Prostate Cancer: Alternatives
Nice to read a cautionary piece on surgery for prostate cancer [“In Defense of Waiting,” November 4, 2010] and nicer yet to read a few dietary tips for promoting prostate health. But it would have been an even greater service for your readers had your reporter cast a wider net. There are highly effective alternative treatments for prostate cancer, ones that don’t include surgery, radiation, chemo, or any of the horrific conventional options. Trouble is, most people don’t know about them.
Alternative treatments work to bolster the immune system, not suppress it, which makes sense when you consider that a healthy immune system is the body’s best defense against cancer. The problem is that alternative treatments, such as whole-body hyperthermia and insulin potentiation therapy, are not available in the U.S. Despite an excellent track record and widespread use in Europe and elsewhere, these treatments are not accepted by the benighted Food and Drug Administration, nor, accordingly, are they covered by health insurance. Rather than submit to the barbarities that pass as cancer treatment in the U.S., a motivated patient must go abroad—and be out of pocket—for saner treatments that actually work and promote health rather than sapping it.
Dale C. Moss
Shelburne Falls
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Legalize Pot in Massachusetts
Proposition 19 in California, which would have allowed districts to legalize and tax marijuana, lost 54-46 last week. Many of those who voted against it said that they did not oppose legalization per se, but the particular wording of Prop 19. With the vast majority of those under 30 supporting legalization, it seems to me that the question is not if but when and how it will happen.
Nearly a million people were arrested on marijuana possession charges last year alone. This is an enormous waste of tax money and law enforcement resources, and, above all, it’s morally wrong. Humans have been using cannabis as medicine for much of our history. In a humane society people should not be arrested and jailed for smoking marijuana. Bringing cannabis within the law and taxing it, like alcohol, makes all the sense in the world.
Massachusetts residents supported marijuana decriminalization by a margin of nearly two-thirds. Clearly, we don’t thinking smoking pot is a criminal act. So why not attempt to pass a legalization initiative here in the Bay State and show that the East Coast can set progressive trends just as much as the west?
Adam Hurter
Leverett
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A Doctor on Health Care
Medicare should be a safety net. Those who have more should pay more. The goal is to make sure that all our seniors get the reasonable, cost-effective care that they need when they need it. Medicare Advantage has been manipulated by the insurance industry. Those “insurers” who participate do their darndest to make sure that they enroll the healthy seniors, leaving the unhealthy seniors to the taxpayer, at the same time that Medicare Advantage insurance companies receive taxpayer subsidies to do so.
The real issue with our health care system is that we don’t have a health care system. We have a sick care non-system. We divide up the country into risk pools: Medicare, Medicaid, vets, Native Americans, employed people. The insurance industry receives taxpayer subsidies to cover the low-risk people (those who are employed and their families) while the taxpayer pays for all the high risk (expensive) risk pools (Medicare, Medicaid). And what about those people who don’t have coverage and get really sick because of it? When they land in the ICU, we all end up paying for it anyway through cost shifting. It seems to matter little that 60 percent of all our health care dollars either directly or indirectly flow through the government already. We aren’t going to fix this problem until we put everybody into the same risk pool and collect the health care dollars through our tax system, progressively, so that those that have more pay more. Some people would call that single payer. Frankly, I don’t care how many payers there are as long as we have a single risk pool so we don’t continue to waste 20 to 25 percent supporting the chaos that only services the insurance industry.
PPACA [the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the federal health care reform law] isn’t going to fix the problem. It does a few good things, but health care inflation will continue to exceed income growth and the growth of our GDP. The bill was passed because the Democrats and President Obama needed a victory. To those who want to repeal it because it is a government takeover, I say, as do 40 percent of the rest of the country, it doesn’t go far enough.
If you want to know why we spend twice as much per capita on health care as the rest of the industrialized world, check our “Health, Money and Fear” a video that is available for viewing at www.ourailinghealthcare.com. Be well. Being otherwise is very expensive.
Paul Hochfeld, M.D.
Corvallis, Ore.
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Loves Jake’s
Having been an aficionado of Jake’s for more than 15 years, I was ecstatic to see “Frills at Jake’s” in the October 28th edition of the Valley Advocate. After reading the article, however, I concluded that Mark Roessler, its author, was being overly judgmental about the recent changes at Jake’s.
Referring to the new art work at Jake’s, he wrote that “[i]ts vibrancy is disconcerting.” At one point, he concluded, “Clearly, there is trouble in paradise” as a reaction to the new computer system that apparently caused his friend’s Reuben to be served with white bread instead of wheat. Mark was also not very kind to Christine, a long-term waitperson: “Christine’s cup of attitude runneth over,” he wrote, and, “She’s kept her upper lip as stiff as ever.”
As a faithful Jake’s custormer who is more than willing to travel more than 20 miles to have breakfast there, the changes are fine with me! Jake’s is Jake’s with a bit more color on the walls. Also, Christine is a pleasant, intelligent person. My wife and I truly enjoy our conversations with her as she efficiently goes about her business. Every waitperson at Jake’s is terrific. The food, by the way, is also excellent.
Concerning the new computer, as a rule, I am not fond of computers but I can live with the one at my favorite breakfast place. Jake’s is still “no frills”—a rarity today and a terrific oasis in which to relax, read my print copy of the newspaper, and enjoy the surroundings.
David W. Douglas
Springfield
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Plutonium Penthouse—Cheap
For sale by owner: Vermont Yankee Vintage nuclear power plant. Now you can be the proud buyer of this stunning pre-owned nuclear classic. A real handy man’s special. A true fix-‘er-upper. They don’t make ’em like this any more. Perfect for a growing family that needs lots of energy. Just minutes from schools, hospitals and large population centers. May need some work on the basement plumbing. The current license may not be renewed in 2012, but don’t worry. If the license is rejected, the site would make a perfect nuclear-themed B&B. Imagine two fun-filled nights in the Strontium 90 suite, or a romantic weekend for two in the Plutonium penthouse.
There is plenty of room to expand, build a breakfast nook or a second nuclear containment vessel. And there’s lots of room left right on site to store all the radioactive waste. You could add solar panels and make the place truly energy efficient. Price reduced. No reasonable offer refused. Public financing may become available. Foreign buyers welcome. Don’t have a meltdown; act now.
Andy Morris-Friedman
via e-mail
