Prescription for Well-Being

Food Prices Change Ways People Eat, Shop

Life is getting expensive. Gas prices are skyrocketing and I can't go to the grocery store for a week's supplies without spending at least $100 anymore. Fuel prices have me paying at least $70 to fill up my tank and a couple of weeks ago my wife and I went out to eat and I ended up spending $85 for just the two of us to have dinner, an appetizer and dessert.

Well, it appears I'm not the only one feeling the crunch nowadays. Apparently this whole expensive life thing is trickling down to people all over the nation and it's impacting the way we eat, shop and live in general. Because of the massive hits our wallets take when shopping, people are having to come up with ways to try to save a dollar here and there including buying milk from a gas station, eating at food banks and discontinuing visits to fast food places and restaurants in general.

One thing that's interesting is that even though these cutbacks are taking place, people continue to visit places like Whole Foods and others like it. In fact, count me in as one of them because I'm still drawn to the exotic types of foods they offer as well as the arguably healthier selections they can offer, including organic items, eggs from chickens that aren't kept in cages, or "free range", and so on. Because somehow in the midst of all this money-saving, people are still expected to maintain a healthy diet and spend more on allegedly higher quality foods. While it'd be cheaper for me to go to McDonald's and get a $.79 cheeseburger, or however much they cost, and eat that for a meal, it'd cause havoc on my system.

South African Organization Investigates Morning-After Pill Sales

A common concern amongst the public is that there is a pill for everything. Whether or not this is a problem is debatable, the fact that once something starts to feel wrong or bad, we pop a pill. Well, this latest story might cause some to be concerned.

The Pharmaceutical Society in Pretoria, one of three capital cities in South Africa (I had to look it up)  is investigating the distribution that can be taken up to 120 hours after the act to prevent an undesired pregnancy. Turns out that if you're of the morning-after pill, an emergency contraceptive that can be taken under 14, you need to bring a parent or legal guardian with you to the pharmacist in order to get the pill. within 72 hours after sex to prevent pregnancy. Turns out there's an even more potent version of the pill There's a couple of problems with that in my opinion. One, are kids that young really engaging in that act? I was playing video games and basketball at that age, which obviously shows the generation gap between my time and kids now. Second, I can't imagine a lot of kids that age telling their parent about that act , then convincing them to go with them to get that pill. Third, it's pretty bad that a pharmacist would distribute the pill to kids under 14 without going through the parents anyway.

I know that people probably read a story like this and think that it's not a problem here because it's thousands of miles away and likely wouldn't happen here. While I'd like to believe that that's true, I wonder if such a problem could exist here as well where pills of all sorts seem readily accessible to so many. The morning-after pill itself has generated a lot of controversy and if children are getting their hands on it, is it becoming merely a safety net or what's going on here?

Teen's Breast Surgery Results in Death

I've been tinkering with whether or not to write about this because it's one of the most frustrating and sad stories that I've come across in a while. Stephanie Kuleba, an 18 year-old who was getting surgery to correct asymmetrical beasts and inverted nipples, an outpatient surgery that has been conducted by credited institutions a total of 1.4 million times, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Sadly, Stephanie died of a rare and silent but deadly condition called Malignant Hyperthermia. The condition is triggered by anesthesia , which forces the heart to jump to a rapid rate, the musc les to get rigid and for the victim to get a fever of 110 degrees or higher. Apparently the condition can be reversed if caught within 30 minutes after its onset by Dantrolene, a muscle ralaxant, but in Kuleba's case, it wasn't caught soon enough.

The situation is terribly sad no matter who was the victim, but what makes it even sadder to me is that Stephanie was a bright student, captain of her cheerleading squad and described as always having a smile on her face. To read that an image problem resulted in her passing away way too early is really sad. To hear about anyone passing away is a tragedy, but with an 18 year-old who had her whole life in front her but felt the need to get corrective surgery for aesthetic purposes is heart-wrenching.

Danica Patrick Too Light to Race?

Danica Patrick has been called a lot of things recently, most of them due to either her superior racing ability or attractiveness. Now other racers are calling her "too light". Complaints from fellow competitors in the Indy Racing League (IRL) about her being too light have surfaced and other racers are saying she might gain as much as a one MPH advantage due to her 100-pound frame, which makes her 20 pounds less than the other two women on the circuit and 65 pounds lighter than the heaviest male competitor. The IRL on the other hand has attempted to resolve the dilemma by making driver weight a part of the total vehicle weight from here on.

It's an interesting point, but Danica hasn't won a race yet in 47 tries up to this point despite her talent and one MPH  in the IRL where speeds can border 200 MPH seems as though it wouldn't make too much of a difference. I can understand the fact that other racers want to make sure there isn't an unfair advantage by Danica's small stature, but it would seem as though it hasn't made a difference so far. If and when she wins her first race, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see a finger pointed to her size as one of the reasons and not her great driving skills.

Child Dies After Parents Choose Prayer Over Medicine

Freedom of religion is one of the great things about our country. You can choose which religion you want to belong to and for the most part, how you want to express your belief. When does that cross that border? Well, there's certainly some questions to be drawn from a choice two parents made when they decided that religion would be a better course of action to fight a treatable form of diabetes than traditional medicine. While the choice is a controversial one, an autopsy confirmed that young Madeline Neumann, the 11 year-old daughter, died of diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that left too little insulin in her body.

To make matter worse, doctors are saying that she was probably ill for a month, a month which likely saw her suffer from nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness. A decision on whether or not to prosecute her parents is forthcoming.

I think the real tragedy in this is obviously the little girl's passing, but it brings about discussion as to when is it OK to shun medicine for any reason. Unfortunately in this case, the decision to use prayer instead of medicine in treating a treatable condition may have just resulted in the death of an 11 year-old child.

Scientists Find Another Reason To Lose Fat

Adding it to the list of other health problems, scientists have revealed that having a big belly in your 40s can boost your chances of getting Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. In addition, scientists say being apple-shaped can lead to other problems like developing diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

I know it's tough to diet and exercise when you lead a busy life with work, maybe school, maybe kids and other things going on in your life, but reports like these should do a good job of emphasizing how important it is to lead a healthy lifestyle. I have a friend in his 40s who's sort of big and wears a XXXL shirt (seriously). One evening he was sitting down to a large plate of nachos with some chili and some other stuff on it that probably wasn't doing much to lower his shirt size when his daughter, who was all of nine years-old, looked at him and said, "Daddy, I'm worried about your health. Can you not eat that?" It really saddened him, enough so that he took his nachos to the kitchen to eat so she wouldn't be able to watch him eat it.

That kind of story right there would make me worry about my health as much as any new story would. If you're not taking care of yourself in order to maintain your own health, what about doing it to be there to watch your kids grow?

Plan to Track Drugs in California Delayed

A plan to track drugs in California was delayed until 2011 thanks to complaints from drug manufacturers, distributors and retail pharmacists who complained that they wouldn't be ready for the upcoming January 1st of 2009 deadline. The plan was to track all pharmaceutical drugs electronically to prevent counterfeiting via a unique serial number that would track each drug from wholesaler to pharmacy. According to the report, only 100 out of 650 manufacturers were scheduled to be ready for the New Year's deadline.

With all of the reports coming out regarding heparin and drugs coming from outside of the United States and their potential for being counterfeit, it's somewhat relieving to see a state government taking steps to prevent illegal activities involving the sale and manufacture of prescription medicines. Maybe California's interest in this process will fuel other states to do so and possibly lead to a nationwide initiative to have all drugs electronically tracked.

It's interesting to note the fact that manufacturers, retailers and the like are on board with this program and are working to get the tracking started. I like the fact that we're taking steps to prevent counterfeiting in prescription drugs and hope that this can lead to fewer complications involving medications in the future.

Pharmacist Sanctioned for Refusing to Distribute Birth Control

Birth control is sort of a controversial topic ... or at least that seems to be the case for a pharmacist in Wausau, Wisconsin where a pharmacist was sanctioned for his refusal to not only distribute birth control to a prescription-carrying customer, but also refusing to transfer it elsewhere. Apparently pharmacist Neil Noesen, a substitute pharmacist, refused to fill a University of Washington student's prescription or tell her where she could go to do so. In doing so, Noesen said he didn't want to "impair the fertility of a human being", citing his being a devout Roman Catholic as the primary reason. He was reprimanded by the Pharmacy Examining Board and ordered to attend ethics classes. He also had to pay for all of the proceedings against him.

Now, I don't know that I'm qualified to give an opinion on birth control (never tried it) nor am I an expert on being a Roman Catholic (never been one), but I do think that if you take your prescription to a pharmacist, they should fill it if it's within their power to do so. I sure as heck wouldn't want a cop telling me that he wouldn't help me out change my tire because discarding the old one might hurt the environment. I think that personal feelings and beliefs should be left out of jobs where you're supposed to assist the public and if you can't help but throwing your opinion into your work, maybe you should find another type of work. Pharmacists have a very important job to do and many people rely on them to distribute medications or drugs (the legal kind) in order to maintain a certain type of lifestyle, even if that's something as simple as living pain-free. To have them thrust their opinion into filling a prescription is a little dangerous and probably should be discouraged.

Medicare, Social Security Face Challenges

All through my college years I would hear how one day the baby boomers were going to be wiping out Social Security and depending on which professor you spoke to, it would either be denied or confirmed. Now the government is publicly echoing that statement as they point out the troubles that both Medicare and Social Security will face as they baby boomers and others deplete the funds for both programs. In addition, other rising costs will continue to drive government spending to new heights, putting a strain on funds all around.

Needless to say, the depletion of Social Security and Medicare will be a tremendous loss for those who can't take advantage of it while it's around. While each of my paychecks gets a deduction due to a Social Security fund that I may never get to use when I'm of retirement age, we're resigned to the fact that we're providing for a generation that will soon be using the funding that we have been contributing to. Personally, I'm not too upset as I know that the baby boomers helped provide a foundation for the world that I am currently occupying and enjoying. Without them, the world would be in a very bad way right now. Still, I wouldn't mind if the investment I now make with each passing paycheck will never come back to me ... unless I can use someone else's Social Security fund in the future like the baby boomers could soon be doing to us.

Abusing Your Medicine Cabinet

DestinationRx has a good thing going with the Medicine Cabinet. You can store your drugs online and check for low-cost alternatives amongst other great things you can do on the site, which is a good tool and something I would recommend even if I wasn't working here. Still, it's not all fun and games when your Medicine Cabinet serves a purpose other than to hold medications.

A recent report shows that in 2006, more than 2.2 million people over the ages of 12 started to abuse pain relievers with OxyContin, Vicodin and Percoct being the most abused drugs. The report indicates that the rise in prescription drug abuse is most likely due to a higher availability of prescription drugs.

The report also indicates that prescription drug abuse is likely to be much more addictive than non-prescription drug abuse, making it a much harder habit to shake.