Healthcare Reform: How it Could Save Money

My view is that there are serious problems with the present system. America is hooked on drugs. But this is only one of many problems. Health care is being rationed now! Only the wealthy can get the best health care. However, there are also ways where the government can save a lot of money and the patients can save a lot of money too. These ways would improve health care as well as reduce costs.

Psychiatry Gone Wild

One of the biggest areas that are problematic is psychiatry. Dr. E. Fulley Torrey, an eccentric psychiatrist, has called psychiatrists "frauds" in the book "The Death of Psychiatry". He calls much of psychiatry "crap". However, his 1974 prediction of the death of psychiatry has proven to be a premature burial. Amazingly he worked for the National Institute of Mental Health!

Right now psychiatry depends heavily on drugs. However, there are severe problems with these drugs (1). On the other hand, Thomas Szasz, another eccentric psychiatrist, has described psychiatry as "mythology". He feels that schizophrenia is a "myth". This is too severe a criticism of psychiatry.

Orthomolecular Medicine

Great hope is offered by orthomolecular medicine for a wide variety of diseases. Orthomolecular scientists favor "therapeutic nutrition based upon biochemical individuality". One of their prophets was the late Roger Williams. Williams wrote the book The Wonderful World Within You (1977, 2004). This book provides nutrition information on a variety of foods.

Strawberries

Like other fruits, strawberries are very low in sodium but have potassium. For this reason fruits are good to fight high blood pressure. You can take drugs for high blood pressure, but my advice is to try nutrition also. If you can lick the problem with nutrition, it will be cheaper and safer than the drugs. You can also buy supplements for potassium, but the supplements don't contain much potassium. You are better off eating bananas or oranges than taking supplements. These fruits are also low in fat. They have no cholesterol.

Suppose, however, you try strawberry jam. With the jam you greatly increase the number of calories. You don't want to do this if you have high blood pressure because being overweight is a risk factor for hypertension.

Williams' book contains colored diagrams that alert you when a nutrient is deficient. The deficient nutrient is in red. The adequate nutrients are in blue. The diagram for jam shows almost all the nutrients in red. This is not true for strawberries themselves, which are healthy. The jam has inadequate nutrients because of all the sugar.

Amino acids are low in strawberries, but they are particularly low in the jam. Fruits don't contain much protein. However, they do contain fiber, which is healthy. The fiber content is shown on the diagrams.

Strawberries have good vitamin C, which is favored by orthomolecular doctors and scientists.

Apples

Apples are also considered healthy. Apples have very little fat and very little protein. The little fat that they do have is mostly polyunsaturated, which is considered good fat. Bad fats are saturated and cholesterol. Plant products have no cholesterol. Apples have good fiber, particularly if they are unpeeled. Apples have almost no sodium and modest amounts of potassium. Therefore they are good for high blood pressure (hypertension).

Psychiatry Reform

Psychiatry reform is badly needed. Refs. 3 & 4 claim that schizophrenia is inherited, confirming Linus Pauling's theory. There is a food allergy theory (5-9), invented by Dr. Dohan of Philadelphia. This theory is similar to Pauling's views but not identical to them. Dohan recommended a diet as a treatment. Dohan blamed the amino acid glutamine.

There is also a food allergy theory involving carbohydrates (10). Supposedly schizophrenics are allergic to sugar. I believe that this is a very good theory. It has been favored by many orthomolecular scientists and also by the late Adelle Davis.

Epilepsy

Conservatives will probably have a fit at this, but there is an orthomolecular theory for epilepsy (11, 12, 14).

Weight Loss

Orthomolecular scientists and practitioners favor a dietary approach to weight loss (13). I also favor this approach. I do not favor gastric bypass operations because there have been severe problems including at least one death from this approach. Of course, to do nothing could also result in death in severe cases.

My view is that exercise is good, but it should be done in moderation. Too violent an excercise could cause heart problems in vulnerable people.

Conclusions

A diet to lose weight can be cheaper than the average diet. Water is cheap and it has no calories. Water fills you up. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are good because of the fiber. Fruits are low in fat except for the avocado.

Refs. 15-19 present more information on orthomolecular medicine, particularly in psychiatry.

References

1. Aripiprazole treatment of risperidone-induced hyperprolactinemia.

Chen JX, Su YA, Wang SL, Bian QT, Liu YH, Wang N, De Yang F, Haile C, Kosten TR, Zhang XY.

J Clin Psychiatry. 2009 Jul;70(7):1058-9.

2. Clozapine-induced fatal fulminant hepatic failure: a case report.

Chang A, Krygier DS, Chatur N, Yoshida EM.

Can J Gastroenterol. 2009 May;23(5):376-8.

3. "Schizophrenia: missing heritability found?(COMPLEX DISEASE)(Report)." Nature Reviews Genetics, August 2009 v10 i8 pNA. Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 August 2009.

4. "Breaking the gene barrier in schizophrenia.(NEWS AND VIEWS)(Report)." Nature Medicine, May 2009 v15 i5 p488(3). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 August 2009.

5. "Schizophrenia, gluten, and low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets: a case report and review of the literature.(Research)(Report)." Nutrition & Metabolism, Feb 26, 2009 v6 i10 p10. Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 August 2009.

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7. Dohan FC, Harper EH, Clark MH, Rodrigue RB, Zigas V: Is schizophrenia rare if grain is rare?.Biol Psychiatry 1984, 19(3): 385-399.

8. Kalaydjian AE, Eaton W, Cascella N, Fasano A: The gluten connection: the association between schizophrenia and celiac disease.Acta Psychiatr Scand 2006, 113: 82-90.

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10. Pacheco A, Easterling WS, Pryer MW: A pilot study of the ketogenic diet in schizophrenia.Am J Psychiatry 1965, 121: 1110-1111.

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12. Kossoff EH, Rowley H, Sinha SR, Vining EP: A prospective study of the modified Atkins diet for intractable epilepsy in adults.Epilepsia 2008, 49: 316-319.

13. Shai I, Schwarzfuchs D, Henkin Y, Shahar DR, Witkow S, et al: Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, mediterranean, or low-fat diet.N Engl J Med 2008, 359: 229-241.

14. Bough KJ, Rho JM: Anticonvulsant mechanisms of the ketogenic diet.Epilepsia 2007, 48: 43-58.

15. Hoffer LJ: Vitamin therapy in schizophrenia.Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci 2008, 45(1): 3-10.

16. Procter A: Enhancement of recovery from psychiatric illness by methylfolate.Br J Psychiatry 1991, 159: 271-272.

17. Wittenborn JR, Weber ES, Brown M: Niacin in the long-term treatment of schizophrenia.Arch Gen Psychiatry 1974, 31: 547-552.

18. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2034097/the_latest_research_in_psychiatry.html

19. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2029268/abnormal_aromatic_metabolism_in_mental.html