Dental health is important in overall health, and fewer Americans opt for dental coverage as opposed to health insurance coverage, despite its importance.

While there is much to be excited about in the new health reform law, one critical piece of care is still going to be missing for millions of Americans: Dental care.   An estimated 132 million Americans are without dental insurance (compared to the 47 million without health insurance).

While many Americans perceive dental insurance as a luxury they cannot afford or oral health problems as a minor inconvenience, anyone who has ever had a toothache knows better.   Oral health problems can be painful, but they also have some big implications for the rest of our body.  For example. poor oral health can lead to heart disease.  In 2007, a young boy from Washington DC died after an infection from a molar spread to his brain, prompting outrage.

The Importance of Dental Coverage

Oral health problems are also a significant issue for employers and educators.  Studies tell us that over seven million days of work are missed every year in this country because of oral health problems.  Oral health problems are the leading cause of missed school days for children.  And oral health problems are a significant problem for older adults.  Many seniors are surprised to learn that Medicare does not pay for routine dental care.

States Cutting Dental Benefits

The truly bad news is that all these problems may become worse before they get better.  In response to budgetary woes, a number of states have cut dental benefits for their Medicaid populations in recent years.  For example, California no longer covers optional adult dental care under its Medicaid program (recipients can get badly needed care such as extractions).  While federal health reform expands eligibility for Medicaid, this may be challenging because so few dentists will see patients covered under the program.

The new law does provide subsidies to help adults obtain overall health care coverage.  Such subsidies indirectly could help Californians pay for dental treatment by lessening the financial burden of medical care, but with 132 million Americans without coverage for their teeth, there is still a long road ahead.

photo credit: Joaquin Villaverde

Health and Agriculture have different goals in sight - one wants us to eat unhealthily, while the other - because of recent reforms - will want us to eat more healthy.

The next time you’re trying to decide which grocery store has the lowest prices, you might want to look at the waistline of its shoppers.  If the person in line behind you is very overweight, the store might just be a bargain, or so says a new study from the University of Washington. However, health care reform could mean a big change in the makeup of your grocery store. Why? Find out below.

The Relationship Between Health and Grocery Budget

The relationship between one’s grocery budget and waistline is complicated. Research shows that higher income people may have more free time to visit multiple stores, buy specialty foods, shop based on quality (not quantity), and prepare nutritious meals.  But research also shows that poor quality, high-calorie foods are cheaper.

This comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever eaten lunch at McDonalds from the value menu.  But we often don’t understand the reasons why high calorie, low nutrition food is so cheap. The reason is that our public policies are designed to support industries that produce high calorie foods in mass quantities.  Under the Farm Bill, the largest dollar amount of U.S. Department of Agriculture subsidies go to supporting corn. (For anyone who has ever followed the Iowa Caucus, it is immediately clear how powerful the corn lobby is in this Country).

Corn Syrup and Health

Lots of corn creates lots of high fructose corn syrup—which makes foods sweet and calorie rich for pennies on the dollar.  The USDA also subsidizes cotton, soybeans, rice and wheat.  Absent from that list is vegetables.

A map depicting levels of obesity across the United States. Notice that states with the most obese population are generally closer to the Corn Belt.

To help even out prices between our grocery stores and the difference between our waistlines, the U.S. may need to figure out a way to make healthy food cheaper, or unhealthy food become more expensive.  Some pundits have started to argue that the only industry powerful enough to take on the agriculture industry might be the health insurance industry.  Because the new health care reform law mandates health plans cover everyone, plans will have to cover the thin and healthy along with the obese and unhealthy. When that starts to mean even higher health care costs and a bite out of health insurance industry profits, we might see health insurance and “big ag” go head to head.

This post is a little delayed, since most people are getting excited and making their New Year’s resolutions right before and after the 1st of the year. It’s actually an ideal time to discussing this, because the shine has worn off your grand plans for creating a better, healthier you this year. You may have lost steam on your ambitions and have start falling back into hold habits. Don’t! There are small, easily attainable steps to living a healthy life this year and for the rest of your years. Read on and take things one minute at a time. After all, improving your health also means an improvement in the costs of your individual health insurance plan.

Veggie Tales and Your Health

You know how your mom was always trying to get you to eat your vegetables? Well, she knows her stuff. You should be aiming to get at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. If you dread the thought of biting into an apple of spearing a piece of broccoli, fear not. Vegetable servings are hiding in some possibly unexpected places. if you are a big fan of baked goods, you can sneak lots of fruit in there. Bake some zucchini bread, use applesauce instead of oil; you can even use prunes to bake! If you love your carbs, grate some carrots into your pasta sauce. Just try and pretend they’re not there.

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These days you can’t open a newspaper, pick up a magazine or turn on the TV without being inundated with messages about being healthy. It is great that these messages are coming through the main stream media, because America is bigger and unhealthier than ever before. The good old USofA tops the charts in obesity statistics. According to the Food Standards Agency, between the years 1999-2000 34% of America’s females and 27.7% of men could have been considered obese. The next country on the list, Argentina, wasn’t too far behind, but it still doesn’t change the fact that we here in the US are letting fast food options and lazy schedules outweigh the need for making healthier choices around our eating habits. Making little changes in your diet and eating choices can really make a strong impact on your health, weight and general well-bring. If they seem all too daunting to do at once, just make a small change per week and see how your body feels. You may be pleasantly surprised at the ease of making the little things into big impacts. Read on and be healthy.

Have a Healthy Kitchen

It should come as no surprise that creating healthier eating habits begins right at home in your very own kitchen. One good place to start is a good old fashioned purge. No, not the kind that can lead to an eating disorder, but rather a purge of food in your kitchen. After coming home following an exhausting work day, it is so tempting and easy to reach for fast, yet less healthy food choices. If you make the effort to not keep any tempting food in your kitchen, you are less likely to eat it. Simple? Yes. On the same tack, take time when you have time, maybe on a Saturday or Sunday, to cook for yourself meals to last through the week. That way even if you are dragging your tired self home at 9 pm, you will already have your meal choices made for you.

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So many people (it isn’t just women) will go to any lengths to be thin. People want a quick fix, something easy, and something that will not require hours of exercise or changing one’s diet. What many don’t realize is that it is never that easy. One pill will not magically help you drop weight and keep it off. You may see quick weight loss results with a diet pill, but you will be severely jeopardizing your health. Is the risk worth it? Read on for details about this frightening trend in weight loss supplements.

The Truth Behind the Flashy Ads

If you pick up a bottle of a diet pill like Xenadrine, you could be wowed by all of their claims. Clinical studies? Safe? Improving metabolism? Customer testimonials? When things like this jump at you from off of the shelf, it is easy to be fooled. But like with any advertising claim, don’t be taken in by what you see on the surface. Steve Bechler, Major League baseball pitcher, took Xenadrine before a game, after he realized that he needed to drop some weight to have a healthy start to the season. One heart attack later and he passed away. As shocking as it is, this healthy 23 year old man didn’t know the dangers of diet supplements and paid the highest price. Look again at any packaging and marketing for a diet pill. They may magically claim to seed up metabolism and help the pounds melt away, but what significant research backs up these claims? Is there a reputable organization, like the Food and Drug Administration, asserting that the claims are true?

Take a supplement like Ephedra. It can be found everywhere, from weight loss aids to energy boosters. Metabolife, one of the best selling over-the-counter weight loss aids in the country, contains Ephedra. The supplement contains both Ephedra AND caffeine, which the manufacturers have claimed for years have no side effects when combined. Mind you, this is the company trying to market their product to millions of weight-conscious Americans, so you would think they would want to have their facts as straight as possible. However, when staring in the face of criminal charges and a federal investigation, the president of Metabolife, David Brown finally coped to the fact that “between 1997 and September 2001 his company received roughly 13,000 reports of ‘certain health-related issues‘ linked to the supplement, among them heart attacks, strokes, seizures and death. A subsequent analysis added high blood pressure, palpitations, psychosis and other serious problems.” The FDA even estimates that Ephrdra accounts for 64% of all related side effects from herbal supplements, and that for every one of these recorded incidents, 100 go unreported.

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Maoist China during the period between 1958 and 1976 was one of the world’s widest users of public health posters and announcements. It was almost impossible to go anywhere in the country without seeing some form of health poster telling citizens to do a certain thing or not do a certain thing in the interest of public health. Then, unlike now, China had a nationalized health care system. Today, China relies on a variety of health care options, including employer provided coverage (known in China as laobao yiliao) and individual health insurance policies.

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