If it aint broke, don’t fix it. This is the homespun wisdom Ken Coburn is imparting to the Secretary of Health and Human Services after learning Medicare is cutting funds for his program, Health Quality Partners, seemingly, because they can. The program, based out of Doylesville, Pennsylvania, provides weekly nurse visits to Medicare patients who have at least one chronic disease and one hospitalization within the past year. It’s a program that was approved by Medicare and extended, with great success, but now due to confusing bureaucratic lingo, the program is slated to be discontinued in June.

Patients with chronic illnesses including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and even AIDS require long term care management. There is often no cure for a chronic diagnosis, but with medication, lifestyle change and other interventions, people are living longer than they did at the turn of the century. While some programs utilize crowded nurse call centers in different states for care management, the Health Quality Partners model of getting nurses out in the field to visit patients was revolutionary and the results, undeniable.

According to Mathematica Policy Research, the independent evaluator hired by Medicare to judge programs, Health Quality Partners reduced hospitalizations by 33 percent and cut Medicare costs by 22 percent.

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We, as a society, are far too sedentary. We hear more and more than we’re killing ourselves by sitting and that the least amount of exercise we can get away with each week is 150 minutes, or 30 minutes on five days a week. Most people balk at that, citing that even a brief half hour most days is too much for their chaotic schedules. Could new research from the University of Alabama help you squeeze in a workout?

Four workouts each week might be all you need, according to the study just published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. The study found that, amongst women ages 60-74, that they were getting as much out of a workout, if not more, by doing so four times per week than those doing more or even less. In the group that did three aerobic workouts and three resistance workouts per week, they did not train any better than their counterparts, completing two of each type of workout each week.

Fitness expert Jessica Smith balks slightly at the study results, suggesting they could be misleading.

“I would agree that you can do less ‘working out’ in one week (4 vs. 6 sessions), but I worry that this kind of a headline will make people think that they can just hit the gym four days a week and then be sedentary the rest of the time.”
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Alzheimer’s: The word conjures up scary thoughts of slowly losing your memory as you become a shell of your former self. Experts project that diagnoses of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the primary cause, will triple worldwide by 2050. But scientists tell us that preventative measures can go a long way in protecting the brain from memory loss diseases, and they are as simple as doing things like making changes in your diet.

Here are 10 super foods that work to boost brain power and, in turn, lessen your chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. No one food has been shown to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, but healthy eating habits appear to be one of the top factors in lowering your risk for developing Alzheimer’s or dementia.

1. Wild Salmon, Tuna, Sardines (Omega-3 Fatty Acids)
The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week because it contains vital omega-3 fatty acids. These good fats help the body function properly and may slow cognitive decline by 10 percent, studies show.

“The main concept is that a diet rich in Omega 3 fatty acids creates BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor), a protein between nerve cells that helps increase the strength between connections,” said Michael Gonzalez-Wallace, author of “Super Body Super Brain.” Trout, mackerel, and herring are also good choices, and taking a fish oil vitamin can also help your body obtain this much-needed nutrient.
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Kirstie Alley approached the new year like a lot of us, by making resolutions. But unlike most who just whisper them in to the abyss of new year’s night, Kirstie puts pen to paper.

“I always sit down with a little notebook and I make many resolutions,” she said. She won’t name them because of superstition, but makes them regarding every aspect of her life. She lives by them for the year, but more than resolutions, Kirstie says, “I map out a game plan for everything I do.”

I recently sat down with Kirstie in her luxuriously comfortable home in the heart of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Wichita, Kansas; her home away from LA. We spent just over an hour casually talking about childhood obesity, her healthy lifestyle, chemicals in our foods, and of course her company Organic Liaison. To answer the question on most people’s minds – yes, she looked fantastic!

“I’m not skinny minnie, I look good if I’m wearing stretchy sixes or a genuine size six (which 20 years ago would have been a genuine size 8),” she told me.

She celebrated her 62nd birthday last week during a special appearance on Entertainment Tonight looking younger and better than ever. Of course, I had to ask, how does she do it, because it wasn’t just the cameras!

“I’m really happy, and that’s sort of the biggest key,” she said. Kirstie noted that she’s not a drinker, she thinks alcohol can really age a person, and that she’s always taken really good care of her skin, having stopped being a “total sun worshipper” at 25.

Now she worships energy and organic eating, and there’s no doubt that’s playing a role in slowing the aging process for her.
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Talk of the fiscal cliff and ObamaCare makes me worry about my overweight friends. I fear it’s only a matter of time before they are blamed for dragging down the economy. Obesity is a huge expense, and unlike other costly health problems, obesity is in plain view.

Today, just over one third of Americans has a Body Mass Index of 30 or more, the obesity range. Per-capita medical spending for those individuals is 150 percent higher than for those who are not obese. The Institute of Medicine and other experts estimate the United States spends between $150 and $190 billion a year on obesity-related problems. Spending is driven by prescription drugs and medical procedures for heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and the other chronic diseases of obesity and by days missed from work and the long-term disability that commonly occurs. When public funds from Medicare and Medicaid pay the bill, everyone is impacted, but even when public funds are not involved, everyone pays higher insurance premiums to cover the cost.

Few of us realize that the U.S. health care reform law of 2010 (ObamaCare) allows employers to charge obese workers 30 to 50 percent more for health insurance if they decline to participate in a qualified wellness program. A growing number of companies have begun to make obese workers enroll in weight loss programs or pay higher insurance premiums. For instance, state workers in Alabama are subjected to at-work weigh-ins and body fat tests. Anyone with a BMI of 35 or more must attempt to lose weight or have $25 automatically deducted from their paychecks. To opt out of the weigh-ins, one can accept the $25 deduction.
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