute the wealth. Call it socialism, Marxism, or whatever, but those that have are mandated to give to those that have less. When we elected Obama as our 44^th president, we didn’t all of a sudden start moving towards socialism. We’ve been distributing wealth for many years. In fact, it was much worse in Jimmy Carter’s presidency when the top tax rate was 70%. That is not a typo! Those making enough money to be in the upper tax bracket were giving the government more money than they kept. That’s not including state, local, sales capital gains, etc. Is there any wonder why these people wanted to hide their money?

Besides, this, we have direct evidence that government health care coverage is too costly and doesn’t fulfill its intent. Medicare is bankrupt – we are borrowing money to pay for it. It has also been tried at the state level. Massachusetts has failed miserably, while Tennessee, California and Hawaii have all had major budget issues due to abuse of their state-funded health care for kids coverage.

Why shouldn’t those who “have” pay for those who have less? Isn’t this the humane thing to do? Well, first, I believe it is theft for the government to decide to mandate taxes for this purpose. We started this country because England was mandating taxes for purposes of the King of England. Just because we have “representatives” that make these decisions, doesn’t make it right.

As I write this I can hear people’s thoughts, “you sound inhumane and hard core. You must care more about the Constitution than people.” Actually, just the opposite – I believe that with limited government and letting people flourish, that there will be more wealth for everyone. Yes, there will always be poor and less fortunate people. There will always be sickness and disease. After all, we live in a sinful world with decrepit bodies. Life is far from perfect even with the best government in the world. However, there is still a lot of good in this world. There are many charity organizations (yes, some are not corrupt) and churches who take care of those who are less fortunate. Even with these organizations, there will still be gaps. What do we do about these?

Make insurance more affordable. One other reason that cost is continually increasing is due to frivolous law suits. Tort reform is key to reducing costs. Doctors must pay an inordinate amount of money for malpractice insurance before they even see one patient. Second, government is much at fault for the cost increases. States have limited competition of insurance companies across state boundaries in order to protect them. Get rid of these barriers!

There are other tweaks that need to be done to the current system to make sure that those with pre-existing health issues are covered. There are already some laws that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to pre-existing conditions, but there are still issues. My wife has a history of medical problems and is fighting with the insurance company to get coverage. Not only does that affect her and our family, but it also impacts health care costs across the board. If she has a medical problem that we cannot pay, hospitals must take her. They eat that cost which, in return, causes medical costs across the board to increase. One thing that we can do is require hospitals to purchase un-insurer coverage. Insurance companies cover everything – if you are an athlete, you may get insurance that cover your physical traits, or if you are singer, you may get coverage that covers your voice. Policies can cover hospitals when they have to treat uninsured patients. Their costs would be more controlled and overall lowered since more people would be insured with cheaper insurance costs across the board. This can also be applied to doctor’s offices who would have a less expensive policy.

Don’t let the powerful federal machine fool you. There are alternatives to their take-over plans. We can keep the best health care in the world and tweak the system to make it better for all. I still believe this is the greatest country in the world. It’s up to all of us to keep it that way.