Image: sxc.hu

Chuck Norris has researched this portion of the proposed bills and has written about some of the highlights.  Yes, this is the actor Chuck Norris who played Walker, Texas Ranger.  However, he and his wife Gena are very active with the nonprofit Kick Start program in public schools in Texas, to help youngsters  build up their self-esteem and learn respect and discipline.  They founded this program 17 years ago.

Another writer has addressed this concern about the health care bill, Home Visitations in the Health Care Bill threaten Parental Rights. You’ll find this at the Independent Learning and Homeschooling site.

If you’re not aware of some of these provisions being considered that could affect your rights as parents and your children’s rights as children, you might want to do some research.

Ask yourself the question, “Am I ready for government parenting of my children?”

Post from: Blisstree

Are We Ready for Government Parenting?

When I had a health issue I used to go to my doctor first.

Thousands of dollars in copays later I would end up at the health food store and what they would give me would out-perform the prescriptions.

Now I’ve learned the cheapest and most effective thing to do is hit the health food store first.

I’m going to try Natures Inventory’s Allergy Relief Wellness Oil, a completely organic 100% natural oil to reduce congestion and itching eyes. Check my Sinus Wash Miracle Cure for more great uses of oils.

I’m excited to try the Body Ache Relief.

I meditate a lot and want to see if this Meditate Wellness Oil will help me keep my mind from wandering to dark or trivial things during yoga and morning and evening meditations.

I’m tempted to try the Skin Lightening Formula Wellness Oil - even after treating my liver condition there are some brown spots left.

Or the Liver Support Wellness Oil to help my hemochromatosis.

And an oil for happiness? Sign me up!

How are you going to pick just 5? How am I?

Leave a comment saying which oils you’re most interested in trying and you are entered to win. Subscribe to the Blog Fabulous RSS feed or an email subscription and I’ll make sure to share my results with you.

More giveaways at the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival!

Post from: Blisstree

Natures Inventory Oils – 5 FREE Bottles

I have this skin condition called Melasma or Pregnancy Mask. It’s a condition that often develops during pregnancy or while taking birth control and it brings hyper-pigmentation to the skin, generally causing brown splotchiness. Some dermatologists say it’s caused by sun damage.

I wrote this cool little article on melasma last year called Can a Leopard Change Her Spots? That article has transformed into something I never expected – becoming a board where women from all over the world can share what they know about melasma with 500 comments. The ladies report on which products work to fade the melasma or which products or regimes, laser treatments they try which didn’t work. The participants save their fellow melasma sufferers some money and share their frustrated body image issues with each other.

It is to these sisters of mine that I want to talk to today.

“That’s not melasma,” my doctor recently told me. “That’s bronzing of the skin caused by too much iron in your liver, that’s a symptom of hemochromatosis. It should go away when we bleed you.”

“Really?” I asked.

“We’ll I can’t promise. It should. We’ll see.”

{{{{{Perception shift}}}}}

The symptom of my condition was staring me in the face every time I looked in the mirror – I missed it. My doctors missed it. We all knew I had it.

I have hemochromatosis. I’ve known I had hemochromatosis for 10 years. I’ve had hemochromatosis the whole time I’ve been treating my melasma that coincided with my pregnancy, which coincided with my not treating my hemochromatosis. My OB/GYN, the doctor I was seeing during pregnancy and right after, called my skin condition pregnancy mask (which is the layman’s term for melasma). The timing and symptom seemed right. He knew, of course, that I had hemochromatosis, but he did not know that a symptom of hemochromatosis looks very much like melasma. I haven’t seen my hemochromatosis specialist since before that pregnancy.

So here is what I want to say to my sisters out there who are treating their melasma, spending tons of time and money and emotional energy, and not seeing results – get tested for hemochromatosis.

You may have hemochromatosis. You may be treating the wrong condition. Your skin may be a symptom of something that may, in fact, be life threatening.

What is it?

Hemochromatosis is a mutation of the HFE gene. It’s an inherited disease. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, nothing you do to cause it, and there is no cure. Around 8% of the population has this genetic condition.

By definition hemochromatosis is iron saturating the liver. Iron doesn’t leave the body properly in patients with hemochromatosis.

Iron is necessary for a healthy life, but too much of it sits in the liver and poisons it and other organs.

There is treatment.

The treatment is to remove blood from the body, giving blood.

They used to use leaches, now they use needles.

Untreated, hemochromatosis can be life threatening.

Women rarely find out they have hemochromatosis prior to menopause because they naturally rid themselves of just enough iron to mask the disease through menstruation, pregnancy, birth and lactation. That’s also the reason I hadn’t been to the doctor in a while – my body was using gestation, birth and lactation to rid itself of iron. Now the baby is over 2 and it’s time to start being bled again.

If you do not discover you have hemochromatosis and it goes untreated there is a high risk of liver disease, heart disease, diabetes, and others.

If you find out you have it early enough and it is properly treated, those who have hemochromatosis will live a long and healthy life.

I found out I had it in my 20’s. I am lucky. I found out in such a lucky way, after being misdiagnosed with both depression and mononucleosis. My doctor was trying to get me to up my anti-depressants.

“I am not depressed, I’ve got a great job and I’m happy about my life. I just can’t stop sleeping. I am so tired I could sleep 20 hours a day,” I told him. “Maybe I’m anemic, I read about exhaustion from anemia in a magazine,” I told him.

“If you rub real gold on your arm and it makes a black mark it means you’re anemic,” I explained as I showed him the black marks from my ring.

“That’s an old wive’s tale,” he said.

“Let’s bet on it. Test my iron levels. I bet I’m anemic,” I challenged.

The quirky bet with my doctor saved my life. I was not right. I was not anemic. But, I somehow, someway – by a miracle really – had asked for the right test after reading an article and illustrating an old wives tale. The test I requested showed dangerously elevated Iron & Ferritin levels. My liver biopsy tested positive for hemochromatosis.

This could be your quirky moment and this quirky moment could save your life (and treat your skin condition).

If you have melasma that doesn’t seem to respond to treatment, please, get a test for hemochromatosis. What you have previously seen as an emotionally frustrating skin condition – could shift into the symptom that points to a diagnosis that saves your life.

Wouldn’t that be a miracle – a shift in perception?

The best way to find out if you have hemochromatosis is to test for the HFE gene. You can ask your doctor to order this lab test if you have great insurance.

The American Hemochromatosis Society website recommends finding out you have this at home, without involving your insurance company. This is a serious diagnosis that could adversely affect your future insurability, they warn.

You can do the lab test from your home through a company like HealthCheckUSA. Just take a sample of your own cheek with a swab and send the results in to find out if you have hemochromatosis. It costs around $200.

If you have hemochromatosis you’ll need to find out your Iron and Ferretin levels with another lab test, Iron Profile, for around $50.

If your lab results come back with dangerously elevated Iron and Ferritin levels you’ll need to be monitored by a doctor and undergo more tests to make sure your vital organs are undamaged.

Post from: Blisstree

Miracle Skin – A Perception Shift

Maybe you have health insurance and you think your job is pretty secure so “why fix what ain’t broken?”

That’s NOT the choice you’re facing this election. It’s the choice you wish you were facing. There’s a massive difference.

Employers want OUT. They don’t want to be in the business of benefits anymore.

They face the same health care inflation problem as you do. It’s going up and costing them too much money and they don’t want to deal with the dreaded insurance companies red tape anymore.

Currently there are regulations REQUIRING large corporations to insure their employees and their families if the employ over 50 people.

John McCain will throw you to The Market and analysts suggests that 20 million MORE Americans will lose their insurance.

Personally, I think its inevitable that employers are going to get out of the insurance business all together. They are already cutting back benefits. The only irreplaceable benefit they provide is that they don’t have the luxury of denying benefits to sick employees. They can’t discriminate. Its illegal.

Health Insurance Companies, or The Market (as holy and sacrosanct as the Right Hand of God, Republicans would have you believe, even as The Market crumbles right in front of our faces) is under no such restrictions. It can discriminate as much as it likes.

Who do insurance companies discriminate against? Sick people. People who already have a diagnosis.

Whose going to foot the bill for the sick people the insurance companies don’t want to insure when companies bail out?

The tax-payer. You.

Do you really want to be on the Open Market for health insurance?

No safety net.

No large pool of other people to give you bargaining power.

No requirement that they insure you.

No protection against discrimination.

No regulation requiring them to behave honorably.

Alone, without a group plan or human services representative. Shivering in the cold and . . . sick?

Think. Think. How will this really effect your family?

To find out how truly fun this is – call your insurance company and ask a question about any bill. See how much power one person has in the face of the insurance industry. Better to find out now than when your corporation informs you it cancelled its insurance policy and we haven’t set up a Universal Health Plan for you to join.

Check out this New York Times story by Bob Herbert examining how John McCain’s plan is really going to effect your life.

“A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan,” Herbert writes.

The net effect of the plan, the study said, “almost certainly will be to increase family costs for medical care.”

And why should he care?

Melissa McEwan, on Shakesville very rightly points out John McCain has been under the privilege of government insurance his whole life. He’s so rich his wife wears a $300,000 dress and he can’t remember how many homes he owns, so a $300,000 medical bill wouldn’t effect his family very much – why should he care if it bankrupts yours?

Bank Crash – Economics 101

What Republicans don’t spend money on – Prosecuting Sex Predators terrorizing our families.

Leaches & Medical Inflation

Top-Down v. Bottom-Up – Economics 101

Post from: Blisstree

Keep (LOSE) What You Have? Health Insurance

Thanks to Jody, who writes NotB4Coffee from Canada for guest posting on Blog Fabulous.

My name is Jody. My husband Mel and I live in Canada. I am an American that cannot afford to live in my own country, because I can’t afford health care. Thank goodness Mel is a duel citizen.

To cut my story short I was working in the fiber optic field on a job for the government when I fell and injured my leg. The fall was due to a direct order from a superior that I could not refuse. His words were just do it my way, time is money.

Well here I am living in another country because of this fall I went through three surgeries and months of therapy and told that I am 50% disabled. Oh yes partly because of this injury health insurance for Mel and myself was going to be over $1,000 per month.

As soon as I could walk my problem was, just that, my problem. The company I was working for works for the government therefore the care for my leg is now up to me. Now this injury has affected my back. 
Wouldn’t you think that having this kind of injury would entitle you to some kind of health care?

I am furious that spilling coffee in your lap when you know that it is hot gets more attention then those of us that get hurt on the job and cast aside.

Not only can I not afford to live in my country, I had to leave my children and grandchildren behind. I need not tell you mothers how heart breaking this is. 

Action Steps from Tracee: Do your research about what each candidate is willing to do to help American’s resolve the healthcare crisis in America.

Barack Obama, will do away with preexisting condition exclusions, and require insurance companies to insure every American for an affordable premium by establishing large insurance pools. The insurance will be paid for by both employee and employer contributions. Yet, your insurance will not be tied to a specific job, leaving you free to change jobs, open a small business or go freelance.

John McCain will “let the market work it out,” release the employer obligation to insure employees and give Americans families a $5,000 tax credit ($2,500 individual). States, and their Governors, will be responsible for most insurance reform. (Who’s running in your state? Pay attention. It’s important.)

The United States is expected to spend 20%, that’s TWENTY PERCENT of it’s gross national spending during the next President’s tenure.

You are smart enough to think about which plan helps YOUR specific family and vote accordingly.

Click on each candidate’s names and read their plans.

Post from: Blisstree

Thank Goodness I Married A Canadian!

Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, isn’t waiting for Election ‘08 to get the Healthy Americans Act passed.

* Every American will have it

* Comprehensive – comparable to Congress.

* Portable – take it when you leave your job.

* Non-discriminatory – ban on “pre-existing conditions” and everyone gets a fair price.

* Affordable – under $40,000 income? Pay less than now. Under $150,000 pay $1 a day more for guaranteed coverage.

The act, his site says also saves $1.48 trillion through wellness and prevention.

And he says he can make it reality in only one year.

Here’s the real cost:

Families between $40,000 and $50,000 would pay about $81/year more – about $7 a month. Families between $50,000 and $150,000 would average between $327 and $341 per year more – about $28 a month.

In return for this modest increase these families would have guaranteed coverage that they could never lose, not if they get sick, not if they lose their jobs, not for any reason.

We’d be crazy not to take that deal. Why wait for elections? I want to see Senator Wyden deliver on this right now. Read the details by clicking this link.

Universal healthcare is a key component of gender equity.

Email your own representatives by visiting Congress.org and entering your zip code.

Post from: Blisstree

Healthy Americans Act

Democracy only works if people vote in their own self-interest.

It’s a system entirely based on self-interest actually.

It’s a system based on the idea that if everyone votes for their own self-interest then in the end we’ll arrive at solutions that meet the MAJORITY’S interests.

You muck up the system if you start voting in other people’s self-interest – say your husband’s self interest or your company’s self-interest.

It’s not unselfish to decide your husband’s interest supersede yours. It’s not unselfish to decide your company’s interest supersede yours. It’s not unselfish – it’s stupid. It’s self-sabotage and and it’s self-defeating.

Take healthcare for instance, if you’re a woman and your insurance is tied to your husband’s job it is foolish for you to not vote for healthcare. It is in every woman’s best self-interest (and that of her children) to have equal access to an affordable insurance plan – should she be faced with her one in two chance of divorce or widowhood.

Just because you can see an employers’ point in not wanting you to take a longer maternity leave, doesn’t mean you should perceive their interest as more valid than your own.

To vote otherwise leaves you (and therefore your children) with a high risk of unemployment, a higher risk of poverty should you become pregnant and take longer leave, or a high risk of maternal guilt for leaving your children in daycare earlier than you want.

I’m starting to wonder if women are capable of defining their own self-interests.

Has acting in our own self-interest been trained out of women, with our constant admonitions to share, be fair, sacrifice, be unselfish and “try to see it my way?”

I’m disturbed and disappointed by women’s refusal to lay claim to our own interests or our inability or our refusal to acknowledge and to distinguish between competing interests. Are we not politically sophisticated enough to tell the difference?

I don’t see men making this mistake in the election booth. Men understand that unless they vote in their own self-interest NO ONE ELSE WILL. Women really need to get to that place.

To choose someone else’s interests over your own is quite simply self-sabotage.

In a Democracy the only right action is to ask yourself “How is this going to effect ME?” And then vote accordingly.

Post from: Blisstree

Democracy Works on Self Interest