(Editor's note: This is from a blog that I came across the other day and I really enjoyed a recent post on it. There is an excerpt below but you can read the full article here.)
Top 5 Ways to Reduce Health Care Costs
By healthbymom
1. Lose Weight. 5 lbs. Can you start with losing 5 lbs? Just taking 5 lbs. of body weight off of your frame will improve your health. It is no surprise to read literature stating that obesity doubles or even triples health care costs. This is why companies are always encouraging weight loss! It is cheaper for them to insure people of a healthy weight. Why? Because people of a healthy weight are….generally…HEALTHIER! Reducing your weight will reduce your health care costs. Let me give you one example why. In just ONE POUND of fat, there are approximately 0.3 miles of blood vessels. This is why overweight people have high blood pressure. The heart has to work overtime and overpressure to get the blood pumped through all of that extra mileage. (It only takes 3.5 extra pounds of fat to have an entire MILE of blood vessels! – WOW!)
2. Move More! (Exercise). Clearly, this goes with the above. But most of us live relatively sedentary lives and without a conscious effort, we wouldn’t move more than just our fingers on a keyboard all day. Research (Medica and Life Time Fitness 2007) shows that people who received a financial incentive to exercise regularly saw an average claim cost decrease of more than 33% per member, per month. This research was based on those people exercising only an average of EIGHT days per month! Just EIGHT days! Moving their bodies on 8 out of 30 days resulted in 64.3% decrease in facility claims. They were healthier! And they were paying LESS to health care because of it.
3. Drink More Water! The body is composed of 55-75% water. And we are in need of CONSTANT water replenishment. Your health depends on water. Those energy cycles you were forced to learn in chemistry class are dependent on water. Water is needed to move the blood, to flush the liver toxins, to digest foods, to move the bowel, to sweat, to breathe…the list goes on and on. Water loss of only 1 – 2% can make you feel tired and zap you of your energy. Any more than that and you will start losing normal body functions. Perhaps your blood pressure will go up because your blood is thicker than it should be. Or you will be constipated because you don’t have enough hydration to move the bowels appropriately. So how much water should you drink a day? There are many different “rules”. Some people like the 8oz. of water 8 times a day rule. That one is just fine if you stick to it. I try to drink half my body weight in oz. per day. So, hypothetically, I weigh 120lbs (which I don’t). I would have to drink 60 oz of water in a day. It works. Sure, your bladder will have to get used to it. But once you stop worrying about those trips to the bathroom – you will notice that your energy is better, your attitude is better, and you just feel better all around.
4. Stop eating foods you cannot pronounce. Here’s a task for you. The next time you sit down with a bag or a package of some “food”, get on your favorite search engine (bing, google, yahoo…) and type in the ingredients one by one. I can almost guarantee that those long names you see on that package will have reported detrimental effects. They are cancer-causing, tumor-forming, and DNA-mutilating. Check out this article. It is a little dated, but not much has changed I promise you that.
So what should you do? Shop on the OUTSIDE aisles of the grocery store. Stick to fresh produce and meats whenever possible. Don’t go through that drive-through. Make changes for you, for your health, and for your family’s health. This type of change will pay you back in large dividends.
5. Last but certainly not least, seek out alternatives in health care. My personal #1 choice is upper cervical care. Insurance does not always cover it, that is true. But paying cash, out of pocket, is completely worthwhile to many families. Why? They get well from a wide variety of illnesses that they are no longer paying co-pays for repeat visits to the pediatrician or family physician; they are no longer paying for prescription medications or even over the counter medications; they aren’t missing work days to stay home with sick kids. They just aren’t! We see this over and over and over again. If you haven’t heard of upper cervical care, check out these two sites:
drjerrykennedy.com and uppercervicalcare.com
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