Health World Web

The candidates for President of the United States are set and now, we, the people, have a choice to make. Will we choose the fresh candidate with lofty ideas and a stellar heart or the seasoned candidate with years of experience and a more traditional outlook on the Presidency? We have listened to the campaign promises and understand the visions these candidates seek to fulfill, but what about their health and the effect their health has on our nation. Each candidate presents a unique set of health conditions. Should these conditions be taken into consideration when choosing who will rule of nation? Before making that final decision, let us first take a look at the past.

When I was in nursing school, I was presented with a philanthropic decision of medical nature. One day in class during my second year of school we were given a project to complete as a group. The project consisted of giving away one heart. There were three candidates for the heart, and like our Presidential candidates, they each presented a unique set of health conditions.

The first candidate was an 89 year old Caucasian woman who was in good health and simply needed a heart transplant. There were no extensive medical problems, but her age was a factor in the decision.

The second candidate was a 55 year old Caucasian man who had been, and still was, a heavy drinker. The man needed a heart transplant, but also suffered from cirrhosis of the liver.

The third candidate was a 22 year old student at the Harvard School of medicine. The student was Bi-racial and afflicted with HIV.

Given each candidates unique set of health considerations, who would you choose? The answer of my group changed my perception of my peers for the rest of my life.

Before revealing the choices made, let us take a look at the Presidential candidates and their health conditions.

John McCain has suffered from recurring skin cancer three times. He has suffered from an enlarged prostate and was a smoker for 45 years, but remains smoke free today. He is a man of accelerated age and Caucasian race.

Barack Obama has suffered from no known medical conditions. He smoked for several years but has quit within the last 18 months and currently uses Nicorette to stay smoke free. He is of younger years and of Mulatto (½ African American and ½ Caucasian) race. He has a family history of cancer.

So you see, the candidates are very similar to the candidates in the heart transplant assignment. Now, back to the results of the vote on the heart transplant.

There were 10 people in the group of nursing students voting on who would receive the one heart. All of the voters chose the 89 year old woman, aside from me. There rationale, the 22 year old suffered from cirrhosis and continued to drink, so the heart would go to waste with him. The 35 year old medical student was going to die of HIV anyway, so why give him the heart?

The nursing students took the route of safety. They chose the candidate that posed the least risk and thus, felt safe in giving her the heart. But, sometimes risk is needed to create change. Looking into the future brings new light to the result of each heart transplant.
The 22 year old man, if given the heart, would have lived for another 3 years and died of cirrhosis of the liver. The 89 year old female lived for another year and died in her sleep from old age. The 35 year old medical student, he went on to complete Harvard Medical School and find the cure for HIV / AIDS. So, who did I choose? I chose the 35 year old medical student.

The point to make here is simple. Sometimes when choosing who will receive the heart of the nation, there are points to be considered beyond the medical aspect of life. Just because one Presidential candidate appears to be the safest medical bet, does not necessarily mean they will make the most of the heart you have given them. Our world, our nation, our lives depend upon the choices we make when voting for our next President. How will you decide?

When children are born, the thought about having the sex talk is far from the minds of the parent. But, as time moves on ever so quickly, the years add up and soon our children are preteens and the time has come to talk about the ever cliché, Birds and Bees. But, how do you approach the topic of sex with teens and preteens in a way that they will listen to and understand without seeming like you are giving a Health class lecture?

Focus on the Basics

The first thing you should talk about with your preteen or teen is the basics of sex. If they do not understand what sex is, by definition, they will never understand the advice you are trying to give them. The basic need not be X-rated, but they do need to be health and medical based. Some helpful facts may include:

Sex is the act of intercourse between two people, no matter their sex.

Intercourse is the exchange of bodily fluids, and that means saliva too!

Contraception is there to cover more than just pregnancy prevention.

Talk About Their Body

Another key aspect of the sex talk will be body issues. Teens and preteens often have bodies that are changing and growing. These changes may make them feel negatively toward their body. In some cases, these negative feelings are at the root of early sexual choices. If the preteen or teen feels they are unattractive, they may turn toward sex as a method of making them feel better about themselves.

While adults understand that sex is not an act to base self-worth upon, teens and preteens may not understand this in depth mental aspect of intercourse.

Offer Your Ears and Leave the Judgments at the Door

It is important for the teen and preteen to understand they can come to their parents and talk about sex without having the parent judge them or punish them for the actions spoken about in the conversation. Inevitably, the parent will not be able to stop the teen from having sex if that is what they want to do, but giving the teen a place to talk about this need or want is important in the final decision they make.

Many children thrive on doing just the opposite of what their parents have told them to do and that includes the act of sex. If the teen or preteen know you are there to listen, objectively they will be more apt to talk about their feelings as opposed to acting upon them.

Start Early

Sex education in school starts as early as the elementary years. At home, however, the facts about sex can be ingrained by the time the children start school. Opening up the world of the human body can be very beneficial to a child. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the best tips for talking sex are to

• Encourage your child to talk and ask questions.
• Maintain a calm and non-critical atmosphere for discussions.
• Use words that are understandable and comfortable.
• Try to determine your child’s level of knowledge and understanding.
• Keep your sense of humor and don’t be afraid to talk about your own discomfort.
• Relate sex to love, intimacy, caring, and respect for oneself and one’s partner.
• Be open in sharing your values and concerns.
• Discuss the importance of responsibility for choices and decisions.
• Help your child to consider the pros and cons of choices.

Talking about sex is less about the child than it is about the parent’s inability to approach the subject without embarrassment. Sex is not something to be embarrassed about. Once the subject is breached, continue talking about sex and the consequences of their sexual actions on a regular basis. One sex talk is not enough to last a lifetime.

References:

“Talking to Your Kids About Sex.” American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. May 2005. 20 June 2008

Bunks Beds Unsafe for Kids and Young Adults

Kids are home for the summer and that means more play, more fun and more accidents. According to a new study, bunk beds are unsafe for both young children and young adults. The study reveals that with more than 36,000 bunk bed related injuries reported each year, there are certainly some safety rules that need to be reiterated.

The study called for better strategies to prevent bunk bed-related injuries, including:

• using guardrails on both sides of the upper bunk with guardrail gaps being 3.5 inches or less to prevent entrapment and strangulation;
• checking that the mattress foundation is secure and the mattress is of proper size;
• not allowing children under age 6 to sleep in the top bunk;
• using night lights to help children see in a dark room;
• removing hazardous objects from around the bed; and,
• placing bunk beds safely away from ceiling fans or other ceiling fixtures.”

Food Crisis Hurting Both the Economy and Lives

While many Americans sit at home complaining about the cost of a loaf of bread, one billion people are currently suffering from hunger. One billion people, that is a lot of people to be facing every day with little or no food to eat.
As reported by Reuters, 21 countries are not listed as potential threats for both “acute and chronic malnutrition, and dozens more are struggling to cope with a high burden of disease that could be made worse by food shortages.”


How Does This Affect You?

With more and more countries lacking the ability to feed the sick, the rate of illness spread and severity of illness is growing. HIV / AIDS patients, for instance, need proper nutrition to survive. Patients with “chronic diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles would become sicker or die if they cannot eat well.” The World Health Organization is even beginning to step up the focus on H5N1 bird flu and other conditions that could threaten food supplies even further and, ultimately, affect the lives of every person in the world.

Posts of Interest

The HealthWorldWeb site has been busy this week. Some posts by users have offered some educational and supportive views on current topics and trends.

Summer Skin Health

User, jlittle, offers a bit of advice when it comes to taking off some clothes and basking in the sun this summer. The user writes,

The sunscreen kids use today is the sunscreen that will prevent skin cancers and premature aging in the future. You can help the kids in your life look younger, longer and live a healthier life by putting sunscreen on those untanned arms at the beginning of the summer.

Read More Here

The Threats of Surgery

Yet another HWW user, Blukard, tells about a surgical complication that is less common, but very serious. Blukard writes,

Wound dehiscence is a little talked about surgical complication that can lead to horrid scarring, pain and increased recovery time. Knowing the symptoms of impending dehiscence, can help stop this condition from suddenly occurring.

Read More Here

Tattoos are a very recognizable addition to the body. But, many people remain concerned about the health considerations surrounding the art of tattooing. Blood diseases, infections, dirty needles, these are all very common misconceptions regarding the tattoo process.

Are dirty needles used for a tattoo?

No, needles are reused from customer to customer, but they are autoclaved after every use. An autoclave is a medical grade machine that heats the metal to very high temperatures and kills all bacteria and germs. It is the same machine used by hospitals and doctors for surgical equipment.

Can I contract a disease from a tattoo needle?

No, while many skeptics believe HIV, AIDS and other blood borne illnesses can be moved from one person to another with the use of tattoo needles, the fact still remains that the needles are sterilized. Add that fact to the fact that HIV dies very quickly when outside of the body and can be killed instantly with household cleaners, alcohol and the “green” soap used to constantly wipe the surface of the tattoo to remove excess ink, and the chance of contracting HIV is nil. As a matter of fact, according to recent information, there have been no reported cases of HIV contraction from tattooing.

Tattoos and women

In our society, tattoos have become almost an addiction for many people. With this addiction come the normal stereotypes surrounding the tattoo experience. Men get tattoos that are large, masculine and that often cover their arms and back. Women, on the other hand, settle for the more feminine tattoos such as butterflies, flowers and animated character-like drawings. Rest assured, this misconception is only a stereotype.

In cultures outside of the United States and other western societies, the female dons tattoos that would turn heads in our “cultured” society. These tattoos often cover the entire arms of the native women, as well as the face and upper torso. Tattoos are not a form of accessory for these tribes but a rite of passage. It is both expected and accepted in their cultures to be tattooed in methods we as a health focused culture would cringe at.

Taking a closer look at the female side of the tattooing industry, we see that women are trying out more unconventional and larger patterns on their skin in greater numbers. It is nothing to see a woman with her entire back tattooed with an intricate image that takes hours in the tattoo chair to create. This art form is both challenging and SAFE. The tattoo artists of old that used needles over and over again have long since retired. Today, there are health regulations and hospital grade supplies that are used to create a work of art on the skin. This is not to mention the talent and perseverance it takes to create a lifelike image on a moving, living canvas.

As a society, our ideals of beauty are changing by leaps and bounds and the tattoo is becoming more and more accepted on the female skin. Once you have sat in the tattoo chair and felt the ink enter the skin, you will see that it takes a stronger person to don the tattoo than to accept the fact that even women can be covered in their choice of art and still retain femininity.

Skin care after the tattoo

After choosing to get a tattoo, the care of the skin receiving the ink will be of the utmost importance. The tattooed area will try to scab and heal just as with any other wound. But, in order to retain the pattern applied on the skin, those scab need to be stopped. A daily washing with an anti-bacterial soap and a covering of antibacterial ointment will be the best choice of care. Your tattoo will heal for weeks after the tattoo session, so you need to make sure to apply a hypoallergenic cream multiple times per day to keep the leaking plasma from scabbing over. When it comes to a tattoo a scab means a scar and you will not want that piece of art scarred.

Weight loss is one of the most common searches on the Internet. There are millions of people every day who want to learn how to lose weight and keep it off. Inevitably, the best way to lose weight is to eat less and move more, but there are times in every person’s journey to being a healthier person when they need to vent out their frustrations and have someone listen, even if they are 1000 miles away. I should know. Without that place to vent, I would never have lost more than 120 pounds.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

At my highest weight, I topped out at more than 300 pounds. At 5 foot 4 inches, I was a heart attack waiting to happen. I justified my weight by looking at those around me. My mom was heavy and so was my husband so it was alright for me to carry what I thought was a few extra pounds. After one trip to the beach, I looked back at the pictures of me standing next to my children in a bathing suit and the next 5 years changed my life.

For the longest time, I yo-yo dieted. I would lose 20 or 30 pounds only to put on a few more. After giving birth to twins, I found myself at 267 pounds and ready to change my life. I started going to the gym and eating better and managed to lose more than 30 pounds during the process. But, weighing 235 pounds was still nothing to claim as success. I needed help, but a sudden move more than 2,000 miles from family left me alone and still overweight.

After 6 months in my new town, I was again tired of the extra weight and decided to make a change that would last a lifetime. I started doing the Atkins diet and found an online forum where I could talk about my weight loss goals, trials and tribulations. I blogged my way down to 172 pounds and I was doing the happy dance for my success. But, again, I moved and found myself eating horribly all over again. I gained back the weight when I stopped talking with those that were fighting the battle of the bulge with me on a daily basis.

I had managed to gain back most of the weight when I found HealthWorldWeb. I was immediately back in my element with a place to blog and post about weight loss and the healthiest ways to drop those pounds for good. I changed my outlook on life and decided to try a new way of losing weight and it worked.

After becoming a member of the HealthWorldWeb communities on weight loss and fitness, I began eating better, learning more about how to eat and sharing my new found knowledge with people just like me again. I have lost the weight I gained and am keeping it off on a daily basis. I credit the social networking aspect of the site for this weight loss and thank the Gods above that I will be able to live a longer, healthier life thanks to my new found community of people like me.

The world and its consumers are advancing by leaps and bounds. We want to know how well we will be treated at the doctor’s office well before we make an appointment. When appointment time waits are well into a month, we want to find out all the information we can on a doctor before placing our names on that waiting list. Out of this need was born the doctor rating services now available on the web. But, why are doctors so against this rating system?

“The concept is good, but how do you determine if the info—both good and bad—is accurate?”
Family Practitioner – Fred Porchase

The clear answer to this question is…you don’t! Just as with any information found on the World Wide Web, there is that chance that it is not going to be completely unbiased or true. Just because you look up the gray whale on Wikipedia, does not mean the information on the length and the weight are the true measurements, but we believe them to be accurate because someone took the time to place that information on line.

The best choice for a person who wants to find the best doctor in their area based on patient ratings is to find a site that is trusted. Anyone can throw a doctor rating site on the web, it is the sites that offer more than just those ratings that will stand out to the consumer.

“When doctor evaluation is reduced to a popularity contest, we’re no longer professionals and are just another service commodity.”
Family Practitioner – Beth Pector

At the heart of healing is the mind. The mind is one of the strongest healers in the body and if a person wants to entrust a doctor with that healing process they need to like them, even if it is just a little bit. There is really no healing happening when a patient dreads going to a doctor’s office in order to get good or even great treatment.

Just as with every profession, doctors need to earn the respect of the consumer in order to continue doing business in this world of constant change. These ratings systems are based on these consumer needs. If a doctor is great to their patients, they will rate highly. If they are rude, mean and just plain horrible in the office, the patient deserves to learn that, as well.

So…Why Do Doctors Hate Ratings?

There are two angles from which to approach this question. On one hand, the hatred for rating systems may be based upon a defense mechanism by which a doctor may feel they need to protect themselves. When a doctor reads a review that is bad, or unflattering, it may make them feel as though they are being attacked. Doctors often simply want to be treated like regular people who have the ability to show their emotions on a regular basis. After all, only few jobs require to be friendly all the time.

On the other hand, it may also have to deal with control. Doctors train for many years to become the best in their fields. They have a fantastic attention to detail and control every aspect of a patients care because that is what is needed in many cases to save a life or provide the care needed to make a patient better. The ratings systems places that control into the hands of people who have little idea how to judge the true quality of patient care.

But, how is that quality gauged? By the effectiveness of the care or the bedside manner. For illustration purposes, let us take a look at Dr. House. Dr. House is a fictional doctor on a television show. He has a huge following of viewers, but how would a patient feel if their lives were placed in the care of a snide, sarcastic and brutally honest doctor like Dr. House?

Inevitably, the ends would justify the means, but the ratings would be mixed, from the lowest during the healing to the highest after the cure. Unfortunately for Dr. House, that means a mid-line rating for his quality of care.

Topic 1

When it comes to receiving the proper health care, often patients are uneducated about the ins and outs of health care prevention, recognition of health related symptoms and the methods behind health care. Here are a few questions and answers that may just open their health related eyes!

Do people know the difference between a virus and bacteria?

The viral illness and the bacterial illness are two very different creatures that should be managed differently. Ironically, they may have very similar symptoms, which sometimes makes it difficult to distinguish between the two and treat appropriately.

Bacterial infection are the ones that a doctor can treat with an antibiotic medication. These infections are caused by bacteria. A bacterial infection is contagious and can thus be transmitted from one person to another.

A viral infection on the other hand, can only be treated with an anti-viral medication or may require no treatment, depending on the specific virus. However, an antibiotic will not improve the condition at all.

Examples of viruses include on one end of the spectrum, cold viruses that cause common cold, which does not require special treatment, and on the other end of the spectrum, HIV virus that causes AIDS, which may be treated with a cocktail of anti-viral medications. People typically recover from a common cold within a week because our immune system is able to combat a cold virus. In contrast, AIDS is a serious deadly disease which cannot be cured by currently available medications, however, in recent years, a life span of a patient with AIDS has been greatly increased due to these drugs.

A virus needs a host, or human, in order to survive and thus can not be easily transmitted from person to person. For example, if you are in close contact with a family member who has common cold, you will not contract that cold virus from that person. But as we all know, HIV or Hepatitis viruses can be transmitted to others via blood or other bodily fluids, such as feces or urine.

Taking Antibiotics For a Cold or a Flu?

This is one of the most common misunderstandings and frankly, mistakes in the world. Both cold and flu are viral illnesses, caused by different viruses, of course, and cannot be fought off with antibiotics.

As we just discussed, common cold typically does not require treatment. The cold symptoms are the body’s way of telling you that it is working hard to return your health to prime status. And it usually does in people with normal immune system. There are some exceptions, to this (which also applies to fighting any illness regardless of the source or the cause) in people with immunodeficiency or decreased ability to fight infections. Examples of situations when immune system is compromised are in people with cancer treated with aggressive chemotherapy, or people with AIDS, or genetic immunodeficiency disorder. Other then these exceptions, people’s immune system is usually able to effectively fight common cold.

Flu is caused by the Influenza virus. As you may know, Flu can be prevented (or severity of illness can be dramatically reduced) with vaccination. Flu shot is recommended every year, especially for young children and elderly and people with chronic diseases that make them less likely to fight Flu effectively, because of the compromised immune system. But Flu is never treated with an antibiotic. Even the strongest of antibiotics can do nothing against a virus.

We just explained one reason for not taking antibiotics for cold or flu, the most logical reason of all -antibiotics simply don’t work on viruses. However, there is another, more complicated, yet more important reason for not experimenting with antibiotics when you know you have a cold or flu.

Antibiotics work by either killing of slowing growth of bacteria. Different antibiotics may cover different types of bacteria, that is why your doctor may prescribe a different antibiotic depending on the type of bacterial illness you have. So what happens if you take an antibiotic when you don’t need it, say, just in case? You increase bacterial resistance to antibiotic that is typically effective against that specific bacteria. So next time, when you have a bacterial infection and truly have a need for that antibiotic, it will not work in you and the doctor will have to try a different one. And eventually, if you keep overusing or using antibiotics inappropriately, you may run out of options.

Overuse of antibiotics by a person will not only increase bacterial resistance in that particular person. It may lead to resistance in a wide population, so that antibiotics become ineffective in many people. This is when it becomes a concern on a national level.

And this is why pharmaceutical companies are constantly working to develop new, more effective antibiotics that may replace old and less effective.

Taking Antibiotics For “Just in Case!”

The human body is a smart entity. It will grow accustomed to an antibiotic quickly and thus these antibiotics should only be taken when required to fight off an infection. Taking antibiotics when you “think” you will come in contact with some communicable disease is only setting the body up for failure the next time your doctor prescribes that same antibiotic or an antibiotic from the same family, the body will recognize the medication and this antibiotic simply will not work (recall what we discussed above about antibiotic resistance).

There are certainly exceptions to this rule. There are situations in which prevention of infection is possible. In these cases, antibiotics are given for prophylactic reasons. Mitral valve prolapse, for instance, is a heart related condition in which doctors will often prescribe an antibiotic before dental work or making tattoos, to prevent possibility of a serious infection. This is due to the nature of some conditions and should only be practiced under the careful eye of a knowledgeable physician.

When it comes to taking care of ourselves, it is important to have our fingers on the pulse of our bodies and to be educated about health in general. The more you know, the more you can fight the effects of illness and the better your life will be.

Dr. Asya Kogan’s background offers a unique combination of healthcare-specific communication, advertising and educational/teaching program experiences. In her last position as Senior Vice President, Managing Director, Dr. Kogan focused on building and growing the Oncology division at HealthSTAR Educational Group. Before joining HealthSTAR, Dr. Kogan served as Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs in several medical education agencies.

Re-print from The Health Care Blog

Health care consumers today want to use the Web to find information online about doctors, specialists and care in general. And they want it to be useful.

Unfortunately, in the vast health search space based mostly on ad revenue and keyword densities, consumers often spend hours clicking links into dead ends and wind up with no more knowledge for their trouble.

A semantic Web promises more accurate and meaningful results, yet this technology is in its infancy. And most “trusted” health sites do not yet support semantic searches. Moreover, semantic search requires some knowledge of how to construct a search query as opposed to a simple Google-style search.

To illustrate the limitations of the current search model, here’s what came up when I asked, “What do I do if my head hurts?”

Most searches today, whether health-related or not, are a one-time game. Search engines do not remember the searcher or his or her background, history and preferences. Searches for doctors, educational materials and medical services could especially benefit from this information, as a lot of information is encoded in the health profiles, personal health records, history of searches and communications with other people. Social Network sites have a lot of this information and potentially could take full advantage of using it to do highly targeted and personalized searches.

Applying these tools to searches for health care providers could allow consumers to see a filtered view with resources in their local area, providers affiliated with certain insurance plans, and providers that were effective for other consumers in their peer group.

These “filters” allow the consumer to follow a careful direction through the maze of health care providers. In addition to great guidance through filtered health care provider searching, the consumer has a right to see what a provider has accomplished for previous and current patients. When consumers can read reviews, rages and raves about a potential health care provider, they are able to choose who fits their needs more appropriately, as opposed to wasting their time visiting one doctor after another just to find the right one.

While Social Networks themselves cannot help with diagnostic-related searches and answer questions like “What do I do if my head hurts?”, the peer-to-peer communication is essential and has its own place in the overall health-education space. Knowledge passing from one consumer or patient to another may open doors and add insight to treatment options and ideas that were previously unknown to that consumer. Is that safe? I it is when the information passed between users and patients is not medical advice and offers no medical guidance, but is more of a psychological bond and literacy channel to share personal experiences.

The knowledge can also flow the other direction. After all, health care is an intermingled web of doctors, providers, patients and information. The information floats freely in such a network, and better tools are needed to ease the process of tapping into that knowledge. Perhaps a search engine equipped with the knowledge accumulated in discussion groups and forums and is semantically linked to the medical recommendations could share existing wisdom with the searcher, especially if the search engine knows who the searcher is.

There is definitely a lot of hope for technology to help consumers in the health-search space.

Here’s my wish list for a Smart Search Engine:

1. Remember who I am.
2. Filter the information that is relevant to me.
3. Correct me if my question does not make sense.
4. Suggest me “You could be also interested in …” material.
5. Alert me if my clicks and pages have semantically deviated from what I’m searching for and let me get back to the starting point.
6. Remember what I already read.
7. Learn my social interactions with others, and deliver me the wisdom of others, especially if others are qualified or really “close” to me and my medical problems.

I really hope to see this engine one day — better sooner than later. I want to see the intelligent response, and I want this engine to learn about me, to age with me, and to help me with my health issues when I really need it.

According to a HealthWorldWeb user,

“I’m concerned about the constant cycle of Medicare cuts to the doctors who treat our senior citizens. If these cuts go into effect, many doctors may be forced to stop seeing Medicare patients. All patients deserve access to health care, help preserve this country’s health care system. It only takes a minute! “

She is 100% right, the healthcare system needs a bit of help to say the least. Here are some facts and figures about the Medicare and Medicaid system.

March 26, 2004 – A news story reports more than $1 billion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.

February 1, 2006 – The House passes a bill proposing the biggest Medicaid, Medicare cuts to date.

February 1, 2008 – Bush to cut Medicare by $178 billion dollars in the new budget.

Depending on the Medicare plan chosen (Plan A, Plan B, etc…) the cost of the plan and the coverage are way different. The cost of Medicare plan B, for instance, is $93.50 per month. Plan B requires a deductible to be met before coverage kicks in and after that coverage the payments are made at 80% of total cost. There is often co-pay associated with doctors’ visits and they range from $10.00 to $15.00 per visit. While these payments may not seem like much, on a fixed (low) income, the senior citizen can soon find themselves amidst poverty with one bout of an illness. That $10.00 or $15.00 is often the money set aside after normal household bills to pay for food and prescriptions, thus shoving the senior into the depths of poverty in a very short period of time.

For the very low income, Medicaid, which is a government funded medical insurance plan, offers a backup insurance coverage that pays 100% of all left over charges. The requirements for Medicaid are very low income and an application will need to be completed, as well as, regular income checks and visit to the Human Service department in the local area.

Our senior citizens are scared they will not be able to afford health care coverage in the very near future and rightfully so. The Medicaid and Medicare system has been the brunt of more budget cuts than many other governmentally subsidized programs. These cuts and the changes in coverage for health care procedures and visits offer the senior citizen less coverage and more out of pocket expense which is something many senior citizens just can not afford. But, these are the old facts about Medicare, the new problems are more widespread and dangerous to the health of our senior citizens.

The health care coverage provided by Medicare used to be sufficient to meet the needs of all covered under the plan. Then, the government needed money, so cuts to the Medicare system were passed and the reimbursement amounts to physicians were dropped. Then this happened again and again. Today, physicians are seeing reimbursement levels at an all time low and senior citizens are afraid they will not be able to find a physician to provide adequate care for the money Medicare is willing to pay.

It seems that our nation’s most fragile citizens are now facing a very real threat, no one to provide care when they need it most, in their aging years. While the government has set up guidelines and catch programs, like Medicaid, to capture the coverage gap between Medicare reimbursements and the cost of care, the Medicaid program is cut every time the Medicare program is cut. Essentially, the two programs combined do not offer the physician a reason to continue accepting the plan payouts and that is a choice for the private physician. There are no rules or regulations requiring a private physician to take Medicare or Medicaid and many senior citizens are worried they will find fewer and fewer doctors willing to provide quality care.

The answer to the dilemma, one would wish and pray that answer could be found on the political platforms of the Presidential candidate, but the health care stance taken by both the Republican and Democratic candidates is one of wavering methodology. Each candidate has clearly stated that the health care system is broken, but their plans to fix the program are shifting and changing as the reality of the hugeness of the problem sinks in.

For the senior citizen who wants to find quality health care from a physician who is willing to accept the Medicare reimbursement levels, a user based community with doctor interaction could help. Here a doctor could offer services and answer questions from the senior community regarding Medicare coverage and services offered. A user can essentially shop around a given area or even a given state and find a doctor that is right for them.

Our nation’s senior population is living longer today than ever before. With each passing year, more and more people qualify for the Medicare program and less people are receiving quality care. Seniors need to take their health care options by the hand and utilize the social networking available to find physicians and specialists that understand the smaller payments and are still willing to provide the care out seniors need.

Social media and health care are friends and partners in the integration of Web 2.0 and Health 2.0. From this partnership has come the chance for people who would be otherwise left unheard, to speak and scream the information they have from the rooftops of the blogs and forums of the web. Hear at HealthWorldWeb, we are focused on providing that platform for speech. Our users have the ability to blog on the site, forum post with other users and comment on blogs that interest them or enrage them just the same. Now a new aspect of HealthWorldWeb focuses on the interaction between the site and the users. The HealthWorldWeb main blog is now open for users who have something more to say and want to reach a larger audience.

This week three users took the HWW blogging stage to speak their mind on the issues of healthcare. From the effects of bad doctors to the need for great chiropractic care all the way to the White House, our users have been heard.

Bad Care From Doctors

In this post, a HWW user shared her experiences with emergency room referrals. The user experience was not great to say the least,

“I once vowed that I would never let a doctor get away with not returning my phone call with treatment concerns after numerous treatments. I broke my ankle and the emergency room referred me to a totally arrogant and demeaning doctor who does not like patient feedback during exams. “

The Need for Great Chiropractors

In another user post, John Hughes addresses the needs and the stereotypes surrounding Chiropractors and the care they provide to patients.

“I am a patient with a wealth of knowledge in the field of chiropractic health who is writing to erase the mystery and confusion of how to find a good chiropractor. I have known of a good chiropractic for about 10 years. My back and overall health keeps getting better and better. I’ve not had a twinge of a problem. I shock people with what I do. I’m 52 and people think that I’m in my thirties. “

The White House Letters

Finally, this user wanted to tell the world about the true visions and expectations of the new President of the United States in her letter to the candidates on the campaign trail.

“As the new President of the United States, you promised many changes for the betterment of the country. During the vast time you spent on the campaign trail, there was talk of health care reform, economic stimulus and immediate action relieving our troops from their duties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, I would like to focus on the health care promises by giving you a list of what I believe needs to be changed in 2009 and beyond. “

Why are these posts important? Because, users of sites like HealthWorldWeb make an effort to share knowledge that will help others. This knowledge comes from the heart and can open the minds of those who read the information provided. By stepping onto the blogging platform for all to hear, users are truly taking advantage of the great functionality social networking can provide to healthcare and healthcare reform.