A new study suggests than a ketogenic diet is best. The U.S. has an epidemic of hepatic steatosis. It can end up as irreversible cirrhosis. An older study found significant benefit from a low-carb Mediterranean diet.
Check the video for details:
—–Steve Parker, M.D., creator of the world’s first (and only?) ketogenic Mediterranean diet.
The problem with U.S. medical insurance is that it’s way too expensive, especially considering what you get for it. I’ve heard that health insurers typically deny payment right out the gate for one of every five claims. The appeals process is so Kafkaesque that many folks simply forego the process and just pay out of pocket. If you have health insurance, the fee charged for a service is typically much higher that those that pay the “cash price” out of pocket. Deductibles (what you pay before insurance covers anything) are getting ridiculously high. Medical bills are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S., and over half of those going bankrupt have medical insurance.
I was hoping the video below discussed in depth why health insurance is not needed, but it doesn’t. I admit I didn’t watch the whole thing; it’s mostly another horror story involving United Healthcare insurance. The doctor starting at 54:45 minutes does mention that health insurance isn’t needed but then only refers briefly to what sounds like universal healthcare with a free market component.
The next video is by an orthopedic surgeon who doesn’t have traditional health insurance but does have a major medical “health share” arrangement with a company called Sedera. HealthShare plans are not the same as state-regulated insurance. Roughly, they are like a group of people who get together and pay a periodic fee into a joint account, and that account pays medical expenses if one of them gets sick. (Sounds like insurance, doesn’t it?)
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
Filed under healthcare reform
Such scans in the video are referred to as CTCA. Below is a heart surgeon’s opinion based on recent scientific research and personal experience.
Filed under coronary heart disease, Heart Disease
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. . . .
Filed under Quote of the Day
Remember all the problems with the COVID-19 mRNA “vaccines”? Well, there’s a new mRNA vaccine on the market in the U.S. for influenza. Dr. John Campbell isn’t taking it and neither am I. In the 40,000-person safety and effectiveness study, the mRNA vaccine was immediately more toxic than the comparator.
Hospitals where I’ve worked for the last few decades have required medical staff to take the yearly flu vaccination. There may be religious exemptions, I’m not sure. I hope the traditional time-tested flu vaccines are still available this fall. I’m getting mine early, before supply runs out.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
Filed under Uncategorized
As I watched this I started thinking, there are people I wouldn’t want taking this to heart! But it’s motivational when you’re hesitant to do the right thing because it’s risky.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
Filed under Quote of the Day
Thanks to Jan at The Low Carb Diabetic for turning me on to this BBC article:
Daily life is not easy for Salvatore. At 17, he weighs 170kg (26st 10lb) and struggles to walk.
He can’t tie his own shoelaces and his Vespa scooter strains to bear his weight – in one week, its wheels broke seven times.
“He eats constantly,” says his mother Anna.
Salvatore is among a growing number of Italian children and teenagers living with obesity. The problem is particularly acute in the south: in parts of the Campania region, more than 40% of eight and nine-year-olds are overweight. The town of Ponticelli, on the outskirts of Naples, has earned the unenviable reputation as one of the world’s child obesity capitals.
It is a striking development in a country long regarded as the spiritual home of the Mediterranean diet. Yet today, Italian children are among the most overweight in Europe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
RTWT.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
Filed under Causes of Diabetes, Mediterranean Diet
Dr. Jonathan Storey at Science Based Medicine:
Her recent breast surgery went perfectly. The tumor is out, margins are clear, and none of her scans show any cancer. So, she is understandably distraught when I begin to discuss the option of chemotherapy. “But I thought they got it all,” she says.
As a medical oncologist, I have had some version of this conversation hundreds of times, but it never gets easier. We call it adjuvant therapy — the medical practice of giving a person four to six months of chemotherapy after their cancer surgery, just in case. The underlying logic of adjuvant therapy rests on a single uncomfortable fact.
The practice of oncology is hard. I hope you never have to make a decision regarding adjuvant chemotherapy.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: The Mediterranean diet is linked to lower risk of getting cancer.
Filed under cancer
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Bible Verse of the Day
