health

Improve Americans’ Physical and Fiscal Health: Cut Out the FDA

by Michelle Minton on June 22, 2011

in Health and Illness, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Regulation

President Obama made a big show about cutting “red tape” government regulations that kill jobs and hurt the economy. In addition, members of the Obama administration, including his wife, Michelle, claim they want to improve the health and well-being of Americans. If these are genuine policy goals of the current administration then a good place to start would be to stop the FDA from instituting any new policies.

A news story today told the good news that the FDA approved a device for the iPhone that would combine a plug-in blood pressure monitor with an application purchased in the app store to monitor the health of the user. According to a two-year long study conducted by the Brookings Institution and the Kauffman Foundation, remote medical reporting such as blood pressure monitoring could save the nation nearly $200 billion in health care costs over 25 years.

According to remarks by economist Robert E. Litan, the study’s author, who is the Vice President for Research at the Kauffman Foundation and Senior Fellow at Brookings:

Widespread use of remote monitoring over broadband networks, located in both institutions and homes, to track vital signs of patients with chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure and diabetes is a critical and urgent development. “Remote monitoring can spot health problems sooner, reduce hospitalization, improve life quality and save money.”

Litans made his remarks earlier this year at a health forum sponsored by the Better Health Care Together coalition (BHCT). Participants at that forum suggested that the way to achieve wide-spread usage of devices like the cuff is to have larger insurance payouts for hospitals in order to fiscally incentivize their integration.

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Federal Government Subsidizes Obesity and Wealthy Urbanites

by Hans Bader on November 24, 2010 · 1 comment

in Health and Illness, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

In the Washington Examiner, David Freddoso explains how the federal Department of Health and Human Services spent $766,000 of your tax dollars to help open an International House of Pancakes in a prosperous section of Washington, D.C. That’s ironic, given that government food nannies depict IHOP’s sugary entrees as a cause of obesity (and even though IHOP serves two of Men’s Health Magazine‘s 20 most unhealthy restaurant dishes). The IHOP is opening in a wealthy yuppie area where even  a tiny one-bedroom apartment rents for at least $1800 per month.

While HHS is busy subsidizing IHOP, another branch of HHS, the FDA, is trying to restrict the salt content of food, which could lead to increased obesity rates, more heart attacks, and “higher death rates among some individuals,” and make it harder to market low-fat foods. Ironically, if salt levels are curbed, people will compensate by eating fattier food, since there seems to be a trade-off between salt and fat.

A recent study funded by NIH (another branch of HHS) encouraged parents to stock their fridges with apple sauce (even though apple sauce has basically no nutrition unless vitamins are artificially added to it, since the natural vitamin C in an apple is largely destroyed when it is processed into apple sauce), while disparaging potatoes, which are rich in vitamin C, potassium, and various minerals.  (Disclosure: I participated in that study for $100).   (Baked potatoes are healthy, although some of potatoes’ vitamin C is lost when you process them into french fries.  Potatoes have much more vitamin C than bananas or apples.  And they have more potassium than supposedly potassium-rich bananas).

The federal government is now banning the use of WIC money by low-income mothers to buy white potatoes, while allowing the money to be used for a host of less nutritious foods.

Photo Credit: Ankur Gulati’s Flickr Photostream

The Story of Cosmetics: The Critique

by Richard Morrison on August 4, 2010 · 2 comments

in Video, Zeitgeist

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxO3bPNyWzo 285 234]

Regulation of the Day 125: Salt

by Ryan Young on March 11, 2010

in Health and Illness, Healthcare, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Regulation of the Day

Having eliminated all crime from New York’s streets, ended homelessness, rebuilt Ground Zero, and fixed the state’s ailing public schools, New York’s state legislature has set its sights on how much salt you eat.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg already has a plan to reduce NYC residents’ salt intake by 25 percent over five years. But State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) thinks that doesn’t go nearly far enough. And it only covers New York City, for starters. The rest of the state’s salt intake would remain perilously unregulated under the Bloomberg plan.

That’s why Mr. Ortiz has introduced statewide legislation that would “make it illegal for restaurants to use salt in the preparation of food. Period.”

A $1,000 fine would accompany each violation.

Tom Colicchio, who owns a restaurant and has appeared on the television show Top Chef, is livid. He told the New York Daily News that “New York City is considered the restaurant capital of the world. If they banned salt, nobody would come here anymore… Anybody who wants to taste food with no salt, go to a hospital and taste that.”

He’s right; the salt ban does offend culinary decency. But there’s another angle that’s at least as important: personal responsibility.
If I want to pile on the salt, as Mayor Bloomberg famously does, that’s my right. But I also need to be liable for the consequences. If chronic salt over-consumption gives me high blood pressure and heart trouble, that’s my fault. I should pay the cost.

But that’s not how the current health care system works. We suffer from the 12-cent problem: on average, people only pay 12 cents for every dollar of health care they consume. Roughly 50 cents are picked up by the government, and insurers cover the rest.
That means people have less incentive to watch what they eat than under a more honest system. Why not rack up huge health care bills? Everyone else is paying for me. Health care on sale! 88 percent off!

Freedom cannot exist without responsibility. Decades of government encroachments in health care have taken away a lot of our responsibility for health care decisions. So it makes some sense that Mr. Ortiz would finish the job by taking away peoples’ freedom to eat what they want.

A better solution would be to have both freedom and responsibility, instead of neither. Ban the salt ban. Give people more control over their health care dollars. Let us be free. Let us be responsible. We’re all adults here. Treat us as such, Mr. Ortiz.

Regulation of the Day 117: Hot Dogs

by Ryan Young on February 23, 2010 · 1 comment

in Health and Illness, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Regulation of the Day

Hot dogs are delicious. Especially if you don’t think too hard about what they’re made of. Kids love them. So do adults. With baseball’s spring training already underway, consumption of the national pastime’s unofficial food is set to skyrocket in the coming months.

All is not sunshine, happiness, and home runs, though. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention thinks that hot dogs are dangerous, calling them a “high-risk food.” They are a choking hazard for children.

“We know what shape, sizes and consistencies pose the greatest risk for choking in children and whenever possible food manufacturers should design foods to avoid those characteristics, or redesign existing foods when possible, to change those characteristics to reduce the choking risk,” said Dr. Gary Smith… “Any food that has a cylindrical or round shape poses a risk,” he pointed out.

Dr. Smith also wants mandatory warning label regulations for all hot dog packaging. But nobody seems to be asking: Just how big is the risk here?

According to WebMD, 66 to 77 children under 10 die every year from choking on food in the U.S. That’s out of more than 42,000,000 children under 10, according to my calculations from U.S. Census data.

That means your child’s odds of choking to death on food are about 1 in 545,000. And that’s assuming 77 deaths, the high end of the range. Little Timmy is literally more likely to be struck by lightning (1 in 500,000) than choke to death on a hot dog.

That’s the level of threat we’re dealing with. Treat it that way.

Our children face far greater threats than mere hot dogs. Instead of advocating hot dog safety regulations of dubious benefit, the AAP should rethink its priorities. They should focus on where they can do the most good, instead of where they can do the most nothing.

VIDEO: Healthcare Reform Ideas from the Other Washington

by Richard Morrison on July 29, 2009

in Culture, Healthcare, Regulation, Zeitgeist

John Barnes at the Washington Policy Center (motto: “Improving Lives Through Market Solutions”) passes on a 3-video series about the fight over healthcare “reform” we’re all part of:

As our government considers a serious overhaul of our health care system and even a public insurance plan, it is essential that the public understands how more government involvement will impact accessibility, affordability, and quality. Under the direction of Dr. Roger Stark, a retired surgeon with over thirty years of medical experience, Washington Policy Center has launched its 2009 Federal Health Care Reform Project.

As part of this project, WPC created these three short, informative health care videos detailing the current state of health care in the U.S., Congress’ proposed reforms, and practical solutions to the health care crisis. Click on the images above to watch the videos. Health care reform is far too important of an issue to be settled outside of the public light.

Watch them here:

The Problem:

The Plan:

The Solution:

LibertyWeek 47: Persian Powder Keg

by Richard Morrison on June 15, 2009

in CEI Projects, Podcast

Your host Richard Morrison welcomes back guest co-host Jeremy Lott and special guest Greg Conko for Episode 47. We start with the new Obama-Geithner plan for expanding regulation of financial markets, the protests over the disputed presidential election in Iran and the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of telemarketing robocalls. We then move on to the “beer bikes” of Amsterdam and some potentially scandalous investment choices made by Sen. Dick Durban. Finally, we talk health care with CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko, covering President Obama’s address to the American Medical Association and the recent Forbes article in which Greg and Dr. Henry I. Miller describe what an ObamaCare plan might actually look like (hint: it won’t be pretty).

Chicken soup for the soul — and high blood pressure

by Fran Smith on October 17, 2008

in Agriculture, Precaution & Risk

A food and health tip for these trying times: we all know that chicken soup is good for the soul . . . and for colds, but now new research shows that chicken soup may lower high blood pressure.

Seems that collagen proteins found in chicken can have this medicinal effect. In a recent study Japanese researchers fed collagen proteins to rats, which lowered their blood pressure and acted similarly to ACE inhibitor blood pressure medications.

Here’s a bonus — a chicken soup joke:

At Jerry’s wake, as his family moved to the coffin to pray for his soul, an old granny shouted from the back “Feed him chicken soup!” She repeated this shout a few times before somebody spoke up, “But Jerry’s dead — chicken soup won’t help him.”

“It can’t hurt him!” piped granny.

Green Spin and Bottled Water

by Angela Logomasini on October 15, 2008 · 1 comment

in Environment, Precaution & Risk

Americans are well aware of the power of political “spin” during election years. But political spin is nothing compared to “green spin,” perpetrated by environmental activists at the Environmental Working Group (EWG). They issued a report with data showing that bottled water is a safe option for consumers, but the group’s hype suggests the opposite.

The EWG-produced data demonstrate only trace levels of certain chemicals, all of which fall below very stringent levels that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration have found  safe.  Environmentalists, basically condemn the water by demanding absolute purity, something that simply does not exist in the physical world. The real issue should be whether our food and water pose more than negligible risks. This study shows that bottled water risks are below negligible.  CEI research on the topic shows further that bottled water is recommended by both EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a safe alternative to tap for those with compromised immune systems. Moreover, CDC surveillance data show that tap water suffers from more disease outbreaks than does bottled water.

Bottled water provides consumers with a healthy, convenient, and portable beverage option. Despite activist claims that bottled water is nothing but bottled tap water, about 75 percent of the water comes from springs and underground water sources. Only about 25 percent comes from municipal systems, much of which undergoes additional purification. Consumers can read the bottle label or call companies if they want to learn about the water source. If the bottle is unclear, they can simply pick another. I am hard pressed to find a bottle on the a store shelf without such information, contrary to claims made by the EWG.

Environmental activists have been using such spin to promote taxes and regulation on the bottled water industry, undermining consumer choice and access to a healthy beverage option. Unfortunately, misguided lawmakers are implementing taxes and bans on water.

Cheney Diagnosed with an Abnormal Heart Rhythm

by Richard Morrison on October 15, 2008 · 1 comment

in Healthcare

The 67-year old Vice President will be undergoing an outpatient procedure — an electrical shock — to restore his normal rhythm today at George Washington University Hospital.

You’d think with a Vice President with a history of heart trouble and so many Americans suffering from chronic heart disease and sudden cardiac episodes, the Food and Drug Administration would get around to approving safe, reliable medical devices like the cardiopump.

What’s the cardiopump, you ask? Let’s let a certain Volokh brother explain:

The cardiopump, manufactured by Ambu International of Denmark, is a modest device. It weighs a mere pound and a half and looks like a modified toilet plunger, with a pliable cup that fits onto the heart-attack victim’s chest and a combination hand- grip/pressure gauge instead of the wooden handle. Manual CPR exerts downward pressure on the chest, but the chest has to re- expand naturally. The cardiopump can apply pressure in both directions. Says Dr. Jeffrey Shultz of the University of Minnesota: “It turns the chest into a bellows. It allows you to pull blood back into the heart and air back into the lungs.”

Despite being approved abroad in countries such as France and Israel and showing promise in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the government has stonewalled action for so long that the manufacturer is no longer pursuing regulatory approval. So the next time you feel that tell-tale tightness in your chest, thank the FDA for one less tool that doctors could have used to save your life.