U.S. Obesity and the Destruction of the Family Unit or a Different Ending

Recent data from the CDC 1985-2010 on obesity is a cause for concern by all Americans. As of 2010 there were approximately 33.8% adults classified as obese and 17% or 12.5 million of our youth ages 2-19 that fell into this classification. In showing that this is a national issue no state in the union had an obesity rate below 20% and 36 states had obesity rates higher than 25% also 12 states had a rate of 30% or more.

In 1990 the statistics were quite different when 10 states who participated in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System reported obesity prevalence at <10%. Also no state reported a rate higher than or equal to 15%.

Jump to the year 2000 where no state had an obesity prevalence lower than 10%. While 23 states reported 20-24% and no state reported a rate over 25%.

By 2010 there were no states who reported an obesity prevalence below 20%. Thirty-six states were now reporting rates of 25% (equal to or greater).

The statistics were only reporting what society was already witnessing in their everyday lives. As these statistics grow so does our concern for our children, society and the economic impacts being found in hospitals and clinics nationwide.

In the U.S. Obesity is now estimated to cost $147 bill per year. Approximately 9% medical spending can be tied to this phenomenon. It is also estimated that the obese American spends $1500 more than the average or 41% more than what is considered the average medical cost of everyday U.S. citizens (Note approximately 2009 data).

Future Dire Consequences for the Human Race

In a study done by the Endocrine Society published March 23, 2011 it was found that the hormone Ghrelin is found to be low in obese females. The study while done on mice found that lower levels of this hormone reduced the fertility of the test subjects. While Ghrelin’s specifically cannot be tied to fertility of humans it does fall into the family of hormones involved in regulating reproductive functions in humans and animals.

The lead author of the report Hugh Taylor MD. of the Yale University School of Medicine stated, “While our study involved mice we believe our findings have significant implications for women. Our results suggest that low ghrelin levels could program the development of the uterus in the female children of obese women. These women may then be less fertile as adults”.

A recent study performed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) recommends that young people should participate in physical activity of at least moderate intensity for 30 to 60 minutes each day. It is estimated that 300,000 Americans die annually as a result of a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits. This is more deaths than that from the result from infectious disease, firearms, motor vehicles, and illicit drug use combined

In some regions school age children receive gym classes only once every two weeks or once a month, when a holiday or a school assembly interferes. Prior to cost cutting measures being instituted only around 33% of students were considered obese this has now climbed to over 50% as standardized educational testing has taken on as the program of more importance versus physical education.

While the lack of physical activity is now being classified as a Major Health Risk little if anything is being done to address the issue. Yes bills are being brought forth across the country however they are gaining no traction and never reach fruition.

Sedentary lifestyles are predisposing Americans for diseases such as stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, various cancers, diabetes, depression, obesity, and much more.

American males watch on average 2 hours of television per day versus 2.4 hours for females. On top of this there is an average of 2 hours per day using computers, gaming and other social media.

Children and teenagers report on average spends 2.2 hr each day watching television, 1.9 hr each day reading or doing homework, 1.4 hr daily on the computer/Internet, 1.2 hr playing video games, and 1.1 hr daily talking on the telephone.

However the above stated data is self-reported and as with other studies of this type the figures are extremely questionable and have a higher propensity for underreporting by the study participants.

For instance another study reported found that time spent watching television, videos, DVDs, and movies averaged slightly over three hours per day among children 8 to 18 years old.

As our recent history shows we are an overly materialistic nation with to much emphasis being placed upon social status and conspicuous consumption. With two working parent households and also a 50% divorce rate all of this must be factored into the matter, however it does not point to a strong and engaged family household. Each and every day this is placing more and more responsibility on America’s children to raise themselves.

Our government via subsides and the like, reduces the overall costs for what are unhealthy foods while fruits and vegetables see none of these government incentives. We as a people want instant gratification and fast food with super-size proportions having their establishments on every street corner are not helping matters.

Can parents be expected to become more engaged in their children’s lives including proper diet and exercise, it doesn’t look promising.

How can parents restrict or control their child’s dietary intake, television viewing habits, computer, video games etc, when they are almost never around the children. Can they become involved in their children’s PTA or other school activities when their jobs will not allow for such involvement as they consume more and more of their time?

Is there any way to improve our lives and those of our children

Maybe American society can consider modifying their lifestyles from todays present mindset. If our children are one of the most important facets in parents lives as is so often spoken of possibly if this is in fact true there may be a sliver of hope.

Is it possible a more expensive or larger home, car, electronic gadget, clothing and high paying or all-time consuming jobs could be of less importance in our lives in the future. Could the family unit again become just that, where parents are actually engaged in all facets of their child’s life. If a little less income where brought into the family household could the parents then lead by example on diet and exercise among many activities, as they might then have the time.

Americans are given one shot on this planet will wealth and materialism be their legacy. Or maybe the legacy could be that of an engaged human being living life to the fullest even though one’s bank account or house might not be as large or they drive a cheaper car? Could two or even (Gasp) only 1 child that could receive more of a parent’s time and love than 2 or more be a consideration?

One can only hope and I only hope the best for all Americans and God bless all of the parents ( of which I am one) on this planet your job is more difficult than any CEO. Sometimes ideas may be unrealistic however in this case can we afford not to take some chances?

Nursing’s Great Peril Which the U.S. will now face with Disastrous Effects for All!

The United States is now reaching a breaking point in regards to the practice of Nursing in medicine.

At a time when the baby boom generation -an estimated 78 million- is entering retirement who will care for them in their so-called golden years.

Hospitals driven by profit margins and not quality care have cut nursing staff and reduced Nurse to Patient ratios to Dangerously low levels. By 2005, roughly half a million U.S. registered nurses (about one fifth of the national total) had chosen not to work in nursing. It is projected that if current trends continue by 2010 that the U.S. will need to train 1.1 million new nurses by the year 2012, which is estimated to be half of our current nursing level.

So who will care for the onslaught of this countries aging population of 78 million coupled with the fact that the U.S. population overall has risen above the 300 million mark.

Hospitals have addressed the pressing needs of their Shareholders by pushing the equation down the line to the nursing staff. Or even further by passing down tasks formerly performed by professionally educated and clinically trained nurses to less educated staff members.

They are now Giving nurses Dangerously high patient counts to care for it is not their concern that the patient receives quality care.

Nurses without the needed resources, horrid working conditions coupled with the nurses well founded fear they cannot adequately care for their patients are all leading to a profoundly troubling conclusion. This should be disturbing for us all as countless nurses have come to realize they can no longer adequately perform their duties and leave the profession altogether.

When patient ratios rise nurses cannot properly monitor their patients they just don’t have the time. Drugs along with their importance of timely delivery which are extremely important if not imperative to treatment are quite often given at a later time all to the patients detriment and this is just one aspect.

There was a time when nurses could properly monitor their patients not only checking their vitals but also observing the overall organism which is the patient. The fingernails, skin color the presentation of the eyes changes in respiration and more. Patients on ventilators require even more time to be clinically observed for signs of distress or deterioration.

Case in point fifty year old patient whom staff denotes is agitated and has to be restrained. Shift after shift given their precious few moments to see the patient all verbally note this as does a respiratory specialist and a speech pathologist. This occurs over a 3 day period when finally a more well rounded RN checks on the patient at the beginning of her shift. Within 5-10 minutes a syringe with a semi-neon substance is brought in the unit and is injected into the patient. The agitation ceases the restraints are no longer needed the patient is still semi-lucid as they were before only now more relaxed.

This nurse for whatever reason read the patients chart and took the time to observe and even though she fell a little behind in her duties, she treated the patient. Here this poor man unable to communicate as he had a trach tube, was in rather excruciating pain. Luckily for him a skilled, caring and comprehensive nurse who had not yet suffered burn-out was handed his chart for the day along with many others. If it were not for this lucky occurrence of events who knows how long this man would have suffered needlessly.

Doctors see patients however Nurses carry out and truly care for the patient in a day to day setting.

As long as hospitals only address the issues of their Shareholders (stock holders) and keep inventing methods to improve Profits without a care in the world to Patient care we will all suffer. Until nursing staffing levels and working conditions are addressed this extremely troubling trend will continue in medicine as hospitals further deteriorate.

For the 78 million baby boomer’s who will require extensive, complicated and more demanding procedures and care the outlook is Bleak.

Needed now more than ever and in Greater Numbers with better working conditions. If this issue is not addressed many will Suffer and Die Needlessly.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

The Opiate Epedemic & the Dangers for Teenagers

In the USA today it’s hard to watch a television news report or read a publication which does not cite the every growing abuse of Opiates. Roxycotin, Oxycodone, Vicodin, Percoset etc. Everyday new stories of abuse, rising criminal rates, incarceration and death related to this epidemic are printed or reported on.

This prescription drug abuse epidemic is found throughout all age groups. However the highest concentration can be found in those in their forties along with young adults and teenagers.

Between 1992 & 2002 there was a 236% percent increase of abuse cited in two studies conducted in these time frames. In the rural areas of Virginia death rates increased 300% from drug abuse between 1997 & 2003 while 74% of those deaths were attributed to Opiate use via prescription drug abuse.

The death rates from prescription drug abuse have now overtaken the use of illicit narcotics a profoundly disturbing trend which only grows stronger everyday in America.

While cities with their concentrated populace would be thought to have the highest rates suburban and rural areas are bucking the conventional wisdom via high rates of abuse and deaths related to prescription drug abuse. Studies have shown that hydrocodone and oxycodone have a higher potential for abuse and use by these newer drug addicts.

During 2006 there were approximately 740,000+ visits to the emergency room in regards to abuse of drugs across the US. Of these visits a full 33% percent fall squarely on the back of the Opiate family of drugs being used in a recreational or addictive setting by the patient. There is also the differences in gender to consider where one study points to female abuse at 29.8% versus male 21.1%.

For adolescents who begin prescription drug abuse before or at age 13 there is an increased likelihood of addiction versus abuse at age 21 or above. A 2008 Partnership for a Drug-Free America survey of 6,518 youth produced a rate of 19% reporting abuse of prescription drugs, a very troubling statistic. A staggering 41% of these youths believed that prescription drugs were less dangerous than illegal drugs.

So they raid their parents or other siblings drug medications to get what they believe is a safer way to get high and escape via self-medication. As far as younger youth are concerned a recent study relayed that for 8th 10th & 12th grade students the rates of prescription drug abuse ranged from 1.8-2.7%, 3.9-7.2% and 5.2-9.6%. In the study 2.1% represents 5.2 million teenagers the different rates above for example 1.8% of 8th graders abuse Oxycontin & 2.7% abuse Vicodin either stolen from their parents medicine chest or a friends parents medicine cabinet.

The fearless nature of teenagers only heightens the danger as mixing drugs and alcohol will only make matters worse and could quite possibly lead to a drug overdose. This coupled with the higher propensity of a teenage abuser having a higher likelihood of becoming an addict exhibits a pressing need for parents to keep all medications out of the reach of anyone who might enter their home.

For 2006 the costs to society are an eye opening experience where abuse costs $53.4 billion with $8.2bil going towards judicial costs and $2.2bil for treatment as well as $945million to treat medical complications arising from drug abuse.

As of 2009 drug related deaths took over and surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death. From 1999 to 2007 a four fold increase in drug related deaths were reported. The rate of death in the state of Florida for Oxycodone increased 263% from 2003 to 2009. In the years from 2004 to 2009 emergency room visits from the same drug increased 265% nationwide.

While there is no magic bullet I believe there are steps that can be taken to avoid a patient from becoming an addict.

Physicians in the USA are rarely called to task on this subject in regards to monitoring their patients. This is not to say that all physicians conduct themselves this way. However having been prescribed these types of drugs during my lifetime I have never had a doctor attempt to educate me on the dangers of these drugs. Nor have I ever been tested prior, during or post treatment and I’ve never heard of anyone else who had a different experience, although I am sure there are exceptions.

There are almost no doctors practicing medicine today that will get a urine sample for drug testing prior to writing a prescription for these powerful drugs. Yet these tests are widely available and can be performed at an office visit Before a patient is prescribed any narcotics. The diagnostic test only costs $7 USD and gives results in approximately 5-8minutes.

Why would a doctor give a prescription to a patient already abusing opiates? Post treatment an office visit would be performed 1-2 weeks after the patient had supposedly ceased taking the medication. If this urine test again performed at the physician’s practice during a routine follow-up visit were performed the doctor would possibly then find out that their patient had a high probability of being an addict.

In the two examples above either before or after treatment the doctor could get a clearer picture of what kind of patient they were treating.

The treating physician would then be able to discuss and educate the patient on the effects, costs and treatments available to assist the patient in withdrawing from a drug before they became a full blown addict.

Of course this would be tactfully done by the doctor who would not come in and condemn anyone as an addict. However they could preemptively step up to the plate and educate the patient.

However very few doctors perform these tests to the detriment of their patients. They also fail to educate their patients prior to writing a prescription for these powerful opiates.

It’s much easier to attempt to control addictive behavior prior to a patient becoming an addict than after the fact when the drug has taken hold and changed the brain chemistry of a patient. Yet again this is almost Never done by the prescribing doctor.

If parents were better educated on the prevalence of teenage drug abuse. They would in turn have a better chance of hiding away these drugs so that their children or one of their children’s friends could not innocently ask to use the restroom only to steal a parents medication.

So many look at the costs after the fact rather then attacking the source. Testing new patients for drug use and educating them on the dangers of addiction would be time well spent.

If a patient prior to being prescribed a powerful opiate drug were found to already be using an opiate they might be given the choice of a smaller dose and quantities of drugs or none at all. The doctor would then know that they needed to monitor their patients drug use more closely. They would also be armed and ready to prescribe drugs such as Clonidine to assist the addict during the withdrawal process a more effective yet less prone to abuse withdrawal drug versus Methadone. After the withdrawal period has passed another urine test could be performed to verify success in treating the addicted patient. Also at this time the physician could reinforce the patients education point out support groups as well as relay to the patient that their physician was there to help them to stay clean via treatment and counseling.

For parents there are quick easy to use urine test kits available for around $7 USD to test their children. These tests are accurate, available to order online and produce results in minutes. Upon a positive test of a child the parent could begin to take the required steps to get their children the help they needed. Again it’s easier to treat an addict of only say a month or so versus the later before a visit to the emergency room or even sadly the death of their child.

Would it be considered invasive to monitor and ask your child for a urine sample, yes. If the parent were overly concerned they could set up a doctor’s appointment and give the child no notice until they picked them up at school to go to the doctor for a needed physical, (deceitful yes less prone to a confrontation somewhat, decisions have to be made).

However testing and starting treatment as soon as possible rather then losing your child to drug abuse I’m certain would be much harder.

For those who are addicted there are treatments available however you yourself need to have to have the want to QUIT. There are drugs that will help clonidine is a very good choice I would not recommend Methadone. There are also therapy programs available where you can discuss your issues with people who have already gone through what you are going through right now.

Don’t be concerned about anyone looking down upon you groups created for addicts do not operate that way.

Or you can continue to abuse as you watch your life disintegrate before your very eyes. Possibly losing your family, home, job as well as slowly destroy your body as you will slide further into depression. I beg of you people do care they want to help you,,,Just Take the First Step.

For those with Chronic pain from various elements unfortunately you will probably be on these types of drugs for a lifetime. If you have a medical need and countless patients do then continue your treatment get quarterly liver toxicity tests from your doctor and do the best you can. If you begin taking more and more drugs because of pain coupled with depression consider joining an online forum or group in your area.

It is truly unfortunate that those that abuse these drugs are endangering the lives and mental states of those who Truly Honestly need these drugs to live their daily lives. One minute your fine the next following an accident and your whole life is turned upside down. While it may not matter to you I Do Truly Feel for You and only hope that you can live the best life you can, may God Bless you and help through these times.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BOARD CERTIFICATION! A Beginning Series of Posts in regards to Medicine today!

Is your doctor Board-Certified?

Are you aware you can check this as every state in the USA has a government website available for you to check.

From this you can research the doctor’s educational background along with their academic achievements, hospital privileges, Board-Certifications as well as any disciplinary actions within the last ten years.

All state governments have a website to check on your prospective doctor. In Florida just type; fla state medical license check. From there enter the doctors name it’s always a good idea to do a five minute check ahead of time to get good quality care.

If a medical doctor graduates from medical school with No Fellowships (specialties) there medical education stopped the day they left medical school and after their residencies.

To make sure you are getting good quality care five minutes of your time will be more than worth it.

I would strongly advise that you Never see a specialist who is not Board-Certified in their chosen specialty. This certification shows that the physician has had continuing education and is up on the latest treatment protocols. What works and what isn’t so rather then spending months and getting no good results or becoming sicker and possible progressing to a terminal state or worse. It’s always better to check out & verify you have chosen the best you can find in your area who will also accept your insurance.

You can also find out if your prospective physicians is what is called in the trade a “Procedural Doctor” not a good sign. If you are admitted hospitals will and do refer their inpatients to Non-Board Certified doctors. Some Gastroenterologists are known for this, your doctors history might show that they have hospital privileges at 3 or more hospitals. Many are not Board-Certified, their income is made by performing procedures not seeing patients at their practice. Many who have outdated medial education more bad signs.

Procedural Doctors take a little more research however this can be easily done. You can check on their practice and how many patients they see annually, low numbers are a cause for concern.

If you find a Procedural Doctor, promptly turn around and head the other way.

This is also why I strongly Advise that if possible have a Patient Advocate if you spend anytime even just hours at a facility. If educated just minimally they can remember to ask questions and watch out for you during your stay. Everyone is thrown a little off guard by hospital and medical settings so an Advocate is worth their weight in gold.

How many malpractice claims has the physician had more than 2 or 3 in ten years is a cause for concern. Where did they go to medical school, where did they do their Fellowship (specialty training) or residency. How many Academic appointments have they received? Are they affiliated with a teaching hospital or university (A Very Big Plus!).

During most occurrences you will be able to ask the hospital what specialist they are referring you to and whether they are Board-Certified? If they are not you have the right to ask the question, refuse that doctor and ask for only a Board-Certified doctor. This will not create a delay in your care however it will provide for a more thorough productive procedure with better treatment protocols and in the end a healthier patient. You are paying for this adventure Please be prepared have a friend act as your advocate if needed.

Your advocate should have the time available to spend 8-10hrs a day with you. Having an advocate involved will Greatly Benefit and Enhance your stay which should produce a more promising outcome to a stressful experience. If your dressings are not being changed, your medications are not being distributed in a timely manner, etc. All of these situations can be tactfully handled by your Patient Advocate. Believe it or not I was hospitalized with a condition that affects over 5 million American citizens per year. Yet I had to call and instruct their dietetic staff on what foods I should not be given among other aspects. Even after speaking with their dietetic staff they still immediately sent me food that would only have made my condition deteriorate and potentially worsen via additional infections (Bezoars). Again this occurred after they were instructed on the proper diet for the condition. This was a large urban hospital in one of the largest metropolitan areas of the USA. It took them a full 3 days to finally get my diet correctly addressed and this was No Exotic condition 5 million US citizens suffer from this annually yet it took a Major metropolitan hospital 3 days to feed a patient the proper food, Unbelievable but True.

Trust me from real life experiences a Board-Certified physician and a Patient Advocate can prove to be a real life saver if you are hospitalized.

Learn to research via easily accessible Internet resources take notes before your doctor’s visit. In today’s world of medicine 5-10 minute doctor visits Do Not Provide comprehensive medical treatment. Just because someone has graduated medical school does not make them GOD, so don’t expect them to be, ask questions, get a second opinion.

Educate yourself and those that you might call upon during a medical emergency.

While medicine has found outstanding cures and treatments for various diseases in recent history. Medicine along with the patient care on the whole in the last 15-20 years has fallen dangerously low on the tree for which patients suffer the consequences. There are now many doctor’s practicing who are in fact Dangerous. However as many of you possibly have experienced physicians will not speak the truth about their colleagues (they never do). It is Your job to educate yourself and those that you love, if you fail to do so it will be at your own peril or possibly a loved one or child.

Be assertive ask questions and be ready to say NO or to point out poor medical care. While even at the hospital you have the right to call for the Attending Physician (doctor on duty) to voice your concerns. You the patient have Rights, exercise them believe it or not many hospitals will respond appropriately to an assertive patient or Patient Advocate. More often than not you will receive better care then the patient who allows themselves to be treated like livestock at a farm.

Also be aware that numerous tests are performed only to protect the doctor and have nothing to do with your medical condition, treatment or outcome. If you are being scheduled for a test ask what it has to do with you care. On the other hand are you aware of the thousands of Perfectly Good Gall Bladders that are removed daily because physician fail to perform a simple HIDA exam to confirm their diagnosis. Often many doctors do not perform this non-invasive procedure. Patients then endure an invasive surgical procedure as well as having the possibility of a Post-Op infection kill them or contribute to the deterioration of their condition, all because a licensed medical professional failed to do their job. Ask questions, during a recent stay myself over two days I requested over ten times to be weighed. This was because of the fact that I was to be anesthetized and the anesthesiologist needs this important information as it is Crucial. Even though I continually tried to get my weight charted this never occurred, why, well I truly have no answer. Someone however entered false data on a medical chart and even after notifying the hospital of this no action whatsoever was taken. Because of this failure to get my proper weight charted I was Over-Anesthetized with propofol an Excellent medication, the patient goes under quite easily and comes out very cleanly. After this procedure this was not the case it took the staff over 20-25 minutes to bring me back around. This after only 2 months earlier the same procedures were done with the same medication from which I awoke Extremely lucid with little or no adverse reactions. It’s also of note that the Non-Board-Certified physician had performed 2 procedures of which only 1 was actually needed. However the doctor was a Procedural Doctor, more procedures equal more money in his pocket. This was verified by a practicing specialist of over 25 years with impeccable credentials who was utterly amazed at what had occurred.

Also remember the saying, ” If there isn’t a picture it didn’t happen”. In medicine, ” If it isn’t Charted it didn’t happen” if there is a problem with your care make sure it is CHARTED. Otherwise it did not happen.

I will be writing more postings on the state of medicine in the coming days that hopefully someone will find useful.

Do your research, Ask questions prepare for the worst that hopefully will never occur. I am not advocating for anyone to become paranoid or obsessive only to use a few minutes on the Internet to become a better educated patient who will receive excellent care during a trying, stressful experience. In the end you or a loved one will be better served for just a few minutes of research.

I only hope for the best outcome for you or a loved during your medical care and experiences.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

A change of direction

My interest in disease, pathology and the medical profession has brought me to change the direction of my blog. In the near future I will begin  to attempt to educated the masses in this regard. To often patients do not know the right questions to ask or whom it is they should ask. So in my attempt to discuss the decline of medicine in the US and to be an advocate for patients I will now try to educate those who might benefit. While many patients needlessly suffer some for years before being properly diagnosed if only they knew of the proper resources to accelerate their care. Also many patients are subjected to medical testing which has no basis in regards to their treatment but is only done by their physicians for liability reasons. What rights does the patient have in a medical practice, what questions should they be asking and when is it time to get a new specialist or primary care doctor. We are now more connected to resources that will give us the information we seek my goal is to make others aware of where to turn and what to do.

$300 Billion for Water in the USA have we reached the tipping point!

As we shower, shave, bathe, cook and drink the ubiquitous resource the inhabitants of the world are rapidly approaching an era of water shortages never before seen by modern man. It is estimated that it will cost over $300 billion dollars just to upgrade the piping systems that handle this most precious resource over the next 30 years.

Well it has happened Turkey has entered into the Iraq War, thanks George!

It is now being reported that Turkish F-16 planes loaded with bombs have taken action against the Kurdish PKK fighters in the northern Iraqi territories along with Cobra helicopter gun ships. Of course we can thank the world’s largest arms dealer for supplying them with their weaponry; this of course is the United States of America.

This apparently began on Sunday as the Turkish military has taken it upon themselves to attack the Kurdish rebel positions as the Iraqi government and the hegemonic overlord the USA have failed or not wished to be bothered by the complaints by Turkey.

Disease knows no Socio-Economic boundaries

Disease knows no Socio-Economic boundaries and these diseases will infect anyone regardless of wealth or stature. Diseases only want to infect, grow, mutate, multiply and live on to infect another host without regard to social stature. So for those Americans who say I have mine the hell with the poor, remember that by not addressing the healthcare crisis you or your child may die.

Breeding Terrorism over 3.1 million Displaced Iraqis Courtesy of the USA

There are over 1.1 million internally displaced Iraq citizens many of them of the Shiite sect. Although the Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is of the Shiite sect he does not seem to be overly concerned with their plight and daily suffering. The number of displaced has grown dramatically since the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006.

They have been left to fend for themselves drinking brown polluted water that they have retrieved from local ditches. This ingestion of the local water from ditches as well as the millions of flies increases their probability of incubating a plethora of diseases to add to their plight of suffrage.

Screw the Uninsured working class poor let them get a job!

There are so many American citizens that will recite that they have made it and have a home and health insurance. They will often say that the uninsured are not their problem and they do not want to pay increased taxes to deal with the 46 million uninsured Americans. They will say that they worked hard to get what they have and the uninsured are lazy and need to get a job so they will quite complaining all the time.

There is a problem with this argument as disease knows no Socio-Economic boundaries and these diseases will infect anyone regardless of wealth or stature. Diseases only want to infect, grow, mutate, multiply and live on to infect another host without regard to social stature. So for those Americans who say I have mine the hell with the poor, remember that by not addressing the healthcare crisis you or your child may die.