Medical Bankruptcies: What You Can Do To Protect Yourself

By David Lear

First the bad news: about 2,000,000 personal bankruptcies each year are caused by unexpected medical expenses. Of all those people, 1,500,000 have (or had) health insurance before they ran into difficult financial straights.



But wait a minute. Isn't the whole idea behind health insurance - security? The financial security that comes from knowing that you're covered if something goes wrong with your body? You say you're covered, but what if your medical "situation" exceeds your policy limits? Then what?



No one wants that to happen, so the question is: are there other options? For instance, is there a way to "insure" against getting sick in the first place? Most people assume that's not possible, but personally, I disagree.



Several years ago my wife Sandy and I stumbled onto a very unusual health product. We both had our own experiences with it and have seen it work miracles for others.



But before going there, I'd like to explain something. To me, health insurance should be about staying healthy. In China, for instance, doctors used to be paid only if they kept you healthy. That's what I call real health insurance. And although the U.S. has some of the best-trained, dedicated physicians in the world, heart disease, cancer, strokes, and autoimmune diseases are all on the rise.



Clearly, our health isn't being protected - at least not to an appreciable extent. The medical paradigm in the U.S. is mostly about treating symptoms, not fostering health. And while we're all very grateful to doctors for all their efforts, symptom treatment is intrinsically short-sighted.



If symptom treatment was effective in restoring health, people would be getting well and staying well. But that's not what usually happens.



There's a growing movement of people who've recognized the shortcomings of the traditional medical/pharmaceutical "health" model. They're not stupid. For instance: 106,000 annual deaths from properly prescribed prescription drugs sure got my attention when I heard the news. Check it out on the net. It's a fact.



OK. So everyone knows there's a problem. Again, the question is: are there options out there and if so, what are they?



As I was saying earlier, there is an option. I can say that because I have personal proof. Four years ago, I was diagnosed with a heart condition called atrial fibrillation. It wasn't painful per se, but the irregular, spasmodic poundings inside my chest were very disconcerting.



My wife Sandy and I were in Maui when a friend of ours told us about something called glyconutrition. Now, I'm a fairly open-minded kind of a guy and I've been interested in health supplements for a long time, so I decided to try it. (By the way, nothing I was taking before then was helping my heart condition). After a few months, the condition went away. It hasn't returned since.



Sandy also had a positive health reversal. She was in a lot of pain from neck surgery she'd had seven years earlier. She also decided to try the glyconutrients. It took a little longer for her, but her pain subsided and surgery was avoided.



My point in telling you these two stories is that we saved a ton of money and who knows how much pain and suffering by not having to undergo surgery. I don't know if my atrial fibrillation would have led to a worsening condition requiring surgery, but I do know that Sandy was considering a second neck surgery before we heard about glyconutrients.



Since then, we've learned a lot more about the science behind glyconutrients and why this new category of nutrient is turning around so many health conditions for so many people.



Even highly trained medical doctors and surgeons are taking notice. Case in point: Dr. Ben Carson is the department head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. A severe form of prostate cancer led him to discover glyconutrients. Long story short: he attributes to them his complete recovery. He now recommends glyconutrients to all his patients, to his staff and others as well.



Without going into a lot of complicated detail, science now has a pretty good idea about why glyconutrients seem to be helping so many different kinds of health conditions. The bottom line is this: enhanced cell-to-cell communication.



Glyconutrients provide the body with highly specialized building blocks that the body transforms into communication molecules that all cells use. Without an adequate supply of these molecules, communication starts to break down and illness starts to creep in.



The reason glyconutritional supplements are so effective is this: our diets suck. Let me explain. If we got all the nutrients we needed in our diet, we'd rarely get ill. By the way, the scientific evidence to support that statement is huge.



But because 90 percent of the food we eat is processed (devoid of essential, health-promoting nutrients) and for a number of other reasons, we're not getting the nutritional build blocks our bodies need in order to stay disease-free.



Bottom line: understand the powerful relativity between the nutrients we consume and the state of our health.



So to reiterate - there are options for warding off illness and medically related bankruptcy. Just don't look for them in the current medical - pharmaceutical - health insurance paradigm. Look for them in the emerging science of glycobiology - the same science that's starting to describe the cellular mechanisms behind the major health recoveries that thousands of glyconutrient users are now reporting.



About the Author: David Lear is an independent nutrition researcher and free-lance writer. His main interest is in cutting-edge supplements that improve health and reverse illness. For further information, visit http://www.glycoresults.com



Source: www.isnare.com

Nutritional Supplements - How To Choose A High Quality Product

By David Bloom

Looking for quality nutritional supplements can seem quite overwhelming at times, especially if you're just starting out. It is just as important to be sure you're taking high quality supplements as it is to take the right supplements, because there's no point in taking them if they don't work. You may be tempted to buy a "store brand" or bargain nutritional supplement, but just as with anything else, be wary of trading quality for price.



One of the main criteria you want to look for in choosing the right supplement is making sure the potency of the nutrients is ensured. When the label says that there is a standardized amount of a certain nutrient in the supplement, this means that the balance of herbs has been developed to make sure that each and every capsule contains the same amount of active ingredient. Depending on the herb in question, it is possible for say 10 milligrams of the standardized extract to be as potent or even more so than 100 or even 1000 milligrams of a cheaper version.



Another thing you want to check is whether or not the nutritional supplements contain natural or synthetic ingredients. While synthetics are of course less expensive, their natural counterparts are much more potent and effective, and have the added bonus of being more readily utilized by the body. Some people can even have reactions to the synthetic version of a nutrient who have never had a problem before, which can lead to problems in the future as well.



Whether or not the active ingredient in the supplement is sourced from organic materials is also very important. Nutritional studies have proven time and time again that there are more of the key nutrients in organically grown fruits and vegetables than there are in mass produced, chemically treated ones, so it only makes sense that this benefit would be passed on or withheld depending on the source of the ingredients. Also, full spectrum sourcing is vital to making sure that your supplement has all the nutrients you need, as key enzymes and ingredients can be lost in an extraction process.



There are also some nutrients that work best when taken together with a complementary vitamin or mineral, and in the majority of cases, this can actually improve their effectiveness. A perfect example is that of Vitamin D, which when taken together with a quality calcium supplement can both enhance the absorption rate and reduce the amount of calcium that is excreted in waste products. Of course, you will still get some benefit from calcium supplementation alone, but for those to whom every bit of nutrition counts, a little homework is your best bet.



The most important reason to choose a high quality nutritional supplement is of course, safety. Unfortunately, since supplements and vitamins have become more popular with the general public, many bargain basement brands have popped up overnight with the claim that their product is just as good as the more expensive ones and much cheaper to boot. Be very wary of such claims! Remember, if a supplement is priced far below its competitors, they had to find some way to trim down the costs...are you willing to risk finding out what it was?



Mass produced nutritional supplements are often made in huge batches with equipment intended to churn out as much of the stuff as possible in the shortest amount of time, and often the quality of the supplement will suffer. Worse yet, there is the increased risk of contamination.



When choosing nutritional supplements, you must keep in mind that your very health is dependant on the decisions you make. While it might seem like a good idea to save a few dollars now, in the long run you might find yourself wishing that you had invested that extra little bit in the interest of quality. This is not to say that a less expensive nutritional supplement won't give you some benefit, but it might actually end up costing you more in the long run if you're having to take multiple pills several times daily to get any kind of effect.



Take the time to find a high quality nutritional supplement from a reputable manufacturer...you'll be glad you did!



About the Author: David Bloom is an avid health enthusiast and senior editor of http://www.herbal-supplements-guide.com, a site that discusses supplements and their potential therapeutic value. He also contributes to http://www.healthy-heart-guide.com and http://www.joint-pain.com.



Source: www.isnare.com