1. Wash your hands frequently throughout the day, before/during/after
food preparation, after coughing or sneezing, after cleaning the cat box, after using the bathroom,
and after handling money.
2. Consume no more than 6 grams of added sugar per serving per day (to ward off expensive diabetes and cancer).
3. Consume no more than 100 mg. of sodium per serving (to ward off expensive hypertension).
4.
Consume no more than 6 grams of protein per day (2 servings of 3 oz.
each) to ward off expensive high cholesterol and kidney-related
diseases, including gout.
5. Use good fats only: high Omega-3’s
like olive oil, coconut oil, high-oleic safflower oil (check labels
here), high-oleic sunflower oil, etc. The safflower and sunflower oils
are good for frying, and the coconut oil is terrific for baking.
6.
Stop smoking and don’t expose yourself to cigarette/cigar/joint smoke.
Second- and third-hand smoke is just as dangerous (and expensive to
treat) as first-hand smoke. Have yourself detoxed for heavy
metals—cadmium and other dangerous heavy metals exist in cigarettes.
Curb drinking to a minimum to avoid liver damage, and exposure to
diabetes potential—booze is fermented grains which turn to liquid
sugar, affecting the pancreas.
7. Eat primarily fruits and
vegetables—avoid fast foods and processed foods (anything in a can,
jar, box, or bag). If you MUST use processed foods, use some with low
sodium (<100 mg./serving) or sugar (<6 grams/serving). This
increases your fiber and eliminates excess fats, sugars, and hormones
from your blood, and helps ward off cancer.
8. Visit a dietitian
for a specific eating plan to help you lose weight and reverse chronic
diseases you may now have, and visit a personal trainer for an exercise
plan that fits your goals and abilities.
9. Have annual
physicals, CBC blood tests, a urinalysis, plus all other appropriate
annual tests (mammograms, PSA, etc.) to establish a baseline from which
to gather knowledge for health improvement—blood and urine tell much of
the story. If you have these results, take them to the dietitian,
because he or she will need them to help make your corrective eating
plan.
10. Stay current with immunizations—especially tetanus. A
decent diet pretty much negates the need for things like flu shots,
making these optional. I’ve never had a flu shot, and never gotten the
flu.
11. Buy and use a faucet filter or filter pitcher for your
drinking water to cut exposure to lead, mercury, flushed
pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants, as well as chlorine intake.
12.
Avoid convenience foods at all costs—learn to make your own at home.
Fast foods in particular employ the same addiction-creating methods as
cigarettes to keep you coming back for more, and are just as dangerous
to your health as cigarettes. Drive-thru windows should be bricked up
(in my opinion), and if you absolutely WANT this food, you should be
made to get out of the car to get it!
After completing the above
steps, then and only then do you need to worry about health insurance
(unless you text while driving). Smoking cessation aids listed in #6,
the professionals listed in #7, the tests listed in #8, the shots in
#10, and the foods listed in #6 are the only things our government
should be funding (subsidizing) in the way of national health care—the
rest is easily achievable on your own, and should be achieved.
Affordable coverage for trauma, surgeries, accidents, cancer, broken
bones, and catastrophes is available through HSA plans
(employer-provided or available online). The rest can be budgeted for
in regular savings. If the qualifications for MSA expenses changed to
include things like soap, smoking cessation aids, a water filter, or
high Omega-3 oils, I’d recommend using that too as a budgeting aid—I
consider these things as important as now-qualified expenses.
The
diet you come away with from #7 will also improve our DENTAL
health—lowering added sugar intake and increasing NATURAL sugar intake
(through fruits and vegetables) will help lower incidence of cavities
and gum disease, making dental visits more for cleaning than anything
else. Brushing and flossing are the cheapest ways of extending tooth
life.
The same can be said for the eyes—better diet will also
preserve and possibly improve vision, slowing the need for glasses (or
new glasses), and lowering the incidence for macular degeneration,
cataracts, and other eye diseases.
Notice I didn't mention
exercise--studies have shown that exercise just makes you hungry, and
then you eat, and the you exercise to work off what you just ate...it's
a never-ending cycle. Just walk more and you'll be all right.
Tort
reform, drug patent reform, cost consolidation, back-door rationing,
and government regulation may seem like good ideas to solve our
so-called health care crisis, but don’t address what we can do for
ourselves to eliminate the need for health care insurance in the first
place—taking better care of ourselves to begin with. Think of it as
“front-door rationing,” leaving those who don’t take better care of
themselves to be victims of government onslaught with Medicare,
Medicaid, and other intrusive social programs. Every government
“giveaway” has strings attached, and nothing’s free—in order to receive
this “benefit,” you must be willing and/or able to trash your own
health, and then be subject to haphazard and expensive care to repair
it.
Every government program puts limits and restrictions on
you—remember your freedoms. The Health Care Reform bill is an example
of how far Democrats are willing to go in pursuit of votes and power.
Government WANTS you to be dependent on them for your very life—do you
want to put your life in government’s hands? If not, then get off the
couch and start making changes TODAY to show government who’s boss!
So
much of the above list can be accomplished without insurance—maybe not
the visits to a dietitian or gym instructor, keeping up with
immunizations, or the CBC and urinalysis, but many of them CAN be
accomplished without insurance or some sort of subsidy. Do you really
need Uncle Sam to pay for soap, put fruits and veggies in your shopping
cart, or read labels for you?
The people in favor of H-R 3200 say yes, they need Uncle Sam to do it (and more) for them.
