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Applications with regard to animal health are covered by the veterinary sciences. The term "healthy" is likewise commonly utilized in the context of numerous kinds of non-living companies and their impacts for the advantage of human beings, such as in the sense of healthy communities, healthy cities or healthy environments. In addition to healthcare interventions and a person's environments, a number of other elements are understood to influence the health status of people, including their background, way of life, and economic, social conditions and spirituality; these are described as "factors of health." Studies have revealed that high levels of stress can impact human health.
Health: Fitness, Nutrition, Tools, News health.comIt likewise produced the opportunity for every person to feel healthy, even in the presence of numerous persistent illness, or a terminal condition, and for the re-examination of determinants of health, away from the conventional approach that focuses on the decrease of the frequency of illness. Usually, the context in which a private lives is of excellent importance for both his health status and lifestyle.

According to the World Health Company, the main determinants of health consist of the social and financial environment, the physical environment and the individual's private qualities and habits. More particularly, essential factors that have actually been discovered to influence whether individuals are healthy or unhealthy consist of the following: An increasing number of research studies and reports from different organizations and contexts examine the linkages in between health and different elements, consisting of way of lives, environments, health care organization and health policy, one particular health policy brought into lots of countries in the last few years was the intro of the sugar tax.
Sugar-sweetened drinks have actually become a target of anti-obesity initiatives with increasing proof of their link to weight problems. such as the 1974 Lalonde report from Canada; the Alameda County Research Study in California; and the series of World Health Reports of the World Health Organization, which concentrates on international health issues including access to health care and improving public health outcomes, specifically in establishing countries.
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A beautiful dolphin, named Honey, along with 46 penguins and hundreds of fish and reptiles have been abandoned at the Inubosaki Marine Park Aquarium in Choshi, Japan. After ticket sales plummeted, the park was forced to close, but the animals were left behind.
It is cruel enough that Honey has spent years as nothing more than amusement for the public, probably starved in order to perform tricks, but to abandon her in solitude is pure torture for an animal as intelligent as a dolphin. Since Honey’s capture back in 2005, which was branded as an effort to “save” her from the annual Taiji hunts, this is the only life she has known. Cramped conditions, no other dolphin company, and nothing even to entertain her. Her mental and physical health are clearly of no value or importance to this park’s owner.
The Dolphin Project‘s founder, Ric O’Barry, said of this video: “The footage we have reviewed demonstrates the need to take action immediately in order to save dolphin Honey from a miserable death. The same is true for all of the abandoned animals at Inubosaki Marine Park Aquarium.”
The Dolphin Project is asking us to join them in calling on the owner of the Inubosaki Marine Park Aquarium to release Honey into their care so they can find her a place for retirement in a sanctuary – or even prepare her for release back to where she belongs in the wild. Please be a voice for Honey! We can’t leave her to languish in that tank with nothing to live for. Help us speak up for those who can’t!

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I've never understood why bodybuilders apply 21's only to their biceps. The way I see it, 21's are a simple and versatile overload technique that can easily be applied to almost any strength exercise.
As a refresher, 21's are usually performed by doing 7 partial reps at the top of the range of motion, 7 more partial reps at the bottom range, and finally 7 full-range reps.
But, as with all other overload methods, certain techniques work better with some movements more than others, like focusing on the mid-range of the movement.
You can do this either seated or standing. Since the lever arm is the longest in this exercise when the humerus is parallel to the floor, the isometric is performed in that position.

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September 12, 2018
Kathlyn Stone is an associate editor with HealthNewsReview.org. She tweets at @KatKStone.
Precision medicine and the tests that enable it are becoming increasingly common in cancer care. So it’s no surprise that we see more and more PR announcements relating to cancer testing from a variety of institutions including government, academia, and industry.
There’s little debate that some of these tests would benefit patients. But we also commonly see messages about tests that are imbalanced and incomplete and which lack crucial details that any journalist or patient would want to know about.
Some of those deficiencies were on display in three news releases I spotted on the same day — all dealing with cancer testing and all of which did not address an increasingly pressing issue in cancer care: cost.
The first news release was from the National Cancer Institute, headlined: “NCI-led research team develops predictor for immunotherapy response in melanoma.” It discusses a possible “gene expression predictor” that could pinpoint which patients might best benefit from immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the cancer treatment landscape ever since checkpoint inhibitor drugs were found to slow progression or even eradicate signs of the disease in some melanoma patients just a few short years ago. The FDA has in recent months approved immunotherapy for some of the hardest-to-treat advanced cancers, including lung, colorectal, bladder, cervical, kidney, and others.
Every advanced cancer patient becomes aware of this as they go through diagnosis, staging and treatment planning, and hopes to be among the fortunate few who respond positively to one of these drugs.
As one of the researchers who led the study put it in the release:
“There is a critical need to be able to predict how cancer patients will respond to this type of immunotherapy,” said Eytan Ruppin, M.D., Ph.D., of NCI’s newly established Cancer Data Science Laboratory, who led the study. “Being able to predict who is highly likely to respond and who isn’t will enable us to more accurately and precisely guide patients’ treatment.”
True. There’s also a critical need for a cost discussion. What might the test cost? How would it fit into the already unsustainable cost of modern cancer treatments? How would this test compare with other genetic tests, some of which carry a price tag of thousands of dollars? Some of these tests are covered by insurance plans and Medicare, but not others. Who decides? Are those who decide the appropriate ones to be making the call?
The National Cancer Institute isn’t the only US agency that sidesteps cost implications. The FDA consistently omits discussion of cost when sending out its announcements on new approvals — a fact we always comment on in our reviews of the agency’s releases with a message similar to this one:
We look forward to the day when any news release about a new drug — even one from the FDA — includes some mention of cost in its message. After all, the value of a new drug is a function not just of how well it works, but its cost-effectiveness.
Cost information also didn’t get any acknowledgment in these two other cancer-related news releases that came out the same day as the NCI release:
Cost is the elephant in the room when it comes to caring for America’s cancer patients. Many patients go deep in debt, are forced to skip treatments, or declare bankruptcy following their diagnosis. Those most immersed in cancer treatment — patients and doctors — have the least power over the situation but the most at stake.
UCLA-Santa Monica oncologist Andrae Vandross, MD, says some of his patients ask about cost but others don’t. He agrees it’s an issue that needs to be broached more often.
“I do think cost is very important to place in appropriate context. However, I’m also sensitive to the notion that some patients may feel that I may offer or not offer something based on ability to pay. I hope this is rare.” He said it’s sobering to realize that the more Medicare and Medicaid pay for treatments despite their expense or effectiveness, the fewer people will have access to the services and treatments they need. That’s because the budget pot is finite, but drug and testing companies have little to no barriers to setting prices.
Vandross said he has experimented with bringing up cost with patients “and it can sometimes be awkward.” Most other physicians apparently feel the same way, according to the results of a study presented at a recent American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
Based on 525 recorded interactions with cancer patients, the study found that cost was only discussed 28% of the time. When it was brought up, it was most often broached by the patient (70% of the time versus 30% for physicians).
Writing about the study for Medscape, Thomas Bosworth said:
One statistic was cited several times: Bankruptcies are three times more common in individuals with cancer than in those without, after matching for confounding variables. There is no reason to expect this to change. The newest and most effective oncologic drugs are increasing in cost at a time when affordable health insurance is becoming more uncertain. Cost specialists focus on the financial toxicity of cancer care, but clinicians remain largely out of the loop.
“You do not go to medical school to understand the cost of care and how it impacts your patients, but it is clearly becoming important to learn,” said Rahma Warsame, MD, a research hematologist-oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. She was among those who presented discouraging data on the infrequency with which clinicians discuss cost but acknowledged that the subject can be overwhelming. Clinicians do not typically have the tools to provide meaningful guidance.
Addressing cost in PR news releases may not be the answer to these cost dilemmas, but it’s an important step toward making cost a part of our health care discussion.
And that’s the only way this issue will get the attention and emphasis it deserves from policymakers and the public.

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This story is from Kaiser Health News
When Drew Calver had a heart attack last year, his health plan paid nearly $56,000 for the 44-year-old’s four-day emergency hospital stay at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, a hospital that was not in his insurance network. But the hospital charged Calver another $109,000. That sum — a so-called balance bill — was the difference between what the hospital and his insurer thought his care was worth.
Though in-network hospitals must accept pre-contracted rates from health plans, out-of-network hospitals can try to bill as they like.
Calver’s bill eventually was reduced to $332 after Kaiser Health News and NPR published a story about it last month. Yet his experience shines a light on an unintended consequence of a wide-ranging federal law, which potentially blindsides millions of consumers.
The federal law — called ERISA, for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — regulates company and union health plans that are “self-funded,” like Calver’s. That means they pay claims out of their own funds, even though they may be administered by a major insurer such as Cigna or Aetna. And while states increasingly pass laws to protect patients from balance bills as more hospitals and doctors go after patients to collect, ERISA law does not prohibit balance billing.
Although Texas is one of nearly two dozen states that provide consumers with some degree of protection against surprise balance bills, those state laws don’t apply to self-funded plans.
It’s a fairly common problem. About 60 percent of workers who get coverage through their job have self-insured plans, and 18 percent of people with coverage through a large employer who were admitted to the hospital in 2016 received at least one bill from an out-of-network provider, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
Health researchers and advocates have identified a number of potential solutions that could tackle the problem at the federal or state level. The courts are another option. Yet whether these efforts are politically feasible when health care is in play as a partisan football is another matter.
Polarized views on appropriate reimbursement levels for medical services “limit stakeholders at both the federal and state level from making progress,” said Kevin Lucia, a research professor at Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, who has analyzed state laws that restrict balance billing.
A look at options that experts say might address the problem:
Change Federal Law
The simplest way to stop surprise bills would be through restrictions imposed by federal legislation that would apply to both state-regulated policies sold by insurers and employer-sponsored self-funded health plans, which are federally regulated.
There’s a precedent for this. The Affordable Care Act added provisions that apply to both types of plans. That law requires plans that cover dependents to allow children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, for example, and cover preventive benefits without charging patients anything out-of-pocket.
New legislation could plug a big loophole in the ACA. The health law offered some consumer protections for out-of-network emergency care, one of the biggest trouble spots for balance billing. Not only do people sometimes wind up at out-of-network hospitals when they have an emergency, but even if they visit an in-network hospital, the emergency physicians, specialists and other providers such as pathologists and labs may not be in their health plan’s network.
The ACA limited a patient’s cost sharing for emergency services to what they would face if they were at an in-network facility. It also established standards for how much health plans have to pay the hospital or doctors for that care.
But the law didn’t prohibit out-of-network emergency doctors, hospitals and other providers, such as ambulance services, from balance billing consumers for the amounts their health plan didn’t pay.
Federal legislation could close that loophole by prohibiting balance billing for emergency services, as well as hospital admissions related to that emergency care.
Analysts at the University of Southern California-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, who have suggested such a remedy, say the federal law could apply to any doctors and hospitals that participate in the Medicare program, as most do, to ensure that the effect would be widespread.
They also propose prohibiting balance billing in non-emergency situations when someone visits an in-network facility but receives care from out-of-network doctors or is referred for outpatient lab or diagnostic imaging that is outside of the person’s health plan network.
Still, the deep political scars left by the health law battles would seem to preclude any bipartisan efforts in Washington to change it.
“I’d love to see any kind of federal action,” said Loren Adler, associate director at the USC center, who co-authored the proposal. “It’s just hard to be super optimistic about anything happening in the near future.”
Revise Federal Regulations
The federal executive branch could also weigh in on fixing the problem for self-insured coverage. The Department of Labor could, for example, issue a ruling that clarifies that states can regulate provider payment, or require self-funded plans to participate in state dispute-resolution programs.
But experts say relying on regulatory changes to fix surprise bills may also be a nonstarter in this political climate.
“I don’t foresee the administration taking a hard look at the limits of its powers under the ACA,” said Sara Rosenbaum, professor of health law and policy at George Washington University.
Look To The States
More than 20 states have laws protecting consumers to some degree from surprise bills from out-of-network emergency providers or in-network hospitals if they’re covered by a state-regulated insurance policy, according to an analysis by Georgetown researchers published by the Commonwealth Fund.
State laws vary. Texas, for example, requires that consumers in HMO plans be held harmless from balance billing in out-of-network emergency and in-network situations, but consumers in PPO plans can be balance-billed.
New York’s law is more comprehensive, covering both types of plans and settings. New York protects consumers from liability for out-of-network emergency and other surprise bills, requires plans to disclose how they determine a reasonable provider payment and has a binding independent dispute-resolution process.
These laws typically don’t apply to self-funded plans, however. But that could change. A New Jersey law that went into effect last month allows self-funded plans to opt in to the state’s balance billing dispute-resolution process. If a federally regulated plan decides to participate in the state program, doctors, hospitals and labs would be prohibited from balance-billing those consumers, and any disputes will be handled through a binding arbitration process.
For self-funded employers, especially those who choose to pay their employees’ surprise bills, “this provides for a more formal structure and some relief,” said Wardell Sanders, president of the New Jersey Association of Health Plans.
There are other possibilities for addressing surprise bills at the state level, policy experts say. While states can’t regulate self-funded health plans, they do regulate doctors and hospitals and other providers.
States could simply cap the amount that providers can charge for out-of-network care, for example, or prohibit practitioners like radiologists and pathologists, who don’t deal directly with patients, from billing them for services, said Adler.
“As long as providers can charge whatever they please, the problem won’t go away,” said Adler.
Will The Courts Weigh In?
These billing disputes rarely end up in court, mainly because attorneys are hesitant to take them since there are no guaranteed attorney’s fees.
A recent Colorado case was a rare success for a patient. A jury in June sided with Lisa French, a clerk at a trucking company, who was stunned by a $229,000 balance bill for spinal fusion surgery. Saying the charges were unreasonable, the jury knocked down her share of that bill to just $766.74.
The hospital was paid nearly $75,000 by her health coverage, an amount her insurer felt built in a fair profit margin, but the hospital claimed fell short.
That raises the question at the heart of many disputes over balance billing: What is a fair price?
Hospitals argue they should get whatever amount they set as charges on their master list of prices. Attorneys for patients, however, argue that a fair price should be closer to those discounted rates hospitals accept in their contracts with insurers.
Hospitals generally refuse to disclose those discounted rates, leaving patients fighting surprise bills little information about what other people pay.
Several recent court cases — including state Supreme Court rulings in Georgia and Texas — required hospitals to provide those discounted rates, although the rulings did not say those discounted prices are ultimately what patients would owe.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Hi ladies!
It’s episode 205!
Be sure to check back every Tuesday for a new episode, and head over to iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe!
To leave a review for the podcast (OR JOIN IN ON THE APPLE WARS!!) go to: http://coconutsandkettlebells.com/review. We would appreciate hearing from you more than we could possibly say!
This week, Noelle and I discuss creating a positive relationship with food for your kids, the comparison trap, & combating diet culture.
Got a question you’d like us to answer? Email us at [email protected].
10% of the funds we receive from our sponsors is donated directly to our partner charity, Thistle Farms, a place where women survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking and prostitution receive help and support through residential programs, therapy, education, and employment opportunities. Because we get paid per download, you are actively supporting Thistle Farms by downloading our podcast each week.
[14:12] Creating a Positive Relationship With Food for Your Kids
[35:35] The Comparison Trap
[55:47] Combating Diet Culture
Noelle’s website: https://coconutsandkettlebells.com
Stefani’s website: http://paleoforwomen.com
Buy our book Coconuts and Kettlebells

This podcast is supported by Thrive Market! As a special offer to our community, Thrive Market is offering 25% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER. To take advantage of this special deal, go to thrivemarket.com/wellfedwomen Keep in mind that Thrive Market’s prices are already 25-50% below retail because they cut out the middleman, so this is an extraordinary deal.
Thrive Market is an online marketplace with all the top premium healthy and organic products that you get from your grocery store but without the premium prices. It’s like the Costco of Whole Foods except you shop in your PJs from home and your bill ends up being up to 50% less! The best part is you can trust Thrive Market’s options will be sourced from the best of the best ingredients and you can shop based on your own dietary needs.

Bonafide Provisions is the maker of traditionally prepared, collagen-rich bone broth, packed with all the immune-boosting benefits. Their mission is to help everyone experience abundant wellness through the healing power of real food. Bonafide Provisions is offering our listeners 20% off all Bonafide products when you use the code: WELLFED at checkout. Go to www.bonafideprovisions.com/WELLFED to put your order in now!
Bonafide Provisions bone broth is frozen, meaning they preserve nutrients at their peak. Other brands of bone broth are boxed or refrigerated are either pasteurized or use a hot-fill method, which could be problematic if the packaging is poor quality. They use the best of the best ingredients, all of which are organic and preservative free. All their products are made using proper preparation methods making their broths nutrient packed. They only using bones (no meat or pre-made filler), and simmer low and slow. This means the bone broth gels and has a higher collagen content than leading boxed brands.

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Hi ladies!
It’s episode 205!
Be sure to check back every Tuesday for a new episode, and head over to iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe!
To leave a review for the podcast (OR JOIN IN ON THE APPLE WARS!!) go to: http://coconutsandkettlebells.com/review. We would appreciate hearing from you more than we could possibly say!
This week, Noelle and I discuss creating a positive relationship with food for your kids, the comparison trap, & combating diet culture.
Got a question you’d like us to answer? Email us at [email protected].
10% of the funds we receive from our sponsors is donated directly to our partner charity, Thistle Farms, a place where women survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking and prostitution receive help and support through residential programs, therapy, education, and employment opportunities. Because we get paid per download, you are actively supporting Thistle Farms by downloading our podcast each week.
[14:12] Creating a Positive Relationship With Food for Your Kids
[35:35] The Comparison Trap
[55:47] Combating Diet Culture
Noelle’s website: https://coconutsandkettlebells.com
Stefani’s website: http://paleoforwomen.com
Buy our book Coconuts and Kettlebells

This podcast is supported by Thrive Market! As a special offer to our community, Thrive Market is offering 25% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER. To take advantage of this special deal, go to thrivemarket.com/wellfedwomen Keep in mind that Thrive Market’s prices are already 25-50% below retail because they cut out the middleman, so this is an extraordinary deal.
Thrive Market is an online marketplace with all the top premium healthy and organic products that you get from your grocery store but without the premium prices. It’s like the Costco of Whole Foods except you shop in your PJs from home and your bill ends up being up to 50% less! The best part is you can trust Thrive Market’s options will be sourced from the best of the best ingredients and you can shop based on your own dietary needs.

Bonafide Provisions is the maker of traditionally prepared, collagen-rich bone broth, packed with all the immune-boosting benefits. Their mission is to help everyone experience abundant wellness through the healing power of real food. Bonafide Provisions is offering our listeners 20% off all Bonafide products when you use the code: WELLFED at checkout. Go to www.bonafideprovisions.com/WELLFED to put your order in now!
Bonafide Provisions bone broth is frozen, meaning they preserve nutrients at their peak. Other brands of bone broth are boxed or refrigerated are either pasteurized or use a hot-fill method, which could be problematic if the packaging is poor quality. They use the best of the best ingredients, all of which are organic and preservative free. All their products are made using proper preparation methods making their broths nutrient packed. They only using bones (no meat or pre-made filler), and simmer low and slow. This means the bone broth gels and has a higher collagen content than leading boxed brands.

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The perfect remedy for the afternoon slump, a broken heart, or just as a snack – there is hardly anyone who doesn’t like the taste of this sweet temptation. But somehow chocolate has a bad reputation. Supposedly it causes acne and headaches. On the other hand, chocolate is also said to be an aphrodisiac…so, is there any truth to these myths?
If you eat too much fat or sugar, your skin produces more oil, which leads to the formation of pimples. Since chocolate is so high in fat, it can lead to skin impurities.(1, 2, 3) However, this depends on what type of skin you have. If you tend to have oily skin, you should take a close look at your diet.
Chocolate is said to be an aphrodisiac. Even though this belief is very persistent, it’s actually false. Numerous studies show that sexual desire does not increase with chocolate consumption.(4, 5) The misconception that chocolate stimulates the release of serotonin is also disputed – the amount that can be produced in the body through eating chocolate is too small to achieve an effect.
Dark chocolate is said to be healthier than milk chocolate: The darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants it has, which can have a positive on the body.(6) Important: the positive effect of dark chocolate is neutralized when eaten with milk.

In an effort to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases (especially a stroke), it is recommended that we eat a small piece of dark chocolate every day. The popular treat can lower the blood pressure, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Heart. Flavonoids contained in the cocoa plant have a positive effect on blood vessel elasticity and blood pressure.(7, 8)
Many people believe that eating chocolate can cause headaches. A study of 63 women was conducted to investigate this claim and arrived at a surprising result: contrary to general opinion, chocolate does not appear to trigger headaches.(9) However, this myth does not seem to be completely debunked. If you tend to have migraines, certain foods like chocolate or cheese can, in fact, cause headaches.(10)
If you really enjoy dark chocolate, it can have health benefits. But consume it in moderation – like all other foods containing sugar and fat.
***
