Save money on YOUR medical bills....

Today's post: Monday, 2-2-2009

A. NPR recently had an article debating whether or not the likely emphasis on good health habits in the new Obama administration will actually cut health care costs.

There are two arguments that it won’t. The one in this piece was that the programs to teach people how to prevent expensive diseases would cost more than it would save.

That’s a reasonable question to ask if you don’t know the magnitude of the problem or how easy it is to get about half the job done.

NPR makes the point that over 70 percent of ALL medical expenses are spent to treat a small number of diseases including diabetes, heart disease, & depression.

That’s a truly huge amount of money. And these diseases are about 90 % preventable with about 70 % of that from relatively simple good health habits. Doing the math, .7 X .9 X .7 shows that 44.1 % of ALL health care costs we now spend on people in middle age and earlier old age, are totally preventable by following relatively simple good health habits.

(The other 20 % of possible prevention, taking the right supplements, is desirable, I believe, since even though that costs money, it helps keep people well and productive even if you break even on costs over a lifetime. And, I’d much rather simply stay well than get sick and damaged and made less able by something I could have prevented even if the prevention costs as much as the treatment to keep from getting sicker after the fact.)

But the point is that nearly HALF of ALL the health care money we now spend is completely avoidable at virtually no cost by having people know to adopt relatively simple good health habits & doing so.

While this is being debated as national health policy, the information is in. YOU need NOT wait to use it to lower YOUR medical costs and prevent yourself from suffering or early death.

B. The 3 rules to get that done are.:

1. Don’t smoke; and avoid second hand smoke as if it was a mild, but cumulatively deadly poison gas. And, if you still smoke, NEVER use a lighter; ONLY use matches.

(If you smoke and quit, you save almost as much by not buying cigarettes as you do by not having to pay the resulting extra medical bills. So the savings start immediately.)

2. Get some exercise each week.

Do this starting right away even if you only do a single vigorous exercise for ONE minute a day at home and some extra walking each week, ideally reaching about 5 miles or one hundred minutes or a bit less each week. And, to begin with even one ten minute walk each week and three days each where you do a single vigorous exercise at home for one minute will get you started.

3. Eat right.

Eating food, or drinking drinks, made of refined grains; excess salt; any hydrogenated vegetable oils; oils that are high in omega 3 oils; fat from animals fed grain because it’s too high in fat, saturated fat, & omega 6 oils; artificial sweeteners high fructose corn syrup; and excessive sugar reliably makes the people who do it fat and sick.

If you don’t buy that stuff to take home, you get immediate savings compared to most people today because 70 to 80 % of the grocery bill for many people contains nothing else.

Eating beans and lentils; vegetables; some naturally fed poultry if you can get it or very lean grain fed poultry with the skin removed; some beef fed only grass; and nuts, low mercury fish and seafood wild caught only & if you aren’t allergic to them; using extra virgin olive oil and eating some fresh fruit and occasional whole grains and very occasionally eat sugar or foods it has been cooked into, tends to make you stay healthy and trim.

Plus if you don’t buy the bad stuff, and you lean towards more beans and lentils than the more expensive animal protein foods on most days of the week, you can eat well and still spend less than many people now spend on junk. That means you can pay LESS for groceries now and much less for your medical bills later too.

C. This works. And, it works FAST.

To be sure, fit people who have lost or never had excess fat are healthier than fat people who exercise regularly. BUT fat people who exercise are MUCH healthier than fat people who do NO regular exercise. And, fat people who exercise are even healthier than people who are of “normal” weight. (Recent studies have found that than people who are of “normal” weight are actually lightly muscled and fat INSIDE where it doesn’t show.)

Even better, if you are fatter than you should be, as long as you start a bit easy and build up slowly, you start to get improved health virtually as soon as you start exercising.

And, if you stop ingesting junk; begin eating real foods that support your health; and begin regular exercise, there’s an excellent chance you’ll lose enough fat to lose about 7% of your bodyweight with no further effort. It may take a few months; but if you stay with good health habits, it’s permanent.

But of extreme importance, that may get you over half the health protection all by itself.

Doctors at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston found that even a 6.5 % weight loss from adopting good health habits is extremely effective in improving a person’s health and protecting him or her from disease.

A week ago my NewsMax email had these two quotes.

“ “Obesity appears to be the central component of the metabolic syndrome. Our study (results) have shown that weight loss of as little as 6.5 percent in individuals with the disease results in substantial reductions in blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides and total cholesterol, all factors that lead to heart disease,” said Christie Ballantyne, M.D., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and Baylor College of Medicine. “These impressive results occur early in the weight loss, well before individuals even begin to approach their ideal body weight.” “

I’ve also read similar information from other sources before.

So if you weigh 200 pounds now & lose 13 pounds or more by just adapting good health habits, or you weigh 160 pounds now and lose 10 & half pounds or more the by just adapting good health habits, particularly totally discontinuing all ingesting of the really bad stuff, you’ll save money now and a LOT of money on your medical bills later.

Here’s a hint on how to make that actually happen.

“If you own it, you’ll eat it.” was a headline today online on the Health Day health news on Yahoo News. The study referred to found that people who would never take home food past it’s due date or food with mold growing on it from the store would tend to minimize the problems with it and eat it anyway, if they already had it at home.

The reason quoted was that people’s perceptions of things usually change to a more favorable opinion once they own something.

But there are two other reasons they missed. If you already own it, you paid for it already. People hate to through out something they’ll have to pay more to replace. And, if you go the kitchen for something to eat, you’re likely hungry and want to eat NOW, not after an extra trip to the store.

But each of these three reasons can sabotage you when you begin to stop eating bad for you foods too.

So, one weekend read all the labels and find everything in your kitchen from vegetable shortening to margarine to peanut butter to ketchup to jam to snacks or commercial desserts, etc and ALL soft drinks and list it if you need to get a health OK substitute or simply toss it if you don’t.

Then go buy the substitutes. And when you come home, toss the bad for you stuff you just got a health OK substitute for.

For peanut butter where the one you have has high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and excessive salt now. By almond butter at Whole Foods or buy Adams or Laura Scudders peanut butter that only has peanuts or peanuts and salt.

For jam that has high fructose corn syrup, get conserves of the same fruit with no sugar added at Whole Foods or No Sugar Added apple sauce or real maple syrup or honey or one of the few jams with real sugar or make your own jam with no sugar added. Then mostly use one of the so sugar options or eat a piece of whole fruit instead.

Get extra virgin olive oil and some small amount of a good quality real butter to substitute for corn oil, peanut oil, soy oil, shortening, margarine, and canola oil. Then use the olive oil mostly and only occasionally have food with real butter.

Buy coffee, tea, and green tea to replace soft drinks with caffeine.

Buy Food for Life, “Biblical” breads or other breads only made from sprouted whole grains to replace breads where the first or only ingredient is wheat flour. “Wheat flour” is refined grain flour only and a bread made out of it is a refined grain food even if the bread has had brown coloring added and has wheat berries or sesame seeds on the crust so it looks “healthy.”

And be sure to get some raw or dry roasted nuts if you aren’t allergic. (Whole Foods is a good source.)

Likewise get some raw or frozen vegetables with no salt or sauce added and some real fresh fruit you actually like to eat.

Remember, if you own it, and it’s in your kitchen when you are hungry, you’ll eat it.

So, toss the stuff that will make you sick and replace with the real foods that will keep you well and trim.

Your grocery bill will be the same or less. But your health will be better and your medical bills will be a lot less. As a nice bonus, you’ll also be a LOT less fat.