the real culprits in Healthcare

Recent studies show what may be the real culprits in our healthcare system.  First and foremost is the health level of our population. By all accounts  we are in very poor health as a nation. Of course it can be argued that we are living longer.  No argument,  much of this is due to the expensive wonder drugs that are keeping people alive who would have passed on due to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and, stroke.  These wonder drugs have a double edged sword, first they do not address the cause of the problem, they actually allow the drug user to maintain the same lifestyle that created the problem in the beginning. Secondly many have side effects that require the administering of additional drugs to counter the side effects. A recent study  presented at the weight of the Nation conference On July 27 th arrived at the figure of $1400  as the additional annual cost for healthcare of the obese verses one of normal weight.  Recent figure also show that 26% of our population is obese. And the figure is expected to continue to go up as our nation expands its girth.  While the study did not include those who were merely overweight the implication and costs are clear. The official designation of obesity is one who is 30lbs or more over normal weight. When we add overweight to the obesity figure 2/3’s of our population falls into this category of overweight and Obese. A high percentage of our nations overweight but not obese, require the same costly wonder drugs that the obese require and have higher than normal healthcare costs. Addressing the obesity and fitness  issue can be seen as far more important than finding additional government funds to add to the rolls of the paid for healthcare recipients.  Reducing this problem can shave off 50 to 100 billion from our nations  healthcare costs. Without a change our healthcare costs will climb at an even faster pace as more and more technologies are developed to keep people alive. That currently die from weight related problems   (c)Tuchy Palmieri july 30 2009   Author of "The Food Contrarian"    

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