In a recent article, a question was asked by Kelley Butler…

 ”Are we headed for a world without benefits?” 

Would you “swallow your pride and take the job” anyway? This article sites an “international sales expert” and president & CEO of Benefits America. He suggests you should take the job, make yourself invaluable and the rest will follow. He clearly has no real understanding of the changes that are underway. It appears to me that this type of headline only adds fuel to the fears of most Americans. And not surprisingly so, considering the misinformation they receive each day on the topic of health care and health benefits from benefit advisors, human resource departments and politicians. Why add fuel to an already hot topic? It gets attention, sells books, gets votes and higher renewal contracts signed. That is why!

Recent Benefit Reductions

However, you believe it because you just read how Walmart announced it was dropping benefits for it’s workforce and reduction in benefits announcements are a daily occurance this time of year. Sadly both facts are true. Walmart did announce their intention to drop coverage for their part-time associates and reductions are all too common in most company’s with fall open enrollment. What else would you expect with health insurance rates rising at 9% or more and the economy slipping toward a double dip recession cycle?

Reducing Cost by Increasing Benefits Read the rest of this entry »

Given October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, here some food for thought.

More than 180,000 American women get told they have breast cancer each year although “experts think 50% of all cancers, including breast cancer, can be prevented with the right lifestyle changes.” So spread the word, share this post with your friends and family and help save 90,000 women or more.

So what are the required lifestyle changes we all need to make?

Exercise more, eat better, and avoidance of known cancer causing toxins. Simple right?

It could be as simple as four hours of quality exercise per week. Or eating less meat or dairy to reduce our calorie intake from fat. Try adding more fruits and vegetables (or whole food supplements), fiber. More antioxidants for sure. Try to avoid toxins. like not smoking or using pesticides and even just reduce your alcohol use.

Research and discuss with your doctor the use of natural supplements. Things like vitamin C and E.

IF NOTHING ELSE…You need to watch AND SHARE, Dr. Wlliam Li’s talk on Cancer Prevention. Click here to link to his TEDtalks. His presentation on youtube has had less than 29,000 views when some cute barking dog video has been viewed over 1 Million times. Prevention starts with action. Take yours today!

Some areas to research:

• Fighting Free Radicals with Antioxidants
• Immunity Boosters
• Learn more about Estrogen Lowering Herbs
• The Power of Red Clover, Isoflavones, Folic Acid, Caroteniods and Green Tea
• Stopping Cancers with Selenium
• National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• National Breast Cancer Foundation 

Hope this helps you find the answers to your healthy life. Register here to be sure and get all our tips to a healthy life, lower healthcare costs and to share your comments below:

Botanical Name: Lactobacillus acidophilus

Why you ask? Because this simple, but great agent of health and wellness was not supplied to us when we are born. Nature expected this bacteria to have been a gift from mom. If not, you may need to get it yourself. You probably never thought bacteria would be your friend or a gift, but this one is. It produces nutrients such as B vitamins and enzymes that aid in digestion of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, says Khem Shahani, Ph.D, professor of food science and technology at the University of Nebraska.

Acidophilus is an critical component of maintaining the balance in our intestinal tract. These good bacteria create an environment that protects and prevents us from harmful bacteria.  

However, in our “modern” western diet our protector’s power gets depleted. Things like stress, disease, poor digestion, processed foods, too much sugar and even those silver bullet antibiotics that kill off the bad bacteria deplete the good bacteria. So you need the replenish it regularly.

You can find supplements but my favorite source, is always whole foods, as in yogurt. The literature suggests that you might want to avoid highly processed or homogenized sources over organic or raw forms. Like most wellness programs suggest, we need a balanced diet including your new God, Acidophilus. They say it may help with common conditions such as yeast infections, lactose intolerance, diarrhea, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, lupus, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, constipation and gas as well as help us reduce our health care expense and insurance premiums.

Special Instructions and Precautions

The special instructions make me laugh..they say, “Take with food.”, but it is a whole food. So I like to add some fresh fruit.The cautions make sense…If you have any serious gastrointestinal problems that require medical attention, check with your doctor before taking. The experts recommend you not exceed 10 billion viable L.acidophilus organisms daily.

Sources:

• Acidophilus, Nature’s Medicines, by Gale Malesky, Preventionbookshelf.com, page 54. 1999
• Homogenized, Natural Cures, by Kevin Trudeau, Alliance Publishing Group, page 93, 2004.

Over the last few years,

health care spending has been growing at around 4% – 5% per year while premium rates have been rising at 7% or more per year.

 This disparity raises some interesting questions:

• Has reform activity in Washington DC had an impact on our premiums?
• Has the accelerating switch to “consumer-driven” high deductible health plans (“HDHP”)  slowed our healthcare spending habits?
• Or is the poor economy under the Obama Administration the major factor?

Some suggestions point to lower Medicare and Medicaid rate increases. Or lower investment earnings by insurance companies pushing them to increase premiums as an offset. Read the rest of this entry »