If you can’t beat 'em, fix it.

While my loyalties are quite obvious* — I couldn’t pretend to appear bi-partisan — I support anyone who wants to fix our broken health care system, period.

Unfortunately, I can barely convince the majority of my own family of the validity and need for health care reform, so I’m trying a new approach: letting someone else do the talking. With that in mind, here are 2 op-eds that I feel are absolutely worth reading: Until Medical Bills Do Us Part and Why We Need Health Care Reform.

Don’t just read the editorials, read the comments. They say as much about the topic (if not more) as the writers themselves do.

*During my pre-election 2-week stay at Florida Hospital I was certainly the only patient with an Obama campaign sign in the cardiac care wing.

Book of the week: Healing Foods

As someone who spends their life explicating the uniqueness of everyone’s diet in dealing with Crohn’s and colitis, I found this book of recipes incredibly refreshing: Healing Foods: Cooking for Celiacs, Colitis, Crohn's and IBS

Written by Sandra Ramacher, who suffered from ulcerative colitis for seven years, Healing Foods is based around the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD). It does an exemplary job of explaining the value of certain foods, specifically in their essential ingredients section, which holds such gems as substituting baking soda for baking powder (which contains wheat)—or almond flour for basic wheat flour.

Pick up the book and check out some free sample recipes on Sandra’s website Cooking for Celics, Colitis, Crohn’s and IBS. Happy eating.

Private vs. Public.

Daily Show

For all the naysayers claiming that private health insurance companies will never survive if a public health insurance option does, Jon Stewart made yet another fortuitous point last week by comparing the success of private education vs. public education [specifically, watch 3.07 to 3.49].

And with his inspiration, I have decided to begin listing successful private vs. public (or government run) exemplars, meaning both are lucrative in spite of their simultaneous existence. Here goes, and please feel free to add to this...

• We already know private school vs. public school
  (Both meaningful parts of my education right through graduate school.)
• Cable television networks vs. publicly available television networks
  
• Book stores vs. libraries
• Private shipping (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) vs. the U.S. Postal Service
• Public highways vs. private toll roads

What else? I know I’m leaving a heap out, send me some more examples (please), or post them below.

Making the rules up.

Through her own tumultuous experience Dr. Amy Farber has not only set a more focused lens on patient needs, but she may find her own cure as the prize: LAM Treatment Alliance

Curious? Read more here in Research Trove—Patients’ Online Data

Got Wegener's? Put it to good use.

I saw this on another blog and thought it was an interesting way of getting more people involved with a massive Wegener’s study. Dr. Katherine Siminovitch of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is undergoing research for Wegener’s Granulomatosis (WG). The purpose is to identify the genes that confer risk for the disease.

It’s super easy to enroll and all WG patients are eligible for the study, regardless of geographic location, age, and gender. For more information email clinicalgenet.research@gmail.com or call at 416-946-4501 x3297.

More here: wegenersnet.org

A cause for comedy.

Remember Ben? He’s at it again and he’s brought all of his funniest friends. This Thursday, August 27th, he and Causecast are teaming up with Creative Visions Foundation to put together the 3rd and best ever A Cause for Comedy.

You can buy tickets if you’re in the Los Angeles area or watch the live stream at causecast.org/acauseforcomedy.

Ooooh, I love this: DIY medicine cabinet

If you’re anything like me, everyday brings a new injury (seriously, just ask Geoff). Luckily, DivineCaroline and EcoSalon want to help make fixing my mishaps a little more natural and a whole lot cheaper.

Got a small cut that won’t stop bleeding? Sprinkle some cayenne pepper on it. Not only will the bleeding stop, but it won’t hurt as much either.

Got the beginnings of an ear ache? Put a few drops of garlic oil or white vinegar into your ear canal and let them sit. Repeat until the symptoms disappear.

Rashes or allergies? Drink 2 to 3 cups of green tea.

Get the details, and the full story here: DIY Medicine Cabinet

What am I on?

NeedyMeds.org — a site that hosts information on medicine and healthcare assistance programs — has created a Crohn’s and colitis resource page. This is excellent because it not only provides accurate information, but simplifies the way those with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis may find assistance paying for their medications. Point your family and friends to this site when they say “Remi-what?”

More here: needymeds.org/crohns_colitis

Nil per os.

Great story in Esquire about a man living with Crohn’s disease: The Man Who Couldn’t Eat

(Fair warning = it is awesome, but a bit graphic.)

Looks can be deceiving.

It seems that there is quite a bit of debating in the U.S. these days. And as I listened to the debate on medical marijuana use in my resident state this morning (NPR), I got a little riled up by one statement regarding the patients of medical marijuana dispensaries by Ron Brooks, a federal drug agent in San Francisco who calls Prop 215 “a hoax.”

“Just take a look at the customers who frequent the dispensaries,” he says, “and tell me how many people look sick and dying. How many people look like they are suffering from catastrophic illness...”

Hold up. While I am not a medical marijuana user (I cannot function sanely on Benadryl, so pot would do me no good at all) I took a bit of offense at the ignorance of such an intelligent person deciding whether or not individuals “look like they are suffering from catastrophic illness.” If you looked at me, would you think I suffered from a life threatening illness that mimics lung cancer? Would you think I’d had heart, lung, and skin cancer surgery all within the last 6 years? I’m guessing no.

Medical marijuana has helped more than a few sufferers I know — and these are people who have been through illnesses and procedures that absolutely qualify as cataclysmal. Maybe Mr. Brooks needs a few bowel resections to redefine his meaning of catastrophic — then I’ll decipher if he looks like he requires medicine or not.

The wild, wild mess.

“Yes, okay, so shall I call the morgue again and ask for my lung samples to be shipped back to California?” And so goes another normal conversation in the life of a chronically ill person.

The pathologist, pulmonologist, and rheumatologist need another look at my lung biopsies, and I have become such a pro that I know who I need to call at the hospital in Florida — the pathology and morgue center. It actually makes sense, all dead tissue, but this is clearly a branding problem, no?

There are numerous other fun tips and skills I’ve picked up over the years. For example, with any U.S. medical bill, I now know to always double check, itemize, wait for at least a month to pay for, and question any expense I’m not 100% sure of. My most recent hot tip? Apparently, I could make a living doing this: A Guide Through A Medical Wilderness

Are we to blame?

About 5 years ago I hobbled into the E.R. keeled over from the symptoms and complications of Crohn’s disease. It turned out that most of my issues were, in fact, related to my heart. I’d never even thought to mention my bouts of dizziness and constant blacking out. I’d only assumed those were part of the lovely roller coaster ride of IBD.

That said, was it ultimately my fault that the doctors did not find my heart condition sooner? And later my lung condition? Am I to blame for my misdiagnosis? Maybe: Are Patients in Part to Blame When Doctors Miss the Diagnosis?

When the balance is clearly no balance at all.

“In July of 2008 doctors outlined the case of a woman with Crohn’s disease who took a TNF blocker and then developed lung cancer. When she ceased using the drug, her cancer disappeared.” —reported in the New England Journal of Medicine*

Nope this is not my story, but it practically could be (same month and everything) — and with this news I am very close to putting the nail in the coffin for TNF blockers & Katie Clark. We had some good times Remicade, Humira you were there when I needed you, and Cimzia, you better be more than a beautiful package.

The doctors say that there is a risk with every drug; that there is a balance you must find between the risks and the benefits. But where is the balance in a child dying from lymphoma?

More here: FDA Warns on Cancer Risk In Immune-System Drugs and here TNF blockers linked to cancer risk in children & teens

*To be fair, that woman was also an ex-smoker, and I am a non-smoker

Healthstory.

I’ve been worrying about my health for quite a long time, and the worry seems to have caught up with a few of my friends as of late. My advice is to get started on one of the most helpful action items on the list: putting together your family’s medical history. Your doctors, as well as your family, will appreciate this—I promise.

Need help getting started? Check out Katherine Hobson’s piece on health.USNews.com: Why and How to Put Together a Family Medical History.

Need a tool to help you begin? Your tax dollars already paid for one called My Family Health Portrait. The site is a pedigree tool for keeping a history of your family’s health and it’s really simple to use.