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.