CV&me

HEALTH TIP MINUTE - JULY

Jul 18, 2022

Inexpensive Strategies for Saving on Medical Costs and Improving Your Family’s Health


According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the average American incurs  $11, 172.00 in medical expenses each year. That is an extremely heavy financial burden for anyone. While it’s obviously not evenly distributed – some people will have tremendous health care costs in a given year, while others will have only minimal costs – the financial burden of health care can strike anyone, and it can bring financial ruin.

 

Yet, you have tremendous control over this equation. While you can’t eliminate every health care cost, you can take lots of actions to reduce those costs in almost every dimension of your life. Not only that, most of these options will also improve quality of life. Here are some tactics to use to save on medical costs and improve your own family’s health.


Walk Every Day

Every single day, go on a walk. The distance is unimportant – it might be a mile long walk or it might be a five mile stroll around your entire neighborhood. What truly matters is that you adopt a consistent routine of spending a notable portion of your day moving around.

The Mayo Clinic argues that a healthy walking routine can reduce medical ailments, extend one’s life, and improve one’s quality of life. They offer some solid advice on healthy walking, including using good posture and maintaining a solid pace.

 

Utilize Free and/or Low Cost Exercise Resources

It never hurts to add variety to your daily activities, either. An exercise routine – even a low-intensity one – has many of the same benefits as a daily walk, and you can certainly add both to your life.

 

Eat a Better Diet – Mostly Plants

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. This is the take-home message of Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food, and it’s a pretty solid trio of rules to follow when you’re eating. Almost every sensible eating practice out there comes from these three rules.

First of all, you should strive to eat real food. By that, I mean cut down on processed pre-made food and eat as much basic food as you can. Eat fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products that are as close to their original form as can be. This way, there are fewer opportunities to have unhealthy additives to the food (salts, trans fats, preservatives, etc.).

Second, control your portion sizes. This doesn’t mean that you should diet and stop eating. It means that you should just try to eat less. Try to leave enough on your plate at restaurants so that you can eat lunch tomorrow with the leftovers. Use a smaller plate at dinner. Don’t fill up your plate. You can go back for more if you’re still hungry.

Finally, eat mostly plants. At a given meal, try to have the majority of your plate consist of vegetables and fruits. If you eat a meat-heavy meal, try to counterbalance it with a very plant-heavy meal.

 

Know Basic First Aid

If you already know how to treat most common ailments – and you have the supplies on hand to do so – you can eliminate quite a few doctor and hospital visits. The Red Cross offers a number of classes and self-education guides on basic first aid, ranging from how to deal with minor cuts and blisters to how to respond to emergency situations. You don’t need to become certified, of course, but studying up on basic first aid can be incredibly helpful for handling minor family medical problems with ease and without having to rely on the hospital or the doctor (and the resultant medical bills).

If you’d like a single book to reference for first aid questions, the American Red Cross First Aid and Safety Handbook is a great place to start. It has information and basic procedures that almost anyone can follow for a variety of situations. It’s useful to go through the book outside of emergency situations so that you’re familiar with what to do. The most important lesson of all? Knowing when it does make sense to call a doctor because the issue is beyond your care.

 

Evaluate Free Health Clinics/Minute Clinics at Pharmacies/Walk-In Clinics

Many areas offer free health clinics where doctors and registered nurses can provide diagnoses and assistance with ailments of all kinds. Use them to diagnose and treat cases of pink eye and strep throat, with the end result being nothing more than the cost of a prescription. No hospital visit, no doctor visit, no bills. The quality of free clinics varies greatly from area to area, so don’t let preconceptions sway you away from trying out a free medical clinic. Want to find one in your area? The National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics offers a great tool for finding free clinics in your area. They provide a great place to start if you’ve got expensive medical coverage.

Walk-in Clinics can also offer a low cost alternative to simple infections when the doctor costs may be higher and hours less inconvenient.

 

Take Advantage of Wellness Visits and Checkups

If your medical insurance offers free wellness visits or annual checkups, take advantage of them! Wellness visits and annual checkups are the easiest way to get an early diagnosis of a serious ailment, usually at the stage where it’s easily treatable rather than a medical crisis.

 

 

Try Home Remedies First

If you’re dealing with a minor condition, don’t be afraid to try non-medical treatment first. Are there steps you can take on your own to deal with this condition, either by minimizing the symptoms or eliminating the root cause? Don’t be afraid to discuss this route with your doctor before he or she pulls out the prescription pad. While a prescription might be one solution to the problem (and perhaps the easiest, in the short term), it’s often not the only solution and often not the best solution.

What can you do to solve the problem without that prescription? Can you eat better? Can you get more exercise? Can you alter your diet? Can you change your work environment? Can you change something at home? Different ailments can be handled with different solutions. Don’t rely on a pharmaceutical solution first – try other methods and see what you can achieve.


Talk to Your Doctor About How to Get Off Prescriptions

Similarly, if you’re on any long-term prescription medications, you should discuss the necessity of these medications with your doctor. Often, medications are prescribed to be a short-term fix for an ailment, like a pain medication that’s used until an injury heals or a blood pressure medication that’s used until you achieve a better body weight and trim salts from your diet. When those medications turn into a long-term fix, not only can they be an ongoing expense, you could also be opening yourself up to undesirable long-term side effects.

Spend some time talking to your doctor about a plan to get yourself off of any prescription medications that you’re on. Figure out if you actually need them or if they’re just covering up for some lifestyle choices you could be making. It’s far cheaper – and better for your long-term health – to exercise every day and eat a healthier diet than it is to continue to take prescription medications.

Negotiate Medical Bills

This doesn’t mean you should call up your medical provider or your insurance provider to argue about an ordinary $15 copay. Instead, apply a negotiation strategy for larger bills, like the ones you receive after surgeries or hospital stays. Often, medical providers and insurance companies engage in a dance of sorts with each other, where they intentionally bounce inflated costs back and forth at each other. The person that’s really hurt in this process is the patient that has to pay some portion – or all of it – out of pocket. Most medical providers are open to negotiating with patients because a negotiated bill is one that’s less likely to wind up in collections. If you receive a large medical bill, your first step should be to contact your medical provider and attempt negotiation.


Final Thoughts

You have a lot of control over your medical costs, both thanks to preventive actions, like getting in better shape and eating a better diet, and proactive choices, like taking advantage of wellness visits.

All of these options allow you to take charge of a significant portion of your present and future medical costs. The next step – taking action on the options that are relevant – is up to you.

Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children

By kkcol • 18 Jul, 2023
Our kids need less time on devices and more time moving in school and out of school if we really care about their mental health! If we are truly looking for ways to help our kids with stress, anxiety, and depression, we should look to proven techniques that show benefits. We should not be spending money and time on trendy, unproven SEL “programs” that have not been able to prove any benefit after decades of broad implementation in school settings. Please read the research that proves movement and exercise benefit children in a variety of ways. Please ask your school board and administration to show proof of what they are implementing is beneficial to our students academic achievement and wellbeing. Nothing trendy or experimental should waste time or resources for our children. They deserve better! Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Children Jan 28, 2015 Karen Dineen Wagner, MD, PhD Psychiatric Times, Vol 32 No 1 The target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. But it is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this goal. There was a time when children would play outdoors and get exercise by running and riding bicycles. In recent years, concerns about children’s safety, the popularity of video games and computers, and increased academic demands have contributed to the decline in outdoor play for children. Unless children are involved in sports, gymnastics, dance, or similar activities, they have limited involvement in exercise-related activities. Benefits of physical activity There is increasing evidence for mental health benefits of exercise in children. Hillman and colleagues 1 examined the effects of physical activity on fitness, brain function, and cognitive function in 221 children aged 7 to 9 years. The children were randomly assigned to either a 9-month after school physical activity program or a wait-list control group. The physical activity intervention was 2 hours in duration and focused on improvement of aerobic fitness by engaging in physical activities. The children participated in at least 70 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, followed by a snack, rest period, and low organizational games such as tag. Pre and post-intervention measures included assessment of aerobic fitness and cognitive functioning. Aerobic fitness was assessed by a test of maximal oxygen consumption during a treadmill exercise. Cognitive functioning was evaluated through tasks that assessed attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. EEG recordings to deter-mine event-related brain potentials were obtained during the cognitive tasks. At the end of the 9-month intervention, the physical activity group showed greater aerobic fitness than did the wait-list control group. The physical activity group also demonstrated greater attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. On EEG assessments, only the physical activity group showed a larger P3 amplitude (indicative of greater attention) and a faster P3 latency (indicative of faster processing speed). Children who attended a greater number of the physical activity sessions had more changes in these brain activity measurements. ADHD and exercise Given these findings of improved attention for children who engage in a physical activity program, it would be important to know whether children with ADHD would show improved attention with exercise. Pontifex and colleagues 2 assessed the effect of a single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on children with ADHD. Twenty children aged 8 to 10 years with ADHD and a healthy matched control group participated in the study. In this within-participants design, children participated in a 20-minute session of either aerobic exercise or seated reading on a motor-driven treadmill. Measures of event-related brain potentials and cognitive tasks were assessed during both of these conditions. Both the children with ADHD and the control group showed greater response accuracy on attention control tasks following a single bout of exercise than following the seated reading session. EEGs indicated that children in both groups had larger P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency after exercise than after seated reading. On measures of academic performance, children in both groups had greater improvement on tests of reading comprehension and arithmetic after exercise than after seated reading. The investigators suggest that single bouts of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may be an additional treatment modality for children with ADHD. Moreover, short bouts of exercise during the school day may be a benefit to children in general. Depression and exercise The relationship between depression and exercise in children and adolescents has received recent attention. Kremer and colleagues 3 investigated the associations between physical activity, leisure-time screen use, and depressive symptoms. The data were obtained from the Healthy Neighbourhoods Study, a crosssectional survey of 8256 children and adolescents (mean age, 11.5 years) in Australia. The students completed an online self-report instrument. Students were asked a number of questions about their physical activity behavior, including number of days attending physical education classes; degree of activity during these classes; number of days of being very active after school and on the weekend; involvement in sports or other activities in school and outside of school; opportunities to be involved in sports, clubs, organizations, or other activities at school; and number of days in the past week that they were physically active for at least 60 minutes per day. The students also reported time spent watching television, using the computer, or playing video games on school days and weekend days. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Moderate to high depressive symptoms were reported by 33% of these youths. The odds of depressive symptoms were lower when there were greater opportunities for the youths to be involved in a sport or other activities at school outside of class, to be very active during physical education classes, and to play on sports teams both at school and outside of school. Youths who were physically active at least 60 minutes per day were also less likely to have depressive symptoms. Lower levels of leisure-time screen use (video game, computer, television) were also associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescents. Can physical activity protect against depressive symptoms in adolescence? Toseeb and colleagues 4 examined the association between physical activity beginning at age 14 years and depressive symptoms at age 17 years. A community-based sample of 736 adolescents from the United Kingdom participated in this longitudinal study. Baseline levels of physical activity were evaluated using combined heart rate and movement sensing. Participants were requested to wear the monitor over a 5-day period including 2 weekend days. Participants completed the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. A semistructured clinical interview to assess for current episodes of MDD was also administered at baseline and at follow-up. No association was found between physical activity at baseline and development of depressive symptoms at 3-year follow-up. The adolescents who were physically active at baseline did not have higher or lower depressive symptoms than the adolescents who were less physically active. Similarly, a diagnosis of MDD at 3-year follow-up was not predicted by physical activity at baseline. The investigators conclude that physical activity is not a protective factor in the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Conclusion Overall, studies provide support for the benefits of physical exercise in children and adolescents on executive function, brain activity, and depressive symptoms. According to Healthy People 2020, the target for physical activity in adolescents is 60 or more minutes of daily aerobic activity. 5 It is unlikely that the majority of youths achieve this target. The importance of physical activity should be promoted in the school setting as well as in after school activities. Parents should also encourage their children to be involved in physical activities. References : 1. Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Castelli DM, et al. Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function. Pediatrics. 2014;134: e1063-e1071. 2. Pontifex MB, Saliba BJ, Raine LB, et al. Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with ADHD. J Pediatr. 2013;162:543-551. 3. Kremer P, Elshaug C, Leslie E, et al. Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. J Sci Med Sport. 2014;17:183-187. 4. Toseeb U, Brage S, Corder K, et al. Exercise and depressive symptoms in adolescents: a longitudinal cohort study. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168:1093-1100. 5. US Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/ paguidelines/guidelines. Accessed December 18, 2014. 

Studio Classrooms: Education or Experimentation

By kkcol • 18 Jul, 2023
For the 2023-2024 school year there will be 28 teachers writing curriculum for Studio Classrooms for Portrait of a Eagle for grades 6-12 and 3 teachers working on Digital Lit/Citizenship Framework for “full Year Course Maintenance” for K-12 at an additional cost of $28,620. I am not saying teachers doing extra work should not be compensated. I am suggesting that we utilize our smart, talented teachers and focus on academic learning. At a Curriculum Meeting in January, there were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot program. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. Please educate yourself on what SEL really is and how educational agencies and consulting groups are appealing to emotion to sell billions of dollars of curriculum and programs to school districts, government and community agencies, and even churches. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts: https://youtu.be/IKdJfJdcjgU The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! The students did not have quizzes or tests as usual. What did they actually learn? Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades as they go through middle school and high school.

CV MONTHLY REVIEW - FEBRUARY

16 Feb, 2023
The information in this blog includes a summary of a curriculum meeting from a taxpayer that regularly attends the meetings and is very active in helping the candidates running for school board this year along with additions from my research on these issues. There were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot programs. One was given by the 7 th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time. SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action. James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.” Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts, and also read this paper: https://pioneerinstitute.org/pioneer-research/academic-standards-pioneer-research/social-emotional-learning-k-12-education-as-new-age-nanny-state/ The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work. He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades. Again, is it all being watered-down? Use of Technology Update Tech Director Chris Smith gave a detailed technology update. Apparently, the teachers have access to 279 apps, web sites and programs that have not been technically approved for curriculum, but the teachers find through other sources. There has been no control or oversite of these supplemental resources. They discussed putting internal regulations in place to approve these supplemental sources before teachers can use them. For concerned parents there are options. Opt your child out of school Google account: https://www.cvschools.org/support_operations/technology/educational_technology/google_for_education/opt-out_information Pushing Failing Students into Certification Programs Dr. Christopher talked about pushing students who don’t pass the Keystone Exams, which are required for graduation, into one of several certification programs with local colleges. This aligns with the knowledge we have of how the Keystone test scores were cut to make sure a certain percentage of students failed. So it is a back-door way of practically forcing students into certain career paths? I’m not saying these certification programs are bad. But I don’t believe pigeon-holing students based on one exam is helpful or fair to a developing student that may change in ability and interest during the high school experience and young adult lives. Math update The Math department will be looking to testing a K-8 pilot program in the 2023-24 school year. They want to test multiple programs to see which they like best. Remember when they do these pilot programs, this is basically experimenting with your kids. Do parents really understand how different the structure and content of the class with be for their child? This needs to be more transparent. When asked if the math program will be like the new language arts curriculum, the answer was yes. That means that several studies will be incorporated into the math lesson. For example, with CVSD’s new language arts program, the students also have their science and social studies curriculum. How can students get the time needed to develop the specific skills required for math if they are now going to add other disciplines into the lessons??? Dr. Euker stated that the math “vocabulary” is now not consistent across the grades (I assume due to the implementation of Common Core) and this is creating problems. Who knew math “vocabulary” needed to change? Class Rank Dr. Christopher stated that some students have been asked about class ranking and the students want to “get rid of it.” Dr. Blanchard stated that the Board is ultimately responsible for the decision. How will the Board decide and when? Maybe there needs to be some adjustment, but will the administration and school board use this as an excuse to get rid of grades as the main source of assessing students. SEL programming is all for getting rid of grades and moving towards assessing competencies. I do not believe this will help our children as they move into adulthood and whatever competitive work environment that they choose after graduation. There are schools doing this to varying degrees and the outcomes are just as diverse. Here are some examples for reference: https://www.simplemost.com/schools-phase-out-valedictorians/ https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-accelerated-math-courses-equity https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/gifted-programs-worsen-inequality-here-s-what-happens-when-schools-n1243147 Here are the next three school board meeting dates and they are held at the District Office Boardroom located at 6746 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050: Tuesday, Jan. 21st at 7:00 p.m. Monday, March 6 th at 7:00pm Monday, March 20 th at 7:00pm If you cannot attend in person you can also livestream these full board meetings. The agenda and livestream link are posted three days prior to the meeting at the following site: https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/cmdvsd/Board.nsf/vpublic?open
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