Mayo Goes Cash

Obama says he wants the country to "learn from what Mayo is doing." GUESS WHAT, THEY ARE GOING CASH IN GLENDALE!

Jeff Jacoby

Did Americans Get Any Healthier Over Past Decade?

Associated Press

January 04, 2010

About 10 years ago the government set some lofty health goals for the nation to reach by 2010.

So how did we do?

By many measures, not so hot.

There are more obese Americans than a decade ago, not fewer. We eat more salt and fat, not less. More of us have high blood pressure. More of our children have untreated tooth decay.

But the nation has made at least some progress on many other goals. Vaccination rates improved. Most workplace injuries are down. And deaths rates from stroke, cancer and heart disease are all dropping.

As we move into a new decade, the government is analyzing how well the nation met the 2010 goals and drawing up a new set of goals for 2020 expected to be more numerous and -- perhaps -- less ambitious.

"We need to strike a balance of setting targets that are achievable and also ask the country to reach," said Dr. Howard Koh, the federal health official who oversees the Healthy People project. "That's a balance that's sometimes a challenge to strike."

The Healthy People objectives were first created in the late 1970s to set an agenda for getting Americans to live longer, healthier lives. It was also an attempt to involve the public and emphasize that many health problems are preventable.

Every 10 years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reassesses the goals, and reports on progress made in the previous decade.

Many call the effort a success. The report has been imitated by states and other nations. Because of its importance within public health circles, interest groups jockey to add their goals to the document, which is expanding to more than 1,000 targets. And health agency workers have Healthy People goals memorized.

"It is something that we think about all the time," said Dr. Lance Rodewald, a vaccination expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But after more than 30 years, the goals aren't well known to the public and only a modest number have been met.

About 41 percent of the 1990 measurable goals were achieved. For the 2000 goals, it was just 24 percent.

As for the 2010 goals, data is still being collected, and a final report is not due out until 2011. But it looks like the results will be in the neighborhood of 20 percent, according to a preliminary analysis by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

The CDC analysis done this fall found that just 18 percent of those goals have been met so far. Worse, the nation actually retreated from about 23 percent of the goals.

One example: Healthy People 2010 called for the percentage of adults who are obese to drop to 15 percent. That goal was set at a time when nearly a quarter of all adults were obese. Now, about 34 percent of adults are obese, according to the latest federal statistics.

Some other backslides:

--An estimated 28 percent of adults had high blood pressure in 2000. The goal was to reduce that to 16 percent. But the most recent government data say the proportion has risen to 29 percent.

--About 16 percent of young children had untreated tooth decay in 2000. The target was 9 percent. The latest statistic is about 20 percent.

--The proportion of births by cesarean section increased despite a 2010 goal of lowering them, and the percentage of infants born very small and fragile also increased.

The nation has had better luck raising childhood vaccination rates, lowering cancer death rates, increasing smoking laws and reducing most types of work injuries.

To many health officials, simply making progress is a victory. An analysis of 635 of the nearly 1,000 targets for the past decade shows only 117 goals have been met. But progress was made toward another 332. In other words, there was improvement in 70 percent of the measures.

"That's evidence of a healthier nation," Koh said.

The Healthy People effort could be better if it included more information about how to reach the goals, and how much it would cost, said David Holtgrave, a health policy expert at Johns Hopkins University.

The program lays out the goals, but looks to others -- and the public -- to find ways to achieve them. Healthy People does not provide funding to meet the goals, either.

"It's all carrot and no stick," said Dr. Richard Riegelman, founding dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health, who has been part of the Healthy People planning.

Right now, health officials are developing goals for 2020. The details are far from settled, but an advisory panel of experts has recommended that the new goals be more realistic. They also hope to make it more inviting to the public.

In the past, Healthy People reports have been released as a book the size of a James Michener epic.

"They have a lot of good information. They can also give you a backache," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health who heads a committee working on the new goals.

He and others are pushing for Healthy People 2020 to be an online document that links to Web sites and sources for nutrition and exercise advice and other ways people can improve their own health.

"We want to make 2020 a blueprint everyone can rally behind," Fielding said.

AHIP Bridgecast-Dr. Paul Handel-CMO of HCSC

Great podcast talking about the cause and cure for our current health and healthcare crisis. EVERYONE MUST do their part.

AHIP Bridgecast-Dr. Paul Handel-CMO of HCSC

Climategate: The chickens are coming home to roost

Trees do not lie, only people do

Climategate: The chickens are coming home to roost

Climategate: It's all Unravelling Now?

Climategate: It's all Unravelling Now?

Climategate: It's all Unravelling Now?

Hello! What kind of change did half of America vote for? We all need to look in the mirror. If we leave it up to them, we are will all just be "their" servants.

Climategate: It's all Unravelling Now?

Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

My wife always asked why I run. This article found me yesterday and I now know why I run. Running, and lots of it, relieves stress. I have with drawls if I do not run. I make it real easy. I run in increments of hours. A short run will be one hour on Tuesday. A training run is 2 - 3 hrs.- this I do no Thursdays. Max endurance run 4 hrs and working to move up to 5 hrs - do this on the weekend. I just pick one and go. I pick minimal hills of MAX hills. Please, if you suffer from stress, anxiety or even deeper depression - start walking, try jogging and you might even try long distance running. It is free and you body will thank you for it.

Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

I also found this article that might for helpful to those who are looking to reduce anxiety or depression.

Mental Health Care on a Dime - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

Leaked Emails Show Collusion Among Global Warming Supporters?

Just one heck of a mess we have today. Thanks to the "scientist" of Wall Street we have seen the dot com crash, credit markets crash, real estate markets crash and possibly the global crash, so much for the elite and their politicians looking our for US. Now it looks like our TRUSTED scientist are not so trust worthy after all. Gee maybe they are acting just like Wall Street, hide till you get caught and then claim it was nothing (I ask, why hide it if it was nothing in the first place - I am not talking about the email, but the data in their reports. You know, the data that the world governments are using to create laws and rules that will effect EVERYONE IN THE WORLD HELLO!). Comments and reports are more for their own self promotion than the good of all. There is a real trend here. Even the media is caught in this mess. During the financial melt down starting way back, the media sided with the all those that said the good times would never end. Well we see they were WRONG. Now I look across the NY Time and USA Today and see very little covering this HUGE event (Kyoto - Copenhagen - Obama - global leaders are using the reports that were generated by these scientist to create global policy - ASK YOURSELF, WHO WILL GAIN FROM THIS?). The New York Times author tried to the best of his ability to dispel the emails because he was named in them. This is typical Clinton damage control. USA Today has NOTHING online. Read the article below and you just might start to wonder JUST WHAT else has been massaged to fit a purpose? The first thing that comes to mind is the most debated topic in history of the world - EVOLUTION. It just might be the time to start to look at the evidence and just where did it come from and what do we have to BACK IT UP. The world trusted our scientific elite, but just like our financiers we need look harder and dig deeper to get the REAL TRUTH. I hope everyone has a fun time in their search for the TRUTH. Just maybe we might find "who killed the electric car"

Leaked Emails Show Collusion Among Global Warming Supporters?

Here is what the New York Times had to say today.

Hacked E-Mail Is New Fodder for Climate Dispute - NYTimes.com