Has the Alcohol, excuse me, “Beverage” Industry hoodwinked us?

June 16th, 2008 by jguard

I am absolutely shocked, right down to me knickers, that the majority (so far it’s a vocal 8 to 2) of WIS users do not believe that alcohol is a cancer causing agent. The world’s medical establishment is in unanimous agreement that alcohol behind tobacco is one the greatest scurges to hit humanity, including all the cancers it seems to fuel and start. Want some facts?

According to the EU Commission for Health, alcohol related health problems cost the continent 124 Billion Euros annually, alcohol is a direct contributor to over 60 diseases including a wide range of cancers, and there seems to be no abatement in sight.

Alcohol is also by no means only a severe health problem in the “modernised” world. According the World Health Organisation:

Globally alcohol consumption has increased in recent decades, with all or most of that increase in developing countries. This increase is often occurring in countries with little tradition of alcohol use on population level and few methods of prevention, control or treatment. The rise in alcohol consumption in developing countries provides ample cause for concern over the possible advent of a matching rise in alcohol-related problems in those regions of the world most at risk. Alcohol is estimated to cause about 20-30% worldwide of oesophageal cancer, liver cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, homicide, epilepsy, and motor vehicle accidents.

There are more frightening statistics, but i think the point is established, alcohol is a ticking time bomb–yet we all seem to be in some kind of mass denial about it. I’m not saying let’s ban it, but what Do we do?..the one burning question I have is how has the alcohol industry avoided the worldwide condemnation that tobacco is currently experiencing?

Will alcohol eventually have its day in court like big tobacco? Once non-smoking Americans or Chinese or Europeans start dying in droves from alcohol-only related cancers of the mouth, liver and ass, will this finally be the green light for worldwide government institution to attack the industry with an unsparing vengeance?

I’m by no means neither a teetollar nor a lush, it just astounds me how successful the alcoholic beverage makers have become at distancing themselves from the tobacco industry while lulling us into a complacency about ingesting copious amounts of toxin. The “self-regulated” advertising, marketing and packaging is absolutely genius. I remember doing a copywriting gig for a make of bourbon vanilla infused Cognac; I had to romanticise the history of vanilla while never using the world alcohol in the marketing materials, not once.

The evidence is mounting, I wonder how much longer it will be until we read about landmark cases where the alcoholic industry has to pay Millions upon Billions into health pensions for the 60 or so related diseases their products cause in society.

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Patient Power: Managing your open heart surgery in the UK

June 14th, 2008 by jguard

I cannot rave enough about the National Health Services website from the UK.

Just a brief overview, it’s a service agency charged with providing crucial information about health, healthcare services and medicines to the general population.  In the UK, one has the option of using the national insurance system which provides subsidised medical care for all or if money is not an option, one can opt out and buy private care.  

If, like most of the UK, you use public care, you can actually do quite a bit in the way of preparation.  One of the arguments American Republicans make about universal healthcare coverage is that is it substandard to the “efficiencies” of healthcare in a capitalist market (although, I’ve yet to meet a republican who could adequetly explain why the US spends far and above more per citizen on healthcare than any other nation, and still have a lower survival rates than countries with universal healthcare) because there is no accountability or competition.

Anyway, to dispel that stereotype, in the UK, you can actually wield an enormous amount of power in planning for your surgery.  Let’s say for instance, your GP has told you that you will need a coronary artery bypass, stat.  You can go online to the NHS website, and under the toggle “Compare Hospitals” can actually compare the hospitals in in any vicinity to see how they compare to the surgery that will be performed on you.

Let’s say I lived in the Ealing Area of Greater London (W130); I’m given 5 choices with a plethora of critical information that run the range of every possible question you could think of from how long is the wait at that hospital, the ratings from other patients of that hospital, the amount of surgeries that have been performed in that hospital, the rate of hospital infections patients contract.  It’s all there, easy to read, easy to interpret and best of all, designed to give me the absolute assurance that I’m choosing the best hospital with the best doctors for my surgery.  

The great thing about this comparative analysis of hospitals is the level of accountability.  The NHS trust dispenses funding that is directly tied to the level of performance by the hospital, kind of like “Leave no Patient Behind.”  It also becomes obvious which hospitals are horrendous and those that are doing some impressive things.This is a powerful example of how the patient/physician paradigm has changed.  

Patients more than ever now have the power under a universal healthcare paradigm to decide who they want operating on their body–and doctors are are awarded with higher bonuses, better facilities, better teams when they deliver exemplary performance.Yet again, another reason why America should have universal health coverage.

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