RFID TAGS REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

RFID TAGGING IN MEDICINE

Do you realize the effect bar codes have had on the modern world?   Every item sold and shipped today is equipped with one, usually in the form of printed vertical lines that can be scanned by an infra-red bar code reader that identifies the product's universal product code.   It has proved to be a powerful tracking tool for privacy and security uses.   It is hard to imagine how retailing or distribution functioned without them.  It has now invaded the medical information system and will be used in electronic medical records.

RFID, (standing for” radio frequency identification), are devices with small tags that are attached to products in stores, as anti-theft devices. They can also be implanted in pets or vehicles so that owners can locate them easily.

The typical current bar code contains a maximum of only 100 bytes of information, while an RFID tag can contain up to 80 times more.   A bar code is typically limited to the product code, but the RFID tags contain individual item numbers.

The chips do not need their own power since get all they need from the radio waves reaching them from the RFID reader.   Like super-powered bar codes, they are read at a distance and even through walls.   Supply-chain management is now being revolutionized as bar codes did 30 years ago.

RFID HISTORY

The first true RFID was a passive radio transponder with memory invented in 1973 by Cardillo.   That same year  Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory developed the RFID tags, which quickly gained attention because of their ability to track moving objects.

The use of RFID in tracking and access applications first appeared in Britain in 1939 , and still used today,  to identify aircraft as friendly or unfriendly ("identify friend or foe" (IFF).

HOW RFID WORKS

A very small size, electronic identification tag, responds to a reader with an identification code unique to the object to which the tag is attached.  It responds to a reader signal by storing energy received from the signal.  This  stored energy  generates another encoded signal with its identification information.  The reader generates RF energy which can reach many tags over a distance of several yards.

THE PURPOSE OF RFID

A RFID system allows data to be sent by a mobile device, called a tag, read by an RFID reader, and processed.  The data sent by the tag provides identification or location information, or specifics about the product or person tagged.

In a typical RFID system, an object is tagged with a transponder having a digital memory chip and a unique electronic product code.   The interrogator, an antenna p with a transceiver and decoder, sends a signal activating the RFID tag so it can read and write data to it.  When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal.  The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer.   The application software on the host processes the data.

MEDICAL USES

In 2004, the FDA approves the VeriChip as a medical device.  The chips are a type of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, containing a computer chip encoded with a unique identification number and a tiny antenna.  To read the tag, a scanner   emitting radio waves is waved over the chip. The antenna detects it, and generates a tiny electrical current into the chip and powers the tag to beam back a radio signal that reveals its ID number.

Implanted Patient identification systems can now link patients to electronic health care records, linking the medical records, and sending information about the patient’s vital signs to the doctor.  The chips rooted in the skin can be used to pull up a patient's personal and medical records from a secure database, proving useful when, for example, someone is unconscious or has numerous records at different clinics that must be pulled together in an emergency.

Patients with chronic illnesses or who have difficulty communicating, are candidates for this implant   This  VeriChip implant is not encrypted nor secure from medical information leaking out.  A cloned chip would give a criminal access to your health insurance and all your medical files.

The VeriChip is the only RFID approved by the FDA for human tagging.    It has a microchip and a small antenna embedded in glass, wrapped with Biobond to prevent it from moving inside the body.  It is only 12 mm long, twice the length of a grain of rice, and is inserted under the skin, with a 12-gauge needle.  It has a 16-digit ID number that is cross-referenced with a database, giving hospitals all the information they need in an emergency.

People with mental health problems but who are deemed suitable for integration within the community can be tagged and monitored.  

In the USA millions of babies and their mothers are already tagged and matched to avoid mismatching, as well as babies being stolen. This system currently uses external RFIDs rather than internal human tags.

Arrhythmias.    Thin tubes (catheters) are inserted, under X-ray guidance, into the blood vessels and directed toward the heart muscle.    Directing radiofrequency currents through the catheters to alter the structure of the heart’s atrium, destroying the heart muscle cells that cause the arrhythmia, performs Radiofrequency catheter ablation.  Often the patient can later stop their anti-arrhythmic drugs.

Unconscious patients are candidates for implantable chips, linking them to their medical record in a way that would allow them to be treated without anyone being there to tell the doctors what was wrong,"

Lost sponges, RFID tagged, can now be found in the operating room.

Medical Alert bracelets are redesigned to carry much more information than the old, medical ID tags that carried a few short, concise, pieces of information: patient name, condition (e.g. "epilepsy,”), and sometimes, an emergency contact.  The embedded digital ID tag is read, and links the patient to online medical history and automatically contacts the patient's emergency contact by placing a phone call to them.  It would let them know the patient is unwell, and that their records have been accessed.

NON-MEDICAL USES

Most of you are unaware that you are already using RFID tags: in security badges that allow access to buildings, or in keys that communicate with a car to allow only the driver in.

Microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags.

RFID tags are already routinely implanted in pets, so they can be identified if lost.

Currently RFID tagged library books can be detected, checked out, returned, sorted, integrated into bins and ready to put back on the shelves.

Payment cards (such as American Express' "Blue" and Exxon Mobil’s "Speed pass) are RFID tagged.

POPULATION CONTROL: The Chinese have spent  $6 billion to tag one billion of their citizens.  Each cardholder has encoded the health and reproductive history, employment, religion, and ethnicity, name and even phone number of their landlord.  It allows the Chinese government to control its growing population.

PASSPORTS: Many countries, including the U.S., recording the travel history, entries and exits, of the cardholder, are now RFID PASSPORTS.  The chips store the same information that is printed within the passport and include a digital picture of the owner. The passports incorporate a thin metal lining to make it more difficult for unauthorized readers to "skim" information when the passport is closed. Fingerprints are now being added to the personal information.

POLICE officers have a chip implanted that is matched to an RFID in their weapons so that the guns become jammed if anybody else tries to use them. Some people have already been tagged.   The Attorney General of Mexico and some of his staff had chips implanted to limit access to a secure room.

Millions of countless credit and ATM cards and employee access badges now contain RFID tags.

The chips are used at sea ports to track goods shipped from manufacturers to their destination, helping them keep precise track of where items are and avoid them being mislaid in warehouses.

New driver licenses are issued now in states bordering Canada and Mexico with the RFID tags.  They are read through your wallet as far as 30 feet away.  The tags have a tiny microchip with and unique ID number.  A reader device sends radio energy out to an antenna connected to your ID chip emitting the ID number.  This is then fed to a Homeland Security database, with your photo and other details.

FUTURE USES OF RFID

The following patents tell the future uses of RFIDs.

IBM in 2006 got a patent permit to track and profile people.  It is called Identification and Tracking of Persons:.   Networked RFID readers called person tracing units would virtually be everywhere you go, in mall, airports, elevators, trains, airplane, sports arenas, theaters and libraries to monitor you movements   Your personal ID would be obtained when you used your credit card.  Once a link between your unique RFID number and your personal identity is united with your credit card, it would be a proxy for you forever.  A Gen 2 inventory scanner also can now read the new drivers.

US PATENT #7253716 -  granted in 2007 for Trackable pills with electronic ID tags

A medical pill intended for human or animal consumption includes an RF ID tag in or on the pill. The tag will respond to a nearby reader, the tag itself being without a battery or other constant power supply, capturing power from the reader's transmitted signal and storing a portion of that power in a power supply. An antenna for the RF ID tag may be integral with the tag or it may be transferred to the pill using conductive materials in the pill's coating, filler or binding agents, embedded within the pill, or printed onto the pill.  If separate from the tag the antenna is electromagnetically coupled.

CONCLUSIONS

As you see, more invasive uses for these tags are in the works.  With the technology now refined, the chips might ultimately find a use to compulsorily tag and track patient, prisoners, immigrants, or visitors to our country.

No one seems quite sure who is in charge of regulating RFID usage.   With $20 billion dollars allocated to electronic medical records, I am sure RFID will be utilized to its extreme.  Is your privacy being invaded in the name of medical progress and homeland security? 

Your comments are always appreciated.  Visit www.drneedles.com  for more controversial medical information

Sources: Scientific American Sept. 2008---patent.com

March 3, 2005  The San Francisco Daily Journal,  Ozer, ACLU

Kerr, Access  Privacy Conference 2006--US Protection Agency 8.14.2008

 

ARE OPRAH WINFREY'S HORMONES FOR YOU?

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Find out why we are ranked in the top 40 medical blogs out of 15 million medical blogs, and in the top 50 of the over 54 million acupuncture blogs.
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

WHICH ESTROGEN IS FOR YOU?

The advantages and risks of hormone replacement therapy have been in controversial flux since I was a gynecology resident in 1959.  One decade it is wonderful, the next decade it is condemned. 

Most of you  fear conventional hormonal therapy.  Over 70% of you quit hormonal therapy that your GYN doctor recommended, and over 25% of you have lost confidence in him. 

 Hormonal therapy does give short-term relief from intractable symptoms, such as frequent and intense hot flashes, vaginal dryness that makes sex uncomfortable, and overwhelming fatigue and mood changes.

HRT is the most effective treatment for these discomforts.  Recently, Suzanne Somers, Michael Platt, and Oprah Winfrey, have touted the benefits of a new kind of hormone bioidentical.   The best seller “ the Sexy Years” pushes the secrets to fabulous sex, vitality and great health, when everyone discovers the hormone connection.

Bio-identical hormones are similar biologically to those produced by your ovaries.  They include: progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol.  The FDA regulates all of them. 

CUSTOM COMPOUNDED HORMONES ARE NOT NATURAL HORMONES

Pharmaceutical compounding is the combining, mixing, or altering of ingredients to create a customized medication.   These hormones come from plants derived hormones from soy products or wild yam, and are converted into different hormones through a German lab. 

They do not have the same structure as natural female hormones and can vary in dosage, absorption, and have no quality checks.   They have not undergone rigorous clinical testing for safety efficacy, purity, potency, and quality.  They are not approved by the FDA and are exempt from patient package inserts. 

SALIVA TESTING

There are claims that you can individualize hormonal therapy by salivary testing.  There is no relationship between the sex hormone concentrations in your saliva and in your blood.  The hormonal levels in saliva vary by your diet, the hormone tested and the time of day.

ESTRADIOL PRODUCTS

Bio-identical” products pose the same risks as those of standard hormones—plus whatever problems might be introduced by synthetic  compounding.  Hormone therapy  is now mainly prescribed for the short-term treatment of postmenopausal symptoms using low doses of an estrogen such as estradiol.

Estradiol is a very weak estrogen.   The progesterone  hormone compounded is too large to be absorbed well in the system.   Commercially available bioidentical estradiol comes in several forms, including pill, patch, cream, and various vaginal preparations.  Micronized progesterone comes in a capsule or as a vaginal gel.

The products are biochemically similar or identical to those produced by the ovaries or body.   However, the relevant chemicals (steroids) in plants are not identical to those in humans. To make products that work in humans, raw materials from the plants must be converted to human hormones.

RISKS

Be careful with some products containing estriol.  No product containing estriol is FDA-approved and its effect and safety are not known.  Bioidentical hormones are advertised as chemically identical to those made by the human body and are often described as “natural.

There is no credible evidence that these compounded hormones can prevent or treat such diseases as Alzheimer’s, stroke, and some cancers. 

The manufacturers of Premarin have lost 50% of the market in the last ten years.  They are under pressure to continual erosion in their products with the rise in their retail cost to over $100 for a 15 gm. tube of vaginal Premarin cream.  No wonder the public is seeking alternatives.

Your comments are always appreciated.  Visit www.drneedles.com for more information on controversial medical subjects.

Sources: OBG Management Jan 2009    /HARVARD’S WOMAN’S HEALTH WATCH AUG. 2006

 

THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC, SINGING, AND HUMMING

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Check out why we are ranked#40 out of over 54 million medical blogs, and in the top 5o out of 15 million acupuncture sites. 
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com or www.drneedles.com for more detailed information on healing.

HEALING POWER OF SOUND AND MUSIC

I Pods have taken over America.  Our nation is starving for emotional and spiritual healing.  Add singing and humming to your music and restore the disharmony caused by our rapid technological pace of living.

What happens to you emotionally and spiritually affect you physiologically.  Sounds are a form of energy, and can promote healing.  Music, song, and dance are all linked together, restoring harmony into your body and spirit.

The law of vibration affects your thoughts and feelings. All creation harmonizes  the universe in  a continuous state of vibration; with molecules vibrating, and plants and humans oscillating in rhythm, resonating with each other.   Your entire cosmos is an ocean of sonic waves of vibration.

Your heart, pulse, and lungs are constantly working in rhythm. The sounds you make resonate at a cellular level with your body. The most fundamental aspect of life itself. Is breathing. 

Around 560 B.C, Pythagoras a Greek philosopher and mathematician, created the musical scales; he is considered the grandfather of sound music.  Pythagoras was the first to use music for physical and emotional healing, stating that each atom makes a particular sound because of its movement, rhythm and vibration. Creation began with the spoken word and uses sound to communicate and express itself. Your imagination lets you constantly create and interpret all of nature.

ILLNESS AND HEALING

All illness is a form of disharmony at both molecular and genetic levels. Often you emotionally refuse to acknowledge your illness and find accepting healing to be difficult.  You feel out of synch and out of touch with someone when both of you are not on the same wavelength.  Physical illness is similar to a piano out of tune.  Any disharmony in one system is reflected in the other.

Your genes, proteins, and receptors govern at the cellular level, every biological action.   All your thoughts, feelings, hormonal changes, immune changes, and energy are coordinated biologically and constantly communicate with each other. 

By restoring the normal vibration frequency of the diseased part of the body, your body can return to its harmonious state. To make you a unified organism, your mind and body must be fine tuned to recognize the vibration sounds of all your cells and organs, resulting in a homeostatic balance of all your biological systems.

Vibrational sounds touch every part and every cell of your body.  Your pulse rate slows, and your breathing again becomes rhythmic. The harmony of your body’s cosmic symphony restores the imbalance in the cells and organs of your disease body.

THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC

Music is a powerful form of energy since the beginning of time. Every religion has more prayers sung than spoken, intensifying the connection with the divine power.  While doing other things you listen to music for pleasure and relaxation.  It is the universal language for all of us. You may not understand the language, but you sure hear and feel it.

 Sounds cause feelings in you.  It relaxes, inspires, and enlivens you.   Your awareness Music therapy has evolved showing that is raised to a place of emotion and feeling. 

When you know and feel you are intimately connected with the universe, music can heal you.  Listening to music you really love is relaxing, nurturing, uplifting, invigorating, and deeply healing.  Music that speaks to you ,sparks your imagination, making you feel stimulated and alive.

Your fast pace of living, has separated you from your natural state of being.  Ancient healers knew that music bridged the body, soul, and earth.  The life force of your body is your vibratory field of energy. 

 Melody, harmony, rhythm, and tone connect your whole being into a living body of sound.  Music, like food, is alive, and affects you physically, mentally and emotionally.

Music is a powerful healing tool that opens your spirit and heals without that intention.  When you open up, relax, let go, and pay attention, beautiful music will arouse a strong healing feeling in you.

SINGING

 You may not carry a tune nor have much rhythm, but when you listen to your heart, and feel your breathing in and out, you will   know you are in rhythm.  Open your mind and heart, sing your simple tune privately, and feel the music energize and heal you.

Singing came before speech.  You only need lungs and vocal cords to make sounds.  When you speak you also need a mouth and a tongue. Your throat is a physical bridge between your head and heart.  Just like deep breathing with yoga slows your heart and pulse, a simple melody with a repetitious beat can energize your entire nervous system.

CHANTING OF VOWELS 

Chanting synchronizes the brain into a state of relaxation.  Its vibrational sounds touch every cell in your body.  Chanting turns on your internal opiates that heal your body.  Low deep notes with low frequency sounds, used in religious rituals, can change your state of consciousness, making you calm and relaxed.

Mozart musical therapy is used to treat autism, learning disabilities, hearing handicaps, and neuralgic and psychiatric disorders.  The music of Mozart can warm up your brain, making your mind more alert and energized.

Sound and breath are one, promoting health and healing.  When you chant vowels, your harmonic sounds become charged with higher energy and more vibrations.  Monks, for centuries, have awakened their conscious fields and been energized by chanting.   Their simple melodious lines, with emphasis on long, slow breaths, serve as their energy food. 

Your ear never stops hearing.  It has an extra relay, not affected by anesthetics.  As early as 4 months, a fetal ear hears low frequency sounds.   The ear’s receiving antenna registers everything.   Autistic children are helped with musical sounds that awaken their intrauterine stage of development.

CONCLUSION

Try to discover your voice and sing, as you walk, drive your car, or take a shower.  Hear the sound of your own unique harmonious voice.   Write your own private and personal song.   Play with different sounds in various sequences till you find one that resonates with you.

One example would be: “At her blue home, mom is humming and holding her knee.”   All the primitive sounds are included in that sentence. 

Sing:  Hum the tune: Twinkle, twinkle, little star”, and see how it resonates the child in you.   Use your I Pod and hum the song’s melody.  Music, singing, and humming are all food for the body as well as the soul.

Visit www.drneedles.com for more blogging on controversial medical subjects.  Your comments are always appreciated.

Source: Gaynor, author; The Healing  Power of Sound

WHY YOU ARE GETTING FAT!

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.  Find out why we are ranked in the top 40 medical blogs out of 54 million sites, and why we are in the top 30 among 54 million acupuncture websites.

Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

THE FACTS ON WHY YOU CONTINUE TO GAIN WEIGHT

Over half of America now uses a no calorie sweetener.  And it shows around the waist.Most of the foods you eat have artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohol, or sugar in them.  It may well be the reason you continue to gain weight?  These chemicals are more addictive than alcohol and nicotine and is the reason you can’t only eat one potato chip and put the rest away.

SUGAR

Why does all food taste so good now?  Sweet foods play a big role in your life.   Unfortunately, fake sugar, and even real sugar, will not satisfy your body needs nor make you thin and happy.   Sweet treats are the comfort food of your choice. After all, you call your dear ones: Honey, Sugar, and Sweetie.  As you eat these empty calories you are actually starving your cells.  Some calories have a long lasting affect on what you eat later on.

You eat over 140 pounds of caloric sweetener per year, (43 teaspoons a day).    Drinking more than one pop a day raises your risk of obesity by 80%.  No wonder you are gaining weight.

Sugar satisfies a craving for energy and gives your brain a serotonin mood boost.   Sugar is cheap, adds bulk and texture, gives you empty calories, and takes the place of real nutrients.

The sugar in the past came from complex natural sources as fruit, honey, molasses, barley and maple sugars that had other nutritional qualities.  Since sweet foods are seasonal, it was grown only in the summer, and exclusively in warm climates  Only after 1900, did we refine sugar from sugar cane. We got smart and refined pure sugar from its food source: thus it became a rare empty calorie, without protein, fat, nor fiber.  Sugar now comes in many forms, from simple carbohydrates, like white bread, to complex forms like dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, malto-dextrose, and corn syrup with high fructose. 

HOW SUGAR WORKS!

Sugar, sucrose, is a carbohydrate that directly burns into glucose, fueling your brain and muscle. The purer the source, the faster it bypasses digestion and enters your blood stream.  Refined sugar and carbohydrates is just as addictive as tobacco and alcohol.   It raises your blood sugar, causing more insulin to be released; this in turn, drops your blood sugar to very low levels, causing you be become hungry again.  This insulin spike also blocks leptin, a hormone that your fat cells secrete, that normally tells you to stop eating.   Fat people have lots of leptin, but the brain can’t respond to it.

Eating sugar shoots up your sugar, and triggers insulin hormone, to prepare your cells to absorb this sugar. It stimulates serotonin, a mood elevator, giving you pleasure. Special taste buds trigger enzymes, making you anticipate that extra boost.  Foods with high sugar and fat content promote a resistance to fullness.  These foods block the hormonal messages your body sends to the brain to stop you from eating and cause you to feel even hungrier.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

To date, the FDA approves five artificial sweeteners: aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-k, neotame, and sucralose.  These are considered food additives by the agency and are not foods.

Artificial sweeteners are chemical body toxins that must be detoxified.  They don’t nourish your body in any way and have zero calories.    They are meant to confuse and momentarily distract your brain, priming the brain for an insulin surge.  You feel cheated when the surge doesn’t come.  Soon you seek carbohydrates to satisfy your craving.  To give you a needed jolt, caffeine is added to most diet pops.

ASPARTAME

Approve in 1981, it was found as a tabletop sweetener, and in gum and breakfast cereal.  Use was expanded to pops in 1983, and to all foods and drinks in 1996.  Today, aspartame is found in a staggering number of grocery products.  Many health bloggers are linking it to neurological diseases.

A researcher raised concern about brain cancer in 1995, and the European Ramazzini Foundation in 2005.  They were concerned it caused leukemia and lymphomas.  The FDA say there is no human proof to stop its use.

Equal and NutraSweet are the trade names for aspartame; in the body, it converts into methanol and two amino acids—aspartic and phenylalanine acids.  People with phenylketonuria find this very dangerous.  This methanol accumulates in your body as formaldehyde, and can alter your nervous and immune systems.  It has a blue package and is used with another artificial sweetener, Ace K, to make Coke Zero.  It is mixed with sugar and now also sold as Nutra Sweet Cane.  Under heat it falls apart and turns into formaldehyde and methyl alcohol.   Think of our troops, who get palates of this in 100 degree temperatures, drinking this when the aspartame has" fallen apart."  It is now being mixed with Stevia in many products.

Harvard researchers found people who consume diet drinks, gain a lot of weight. The more you drink, the fatter you get!   How can that be since it has no calories?  Your body is fooled into thinking that food that doesn’t taste good is delicious.   Empty sweetness makes your body expect food, and when it doesn’t come, you get hungrier.

A TEST TO PROVE MY POINT

Put some diet pop in a pan and heat it.  It will break down into formaldehyde and you might get a migraine.  The aspartame molecule is a precursor of formaldehyde and methyl alcohol.  An enzyme in your brain and eye tissues turns this alcohol into formaldehyde.  Methyl alcohol, also called wood alcohol, and methanol was the major cause of death and blindness in prohibition days. You don’t want to fool around with nature.  Studies show it can damage your short-term memory, cause breast cancer, genetic damages, birth defects, thyroid disease, and multiple sclerosis.

SPLENDA  (SUCRALOSE)

It is the trade name for Splenda, a synthetic compound found in 1976.   It is 600 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories.  In 1999 it was approve for all foods. Being made from sugar it is advertised to be natural, has a yellow package, and has captured 60% of the market.   Diet authors for the South Beach Diet and Atkins diet push Splenda.  Under heat, unlike aspartame, it does not fall apart and keeps it s flavor. 

 Indeed, It is made from regular sugar, but has chlorine atoms added.   British scientists, looking for a new pesticide, added three OH (hydroxyl ions, and replaced them with chlorine atoms.   Take a lot of this and your body will become a well-chlorinated swimming pool.    Once sucralose gets into your bowels, it can't be easily processed, and all these unrecognized chlorine molecules must be excreted.  Rodents were found to have shrunken thymus glands, and enlarged livers and kidneys.  Since there are no human studies on this, the FDA approved it.  We are the guinea pigs.

Side effects of Splenda include rashes, agitation, diarrhea, muscle aches, headaches, bowel cramping, asthma, breathing difficulties, and sinus, bladder, and kidney problems.  These same side effects are found from using aspartame.

SACCHARIN

Saccharin is 70 times sweeter than sugar, and also has no calories.  Brand names are Sweet and Low, Necta Sweet, and Sweet Twin.  It is used in tabletop sweeteners, baked goods, pops, jams, and gum.  This was discovered in 1879, and was the first chemical sweetener.  The FDA, who felt there was no need for safety research, grandfathered it in.  Remember when it was added to coke and sold as TAB?  It comes in a pink package and called Sweet N Low.

 In 1977, it was banned because of bladder cancers found in rats. Congress issued a moratorium on the ban until more safety studies were done, and a label warning was required.  In 2000, the warning label was removed. .  Today it is considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS), and is in OTC medicines and some gums.    End of story.

STEVIA 

The new kid on the block is Stevia.  It was approved only as a dietary supplement, under the names Truvia and PureVia.  This December, the FDA approved it for all foods.  Since it comes form a plant leaf, it is pushed as  a natural sweetener.  It is mixed with bulking agents to get rid of its menthol and licorice taste.  It is being packaged in a green color.  It costs 5 times as much as SweetN Low which is the oldest and cheapest artificial sweetener.

Stevia is mixed with sugar and is selling as suncrystals.  Pepsi has introduced it in its orange juice as Trop50( half water and half orange juice, with a splash of stevia).  It is now in what is called Sprite Green.

NATURAL ALTERNATIVES: POLYALCOHOL

Diabetic foods have for many years have polyalcohol sugars added: sorbitol, xylitol, malitol, and mannitol.  They have half the calories of sugar and are not digested by the small bowel.  The FDA as a food supplement and not a food additive approves it.

These sugar alcohols are found in fruits and vegetables and made commercially from dextrose, and are found in many processed foods.  If the label reads ‘sugar free’ the chance are you have a sugar alcohol in the food.  Polyalcohol adds texture to foods; keep food moist, and keeps food from browning on the shelf.  Foods, containing polyalcohol, can’t be sweetened without adding dietary sugar.  Despite the sugar free label, the foods contain carbohydrates and give you calories,

ACESULFAME-K (potassium)

This sweetener is 200 times sweeter than sugar and has zero calories.  Brand names are Sunett and Sweet One.  It was approved in 1988 as a tabletop sweetener.  In 1998 it was approve also for pops, and in 2003 it was approved for all food, except meat and poultry.  It is present in cough drops, mints, pops, candies, frozen desserts, and baked goods.

NEOTAME

This sweetener is 13,000 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories.  It was approved in 2002 for everything except meat and poultry.  It is structurally similar to aspartame, and also has potential for release of phenylalanine, but the FDA deems no warning labels are necessary.

XYLITOL

Comes naturally in fruits and vegetables as lettuce, carrots, strawberries, corncobs, and mushrooms.  It is a sugar alcohol from birch trees, and is made today from dextrose.  It is in your chewing gum, candies, frozen dairy deserts, mouthwash, jellies, and even your toothpaste.   Dogs eating this product get liver disease and clotting problems.

MALITOL

Found in chicory and roasted malt.  It gives a creamy consistency to foods.  It is found in sugar free candies, as a candy coater, in gum, chocolate flavored deserts, baked goods, and ice cream.

SORBITOL

Is naturally found in fruits and berries.  Sorbitol is added to shredded coconut, diet drinks and foods, and chewing gum.  It also has a laxative effect.

MANNITOL

Mannitol is found in pineapples, olives, asparagus, sweet potatoes and carrots.  It is a bulking agent for powdered foods, and is found in nutrition bars and candy.  And chewing gum to keep the gum moist and non-sticky.  It is a carbohydrate and only 2 calories per gram of carbohydrate are absorbed (sugar has 4 calories per gram).   It has virtually the same glycemic index as table sugar (52 versus 60 for sugar).  It is an expensive sugar and causes gas, diarrhea, and cramping.  The only thing good is that your teeth will not get cavities, since bacteria can’t grow in the alcohol.

CONCLUSION

Our FDA has not adequately done a good enough job ensuring our long-term safety with the addition of artificial sweeteners and polyalcohols.  Being used in minute but powerful amounts, it requires no labels and no safety testing,  and these chemicals are marketed to you as nutrients.  Many now are being mixed with regular sugar to mask their bitter after tastes.  None have required any research safety studies to get approval.  Whatever you ingest must be somehow excreted from your body.  You hope your kidneys and livers can adapt and excrete these chemicals, which  are not nutrients nor natural food supplements.

There is no free lunch.  How do you know how much artificial sweetener and sugar alcohol  your body tolerate?  Could this be why you can’t lose weight, are nervous, and why you have an ever expanding waistline?  Is our new epidemic obesity problem related? You tell me!

Visit www.drneedles.com for more information on controversial medical subjects.  Your comments are always appreciated.

Sources:  CMN news, 11.13.2008

                  University Pittsburgh Nutrition Center, April, 2003

                  Medical Hypothesis, April 209, Aronne

Packaged Facts, 2007

STOP SMOKING AND ADD 14 YEARS TO YOUR LIFE

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

SMOKERS:  ADD ANOTHER 14 YEARS TO YOUR LIFE

WARNING LABELS ON YOUR CIGARETTES SHOULD ADD:

         “You are cutting 14.5 years off your life!”

A down economy is making more Americans light up.  Your plans to quit are going up in smoke.  Many of you are smoking more, resuming smoking, and switching to cheaper brands because of tight money.  You are resurrecting other bad habits as overeating and sleeping less.

Refocus your attention!   Most of your friends who smoke die at age 71.  Your friends that don’t smoke add another 14 years to their lives.  Why shouldn’t you?

TROUBLE AT 60

You find smoking fun, and it sure beats tranquilizers.  When you hit 60, suddenly things start happening to your body.  Your blood pressure and cholesterol are a little high.  You are having some trouble breathing.  Twinges in your chest concern you.

Angiograms and other tests show you have narrowed arteries and need a stent or perhaps bypass surgery. You are told you will be like new, till the stent breaks and shoots to your lung; but this doesn’t occur for three years and only one of six patients need worry.

That spot on your lung CAT scan looks suspicious.  It’s an early cancer; radiation and chemotherapy should work.

You have a lump in your right breast.  You have a 300% chance it could be cancer.  But we doctors are on top of it and are sure we can remove it.  With chemo after, you should be just fine.

 You have sleep apnea and would be helped with oxygen.  Some blood pressure pills would also help.  Don’t worry about them causing impotence, Viagra often helps. 

You say you are getting a little forgetful?  A carotid angiogram shows quite a bit of narrowing, and a graft to your neck should open that quite well.  An impending stroke may take weeks or even months.  Tiny blood vessel clots cause only minor strokes anyway.

What!  You have cataracts at 60.  That kind of young, but it offers no problem.   Intraocular lens work fine, if there are not a lot of hemorrhages in the retina.

THE FUN YEARS: 60-70

The last ten years before you say goodbye at 71 will be filled with doctor visits, medications, oxygen, numerous examinations and lab tests.  You will become friendly with your pharmacist who will explain everything to you.  Don’t worry about your golden years and those Medicare payments.  You find rusting out with nicotine is easier than spending another 15 years to wear out.

ON WITH THE DOCTOR NEEDLES INTERVIEW

DOCTOR:  “You have come to me to quit smoking.  Why do you want to quit smoking?”

YOU:  “ I think it is getting too expensive and besides I am getting short of breath and have a cough that will not go away.  It’s about time.”

DOCTOR:  “When did you start smoking?”

YOU:  “Well, I think I was about 13.  It was a macho thing to do then, and besides my mom and dad smoked.  I was a little on the short side and most of the gang I met, thought I was twelve, even though I was a teenager.

Once I started smoking, wow, the world opened up to me. I felt liberated as a teenager now.  No one messed with me and I had a lot of friends.”

DOCTOR: “You said your mom and dad smoked.  Are they still alive?”

YOU:  “No, my dad died of lung cancer, when I was 8, but he also had a bad liver; from drinking I guess.  He really suffered.  My mom died of breast cancer when I was 15.”

DOCTOR:  “Did you ever try to quit smoking before?”

YOU:  “Oh sure, many times; the gum, patches, wellbutrin, and even hypnosis.  Nothing seems to work.  I guess I am really hooked.”

DOCTOR:  “Does your spouse smoke?”

YOU:  “She hates it, and so do my kids.  I just tell them to bug off.   I will quit when I am ready.”

DOCTOR:  “Lets imagine you are having a party tomorrow, and you invite your best friend, Smokey Joe.  Now you and Smokey go way back to your high school years; Smokey is your best friend, like a twin brother.  You go golfing, fishing, drinking, and gambling together. 

Now imagine you go into the kitchen to get some beer from the refrigerator, and there is Smokey.  He is making a pass at your loved one; grasping her breasts and trying to get up her dress.

Will you forgive Smokey, for his one minute of say indiscretion?”

YOU: ”Hell no. He would be flattened out and be history.”

DOCTOR:  “When I call you the next day for Smokey’s phone number will you give it to me?”

YOU: “No way.  He would be history! “

DOCTOR: “You mean you would let one minute of indiscretion ruin a lifetime friendship?”

YOU: ”Yep.  He could never be my friend after that.”

DOCTOR: “Can you see that Joe Camel faked you out the same way Smokey faked you out?  He approached you at a vulnerable time in your life and sold you his friendship.  You never asked him any questions about who he was, and what he did for a living.  He said: I can help you.  You said: Great, buddy!

Hey, here’s Smokey Joe now.   Let’s ask him a few questions.  Smokey!  What do you do for a living?”

SMOKEY JOE:  “I help people.  I am like a psychiatrist.  I calm people down and help them think straight.

Sometimes I get a bum rap from guys like you saying I kill people, close their arteries, and even do ridiculous things like cause cancer.  And besides, I would never do that to that guy next to you doc.   He’s my best customer.

DOCTOR: “If you see Smokey Joe as your friend, you can’t quit smoking.  You haven’t got that many friends in town.  With the recession, they are all leaving.  And even if you quit for a while you will gain a ton of weight and get Dolly Madison as a friend.”

But if you see Smokey Joe as garbage, a killer, a destroyer of your health, there is no problem giving him the gate.  After all, he killed your parents and is slowly killing you and you don’t see it happening. 

He is taking away the last 15 years of your life and making miserable the last 10 years you have left.

You are a strong person.  When you make up your mind, there is nothing that will change it.  Your parents in heaven are cheering for you now that you kicked Joe Camel out of your life.

And besides, you have now added another 15 years to your life!”

DOCTOR NEEDLES:  THINK IT OVER

You should live to be 85, and will die at 71if you keep smoking.  Who cares?  What’s 14 years any way?

From 60 until your death, you will daily be visiting doctors, labs, chemotherapists, and cancer and heart specialist, and undergo heroic bypass surgery, stint placement, chemotherapy.  You will have MRI and Cat scans, and lab tests weekly, and takes a pocket full of pills.  Your golden years will be filled with medical appointments. This will make you a very busy chap!  

With a very poor quality of life, you certainly can’t travel. Your nursing home, doctor, and pharmacy bills, will put your financial nest egg in a greater dive than this recession. Your Medicare payments will stop 14 years earlier; maybe people like you will balance the Medicare budget this way?

My friends enjoy these coming golden years.  Stop smoking. Wear out instead of rusting out with nicotine.

Visit www.drneedles.com to quit smoking and for more medical controversial discussions on current affairs.  Your comments are always appreciated.

Sources: NEJM Nov. 6, 2008

                  Am Legacy Foundation Survey, April 2009

                  Harris Interactive Foundation

              www.americanacupuncture.com

 

GENETIC PRIVACY LAWS FAIL

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

KEEP YOUR GENES PRIVATE

The more doctors know abut your genes the easier it will be to prevent, treat, and cure an illness. Today a genetic test can tell whether you inherited a high risk of a disease, and you could benefit from preventive care.

How can your genetic information be kept private?  Genetic tests could reveal your genetic endowment and be embarrassing and a stigma.  Insurers could deny you health coverage or raise your premiums. If your employer saw the results, he could deny you a job, or even fire you. The potential to improve health care would not be achieved if you refused to participate because you feel your information would be misused.

Almost all illnesses have a genetic component.  Genetic testing has not been widespread, despite the Human genome Project completed 6 years ago.  Testing is still costly, often several thousand dollars for each test.  There are no standards useful for assessing your health risk. Switching to electronic records will make your genetic information more accessible.  It is hard today to assure you safeguards to your genetic privacy, despite the non-discrimination Act passed last year.  Researchers are now looking at interactions of multiple genes and environmental factors that cause  asthma, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

There are over 1500 genetic tests now in use.  Soon all health records will contain substantial genetic information. Researchers are looking for a single change in hundreds of thousands of nucleotide bases, using the famous letter of the DNA code: A., T, C, AND G letters.  You  certainly want:  personalized medicine, drug therapies tailored to your body, and ways to improve drug effectiveness and reduce drug side effects.  This will depend on available genome analytical tools. 

PHARMACO-GENOMICS AND TOXICO-GENOMICS

Even today drugs and dosages for treatment of certain cancers are selected using genome tools.  How you respond to toxins will become important to check your health risk at work and at home.

ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS (EHR)

This should improve health care quality and reduce health costs.  Your records will include all your medical information from cradle to grave.  Paper records only maintain privacy by chaos.  With a fragmented system, it is hard to compile or even find your records from all your doctors over several years.  

You will not have the luxury to selectively recall the facts or get treated by one doctor without the knowledge of another doctor knowing.  Your depression at a college clinic will be a permanent part of your EHR.  You might be stigmatized because you forego or delayed treatment for drug abuse.  A doctor treating you for  a sprained ankle does not need to know if you are predisposed to breast cancer.

What information can be restricted from a health provider?  Would you get complete control of your health records, letting you remove certain information, showing only  the details needed for a given diagnosis, and only disclosing or blocking  any information in your file?This option I think would be rarely exercised.  Could you prevent the routine disclosure of sensitive health information on domestic violence, substance abuse, sexual disease, mental health, and genetic information?

How can you strike the right balance between general and narrow disclosures? If you have too much control, the accuracy and completeness of your records will suffer. Your history would again have to be taken and new tests ordered.  Could you defensively opt out of the electronic records by paying cash or declining certain care if you worried about sensitive information? How can the doctor know about possible drug interactions, if he doesn’t know what drugs you took?  Would your file indicate that some information would not be available at your request?  If you are in an emergency situation, can the doctor lift these restrictions you placed?

THE PRIVACY RULE OF 2003 HIPAA

It applies only to entities that only handle electronically your health claims.  Doctors who take cash payments, fitness clubs that ask for your medical information, and doctors working under contract to third parties as a clinic in your work place, are not covered by this rule.

Complaints to the rule seldom are assessed and wrongdoers face few deterrents.  It also applies to entities in health care.   You might be concerned about the stigma or discrimination from non health care people, as when you apply for a job, get an insurance policy, or file for worker compensation  benefits.  These administrators require you to sign an authorization directing your doctor to release all your health information.

Your health can have bearing on health care decisions made.  Does an insurance adjustor handling a claim for your chipped tooth need to know your genetic test results?   EHR might solve these problems.  Software could scan records and only select the data relative to an inquiry.  This technology is not available now.  

TREATING GENTIC INFORMATION DIFFERENTLY

Sensitive health information would be treated different than genetic information.  But is this desirable?

Twelve states now require you to give written informed consent for a genetic test, and 27 states want express consent to disclose the test results.  Yet insurance companies and employers legally require you to sign an authorization for release of medical information.35 states prevent employers from requiring you to have a genetic test as a condition for employment.  Yet an employer can make you release your medical records as a condition of being hired.

You can get three kinds of  medical insurance: individual, as a group, or federally with Medicaid or Medicare.  Groups and individual plan underwriters want to know the risk they are taking.   Since they are covering the health care collectively  they can charge premiums based on their risks.  Their  main purpose is to protect the financial interest of the their  company.  Insurance companies want to know about all your past ailments and possible future illnesses so they can give you a premium price or deny you insurance.

Since Medicare and Medicaid are entitlement not insurance, the rules don’t apply.  Since there are no rates to adjust, the government doesn’t need to look at your genetic information. Getting life insurance, how can you be reassured that your records are not stolen or disclosed improperly?

It is unlikely that universal health care will happen soon.  We need better privacy laws now that electronic health records are a reality.  Today over a third of people refuse genetic testing because of fear of discrimination.

HURDLES TO ADDRESS

How you can get insurance and keep your right of privacy from employers?  The amount of disclosures should be limited, and you should have  recourse when you are harmed by these disclosures,  Disclosure should be limited to relevant health information. Source scientific American September 2008

 Your comments are always appreciated.  Visit www.drneedles.com for more controversial current medical information.

HIGH MEDICAL COSTS OF LITIGATION KILLING MEDICINE

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

MALPRACTICE

We all want universal health-care coverage, but how can we get health care access? Massachusetts, with its three year old universal coverage law, has resulted in a
two month wait to see a primary care physician. Those who can’t or will not wait. go to the emergency room, which provide one of the costliest forms of health care.

Many hospitals found out that hospital owned primary care services costs the hospital a great deal of money. It used to be a loss leader, as milk in a drug store, to generate more lucrative business for the hospital. Improving primary care access is essential before universal health care can become a reality.

It iss becoming more difficult for a family primary care practice to stay financially afloat. Many hospitals were buying these solo practices, and tolerated their financial losses, in exchange for all the specialist referrals and diagnostic tests primary care doctors would send to the hospital.

This year only 42% of domestic medical students chose family practice residencies; the rest went to foreign graduates. Burdened with medical school debt, most of the Americans went where the money is; anesthesia, (with 84% going to American medical school graduates).

Primary care doctors are paid far less for their services than specialists, but they have the same amount of medical school debts to pay off. A specialist might spend minutes performing a medical procedure during an office visit, and get paid eight times as much.

Compensating patients for medical errors through our current malpractice system is not working. We must explore a no fault malpractice system that can compensate patients more quickly than we do now.

ANOTHER STEP TOWARD SOCIALI ZED MEDICINE

During the presidential campaign, President Obama said he would establish a public insurance program that would compete with private insurers. Employers would need to contribute to the plan or give health coverage to their own employees. Looks like the current auto bailout in action.

The proposed public insurance program would need to include subsidized illegal immigrants. How could a small business employer survive if he had to contribute to a public insurance program from his small margin of profit?

We have high quality health care, but we can do better. How can we constrain costs and still provide quality care? Providing electronic record keeping is encouraged to reduce the chances of medical error. The high medical costs of litigation threaten your access to medical care and to the improvement in quality medical care.

We spend more per person on lawyers and judges and litigation than any other country in the world. Defensive medicine and medical treatments and testing are often only done to avoid litigation.

Insurance premiums are soaring, and some doctors can’t even get insurance, despite never having faced a claim. Multimillion-dollar jury awards are common today. Most injured patients rarely benefit from the awards and receive no compensation. The only ones who benefit are the trial lawyers who bring these cases to trial and defend them.

Our broken litigation system is raising the cost of your health care premiums.
You can’t find a doctor today when you most need one. Doctors are closing their practices or limit medically what they can do to avoid litigation. Doctors, nurses, and hospitals do not report problems because they fear of being dragged into a frivolous suit.

ACCESS TO CARE

Many of you can’t get private medical insurance because of the high costs. Doctors are avoiding specialties that present the greatest risk of suit (neurosurgeons) and those that are low on the financial scale (primary care doctors).

Everyone is practicing defensive medicine. Tests and treatments are performed only to protect doctors from litigation risk. You are referred to a specialist when it is medically unnecessary. invasive procedures are recommended, as biopsies, to confirm diagnoses already known. Excessive medications and antibiotics are prescribed, that doctors know are not necessary.

Every test and treatment that you take that is not necessary poses an unnecessary risk to you and also takes away your hard earned dollars.

MALPRACTICE CLAIMS

There is poor correlation between injuries caused by negligent medical care and litigation. The legal system does not identify negligence, deter bad conduct, or provide justice.

For example, obstetricians, (my former career), have more that two suits per career; over 30% of them are claims for neurologically impaired indents. Each award is over $1 million. The claims are that there is brain damage and cerebral palsy, because of lack of oxygen; yet most are from infections and causes that are beyond the control of doctors and the obstetrical teams.

Fear of liability discourages open discussion of medical errors and the ways to prevent them. Medical care has become increasingly complex, and there are many ways to improve the equality, safety, and costs of such care. No one in the medical field is comfortable discussing harmful events or uncertain treatments or medical errors.

We must work together to identify medical practices that lead to errors, and to correct them. The complex medical system is failing, and a broad range of doctors and hospitals must collect information and identity ways to fix the problems without fear of litigation.

To contain the soaring medical costs, we need no-fault medical insurance that will compensate the injured and put the medical trial lawyers out of work.

What do you think? Visit www.drneedles.com for more medical information on controversial pertinent subjects.
Let me know how we are doing.

DANGERS OF MEDICAL PRIVACY EROSION

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http;//www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

MEDICAL PRIVACY

Your privacy is eroding fast.   Being online, you wonder, “How did they know that?”  It’s hard to act anonymously today  if anyone makes an effort to find out who you are.  Society has given the health industry the tools and even laws to control the use of your data and to spread this data.

You live like a celebrity:  your movements, your weight gain, your surgeries, your medications, your medical tests, and your sexual history are all monitored.   Questions are now asked about why you had surgery, who is your doctor, why are you talking Viagra, and what medicines are you taking.

Is there any harm in disclosing your personal information?  When you give your social security number to someone is it an intrusion on your privacy? Are you denied any service, can fraud occur, can your identity  be stolen, are you injured when some one else knows something personal about you?

PRIVACY VERSUS SECURITY

Security is a public issue that now poses as a privacy issue.  The promise of safety from terrorism leads you to give private information that promises you safety and security; this tractable data allows our government to monitor your activities.

How can you, however, preserve your freedom and still let individuals, and institutions have tractable data?  If medical information is misused,  it is an issue of security not a breach of privacy.

PRIVACY VERSUS MEDICAL CARE

Personalized medicine is almost a reality.  Electronic record keeping has begun. Detailed health and generic information is obtained from your private medical history. Drug companies collect private data to target their ads to you.  Insurance companies may soon require you to take genetic tests that will result in denied insurance if you have a genetic risk.

You can certainly be discriminated when genetic studies are performed on you.  A genome carries a lot of information and can uniquely identify anyone.  Your family relationships that were hidden now can be exposed.  Genes, however, don’t tell about what you have done to improve your inherited abilities.  Your upbringing, behavior, and environment all interact with your genes and this is not considered.   Soon genetic discrimination may be against the law.   May 2008 Pres. Bush signed a law called GINA (GeneticInformatinNondiscrimination Act) which outlaws discrimination in insurance and employment based on genetic tests.  Will it be enforceable?: only time will tell.

With the flood of medical and genetic information, health insurance has learned a great deal about all of us. With accurate predictions now easier, diseases and treatments are tracked better to determine who is a high medical risk.

HEALTH CARE COSTS

Will our society mandate subsidies be given to make insurance more affordable to you?   What kind of discrimination is ok and what is not?   If insurance companies are given the administration duties, will they want clear rules about their health costs?  Will Insurance  companies be willing to pay for these services?   Will they then quit  digging  through your personal medical records to deny you coverage?   The bottom line is: How can quality medical care be made available and medical costs still be kept  down without limiting your medical care?

The government has now unlimited power to collect and use or misuse our personal data.  It can pass rules to protect your privacy, but will they observe or enforce the rules they make?    What we do need are rules that will limit how much of our privacy is actually needed by our  government.

You probably would not mind giving out  your personal information if it would help our general social welfare-- and-- the truth about your health does not result  in more costly medical bills and higher insurance premiums.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

THE MEDIA has always protected your rights.  Now the Internet has given you tools and a platform to take things in your own hands.  You have an instant access to a potentially worldwide audience.  Around the globe there is social networking, and sharing of cell phones and messages. 

Networking, blogging, and tweeting on face book and other web sites gives you a lot of pleasure in sharing your personal information with others on a social networking level.  It is another way your voice can also be heard about medical affairs.  

CONCLUSIONS

Privacy is not a one size fits all situations; data is accumulated and put in marketing buckets.   Sometimes you really are concerned about who gets your personal information and what happens to it.  Many times you don’t have the right to control a government entity, your employer, your insurance company, or your doctor from getting personal information. 

You, however, have some bargaining positions as you gain the tools and knowledge to protect yourself.  You must demand the same kind of information from the government that government demands from businesses and from you.  Disclosure rules are tightened all the time on labor practices, financial results and everything a business does.  Can’t we also get that same information about our government? 

As an investor, you have the right to have information about the company you own, about the products made and how they are made. 

Tell us Uncle Sam about your job related behavior, since we elected you and pay your salary.  Tell us about your conflicts of interest and what you do with your (our) time.  We want the same rights as patients that shareholders and customers have.   Perhaps we should have extra rights, since we are coerced into giving you so much data and have become so transparent.    Help us monitor, through our representatives,  what you do Uncle Sam with our personal data.   Let us audit how you manage and keep our data secure.

You must show your credit worthiness by giving private information to a company if you wish to purchase anything.  If they ask for too much data you can refuse to do business with them.  You also have a right to know what companies do with your data, and if you don’t like it you can move on.  Laws must be enforced to make companies actually follow their disclosed practices. You also have the right to information to check out your doctors and hospitals.

Team Obama’s quest for transparency doesn’t make things simple.  Your lives and medical affairs are as complicated as anyone cares to uncover.  Ambiguity exists in novels, history, political campaigns, compliments, divorces, lawsuits, and invitations to golf—and-- to your medical history.   

Silicone and hospital software will not make this ambiguity disappear.  In the past, what you did in private didn’t travel far from your doctor’s office, unless you were famous.  Now the concept of privacy is changing.  Unlike your parents, today you live a life in public, and can be hurt by erroneous information.

Visit www.drneedles.com for more commentaries on current controversial medical subjects. Your comments are always appreciated.