PBS show on Obesity

(Denise) #21

I of course agree with you because I went the Ketogenic way. I doubt most people will. And the vast majority of, let’s just call them “vendors” (doctors, pharmaceutical companies, processors of our foods, etc) won’t make the money they are now if more, or heaven forbid, all people cooked their own meals, bought unprocessed foods to cook, and did not take drugs. Imo, we are a threat to big pharma, and the aforementioned “vendors”. Of course I leave out the good doctors we know stand with us, scientists and others for truth.

PBS is biased in other ways as well. I don’t support it because of that,

#22

A friend spends about half that at Costco (you do not need a membership to get the CGM but you need it for a discount on the CGM although you can bring anyone who has a card if you don’t have one and ask if they will honor the no insurance discount). You also need a prescription. With my friend, he finds that he needs it always to keep him on the straight and narrow. He gets a CGM every other month and finds that without it his glucose starts to drift up. Also when he has a CGM he eats less especially questionable things because he does not want to see the number drift up, he does not measure ketones so otherwise he has no real accountability

(Kirk Wolak) #23

Thank you. I have a CostCo Membership!

I will check it out. (I get 2 FreeStyle Libre Devices for 28 days of coverage).
I have insurance, but I’ve paid the same at Walmart while traveling, and mine died.
(My trip was extended).

I don’t need it all the time. But it helps keep me honest.

When I got sick, my wife gave me a couple of her Throat Lozenges…
ONE of them SPIKED my glucose like 50 points! I was flabbergasted that this little thing had that much bang in it. I went to the store and grabbed surgar free versions, and had no problems.

But it’s what you DON’T know that you might be doing! Then this really helps.

(Kirk Wolak) #24

The Truly sad part is that we have to ask if we NEED this insurance?
I dont feel we do. Our grand parents and great grand parents NEVER had insurance.

We will NOT get any supplements when we qualify.
My wife is no longer insured, she demands that I keep the insurance because I have the income.

But in all honesty, I need it for ACCIDENTS not for lifestyle.
Am I going to follow their advice for Eating/Heart Disease? No.
Do I feel I am at risk of a heart attack? No (Caught it early).
Will I take their POISONIOUS treatments for CANCER? NOPE! NEVER.
(My Father refused Chemo. And instead of 3-5 years, he made 7, and they were GOOD until the last few months. Versus my brother who suffered from DAY 1 on Chemo and didn’t make 18 months).

Exactly why I am spending a NEW car on insurance?

Frankly, I think EMERGENCY (accidents) should be Socialized so nobody who is working, etc and gets in an accident (NOT LIFE STYLE) doesn’t need insurance.

Then let all of the people who don’t want to do the right thing pay the premiums for their lifestyle diseases. ONCE that happens, things will change! (Obese people will be like: “I can’t believe I can either have insurance, or EAT!”… yes, that is basically YOUR CHOICE!) There will be memes: I bought a new car AND LOST 200 lbs… All because I did not want to pay that medical bill!:rofl:

#25

Unfortunately, unless you want to lose your home, file for bankruptcy or have your wages garnished, you need insurance.

I’m probably a lot older than you. Insurance was a rare thing when I was a child. However, much has changed since then, Hospitals were once truly non-profit. As a child, I spent a week in the hospital. Total bill $50.00.

The minimum wage in my state at the time was $1.00. Today, it is $14.00. So the total cost of a hospital stay would be $700 if cost of living was commensurate with minimum wage. No one would need insurance if that was the case.

A friend of mine had an emergency appendectomy. Even with “great corporate insurance” he owed over ten grand. The hospital didn’t wait, they immediately garnished his wages to the point he could no longer afford his apartment. He was young and moved back in with his parents.

Living without insurance puts one in great peril.

(Joey) #26

But, if I understand correctly that your friend had “great corporate insurance” then it seems that living with insurance does not reduce the peril?

#27

While I put the term in quotes to highlight the downfall, never-the-less without it he would have owed a great deal more.

(Joey) #28

Ah yes, medical bankruptcy is a real threat to many. I guess once you’re treading in water, it doesn’t really matter how deep the bottom is below your feet.

(Kirk Wolak) #29

First, know the laws. In Florida, you cannot take someones home over medical bills.
Yes, they can bankrupt you, but there is also a ruling for “Trying to pay”. I had a friend who found out they had a FAKE insurance company when his daughter was born. There were complications, and the birth cost like $80k, and the “insurance” company was not there.

He paid $100/month for 13 years, and the hospital finally settled the remainder.

I have a DNR on file. And frankly, given the choice would rather expire than run up the medical bills to save my life. If it’s a car accident, I have insurance. But it won’t last long.

I am SHOCKED they were able to garnish his wages WITHIN 90 days, since that’s how long it takes for the insurance to kick in. UNLESS he said he would NEVER pay them. Usually it takes a COURT order to garnish someones wages. (BTW, chalk one up for working for yourself. I will respectfully request a LOT of information before I garnish my own wages to pay someone… LOL)

But everyone is in a different place in life! Again, it is NO ACCIDENT they have destroyed the catastrophic insurance policies. Between Banks, The Insurance, and The Medical System, you have the 3 horsemen of the Apocalypse all demanding their pound of flesh!

(Kirk Wolak) #30

I just got back from CostCo.

Nope. It’s DOUBLE what I am paying. It’s $70 per sensor (2 weeks).
I pay that for 2 sensors, once a month!

(Megan) #31

Wow. Every now and then I am tempted to buy some glucose test strips for my blood monitor unit and do a few days of hourly testing just to see where I’m at. But apart from showing a trend, it sounds like there is a real possibility the actual numbers given will be incorrect? Which will be useless to me, and probably worry me unnecessarily (if 'too" high). I’ll save my money and buy more meat!

(Joey) #32

Same here. I thought it took 90 days of nonpayment to even get started with a collection firm, which then has a timeline before they can take action with a court filing, which then takes its sweet time since they have other cases to deal with in the queue … etc …

Perhaps some of the details provided by this friend were a bit fuzzy? :thinking:

#33

It quite possibly was ninety days. Perhaps the fault lies in my conception of immediate. When you just come out of the hospital, I think of ninety days as immediate. It seemed like we had barely sent the get well cards when he was back and telling us of his new woe.

This state has no hesitation about taking your house.

At this same company, a woman did not opt for the health insurance which I believe cost about $200 a month for a single person. She told me she owned nothing but a 12 year old car. She could barely pay her bills and needed that money. If she ever had to go to the hospital, bankruptcy would take the place of insurance.

(Kirk Wolak) #34

I learned a LONG time ago, that everything BAD in the world, started with the Rockefellers!

Allopathic Medicine (and forcing other types of medicine out of business).
Medical/Indoctrination Schools (where EVEN They admit 50% of what they learn will be proven wrong after they get out!)
Medical Insurance (Spreading risk so far/wide that prices can rise without controls)

When you learn that Insurance companies PROFITS are limited BY their expenses. You realize they are incentivized to let prices rise, so premiums rise, and profits rise. The EXACT Opposite of what you would want. [That, by the way, is why so many people got rebates from the car insurance during the lock downs. Without the accidents/payouts, their profits exceeded their limits, and they had to reimburse people!]

We live in crazy times. 100 years ago… You got sick. You died… Everyone else moved on.
Now, you get sick. And 80% of your LIFETIME medical expenses OCCUR in the last 6 months of your life! Wow… (I told my family… Two shots of morphine, then an over dose of Fentanyl… And I will smile down on them from Heaven!)

I HOPE to die YOUNG (healthy) at an old age!

#35

This is my smile for the day. I only wish the genesis of everything bad in the world could be so precisely pinpointed.

All we would need is a time machine and there would be no wars, no hunger, no disease.

(Megan) #36

Something to do with a piece of fruit, I heard :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

#37

Second smile.

#38

I did misread your first post, I thought you were paying $70 per sensor, not $35. If you went to Costco, over the phone they tell you it is $70 per sensor but then when they actually do it and use the Costco discount card (my friend’s insurance will not pay for this, and if you are a member there is their own discount card that they add to your account), then the price goes down. I think over the summer he got 4 sensors for $150 (I saw the receipt at the time) paying cash or credit with the Costco discount. They will also honor Good Rx but that was more than the Costco discount. While not as good as yours, for no insurance it is not bad.

Here is my issue. Many accidents are the fault of someone, which is your issue with so called life style diseases which you think should not qualify for insurance. With accidents there are many fault related causes, often more directly related than the lifestyle ones. You drank too much and fell. You were texting and hit someone. You rode a motorcycle without a helmet in the rain. You went skydiving. You did not wear a seatbelt and so on, endlessly. Unless you judge every situation at the emergency room door, how do you decide culpability. Plus if someone is unconscious it is the job of EMTs to render aid, no one asks if the 30 year old victim wants to be taken to a hospital, they take him.

As for your other comment about lifestyle. If I have learned anything over the last years of keto, it is that obesity is not a choice. If you read Jason Fung, he talks about obesity being another symptom of metabolic syndrome, not the cause of it. Sure obesity is the last permitted prejudice but hopefully with education that will change too. And yes, there are people sitting on their couches eating pizza, beer and doritos all day but most people try to eat healthy and most obese people, especially women, do not eat to excess but still cannot lose weight.

I can fast for days and have, exercise, lose a pound and gain it back the minute I have some lettuce or a piece of meat. Meanwhile, I know people who can eat anything and not gain weight. Every body loves homeostasis and fights to maintain it. This is one reason some ridiculously high number of people lose weight only to gain it back in 2 years

#39

This is typical. If you don’t fix the eating too, it’ll come back in five or six years. And you are fat and have mutilated guts now, too. That’s the normal result, not an unusual one.

So why not fix the eating first, via keto (or clean veganism, or “whole foods Mediterranean” but not through low calories which never works in the long run). And after six months of that, see if you still want the mutilation surgery. Because if you can’t stay on the new WOE for six months, the surgery won’t be a permanent fix.

If I ran the country as dictator for six months (and I just don’t grasp why you people don’t appoint me that! lol), I’d outlaw bariatric surgery. And tax the hell out of sugar, and outlaw advertising any “food” with more than one gram of sugar per serving, just as we outlaw hard liquor and cigarette ads in the US. And get the damned soda pop machines out of our schools in the US!

Almost every friend I have is T2D. 90% of their docs say “go keto.” None do so. Not all started out fat, but they sure are now after years of insulin injections. Look, I think a piece of pie tastes good too (well, not right now–it’d be far too sweet!) But when you lose a leg or have a heart attack, was is THAT good? I’d argue not. (Also keto cheesecakes are an actual thing.)

#40

most here it is last resort which is why bariatric comes with psychological council also as a requirement.

yea if we were ‘all perfect’ the world would be that but we are not by far.

So always remember the mental side of life as we always throw out the truth of our physical bodies ya know.

I have to remember this tons of times when I feel superior in my eating changes and I feel so accomplished yet some can’t even ‘think’ to get there thru their mental capacity and trauma and more.

yea it is a tough gray area for sure :frowning: but everything can’t be fixed with a life off sugar. won’t be that way ever but I agree with you, SO MUCH COULD be for so many surely.