In honor of Halloween, I bring you this important video on how to protect yourself from zombie attacks and keep your brain from being eaten. Use your brain, don’t lose it! Especially to a zombie – because that just gets messy!
Zombies in Plain English
Happy Halloween!
How To Save Money And Recover Faster From Disc-Related Pain Pt. 3
In this final part of the series, I discuss the importance of frequency in using home treatment measures such as exercises and ice. During the acute inflammatory stage, generally the more frequently you apply self treatment measures, the faster you’ll recover, and the less you’ll need to utilize professional treatment options.
For more information, check out my other posts on sciatica exercises and self-treatment, or visit my sciatica exercises website.
In today’s video I discuss how to get the most efficient and cost-effective care from your health care providers so that you can spend less on your treatment and get better as quickly as possible.
How To Save Money And Recover Faster From Disc-Related Pain Pt.2
As is discussed in the video, it is important to communicate with your health care providers so that they know that you are serious about doing everything you can do to help yourself get better and stay that way.
Urge your doctor and/or physical therapist to transition you into active forms of treatment (exercise and rehabilitation) as soon as you are able rather than unnecessarily prolonging the use of passive treatments that only temporarily relieve symptoms.
It’s also important to learn exercises you can easily do at home without any fancy equipment. Physical therapy clinics and physical medicine doctors often use some very high-tech equipment, which certainly has its usefulness at first, but you need to be able to continue doing exercises for the long-term and you probably won’t have easy access to that equipment. Insist upon them teaching you home treatment methods whenever possible – or find other resources where you can learn what to do for yourself, such as my sciatica exercises website.
In the next installment, I’ll cover tips on how to maximize your self-treatment efforts and get out of pain as quickly as possible.
How To Save Money And Recover Faster From Disc-Related Pain Pt.1
The above video is the first in a series that I recently produced that explains simple ways to save money and recover as quickly as possible from sciatica and disc-related back pain.
In this first part, I explain the cost savings that can be had from simply paying for your health care at the time of service (and then getting reimbursed by your health insurance after the fact, if you have insurance). While it is illegal in most cases for health care providers to give you a discount just because you don’t have insurance, it is legal for them to provide a discount in exchange for payment in full at the time of service – as long as that discount is available to everyone (including those who have insurance). In some cases, that discount can be pretty substantial.
Using the example in the video, a high-end service such as an MRI may be discounted as much as 50-75% when you arrange in advance to pay at the time of service. Even for someone who has insurance, this can make a difference of as much as a few hundred dollars in the copayment amount for that service (for example, a 20% copayment on a $1500 MRI would be $300, but a 20% copayment for the same MRI done in the exact same facility at the payment at time of service price of $500 would be only $100).
This cost-saving approach can be used with the vast majority of health care services, not just those involving sciatica and back pain. The important thing to remember is to negotiate your discounts by phone BEFORE you show up at the health care provider’s office. Why? Because if you are calling on the phone, they know you are shopping for the best price, and they are more likely to give you their best deal. If you show up to have the services done and then try to get a discount, they’ll be more resistant to discounting (the fact that you’ve shown up means you’ve already somewhat committed to getting the services done at that facility), and the amount of the discount they offer will probably be less.
For those who have insurance, they may be intimidated by the thought of trying to get reimbursed by their insurance company. In most cases, it’s actually pretty easy. First you need to make sure that you get a receipt from the health care provider with the diagnosis and procedure codes. Next, you can either obtain a claim form from your insurance company (many have them available online to download) and fill in the information on name, address, social security number, date of birth, and policy number where indicated or, you can simply write them a letter with all of that information and attach it to the receipt. Then you just mail it in and follow-up in a few days by phone to make sure they’ve received it. Once your insurance company receives the claim, they’ll usually pay it within 30 days.
Now, if you are on an HMO, this strategy may not be all that helpful, but it has been my experience that people on HMO’s often decide to go outside of their insurance and pay out of pocket to get things done because they get frustrated with the lack of results from the “bare-bones” care that often comes with HMO policies. So keep this technique in mind if you have an HMO, you aren’t getting results, and you need to consider other options.
In the next installment in this series, I’ll be discussing ways to work with your health care providers to get the most effective and efficient treatment to help you recover as quickly as possible.
If you’ve found this information helpful, I would very much appreciate it if you would leave a comment on YouTube about it.
For additional information, check out my past posts on sciatica and herniated disc problems.
It’s Monday and I thought it would be a good day to have a little comic relief. The following video is a pretty obvious spoof of Kevin Trudeau’s infomercials for his “Natural Cures” books from Mad TV. Regardless of the value or lack thereof of the information in Trudeau’s book (in my opinion, he actually does have some decent information), his infomercials are definitely ripe for parody and Mad TV did a pretty good job.
Mad TV: Natural Miracle Cures Infomercial
Stay tuned to my book, er, I mean my blog for more on natural remedies!
Dr. Jeff Poplarski Cold Laser Therapy
The above video discusses the use of cold laser therapy (also called low level laser therapy, or LLLT for short) and chiropractic adjustments in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.
I personally have been using cold laser therapy in my practice for about 8 years now and I can attest to its effectiveness in treating pain and inflammation in carpal tunnel syndrome and a variety of other neuromusculoskeletal conditions, and even in accelerating wound and soft tissue healing.
Since cold laser is very safe and has no known side-effects, I highly recommend it as a treatment option for almost any painful condition or situation in which healing has been delayed.
First, a disclaimer: I am categorizing today’s post under “Humor” because it really doesn’t fit anywhere else. I’m not sure if it’s funny – in fact, it’s probably more scary than funny. Anyway, on with the story…
My girlfriend told me about an interesting discussion she had today with her co-worker that really puts a new spin on the value of vaccination.
The co-worker (who by the way, works with my girlfriend in a large metropolitan hospital) has just had a baby. Because of all the negative publicity about the potential adverse reactions to vaccines, she has been very conflicted about having her child vaccinated. She finally decided to go forward with the vaccinations, but not because of the usual browbeating by her pediatrician.
She has decided that the risks of vaccination are lower than the risks of her child being hospitalized if he were to get sick with one of the diseases that vaccinations supposedly protect against. Now let me clarify this… she’s not really concerned about the dangers of the diseases that the vaccinations protect against. Because of her experiences from working in a hospital, she’s worried about the risks of the medical treatment her child would be subjected to if he were to get sick with a disease that requires hospitalization! In other words, she believes that having her child vaccinated is safer than possibly exposing him to the risk of medical treatment in the hospital!
Sadly, I’m actually somewhat inclined to agree with this line of thinking. While there is mounting evidence that mercury and other toxins contained in vaccines are probably linked to autism and SIDS, there is no doubt in my mind that it is usually even more dangerous to be subjected to medical care in most hospitals these days.
Regular readers of my blog know that my father was nearly killed by medical errors on several different occasions during a recent hospitalization for a broken hip. Several patients of mine have had similar hospital horror stories. Even several people I know who work in hospitals as nurses and other allied health professionals routinely tell me about fatal and near-fatal mistakes, rampant infections, and patient neglect that occur in their hospitals. It’s really quite shocking.
So, while I’m not convinced that the typical vaccination schedule used in the United States is safe, it does have a better safety record than hospital treatment. Vaccination as a means of defense against medical care? Hmmm. Maybe my girlfriend’s coworker is on to something. It’s actually the best argument I’ve heard for mandatory vaccination!
Just a quick drug ad parody for a laugh…
Fidolin ADHD Drug Ad Parody from the Health Ranger
Dr Whiting on Prostate Health and Inflammation
The above video discusses the causes and natural treatments for BPH (Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy), more commonly known as an enlarged prostate. While I do not specifically endorse the product mentioned in the video, I do recommend the use of saw palmetto, pygeum africanum, omega-3 fatty acids, stinging nettle, and amino acids like glycine as Dr. Whiting discusses. Another effective herbal remedy for prostate enlargement that was not mentioned by Dr. Whiting is cernitin (sometimes spelled cernilton) pollen, which is an extract from the pollen of a particular type of flower.
I have not used the product Dr. Whiting discusses in the video with my patients, so I cannot offer an opinion on it specifically, but I can say that good quality products that contain a combination of some or all of the specific ingredients mentioned are usually quite effective in decreasing prostate-related symptoms. In my office, I have used combination products such as Nutriwest’s “Total Male” as well as saw palmetto by itself, and while single ingredient products like saw palmetto are effctive too, it appears that the combination of several ingredients that help reduce prostate enlargement have slightly better results, presumably through a synergistic effect of the ingredients.
ADHD: Meditation, not Medication
The above video discusses the benefits of transcendental meditation in managing ADHD. Meditation provides an excellent alternative to potentially dangerous stimulant drugs in the management of ADHD and allows the child or adult with ADHD to gain control over his or her own mind and behavior.
For more information, check out my section on ADHD.
