(Trigger Warning: Body policing, fat shaming)
The body's a temple, that's what we're told
I've treated this one like an old honky-tonk
Greasy cheeseburgers and cheap cigarettes
One day they'll get me if they ain't got me yet
Kenny Chesney, "Living in Fast Forward"
Mens sana in corpore sano. A healthy mind in a healthy body. Juvenal said that in Satire X when listing things people should want out of life. The Latin phrase is the motto of athletic organizations ranging from the Asociacion Atletica Argentinos Juniors to the Beale Gaelic Football Club in County Kerry, Ireland, and educational institutions ranging from the Kongsbakken videregående skole in Tromsø, Norway to the Dhaka Physical Education College in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Healthy body, healthy mind: everyone has always known it.
Why then do so few people have healthy bodies?
There are several rules to keep in mind when endeavoring to have a healthy body.
Rule one: Drink clean water. If you're dying of cholera or dysentery, you're not healthy. Over a billion people get diarrhea every year, and two to five million of them die. The easiest way to assure clean water to drink is to buy bottled water. The next easiest is to live somewhere with a decent municipal water system. Failing that, count on charity: water, The Water Project, water.org, and such like. As for quantity, drink as much as you need. The 'eight eight-ounce glasses' rule of thumb is bull, but if you're thirsty or your urine is yellow, you haven't been drinking enough water.
Rule two: Breathe clean air. The more air pollutants you're exposed to, the more likely it is that you'll contract respiratory disease. Support the Environmental Protection Agency or your local equivalent thereof, and if you live next door to a factory that spits smoke constantly, move. Also, avoid being around smokers whenever possible; secondhand tobacco smoke contains dozens of carcinogens.
Rule three: Keep yourself clean. Proper hygiene is necessary to prevent the spread of many illnesses—washing hands alone has saved hundreds of millions of lives. Brush and floss your teeth; gingivitis makes your gums easily hurt, and bad teeth are one of the most obvious markers of poverty.
Rule four: Eat clean food. Cholera is no longer a common food-borne illness, thank FSM, but Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli still abound. The symptoms of all three (fever, cramps, diarrhea) are unpleasant, and diarrhea, again, can kill. If you do not live somewhere with a Food and Drug Administration or equivalent, emigrate, or become a food safety expert.
Rule five: Eat enough food. If you're starving to death, you're not healthy. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization defines hunger as the consumption of fewer than 1800 calories a day. For comparison's sake, that's three Big Macs and a four-piece Chicken McNuggets. More than a billion people in 2009 failed to get that magic number of 1800 calories a day; these people are predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. To avoid undernutrition, live somewhere with a stable government; to avoid undernutrition in children under five (the most important time of life, nutritionally speaking, is conception to twenty-four months), live somewhere that values women. If you already do both of those and you're still hungry, patronize your local food bank; otherwise, rely on one of these charities.
Rule six: Eat enough protein. Ten percent of your daily caloric intake should be protein; significantly less for long enough and you're at risk of kwashiorkor, a disease primarily found among undernourished children. Protein from animal sources supplies all nine of the essential (that is, not synthesizable by the human body) amino acids. Protein from plant sources is invariably very low on at least one of the nine, usually lysine or methionine, but eating some grains and some legumes (corn and beans, rice and soy) will balance matters out; what one plant lacks, the other has in plenty. If you're relying on a food bank for your nutritional needs, don't; food banks are in perpetual need of foods containing lysine, such as animal protein, beans, and peas.
Rule seven: Eat enough fat and enough essential fatty acids. Fats are necessary to the diet because certain vitamins are only effective when dissolved in fats, because the body needs insulation against cold and against physical shocks, and to keep cells functioning smoothly. ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids and the ratio between the two are important to nervous system function. Fats are found in everything, it seems. ω-3 fatty acids are found primarily in oil from cold water oily fish or from the algae those fish eat, and ω-6 fatty acids are found in basically anything with unsaturated fat. So make sure to eat fish once or twice a week, unless you're a vegetarian, in which case take algal-oil supplements, and eat enough unsaturated fat. But:
Rule eight: Don't eat too much fat. No more than ten percent of your daily caloric intake should come from fats, and those should be primarily non-hydrogenated monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, that is, oils instead of solid or spreadable fats, which are saturated fats and which put you at risk for cardiovascular disease. Also, the more fat you eat when you're getting enough calories from other sources, the more fat is stored against future need that may never come. I'm a Health at Every Size advocate, but the world in general is not. Doctors in particular, I keep being informed (trigger warning, swearing), are generally under the impression that for people over the arbitrary 'healthy' weight, losing weight cures all ills. So if you're eating fatty food, it might be better to stop or cut back. If you're eating fatty food only because it's cheaper, definitely stop.
Rule nine: Eat enough micronutrients. There's a laundry list of elements and compounds necessary in small quantities to the proper functioning of the human body. Sulfur and selenium, for example, are key to the manufacture of certain amino acids. Vitamin K is involved in making injuries stop bleeding. In general, the more varied your diet, especially with regards to fruit and vegetables, the less you have to worry about your micronutrient intake. Eat dark green leafy vegetables daily for assorted vitamins and minerals; eat citrus and tomato multiple times a week for other vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C. Drink fortified milk for calcium and vitamin D. Use iodized salt for iodine and sodium, though if you're worried about eating too little sodium, either you have scary-low blood pressure or you don't eat estadounidense cuisine. If you can't afford a varied diet, take a daily multivitamin, but that is not the preferred option for multiple reasons, not least being, who wants to eat the same things all the time?
Rule ten: Eat enough carbohydrates. Simple sugars are the primary energy source for the body. Complex carbs are just strings of simple sugars. Whole grains are better than processed, again because of micronutrients, in this case thiamin, which is vital to the peripheral nervous system and the cardiovascular system and which is found in the part of the grain typically removed during processing. Don't worry about the added expense. Which brings us to:
Rule eleven: Don't stress. Work stress, relationship stress, money stress, lack-of-privilege-related stress, trauma-related stress—stop. Breathe in. Pause. Breathe out. Breathe in. Pause. Breathe out. As Kenny Chesney says, we're living on fast forward, and we need to rewind real slow. Stressing disturbs your sleep and your digestive system, gives you tense and aching muscles, and exhausts you, and that's just the physical symptoms. Take five every so often, fairly often, and just breathe. Take thirty every day to do something relaxing: a bubble bath, a pleasant book, a yoga session. If you don't have time, make time.
Speaking of yoga, rule twelve: Exercise. The rule of thumb is at least thirty minutes a day of moderate physical activity. Make sure you balance that among cardio, flexibility, and strength exercises, and make sure the strength and flexibility exercises work your whole body. The Onion jokes about forgetting to develop the muscles in one arm, but it's not funny; if your work requires you to carry a toolbox, for example, and you habitually carry it with one arm instead of switching between them, you'll wear out the one arm and fail to strengthen the other, which is counterproductive. If you don't have time to exercise, again, make time.
(Trigger Warning: Car accidents) Rule thirteen: Get enough sleep. Too little sleep screws with your ability to receive, process, and recall information and puts you at greater risk of mental illness, diabetes, and heart problems, as well as making it more likely that you'll fall asleep at the wheel and total your car and yourself. You know better than anyone else how much you need; the rule of thumb for adults is seven to nine hours. If you don't have time, make time. Schedule sleep the way you schedule work. Right before bedtime is a good time to pencil in your daily half hour of peace, to help you wind down for the day. Do not, absolutely do not, use caffeine within a few hours of bedtime. Invest in a high-quality mattress and pillow suited to your comfort.
Rule fourteen: Have good health and dental care. In an emergency situation, the need for good health care is obvious; no one wants an incompetent setting a broken bone or drilling a cavity in a tooth. In non-emergency situations, good health and dental care is vital. Regular checkups make it possible to catch major health problems while they're still minor health problems.
All these rules derive from one basic rule. If you can't, for whatever reason, follow all of the above, as long as you follow this one you'll be all right. Rule zero of maintaining good health, the cardinal rule, is this:
Don't be poor.
Good health is a privilege, not a right. Exercise it. If you can.
--MercuryBlue
The body's a temple, that's what we're told
I've treated this one like an old honky-tonk
Greasy cheeseburgers and cheap cigarettes
One day they'll get me if they ain't got me yet
Kenny Chesney, "Living in Fast Forward"
Mens sana in corpore sano. A healthy mind in a healthy body. Juvenal said that in Satire X when listing things people should want out of life. The Latin phrase is the motto of athletic organizations ranging from the Asociacion Atletica Argentinos Juniors to the Beale Gaelic Football Club in County Kerry, Ireland, and educational institutions ranging from the Kongsbakken videregående skole in Tromsø, Norway to the Dhaka Physical Education College in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Healthy body, healthy mind: everyone has always known it.
Why then do so few people have healthy bodies?
There are several rules to keep in mind when endeavoring to have a healthy body.
Rule one: Drink clean water. If you're dying of cholera or dysentery, you're not healthy. Over a billion people get diarrhea every year, and two to five million of them die. The easiest way to assure clean water to drink is to buy bottled water. The next easiest is to live somewhere with a decent municipal water system. Failing that, count on charity: water, The Water Project, water.org, and such like. As for quantity, drink as much as you need. The 'eight eight-ounce glasses' rule of thumb is bull, but if you're thirsty or your urine is yellow, you haven't been drinking enough water.
Rule two: Breathe clean air. The more air pollutants you're exposed to, the more likely it is that you'll contract respiratory disease. Support the Environmental Protection Agency or your local equivalent thereof, and if you live next door to a factory that spits smoke constantly, move. Also, avoid being around smokers whenever possible; secondhand tobacco smoke contains dozens of carcinogens.
Rule three: Keep yourself clean. Proper hygiene is necessary to prevent the spread of many illnesses—washing hands alone has saved hundreds of millions of lives. Brush and floss your teeth; gingivitis makes your gums easily hurt, and bad teeth are one of the most obvious markers of poverty.
Rule four: Eat clean food. Cholera is no longer a common food-borne illness, thank FSM, but Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli still abound. The symptoms of all three (fever, cramps, diarrhea) are unpleasant, and diarrhea, again, can kill. If you do not live somewhere with a Food and Drug Administration or equivalent, emigrate, or become a food safety expert.
Rule five: Eat enough food. If you're starving to death, you're not healthy. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization defines hunger as the consumption of fewer than 1800 calories a day. For comparison's sake, that's three Big Macs and a four-piece Chicken McNuggets. More than a billion people in 2009 failed to get that magic number of 1800 calories a day; these people are predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. To avoid undernutrition, live somewhere with a stable government; to avoid undernutrition in children under five (the most important time of life, nutritionally speaking, is conception to twenty-four months), live somewhere that values women. If you already do both of those and you're still hungry, patronize your local food bank; otherwise, rely on one of these charities.
Rule six: Eat enough protein. Ten percent of your daily caloric intake should be protein; significantly less for long enough and you're at risk of kwashiorkor, a disease primarily found among undernourished children. Protein from animal sources supplies all nine of the essential (that is, not synthesizable by the human body) amino acids. Protein from plant sources is invariably very low on at least one of the nine, usually lysine or methionine, but eating some grains and some legumes (corn and beans, rice and soy) will balance matters out; what one plant lacks, the other has in plenty. If you're relying on a food bank for your nutritional needs, don't; food banks are in perpetual need of foods containing lysine, such as animal protein, beans, and peas.
Rule seven: Eat enough fat and enough essential fatty acids. Fats are necessary to the diet because certain vitamins are only effective when dissolved in fats, because the body needs insulation against cold and against physical shocks, and to keep cells functioning smoothly. ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids and the ratio between the two are important to nervous system function. Fats are found in everything, it seems. ω-3 fatty acids are found primarily in oil from cold water oily fish or from the algae those fish eat, and ω-6 fatty acids are found in basically anything with unsaturated fat. So make sure to eat fish once or twice a week, unless you're a vegetarian, in which case take algal-oil supplements, and eat enough unsaturated fat. But:
Rule eight: Don't eat too much fat. No more than ten percent of your daily caloric intake should come from fats, and those should be primarily non-hydrogenated monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, that is, oils instead of solid or spreadable fats, which are saturated fats and which put you at risk for cardiovascular disease. Also, the more fat you eat when you're getting enough calories from other sources, the more fat is stored against future need that may never come. I'm a Health at Every Size advocate, but the world in general is not. Doctors in particular, I keep being informed (trigger warning, swearing), are generally under the impression that for people over the arbitrary 'healthy' weight, losing weight cures all ills. So if you're eating fatty food, it might be better to stop or cut back. If you're eating fatty food only because it's cheaper, definitely stop.
Rule nine: Eat enough micronutrients. There's a laundry list of elements and compounds necessary in small quantities to the proper functioning of the human body. Sulfur and selenium, for example, are key to the manufacture of certain amino acids. Vitamin K is involved in making injuries stop bleeding. In general, the more varied your diet, especially with regards to fruit and vegetables, the less you have to worry about your micronutrient intake. Eat dark green leafy vegetables daily for assorted vitamins and minerals; eat citrus and tomato multiple times a week for other vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C. Drink fortified milk for calcium and vitamin D. Use iodized salt for iodine and sodium, though if you're worried about eating too little sodium, either you have scary-low blood pressure or you don't eat estadounidense cuisine. If you can't afford a varied diet, take a daily multivitamin, but that is not the preferred option for multiple reasons, not least being, who wants to eat the same things all the time?
Rule ten: Eat enough carbohydrates. Simple sugars are the primary energy source for the body. Complex carbs are just strings of simple sugars. Whole grains are better than processed, again because of micronutrients, in this case thiamin, which is vital to the peripheral nervous system and the cardiovascular system and which is found in the part of the grain typically removed during processing. Don't worry about the added expense. Which brings us to:
Rule eleven: Don't stress. Work stress, relationship stress, money stress, lack-of-privilege-related stress, trauma-related stress—stop. Breathe in. Pause. Breathe out. Breathe in. Pause. Breathe out. As Kenny Chesney says, we're living on fast forward, and we need to rewind real slow. Stressing disturbs your sleep and your digestive system, gives you tense and aching muscles, and exhausts you, and that's just the physical symptoms. Take five every so often, fairly often, and just breathe. Take thirty every day to do something relaxing: a bubble bath, a pleasant book, a yoga session. If you don't have time, make time.
Speaking of yoga, rule twelve: Exercise. The rule of thumb is at least thirty minutes a day of moderate physical activity. Make sure you balance that among cardio, flexibility, and strength exercises, and make sure the strength and flexibility exercises work your whole body. The Onion jokes about forgetting to develop the muscles in one arm, but it's not funny; if your work requires you to carry a toolbox, for example, and you habitually carry it with one arm instead of switching between them, you'll wear out the one arm and fail to strengthen the other, which is counterproductive. If you don't have time to exercise, again, make time.
(Trigger Warning: Car accidents) Rule thirteen: Get enough sleep. Too little sleep screws with your ability to receive, process, and recall information and puts you at greater risk of mental illness, diabetes, and heart problems, as well as making it more likely that you'll fall asleep at the wheel and total your car and yourself. You know better than anyone else how much you need; the rule of thumb for adults is seven to nine hours. If you don't have time, make time. Schedule sleep the way you schedule work. Right before bedtime is a good time to pencil in your daily half hour of peace, to help you wind down for the day. Do not, absolutely do not, use caffeine within a few hours of bedtime. Invest in a high-quality mattress and pillow suited to your comfort.
Rule fourteen: Have good health and dental care. In an emergency situation, the need for good health care is obvious; no one wants an incompetent setting a broken bone or drilling a cavity in a tooth. In non-emergency situations, good health and dental care is vital. Regular checkups make it possible to catch major health problems while they're still minor health problems.
All these rules derive from one basic rule. If you can't, for whatever reason, follow all of the above, as long as you follow this one you'll be all right. Rule zero of maintaining good health, the cardinal rule, is this:
Don't be poor.
Good health is a privilege, not a right. Exercise it. If you can.
--MercuryBlue
The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.
In personal finance nerd-circles, a running joke about how to build the best possible credit score is 'don't need the money.' Pay your bills on time. Don't use your credit lines. Save for emergencies. Don't lend money to relatives in trouble. It all relates back to rule zero.
Posted by: Wysteria | Feb 10, 2012 at 05:00 PM
It's really more "Be rich," than "Don't be poor."
Rules 11, 12, and 13 are pretty much impossible to follow if you have a 9-5* office job.
*Which, despite the name, is almost certainly more like 8-7. If you're lucky.
Posted by: Froborr | Feb 10, 2012 at 05:04 PM
@Froborr: One of things that really hit me when I moved back to Canada from the US is the difference economic logic of the two systems.
In the US one is often scared to get tested for things lest they discover pre-existing conditions.
TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF CANCER
In Ontario, right now, there is more and more of a push for early detection and prevention--not for fuzzy, feel-good reasons but rather because it is fiscally expedient. The earlier you catch various things (such as cancer) the cheaper they turn out to be for the system. As the daughter of cancer survivor and the granddaughter of a cancer survivor the first day I talked to my new Ontario doctor I got sent for tests. I have been tested for beast cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer and intestinal cancer. All of which my own conditions and/or my family history make me somewhat more likely than average to contract.
My mom was tested early at the first sign of colon cancer and she survived more than two, very healthy decades, to die of something other than cancer. I joke about the pictures of my intestines but my doctor did show them to me and we discussed if there were any indications that suggested that I should get tested more frequently. (I am happy to say there were none.)
Good preventive care saves the entire system enormous amounts of money in the long run but it is expensive to individuals in the short run. But the decision to get those tests should not be made on the basis of how tight my household budget is this month.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 10, 2012 at 05:23 PM
Isn't that the truth.
I had a conversation a while ago with a friend. That friend wanted to argue that health was a right; I wanted to disagree.
By that argument - and we were both tired, so probably at least one of us was misunderstanding the discussion - I'd be violating my own rights by existing, since my body has several conditions that do not qualify as health, and I can't place something as a right that not everyone can even attain. See, enough food, education, clean water and air - these are things I think everyone CAN have. (Not everyone DOES have them, and it isn't their fault.) But health? Not everyone is capable of a baseline standard of health. No matter how hard I eat right and exercise, my lungs will never quit being asthmatic. (And that's not even the one that causes me the most distress day to day. And I don't even have it as bad as a lot of people.)
I do, completely, agree that CARE is a right. Whatever care people need, as long as they need it.
We are a long, long way from that ideal here in the US.
Posted by: Sixwing | Feb 10, 2012 at 05:44 PM
Mercury Blue,
That was a powerful article. Wow.
TRiG.
Posted by: Timothy (TRiG) | Feb 10, 2012 at 06:35 PM
The last line was killer. I love it. Good article MercuryBlue :D
Posted by: Madhabmatics | Feb 10, 2012 at 06:45 PM
Very nice. I think before anyone, ever can complain about other people's weight (which they shouldn't do anyway), we need to ensure that everyone can access to all of these things. Because if you don't because of poverty or other circumstances, the deck is automatically stacked against you. Hell, even the first one can be an issue in the U.S., not just internationally. Because of an overlooked bill a while back, I had my water turned off. We were able to fix it relatively quickly, but dear Lord, was that scary.
TW: Concern with weight
It's funny that you post this, because this morning I weighed myself for the first time in a while and was disappointed to see that I had gained weight rather quickly. Now, no matter what my mom says about BMI, I think it's a terrible way of measuring health. But...I usually don't gain that quickly, which to me says something is Wrong. That I do need to pay more attention to taking care of myself.
TW: Car Accidents. Rule thirteen: Get enough sleep. Too little sleep screws with your ability to receive, process, and recall information and puts you at greater risk of mental illness, diabetes, and heart problems, as well as making it more likely that you'll fall asleep at the wheel and total your car and yourself.
The falling asleep at the wheel thing is unlikely for me as I rarely drive any distance, but otherwise, yes, yes, yes. I think this is what lies at the heart of pretty much all of the health issues - albeit minor - I'm facing. For all of the societal pressure to be perfect and my own pressure to exercise and eat fairly well, sleep gets the shaft. I think it's one of those things that really flies under the radar. I know women in particular get far too little sleep, which is probably a huge part of the issue - eating and exercise are more obvious and easier to point fingers at self-control wise than sleep. Sleep is seen as a luxury, and so is the first thing to be sacrificed.
Posted by: storiteller | Feb 10, 2012 at 07:24 PM
I just about gave myself a heart attack weighing myself. Someone in the house had re-zeroed it at ~30 lbs.... I knew I'd put on a little weight since my episode with plantar fasciitis this summer, but I didn' think it was THAT much.
Posted by: cjmr | Feb 10, 2012 at 07:30 PM
Eating a healthy, varied diet, getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep, and managing stress seem nearly impossible to do if one is balancing a full-time job and raising kids. Even if you don't have a super-long commute, let's say you work from 8 to 5, pick up the kids and get home at 6, you have what, four, maybe four and a half hours to prepare and eat a healthful dinner, help the kids with homework, do whatever household tasks need doing... and also exercise, do self-care, and ideally put some time into maintaining social relationships (time with your partner, if you have one, keeping up with friends and family.) I don't have kids (or a live-in partner), but that seems pretty darn hard to me, with the result that many people sacrifice some combination of sleep, self-care, exercise, and healthful food prep (especially since my scenario assumes a nearly ideal situation. Lots of people have longer commutes, for example. And then there's the question of division of labor. I have a coworker who, through a combination of different work shifts and gender norms is wholly responsible for taking care of the kids in the evenings and taking care of the house, with I think only some assistance with food prep. And she's got a long commute. Single parenting is a whole nother level of difficulty.)
It really shows the limitations in our current family model. If you've got one parent working and one parent at home, you can probably make it work, but that's a hard thing to pull off financially, and it's not something a lot of people would want to do even if they could. But with non-nuclear families... if you increase the number of adults, it starts looking a lot more feasible (either extended families, with grandparents or aunts and uncles or whatever, or a cooperative model, with multiple sets of parents sharing responsibilities for multiple sets of kids.)
I personally have no excuse for not doing these things, because they are all well within my means, both time-wise and financially. I still don't do them, but I'm working on it.
Posted by: burgundy | Feb 11, 2012 at 04:44 AM
Also you have to be lucky. I have a physical condition, cause unknown,* that makes eating right more difficult and many forms of exercise impossible without a significant chance of quite a bit of pain (specifically, anything that requires me to be horizontal even briefly, such as sit-ups and pull-ups, and anything that involves bouncing up and down, such as jogging or jumping jacks).
And thanks to my depression/anxiety/PTSD/AvPD (I have at least two disorders on that list, but no two doctors agree on which two), I sometimes have insomnia. Like tonight.
If the body is a temple, mine is one of those non-Euclidean Cthulhu-cult ones.
*More accurately, the condition was caused by the surgery I had to correct another, life-threatening condition. The cause of the latter condition is unknown.
Posted by: Froborr | Feb 11, 2012 at 05:49 AM
It really shows the limitations in our current family model. If you've got one parent working and one parent at home, you can probably make it work, but that's a hard thing to pull off financially, and it's not something a lot of people would want to do even if they could.
Perhaps not for health, but it's been shown the best model for maximum community involvement is one person working full time and one person working part time. We're looking at that for my husband and I for at least the first few years of raising kids. I believe that employers really should start looking much harder at how to make part-time work available. You have a lot of people in my generation (Millenials) who are starting families who want to both spend time with them, take care of themselves, and do a little bit of community involvement. Then, you also have baby boomers who want to retire, but wouldn't mind working a little bit to supplement their income and give themselves something to do. It seems like it would be a great solution.
I personally have no excuse for not doing these things, because they are all well within my means, both time-wise and financially. I still don't do them, but I'm working on it.
Same here. I'd like to have kids eventually, so I'm trying to get to the point where I can meet those things before we do so that I'm better prepared mentally then. Because if I can't do it now, there's no way I can do it then.
Posted by: storiteller | Feb 11, 2012 at 09:32 AM
I'm really glad I'm not the only person who feels that way sometimes.
MB, loved the article. Maybe we should add "Don't get old" to the list, too. On the other hand, if you get old, and you have money, you can frequently cope with it; if you get old without money...well, see Rule #1.
Posted by: Literata | Feb 11, 2012 at 10:17 AM
I'm in good shape, but this brought home the fact that even with as much effort and mindfulness as I put into becoming and staying that way, even more is due to luck and my personal and financial circumstances.
However I did let out an involuntary wha? at rule 8. That should be more like 20-40%.
Posted by: picklefactory | Feb 11, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Froborr: you have a 9-5* office job.
*Which, despite the name, is almost certainly more like 8-7.
burgundy: Eating a healthy, varied diet, getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep, and managing stress seem nearly impossible to do if one is balancing a full-time job and raising kids. Even if you don't have a super-long commute, let's say you work from 8 to 5, pick up the kids and get home at 6, you have what, four, maybe four and a half hours to prepare and eat a healthful dinner, help the kids with homework, do whatever household tasks need doing... and also exercise, do self-care, and ideally put some time into maintaining social relationships
Clearly, we need to return to the labor protests of the '90s. That is, the 1890s. "8 Hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of what we will!" Actually, if we went back to many things from the 1890s, we would probably be healthier - smaller cities, walking to work, eating more veggies and less red meat... Of course, the trade offs are not worth it - more coal smoke, poor food and water regulation... feh.
Posted by: Mike Timonin | Feb 11, 2012 at 12:11 PM
For transparency:
Some may notice that a particular blog has been removed from the blogroll; that was done at the request of Jason.
Posted by: The Board Administration Team | Feb 11, 2012 at 12:53 PM
Good article, MercuryBlue.
I don't know why it's so hard to comply with rule 13. I mean, I'm privileged: my child is grown, my job is stable 9-5, my health is okay for my age*-- and I'm lazy, or tired or something, because I don't do nearly as much of anything as I used to-- but somehow, I'm not sleeping.
*I'd definitely add "Don't get old" to the list. I'm staring at the future and I don't like what I see.
But Literata is also correct that Rule Zero trumps even that. As usual, Ogden Nash had a word for it:
The only incurable troubles of the rich are the kind of troubles that money can't cure,
Which is a kind of trouble that is even more troublesome if you are poor.
Posted by: Amaryllis (on a different host) | Feb 11, 2012 at 01:02 PM
There will be a blogaround this week although it may appear on Sunday rather than Saturday. Submissions will be welcomed but may be responded to more slowly than in the past.
Posted by: The Board Administration Team | Feb 11, 2012 at 01:59 PM
//Sleep is seen as a luxury, and so is the first thing to be sacrificed.//
This is so true, and so infuriating. I remember complaining to one of the parade of would-be helpers when xCLP was small that there weren't enough hours in the day to do everything I needed to do. "Try getting up earlier," she said. Except that one of the things I needed to do was get enough sleep, and I was already struggling.
Posted by: Nick Kiddle | Feb 11, 2012 at 03:40 PM
Nick, that's a terrible thing for someone to say to you! Argh!
I'm at a point just now where my sleep cycle is really shitty--I am nocturnal by nature, but if I'm working full-time hours, I can usually adjust things so that I'm getting *almost* enough sleep and going to bed early enough to get it. But if, like now [yay January retail hours] I'm working part-time, I get to where I *have* to sleep in past noon to get 7-8 hours (and I need about 9 to be happy). And then the next day I work, I'll get about four hours sleep. Not Fun. I'm not sure what to do about it, but telling myself I'm not a horrible person for it seems to help at least a little.
I've trained myself to think of fresh fruit as a treat, so sometimes I can "splurge" on that and know that not only is it delicious, it's good for me. But I don't cook beyond pasta and rice, and worry sometimes that I'm not getting proper nutrition.
(If my sweetie lived in the same town as I do, so many things would be easier: she'd cook for me, I'd do the dishes, all would be well. But, sigh, I only get to do that a few times a year.)
Mmy, totally agree about coming back to Canada. I only saw a doctor once the 3 1/2 years I was in the US, because of money issues. (I did see the health nurse, who was fantastic, a few times for stuff like birth control.) I told people that I was coming home to Canada to a) get treatment for depression & have health insurance again and b) date girls, and I was only half joking on both of those.
Posted by: Nenya | Feb 12, 2012 at 05:11 AM
Yesterday I did my taxes. Today I went through the paperwork I got a couple days ago for health and dental plans.
Tax me. Tax me please. (Better yet, tax Mitt Romney at the same rate I'm taxed at or higher.) Tax the ever-living fuck out of me. Just don't make me try to figure out what '90% after deductible' means in USD.
Attn: anyone who insists that the government would choose your healthcare provider for you: Aetna won't let me keep my therapist. Dominion Dental won't let me keep my dentist. I'd rather the government choosing my healthcare provider than the insurance companies doing the same. The government, at least, I have some say in who runs the place.
Posted by: MercuryBlue | Feb 12, 2012 at 01:18 PM
@MercuryBlue: Attn: anyone who insists that the government would choose your healthcare provider for you: Aetna won't let me keep my therapist. Dominion Dental won't let me keep my dentist. I'd rather the government choosing my healthcare provider than the insurance companies doing the same. The government, at least, I have some say in who runs the place.
I had so much trouble even communicating about this to Americans -- in all the years I lived in the US I never found a good way of getting through peoples heads.
<Begin rant aimed at the same people MercuryBlue is annoyed at>
Anyone in Ontario with an OHIP health card [1] can go to any MD in Ontario with an OHIP billing number (which is every single frigging MD in Ontario who works for a living.)
The only person who can tell you that you can't go to a doctor -- is the doctor. (Doctors who have overflowing practices may prefer not to work an addition 10 or 20 hours a week -- I don't blame them.)
Repeat for those who have listened to much to FOX TV: NO ONE TELLS YOU WHAT DOCTOR YOU CAN SEE EXCEPT, MAYBE, YOUR DOCTOR.
I go to a doctor because the shooting agonizing pain in my right arm and shoulder has become too much to deal with? The doctor writes out a script of lab tests, a script for a series of other tests and I was able to walk into the most convenient lab in the city and just hand them the script. I called the hospital and they just scheduled me. My GP called a specialist and the specialist just booked me in. The specialist thought I needed an out-patient procedure at the hospital and hir nurse just called the hospital and scheduled me.
The doctor didn't need permission from some bureaucrat somewhere. The doctor used the doctor's good judgement. At no point did I have to ask permission nor wait for someone to rule on something nor have someone tell me who I could or could not see.
Just because Americans are used to being told by people on the other end of the phone who they can see and what procedures they can get doesn't mean the rest of the world lives like that.
</end rant>
[1] There are residency requirements. They used not to enforce them but due to an influx of people from out of the country attempting to get free medical coverage they tightened things up. If you have been out of the province for a sufficient period of time you have apply for a card and there is a three month waiting period during which you are advised to buy health care coverage. [2] After the 3 month period is over you are fully covered with no exclusions. [3]
[2] Which costs way less in Ontario than in the US because our doctors and hospitals charge less.
[3] There are some issues about people arriving in Canada with pre-existing conditions which the government will not pay for. The worry is that people will decide to immigrate JUST SO they have health care coverage and that they are functioning as free riders on the system.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 12, 2012 at 02:16 PM
Just don't make me try to figure out what '90% after deductible' means in USD.
90% of what? Just try to find that out, for any medical procedure. And then they tell you to comparison-shop to keep costs down-- as if you can find out what anything costs beforehand and as if you can choose any doctor you want. (My plan is actually pretty good about that, that is, it's got a wide network of "participating providers" and I haven't had too much trouble staying with the ones I'm used to, but even so, I've had the occasional problem. They really want you to stay in-network; and if there's an error in getting something authorized, it's your problem and not theirs.)
Anyone in Ontario with an OHIP health card [1] can go to any MD in Ontario with an OHIP billing number (which is every single frigging MD in Ontario who works for a living.
Here's a sad quote (the article is partly about the current contraception fuss, but it's applicable to the whole system of for-profit, employment-driven health insurance).
The columnist is speaking to a single mother of two who's working toward a college degree:
No, we don't, do we? We talk about political games and outraged moralists and making sure no undeserving person gets a free ride, but we don't talk about making sure every citizen, "regular" lifestyle or not, can see a doctor once in a while.
Posted by: Amaryllis | Feb 12, 2012 at 03:31 PM
This one drives me nuts. You know we actually spend more to prevent welfare fraud than that fraud would cost?
Posted by: Froborr | Feb 12, 2012 at 03:35 PM
@Froborr: You know we actually spend more to prevent welfare fraud than that fraud would cost?
When I moved back here (the small city where I live in Ontario) I was amazed to find that in the time since my mother had colon cancer getting regular colonosopies had become routinized.
I am in the system as daughter and granddaughter of cancer survivors so I get heavily encouraged to get checked thoroughly and regularly. So, in the past few months I have had a mammogram, and been checked out for liver, stomach, colon and intestinal cancer. I have seen pictures of the inside of my intestines.
When I mentioned to a nurse (at the hospital) that I had noticed that at that hospital they apparently do colonoscopies all morning several days a week the nurse explained to me that the health care system saved massive amounts of money by testing people (when appropriate.) My mom, for example, didn't need any chemo or radiation because they caught her colon cancer so early.
The point being it costs the system more to prevent any fraud than it does to "eat" the small amount of fraud since it catches a raft of diseases which are cheaper to treat when caught early.
(Leave aside the fact that it is ethically superior to worry more about the people being missed than the few people imposing on the system. I am leaving it aside because I don't think that the people complaining about welfare fraud care much for the ethics of the situation.)
I did have a "lived in the US" moment after my last "debriefing" with my gut doctor. I was walking back to the car when I realized that I had never paid him, nor anyone at the hospital and for a second I was worried -- and then I realized that I didn't need to pay anyone. The system just passed me along from one person to another and as much as anything one's health card is a verification that you are who you say you are (modern ones have nifty pictures on them.)
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 12, 2012 at 03:52 PM
I did have a "lived in the US" moment after my last "debriefing" with my gut doctor. I was walking back to the car when I realized that I had never paid him, nor anyone at the hospital and for a second I was worried -- and then I realized that I didn't need to pay anyone.
When friends in America ask me what the healthcare's like here, I say "The downside is that you spend much of the time confused as to whether you have to pay. The upside is that sometimes the answer is 'no'."
Posted by: Brin | Feb 12, 2012 at 04:10 PM
Mmy, I wish the US had a health-care system more like Canada's. Then maybe I'd ahve a real doctor and could get antidepressants.
As it is, I can get health insurance, for a price through my employer - but they don't give me the information I feel I need to decide which of the variously-evil insurance plans I want to try to deal with. (We get extremely detailed information on what one plan will cover, but nothing on how to figure out which deductible is right; for the other major plan all we get is the monthly premium. Gee, why do I have the feeling that there's a back-door deal with Detailed Coverage Company?)
Posted by: P J Evans | Feb 12, 2012 at 04:30 PM
My father is a doctor. For reasons of professional courtesy, my pediatrician never charged us. I went to the doctor all the time as a kid. I don't remember now how old I was when I realized that most people had to pay money to see a doctor, and as a result lots of kids didn't go to the doctor every time something might possibly be wrong... but if I did remember, I would probably be embarrassed by how long it took me to clue in.
It's like an onion of privilege. There's the class privilege of having professional parents, and access to good medical care. There's the free medical visits. Growing up with doctors who respected me and my parents and listened to us, so I feel comfortable communicating with doctors and being assertive about my care. Because of that, and having parents in medical professions, I also have a good baseline knowledge of medical stuff myself, and can use language and concepts in communicating with doctors that makes them more likely to take me seriously. And because of all that, I am more likely to go to a doctor when something is wrong, and more likely to get it addressed to my satisfaction. (On top of other privilege stuff like having a job that provides quite good health insurance, for which I don't actually pay any premium.)
Posted by: burgundy | Feb 12, 2012 at 04:32 PM
@burgundy: It's like an onion of privilege.
Of course having a more open and equitable health care system doesn't get rid of that "onion of privilege" (I like that coining) it merely mitigates its impact.
When I was in the US and had major surgery I was a colleague (it was a major university hospital.) I also had enormous amounts of social capital. I had friends who were professionals, I had access to databases that allowed me to read the same journals and studies as the doctors who were treating me. And I had a tremendously good health insurance plan--one which I don't think is even being offered in the same form any longer.
But have no doubts many of the same issues of educational and social capital still work to my advantage in Canada. My "gut" doctor and I talked about which works of serious historical research we enjoy as our respective hobbies AS WELL AS discussing the relative risks of different procedures. I still have access to databases that most people do not, I have friends who are (or have access to) medical professionals. And, because of my training in statistics and research I can read and assess medical research studies.
I think it would bring society several steps closer to true social justice if we could all examine our lives and circumstances for unrecognized privilege.
BTW, discovered something the other day. When you are a (to quote one dad's doctor's letters) "a frail veteran of multiple foreign wars" you apparently get treated differently / receive different coverage in Ontario. Dad is too frail to be put in a "ward" of 4 any time he goes into the hospital and so the hospital will just automatically put him into a semi-private or private room.[1] And when I asked him "who pays for your prescriptions" he responded "all I know is that I don't." [2]
But make have doubt, Dad also benefits from having the social capital of two daughters who know how to do their own research and read up on regulations and standards.
Being sick is exhausting physically and mentally. To have family members who have the time, resources and training to stand guard over you---that is a massive amount of social capital.
[1] It is actually a cost saving technique. At his age Dad will catch any germ that wanders by. If he catches something in the hospital his stay will be longer and the taxpayer will be on the hook for a larger bill.
[2] Dad not only is quite old and a veteran of foreign wars the Army has also ruled that some of his needs arise from diseases/problems that arise from his time "in harm's way."
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 12, 2012 at 04:55 PM
Being sick is exhausting physically and mentally. To have family members who have the time, resources and training to stand guard over you---that is a massive amount of social capital.
Absolutely. Privilege onion again - a few weeks ago I had to get some paperwork turned in for my medical leave. I was not up to handling it on my own. My mother called my doctor's office, spoke to the medical assistant, and was told it would take five days. My father-the-doctor called the office, spoke to my doctor directly, and it was ready to be picked up the next day.
Last month my mother had her thyroid taken out. Everything was a battle: getting the right food (she's lactose intolerant), getting the right laxatives (she has IBS and has a very strong reaction to opiates), getting the right size blood-pressure cuff (she's quite heavy, and a regular cuff will incorrectly show high blood pressure, which the staff interpreted as her being in pain, even though she said she wasn't in any pain), getting the right surgical tape (Steri-Strips rather than standard medical tape, because she's sensitive to adhesive.) She's as capable of advocating for herself as anyone who's just had surgery can be, but her partner does not deal well with doctors, and it took awhile to get all that stuff straightened out. Someone who can't advocate for themselves, who doesn't have anyone to do it on their behalf? Someone who doesn't even know you can argue with or make requests of medical staff?
Posted by: burgundy | Feb 12, 2012 at 05:07 PM
Privilege onion again
I think the only time I've seen this invoked directly was when my father had his third stroke and was in ICU. His youngest brother was a doctor, and could call the hospital and get honest reports, which he would then pass on to us in less technical language. (The hospital was actually pretty good about things; we all knew he was only leaving feet-first.)
Posted by: P J Evans | Feb 12, 2012 at 07:02 PM
@PJ Evans: You'd still have to pay for the antidepressants and probably for psychotherapy, but you would be able to see a psychiatrist for free.
Posted by: kisekileia | Feb 12, 2012 at 11:13 PM
@burgundy: I'm really afraid about that if I ever have to be admitted to hospital, because I have a ton of food restrictions (allergies, plus a lot of things I just can't get down because of the taste). I have some triggery issues around food deprivation, and I don't want to be re-traumatized if I end up in a hospital.
Posted by: kisekileia | Feb 12, 2012 at 11:15 PM
So, riddle me this USAians, why is the response to the current "crisis" about some employers demanding conscience exemptions so that the health insurance coverage of their employees will not cover procedures that they do not approve of......
why is the response not an overwhelming call to get all employers out of the business of providing access to health insurance.
I am not surprised that people on one part of the political spectrum are not bringing it up but I do think that the so-called[1] liberals in American politics should be banging the drum of "see, this is why our system needed to be completely reorganized" loud and hard.
[1] It is really hard for someone from Canada or Germany or Australia or New Zealand or France or Britain to keep their face straight when a politician who would be comfortable in the center-right of their own country's politics is described (even in what passes as the left wing of American punditocracy) as "liberal" or "left-wing."
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 13, 2012 at 08:53 AM
It's not a good reason, but the only reason I can think of is that saying "You won't get insurance through your employer any more" is, in American discourse, equivalent to saying "Big Government! oooga-booga!" and they don't want to give ammunition to the far right.
Of course, when total ignorance of the facts drives what can and can't be said, that indicates certain kinds of very serious breakdown in functional political process. It's worse than epistemic closure; it's more like Kuhnian incommensurate paradigms.
Posted by: Literata | Feb 13, 2012 at 09:24 AM
@mmy
Because with the conservative right pounding on 'Obamacare' and big government in a presidential election year, any politician saying something so direct as "This is why we should uncouple health insurance from employment" would be committing political suicide.
There are plenty of progressives THINKING it, though.
Posted by: cjmr | Feb 13, 2012 at 09:43 AM
@mmy: what cjmr and Literata said.
It's a shame. I know at least a few people who'd go off and freelance or do their own thing artistically if not for the employer/health insurance problem.
Posted by: sarah | Feb 13, 2012 at 09:54 AM
why is the response not an overwhelming call to get all employers out of the business of providing access to health insurance.
If you want my cynical answer, it's because the politicians have been bought by the for-profit health industry and they refuse to listen to the people. I'm in favor of decoupling employment from health insurance and many people I know are too, but none of us have professional lobbyists working for us. *sigh*
Posted by: AnaMardoll | Feb 13, 2012 at 10:02 AM
This does seem to be a case of disjunction between the "chattering classes" and "the people" doesn't it?
Reading the comments to several articles in major American newspapers I find an amazing amount of support for some major change in the system. I do understand the fears of many Americans that giving the single payer system over the government would give rise to opportunities for politicians to, well, play politics with the health care of others.
However, there seems to be a general agreement that simply tweaking the existing system won't work.
Some thoughts:
1) Americans have so little experience with "arms lengths" government entities that they don't get how removed they are from the day to day (or even year to year) intervention of politicians.
2) The history of single payer in Canada is rather eye opening when it comes to the power of health insurance companies. One of the reasons that it unfolded piecemeal and with lots of duct tape in Canada is the the politicians involved (many of them Conservatives) feared that it they did not move proactively the health insurance companies would be so powerfully embedded in the system that there was little the government could do. Says much for the foresight of our politicians and much about the enormous powerful of health insurance companies.
3) From a non-USAian perspective the current method of paying for health care in the United States appears extremely anti-entrepreneurial and anti-small business. People in Canada (and other single-payer countries) are not afraid of quitting their jobs and starting their own businesses for fear of losing health care. How much of the capitalistic verve and initiative among Americans is being blunted by fear of medical costs.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 13, 2012 at 10:23 AM
@mmy: So, riddle me this USAians, why is the response to the current "crisis" about some employers demanding conscience exemptions so that the health insurance coverage of their employees will not cover procedures that they do not approve of......
why is the response not an overwhelming call to get all employers out of the business of providing access to health insurance.
I've seen some rumblings that the contracteption compromise was intended to be interpreted this way -- now some of the most widely prescribed medications in the US are available to people without them necessarily ever having to deal with their employer to get them. I'm not sure how much stock I put in that interpretation, given that one largely still has to be employed in order to get health insurance... but I suppose anything's possible?
Posted by: MattPatt | Feb 13, 2012 at 10:24 AM
And to respond to Ana's point earlier politicians have been bought by the for-profit health industry and they refuse to listen to the people -- until something is done about the costs of elections in the United States this will continue.
I have worked as a campaign manager (not in the US) and run an entire campaign for less than $25,000 (and that included retiring previous debts acquired by the local party.)
I couldn't run one for quite that little now and I was managing a campaign in area somewhat removed from the expensive Toronto/Hamilton area but one simply doesn't need the type of money to run here that American candidates are required to raise. And since I spent half a decade tracking campaign finances in relationship to levels of knowledge about congressional candidates in the United States I have an "in my bone" understanding of exactly how expensive American politics can be.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 13, 2012 at 10:28 AM
Dominion Dental won't let me keep my dentist. I'd rather the government choosing my healthcare provider than the insurance companies doing the same.
Same here. Our dentist is fine and dandy with our insurance, but my husband needs endodontist care, and not a single one takes our insurance. This is after we switched to an insurance that had more providers under it precisely because the recommended endodonist didn't take our plan! I'm convinced that there aren't any specialists in that area who take any federal dentistry insurance plans.
People in Canada (and other single-payer countries) are not afraid of quitting their jobs and starting their own businesses for fear of losing health care. How much of the capitalistic verve and initiative among Americans is being blunted by fear of medical costs.
With everyone banging the drum on entrepreneurialism and the importance of small businesses to the economy, I think this is the number one best argument for it from a political point of view. However, I think some of the Republicans think you should be willing to sacrifice your first-born, much less your health, if you want to open a small business.
Posted by: storiteller | Feb 13, 2012 at 11:55 AM
This is not true for Canadians who need expensive prescription medication, psychotherapy, physiotherapy, or any of the other services that are not covered by provincial health plans (or at least not the one in the province where I live). Those Canadians can have thousands of dollars per year in out-of-pocket health care costs if they do not have good employer-based insurance. Please stop talking about Canadian health care as if people like me don't exist.
Posted by: kisekileia | Feb 13, 2012 at 12:21 PM
@kisekileia: Please stop talking about Canadian health care as if people like me don't exist.
I am not talking about Canadian health care as if people like you don't exist.
I have spoken often about that the things that are and are not covered in Canadian health care. I have talked about the fact that prescriptions are not covered.
I also know that almost all prescriptions cost far more in the United States than in Canada and that much American health care insurance limits the amount and type of prescriptions they are willing to cover.
Your particular prescription needs are none of my business (or those of anyone else on this board) and I know that there are people who fall between the cracks of this system in Ontario, however, the vast majority of residents of Ontario are better covered than the vast majority of Americans. And, unlike Americans, we seem to be moving to better rather than more restrictive coverage.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 13, 2012 at 12:52 PM
I'm sorry, Mmy. I was upset about something else and I took it out on you.
I do agree that the majority of residents in Ontario are better covered than most Americans. I don't know if we are moving to better rather than more restrictive coverage, given the number of things that have been quietly delisted from OHIP in the last decade or so (regular eye exams for adults, a lot of physiotherapy). And I do also understand that the U.S. system is abominable--please don't think I'm in any way trying to say that system is okay. I just feel erased when people talk as if everyone in Ontario gets their needs met by the public health care system.
Posted by: kisekileia | Feb 13, 2012 at 01:13 PM
As for a bit of the US system that's good, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I finally got a physical two years after being laid off and moving across the country from my doctor. Having no income, I have the Massachusetts version of Medicaid, and was assigned a doctor at a community health center in the next town. I ended up getting an appointment with someone else, within a week of when I called to schedule it, got my labs done, got a psych prescription, a psych referral, a gyn exam appt...
One stop-community health care. It's a good thing, and it creates jobs, too.
I keep thinking that maybe if the majority of US Americans are on unemployment or foodstamps or Medicaid, we'll have an incentive to make a more comprehensive safety net. All the government services I've accessed so far have been good. The problems mostly come from the harsh means testing to access them and the nitpicky and potentially conflicting regulations governing them.
Posted by: spamflagging | Feb 13, 2012 at 01:51 PM
This is not true for Canadians who need expensive prescription medication, psychotherapy, physiotherapy, or any of the other services that are not covered by provincial health plans (or at least not the one in the province where I live).
It's worth noting that because of the single-payer health care, Canadian companies more freely provide dental/prescription/other supplemental coverage to employees. Being an American expat in Canada now had having talked to people about it on both sides of the border, an employed Canadian is likely to have prescription/supplemental health care when an employed American would be lucky to simply have basic health insurance.
Posted by: Majromax | Feb 13, 2012 at 01:54 PM
@Majromax: Not speaking for kisekileia but I imagine that one of the frustrating things for hir is that zie falls through the cracks of Ontario prescription coverage because of hir age among a number of things.
If you are middle-aged and employed your employer probably covers dental/prescription/other supplemental coverage far more generously than an American employer. It seems to be fairly cheap for the employers as job-benefit-packages go.
Then, when one gets old enough one "ages into" a whole raft of other coverages.
Now, there are a raft of things that, in the mind of this taxpayer of Ontario, should be covered and aren't. And kisekeleia is in the frustrating position of being the person for whom that non-coverage isn't "just an academic" issue.
However, I just read this morning about there is are tent cities of the homeless on the outskirts of dozens of American cities -- and that people living in those tented communities have no access to even the most basic of health care. Some of these cities are among the most "liberal" and affluent in America. And it breaks my heart.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 13, 2012 at 02:21 PM
Sort of related:
I finally managed to get up the energy to make medical appointments today. 3 optometrist, 5 dentist. And after least 1, maybe two, of those dentist appointments we'll have to have an orthodontist consult. Our 'good' US insurance will cover about 30% of this.
Posted by: cjmr | Feb 13, 2012 at 02:51 PM
@Mmy re: tent cities - you want heartbreaking stories? I have a bunch. In many states (because Medicaid eligibility varies somewhat by state), there is no guarantee of health care no matter how poor you are. If you are not disabled (according to a very restrictive definition) and if you don't have kids, you're basically screwed.
TW: cancer, sad stuff
Here are some of the stories I remember from when I worked at the American Cancer Society. These were people I spoke to myself. I have no idea what happened to them.
There was the woman in Tennessee (young, maybe in her 20s or 30s) who had quit her job to care for her ailing father. For quite some time, she'd had a low-grade fever and swollen lymph nodes. The county health department had some clinics or something, and had given her antibiotics, but the antibiotics hadn't helped. What she really needed was some additional tests, and possibly a lymph node biopsy, to make sure she didn't have lymphoma or something. But she had no way to pay for it, and there were no programs to help her. (Even agencies like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which provide some financial assistance, don't help with diagnostics.)
There was the woman in Texas whose son had been in prison. He was given early release for medical reasons - he had testicular cancer. Of course, by releasing him, the state was no longer obligated to handle his medical care, but he had no way of obtaining treatment on his own. Remember how I said that disability restrictions for Medicaid are really tight? Having cancer does not qualify you for Medicaid in Texas.
And then there was the woman living in a small town in Kentucky. She was a breast cancer survivor, and was still taking some meds, and she had terrible chronic pain. To the point that throughout our conversation, she would break off in the middle of a sentence to moan or gasp. No insurance, no money. I worked for ACS for 15 months, and that was the only call that made me take a break to go sit in my car and cry.
Those are the ones that stick with me the most, but there are others, like the man in Georgia whose father was an immigrant and thus not eligible for Medicare.
It makes me sick. It made me sick the whole time I was working there, and it makes me just as sick now. There is no ethical justification for this.
Posted by: burgundy | Feb 13, 2012 at 07:08 PM
@burgundy: I don't get it -- I just don't get it. I don't understand how people can do that to each other. I don't understand how people can walk by and look away and just not see. I do not understand how people who pride themselves as being Christian not remember Matthew 25:35-45.
I just checked -- it doesn't say anything about feeding the only the deserving poor, nor does it say anything about clothing only those who had entered the country legally and held valid visas.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 13, 2012 at 07:28 PM
I agree with you, burgundy.
I have a friend and ex-boyfriend who thinks Texas is awesome. I'll try to remember to tell him about that man with testicular cancer next time the subject comes up.
Posted by: kisekileia | Feb 13, 2012 at 07:38 PM
@Mmy: Yes. I don't have coverage with an employer because I'm not working full-time. (In my experience, part-time jobs do not usually have benefits such as health care.) I don't have coverage with the province because I'm not a senior, and because the drug formulary used for the provincial catastrophic drug plan, disability drug benefits, AND welfare drug benefits excludes almost all my medications. Drug company assistance plans are, as far as I know, only available in the U.S. I really, really hate it when people tell me that Canada has universal health care, or assume I should be able to get government help with my medication costs (which are several hundred dollars per month), because I sure am not getting the care I need funded.
Posted by: kisekileia | Feb 13, 2012 at 07:41 PM
Yeah, I live in Texas because that's where I've always lived and it's where my friends and family are. It's not wholly bad.
One of my coworkers was talking once about how much friendlier the people are in Texas (he is Filipino, and immigrated through California). And I went off on a little mini-rant about how I'd rather live someplace like Massachusetts, where people are less overtly friendly but think I deserve things like healthcare access and marriage equality, than someplace like Texas where everyone says Howdy to your face but then votes to deny you basic rights.
Posted by: burgundy | Feb 13, 2012 at 10:16 PM
If there is one skill humanity cultivated which, in future generations, cockroach sapiens will look to our remains and marvel at, it is our capacity to say "Yeah, sure, but this is different!"
Posted by: Ross | Feb 14, 2012 at 07:50 AM
On the subject of health: here's something chilling, especially to someone like me: Multiple accounts of police beating the crap out of people for being immobilized by diabetic shock. Usually while shouting "Stop resisting!" to the unconscious person they were assaulting (for the benefit of the dashboard camera).
Posted by: Ross | Feb 14, 2012 at 11:00 AM
@Ross: And how many times do we hear of the police refusing people access to needed medications? I mean taking away people's medications, refusing to dispense them to people and refusing to allow people contact with their doctors.
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 14, 2012 at 11:19 AM
Trigger Warning: Police brutality, denying medical help.
Ah yes, denying adequate medical medical aid and refusing to believe people were ill were/are standard practice with the organization run by Maricopa County Sheriff and All-Around Horrible Person Joe Arpaio.
Posted by: Lonespark | Feb 14, 2012 at 11:59 AM
@Lonespark & Ross: (And, Ross, I hope my comment back didn't come across as "why are you complaining when other..." because it was meant as outrage on your behalf.)
I see at least some of this as the naked face of ableist privilege. For Ross (and for anyone else who can have seizures/comas) this is terrifying. It is out and out intimidation through the threat of torture. I cannot fathom why this is not utter and complete outrage, not just when the police beat someone, but when someone is denied access to insulin or other medication.
Some of the lack of outrage I "get" in the sense I understand that people feel safer when they can distance themselves "oh, that doesn't happen to people like me." Some of the lack of outrage comes, I think, from ableist othering.
Ross, since you brought up this example, perhaps you are a good person to ask, but have you been hearing about Type-1 diabetics who want to have their condition renamed because the horrendous "fat/life-style shaming" that has become attached to adult-onset diabetes is now spilling over to T-1's?
I gather that at this point many adult-onset diabetics have experienced total stranger button-holing them and blaming them for their condition. (Of course I have also heard people blame the parents of children with juvenile diabetes for having "done something" that brought it on.)
Posted by: Mmy | Feb 14, 2012 at 12:29 PM
(TW: Fat-shaming)
@mmy: I hadn't heard. I don't tend to keep up on things that are specificalyl Type-1, because I have the shameful, lifestyle-induced "this is god's punishment to you for being fat and eating candy all the time. What do you mean you don't like candy and hardly ever eat it? And stop with your bullshit genetics excuses, I don't care if your father *did* have a massive heart attack from a lipid irregularity even though he wasn't overweight and had a total cholesterol under 100. It's because you like to eat candy, fat-ass" kind. But I _do_ know that when I spent some time on health forums, posts of questions and concerns about diabetes were usually prefaced by something to the tune of "no, really, it's type 1; I'm not one of those fatties who brought it on myself!"
Posted by: Ross | Feb 14, 2012 at 12:38 PM
I find the assumption in this article that good health care is a privilege that only rich people have access to pretty bizarre. I know that's the case in the US, but in the secular developed world, we have state health care. I'm unemployed but I get free treatment which keeps me healthy.
Accepting the idea that health is a privilege for the elite seems to me one step away from eliminationism.
Posted by: Bill | Feb 14, 2012 at 12:56 PM
@Bill: Unless your state-run health care also subsidizes healthy food, mandates a work hours that give you the time for sleep, exercise and relaxation, ensures sanitary working and living conditions, and keeps your environment clean and healthy, then your free health care is only doing *one* of the things that it takes to keep you healthy.]
Necessary, but not sufficient
Posted by: Ross | Feb 14, 2012 at 01:12 PM
My state does mandate a maximum 40 hour work week (unless you agree to waive your rights), regulates working conditions and the standard of rented accommodation, and has environmental protection laws. Where do y'all live? Somalia?
Posted by: Bill | Feb 14, 2012 at 01:20 PM
Did you miss the part where this is not acceptance, but rather anger at, the idea that health is a privilege for the elite?
That's nice that your state does that. Instead of pointing and laughing at those whose states don't, it may be more useful to find a way to advocate for the spread of similar regulation.
Posted by: Sixwing | Feb 14, 2012 at 01:34 PM
How to Spot a Troll (cross-posting to a couple of threads):
While it is never possible to completely confirm whether a given commenter is a troll, some warning signs do exist. I recommmend, during periods of high troll activity, to ignore comments that contain all or most of these warning signs, at least until successive comments by the same person indicate it was a legitimate attempt to engage:
1) You do not recognize the username.
2) The comment misinterprets the post or comment it is a response to in a seemingly obvious way, or is a non sequitur.
3) The comment uses "buzz words"--emotionally charged words or phrases we use frequently in this community that are not in as frequent use in the general lexicon, but applied in such a way as to suggest the commenter does not understand that the terms have an actual meaning beyond the emotional charge.
4) The comment references the topic of a previous thread that was subject to trolling.
5) Comments that match warning sides 1-4 appear from different commenters in multiple threads in a short period of time.
Posted by: Froborr | Feb 14, 2012 at 01:43 PM