Getting real with calories disability and the 30-lb-turkey

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Let’s get rid of that “30-lb-turkey” and make our lives with disability easier

30-lb-turkey, it's hard to carry that around all day

Part two of a four three part series on losing weight sensibly for everyone but especially those living with disabilities who have limited mobility. The goal is to make our life with a disability easier and healthier.

The easiest way to lose weight is stop eating as much. Maintaining a balanced diet on reduced calories is the best way to lose weight, period.

Yesterday in Losing weight when you have a disability we covered the “30-lb-turkey” we are carrying when we are above our ideal weight. How’s that turkey feeling today, a little heavy?

The standard stuff about losing weight through exercise or joining Jenny Craig doesn’t cut it for those with disabilities.

First, most of us are already doing whatever we can physically and moderate exercise only tones muscles bu does not reduce the “30-lb-turkey”.

Second, Jenny Craig and those weight loss programs are not geared to people with disabilities. They give you really impossible suggestions. No problem. Exercise isn’t needed.

Continue reading →

Losing weight when you have a disability

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Stephen Pate

It’s not easy, but losing weight will make life better and may extend our lifespan

Stephen Pate at 220+ lbs, morbidly obese with a disability

Living with disability and weight gain often go hand in hand but they are a killer combination. Being the right weight can make everyday with a disability better.

Part one of a four three part series on losing weight sensibly for everyone but especially those living with disabilities who have limited mobility

I knew I was in trouble when I weighed 220 + lbs at 5’7″ and couldn’t walk anymore.

“Go to the grocery store and get a 30 lb turkey,” my physiotherapist one day. “Carry it around all day for a week.”

“I can’t do that!” I protested. “My arms will only carry 25 lbs.”

“Well, you’re carrying at least 60 lbs too much on those legs every day. You need to get your weight under control,” she replied firmly.

She was right. I was actually carrying 65 lbs too much. At 29 years old, I only weighed 129 lbs.

210 lbs was too high but I excused it with “What can I do? I can’t exercise because of fatigue and muscle pain.”

All that extra weight was making post polio syndrome worse. Extra weight is a no-no for neuro-muscular disabilities including MS, MD, post-polio, stroke and all the disabilities that affect walking or muscle movement.

Continue reading →

In Dialysis, Life-Saving Care at Great Risk and Cost

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Byline

Although the technology to keep kidney patients alive through dialysis had arrived, it was still unattainable for all but a lucky few.

Patient on dialysis (image Razor Gator)

by Robin Fields, ProPublica
In 1972, after a month of deliberation, Congress launched the nation’s most ambitious experiment in universal health care: a change to the Social Security Act that granted comprehensive coverage under Medicare to virtually anyone diagnosed with kidney failure, regardless of age or income.

It was a supremely hopeful moment. Although the technology to keep kidney patients alive through dialysis had arrived, it was still unattainable for all but a lucky few. At one hospital, a death panel — or “God committee” in the parlance of the time — was deciding who got it and who didn’t. The new program would help about 11,000 Americans, just for starters. For a modest initial price tag of $135 million, it would cover not only their dialysis and transplants, but all of their medical needs. Some consider it the closest that the United States has come to socialized medicine.

Now, almost four decades later, a program once envisioned as a model for a national health care system has evolved into a hulking monster. Taxpayers spend more than $20 billion a year to care for those on dialysis — about $77,000 per patient, more, by some accounts, than any other nation. Yet the United States continues to have one of the industrialized world’s highest mortality rates for dialysis care. Even taking into account differences in patient characteristics, studies suggest that if our system performed as well as Italy’s, or France’s, or Japan’s, thousands fewer patients would die each year. Continue reading →

One in two of us affected by disability

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Toronto Rehab strikes a pose on big problem of disability

Ontario Rehab flash mob campaign for disability awareness (photo Toronto Rehab)

Toronto Rehab is conducting a unique flash mob campaign to raise awareness of disability. 1 in 2 will be touched by disability, “either personally or in their immediate family.” (video after the story break)

In Toronto, the flash mobs have been doing street theatre with people in t-shirts marker “1″ and “2″ to illustrate how pervasive disability is.

“We want to take the campaign to the streets at a grassroots level, in addition to more formal channels,” Jennifer Ferguson, vice-president of marketing & communications, explained in a phone interview.

“Reactions were mixed – some people just walk on by, but others stop and take a moment to look and read, and told their friends “there’s something weird going on,” she added. (City TV News) Continue reading →

Independent living for seniors with disabilities better and less costly

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Seniors with disabilities should have the choice of living independently

Disability is a fact of life for seniors. About 40% of seniors in Canada have one or more disabilities. They need assistive devices and home care to remain living independent in their homes. In the first of a four part series we explore home care as an option for seniors with disabilities.

The lack of disability supports for seniors is forcing them into institutions. When they can no longer cope at home because they are too disabled, the system is geared to institutionalize them. Warehousing seniors with disabilities is an old model of how to solve the problem.

Continue reading →

Federal Agency Failed to Report Disciplined Providers to National Database

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Byline

The federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid contributed to gaps in a national database of disciplined health care providers when it failed to report disciplinary actions as required by law, a new investigation found.

by Marian Wang ProPublica

Significant gaps in the decades-old database came to light earlier this year when ProPublica found that many states hadn’t been reporting disciplinary actions taken against doctors, nurses, therapists and other health practitioners as required.

But the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency that’s part of the Department of Health and Human Services, essentially undermined its own department’s efforts to manage and maintain the federal database.

The new investigation was conducted by the department’s inspector general. It found that CMS, which oversees health care programs serving about 45 million Medicare beneficiaries and 59 million Medicaid beneficiaries, took disciplinary action against numerous bad medical providers but did not report those actionsto the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank. Continue reading →

Controversial MS treatment works for Island woman

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Despite lack of support from Health Canada and medical establishment Donna Farrell feels better

Donna Farrell feels better after Zamboni treatments (photo Eastern Graphic)

A Peters Road woman traveled to Poland to get the controversial treatment for MS and says she feels better. The trip and treatment cost her more than $9,000 but she doesn’t regret it.

The MS Society, Health Canada and Health PEI did not support her operation.

“I just know I feel great. I’m a lot happier.” Mrs Farrell told the Eastern Graphic

Donna Farrell contracted MS in 1997 and the disease made her fatigued, often in pain and created a walking disability.

She now feels energized a month after the treatment, walks without a cane and has less pain. She is taking physiotherapy to make her leg muscles and tendons more flexible after years of little use.

“I could feel the blood pumping through my body,” Mrs Farrell said about the operation’s effects.
Continue reading →

Obesity In Later Life Leads To Increased Risks Of Disability

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Byline

But not of dying and to a ticking time bomb for health and social services

Editor: Obesity can make disability worse for neuromuscular disabilities which have skeletal problems or muscular weakness as a factor. Carrying extra weight with hip problems, MS, MD or post polio syndrome makes the disability more severe.

Imagine carrying around a 30 lb turkey in your arms all day. That’s the same as being 30 lbs overweight. The puzzle is that the disability encourages inactivity thereby increasing the likelihood of weight gain. Rigorous control of food intake is a practical answer. Continue reading →

700 children born with genetic disabilities due to cousin marriages every year

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Byline

Intra-family marriage is dangerous as it increases risk if genetic defects

Research shows the number of cousin marriages has risen dramatically in the UK over the last three decades image: ALAMY

By Rebecca Lefort, Telegraph.co.uk

The problem is worst among children born in Britain’s Pakistani community, where more than half of marriages are between first cousins, and children are 10 times more likely than the general population to suffer genetic disorders.

The medical risks of first cousin marriages include higher rates of infant mortality, birth defects, learning difficulties, blindness, hearing problems and metabolic disorders.

As adults, the children born from first cousin marriages are at increased risk of miscarriage or infertility. A third of children affected die before their fifth birthday. Continue reading →

Disability Community Needs PALS in 2011

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Byline

Scrapped mandatory census cuts even deeper for disability advocacy group

Laurie Beachell, national co-ordinator of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities

Council of Canadians with Disabilities – Statistics Canada’s Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) is the most important and comprehensive source of disability statistics in Canada and is seen as a best practice model internationally. CCD is concerned that Human Resources Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) has not yet committed funding for a PALS for the 2011 census.

It is crucial that PALS continue so that governments and community have the information and research needed to develop good policy and programs. It should be noted that upon ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Canada will be obligated to collect data on the socioeconomic status of persons with disabilities.

PALS and its predecessor HALS have been, and remain, extremely valuable survey tools. No other survey provides the range and depth of statistically reliable information about:

Continue reading →