More Ron Paul Videos & A Review of My Stock Picks

Ron Paul on Health Reform and the Economy

Here's another fantastic interview with Congressman Ron Paul, MD on the Democrat's plan for health care reform, the individual's right to health care, and the costs of a governmental single-payer system.

"They've never been right on projections of medical programs," referring to his colleagues in Congress, "they're always off by 100%, 200%. It always costs a lot more."

If viewing in a reader click through to view the video.

Read the whole story at Yahoo's Tech Ticker

...and while I'm at it check out his answers to the economy and what he would and wouldn't have done had he won the presidential races rather than Obama.



Read the story here.

My Stock Picks

By the way, I know I haven't been providing monthly stock picks as I have in the past. This is mostly because I want to come up with a better way to do it. I have however been following up on my picks from last Spring and Summer.

I had a few months of horrific picks (Oct '07, Nov. '07, Jan. '08, & May '08) but as my mindset on the economy started to change as the summer kicked in last year my selections started beating the market as they did before the crisis. I'm fairly proud of that even though I too got sucked into the decline thoroughly in the very begging peaking with my terrible results from my January 2008 selections which dropped a combined 52.3 percent.

Take a look at my final results for the months, May 2008, June 2008, and July 2008 and you'll see a nice gradual return to my beating the market. Even in all of the subsequent months since July 2008, which still remain active, I'm beating the overall market, that's seven months of selections in a row. My choices definitely look pretty good despite the complete market collapse in the Fall of 2008. :)

One day in the hopefully near future I'll iron out a new way of tracking my stock picks. When that time comes I'll let you know here.

My Simple Way To Prevent Coffee Jitters

Over the past month I've found that coffee has been affecting me much more than it ever has before. I've even been eating breakfast in the morning and I still am feeling uncomfortably jittery by noon despite not drinking any more coffee than I have drunk in the past. It's been uncomfortable.

Additionally I've known for quite some time now, maybe a few years that if I don't have coffee in the morning I start getting terrible headaches in the afternoon and if I wait to long before indulging in the beautiful sludge then the headache will not wane but only get stronger.

I've decided to combat this by limiting my coffee intake.

Flor tells me that this is the first step in fighting an addiction; admitting you have a problem.

Well, OK. I guess I'm not as young as I used to be. I can't eat greasy burritos at 1am anymore and I guess I can't drink too much coffee anymore either.

Starting this morning I'm dumbing down my coffee with half decaf. At home I don't have any decaf so I will have to go buy some and mix the grind up. Maybe I'll look into Folgers’s 1/2 and 1/2 blend.

Anyway, I'll definitely have to update this situation as my experiment sets in. Hopefully I won't be too grumpy without it. :)

More Tips For Living A Longer And Healthier Life

According to Best Life magazine March 2008 you can increase your chances for a longer and healthier life quite easily.. except for that farming lifestyle in Old McDonald listed below of course. Enjoy the following info!

Arm Yourself

"Doing bicep curls can increase your life span. Men who have the highest muscle mass in their upper arms are 36% less likely to die from any cause of death than those with smaller arm muscles according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition."

It's a shame my arms are puny. I have been itching to get a new set of dumb bells though. Here's to long life!

Vein Event

"Having blood clots nearly doubles your risk of having a stroke or heart attack within the next year according to a study published in the Lancet. Long periods of inactivity, being overweight, and smoking all increase the risk of getting blood clots, but a new study found that participating in a sports activity just once a week regardless of the type of sport or intensity reduces the risk of developing blood clots in a lung artery by 46% and in a leg artery by 24%."

Bowling? Did I hear someone say bowling?

Cancer Trigger

"More than 62 million computed tomography (CT) scans are performed in the United States every year, but a study in the New England Journal of Medicine warns that the increased exposure to radiation from CT scans could be responsible for up to 2% of all cancers in the future. If you must have a CT scan, eat plenty of bran and languans. Researchers from the University of Maryland found that antioxidant compounds found in these foods can protect DNA from radiation damage."

Also another reason health insurance is getting more expensive... too many unnecessary procedures.

Raise Another Glass To Your Health

"Turns out, your heart isn't the only organ that reaps benefits from drinking adult beverages in moderation. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Center in California followed 178,000 people for 9 years and found that drinking 1 or 2 glasses a day but not more of wine, beer, or liquor translates to a 20% reduction in the risk of developing lung disease including Asthma, Emphysema, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, the lung protective benefits are the same for smokers and non-smokers."

Excellent news for those of us who love to drink just about anything in moderation.

Old McDonald

"If you want to live to 100, buy yourself a farm and start procreating, that's the message from a new study based on data from World War I draft registration records. Researchers from the University of Chicago's Center on Aging found that having more than 3 children increases the man's chances of living to 100 by nearly 300% and farmers are more than twice as likely to become centurions than are city dwelling peers."

I've always wanted to live to 100 but I'm not sure I'll go to this extent. Maybe I'll just accidentally have 3 kids and plant a garden in my backyard. :)

Update 5/28/2009: If you liked this post I think you'll like a website called How To Live A Longer Life. This site is packed with tips just like these and many others. Everything is cross referenced and sortable and much is based on the studies featured in Best Life magazine.

Simple Ways To Stay Young - Tips From Best Life Magazine

Best Life Magazine has been my favorite magazine for a while now. I've been a subscriber for a little over two years and I devour the magazine in a aday or two each time it arrives in the mail. I then proceed to reread a lot of the content throughout the month as I take it to work with me and lay it on my bed side table for bed time reading.

One of my favorite pages in the magazine is their Age Erasers - The Science of Staying Young section. I have a fondness for simple things and longevity so this section caters specifically to me as they feature between 5-10 easy things every month that help you stay young. For the sake of my enjoyment of this section I think I'm just going to regurgitate them from time to time here on my blog. So without furth ado, here some Age Erasers as stated from the Sept. '07 issue.

1. "Taking too many vitamins increases your risk for fatal prostate cancer. A recent study conducted by the National Cancer Institue followed almost 300,000 men over five years and found that those who took multivitamins more than once a day along with additional supplements of zinc, beta-carotene, or selenium nearly doubled their risk for fatal prostate cancer. Despite the dangers of high doses, there was no risk associated with men who took a multivitamin once a day." (This is nice to know since I take a One-A-Day men's health multivitamin)
2. "10% of deaths in America are caused by a sedentary lifestyle, according to Harvey B. Simon, MD, editor of the Harvard Men's Health Watch. He says that fewer than 25% of Americans get the excercise they need and suggets that walking one to three miles a day can give you the same health benefits as a cardio-heavy aerobic workout." (This too is nice to know as I bowl a couple times a week and walk to lunch at work often. Flor and I also just got an elliptical for the home so I think I'm doing OK.)
3. "1.6% - Percentage of reduction in brain volume in people who have more than 14 drinks per week, according to neuroscientists at Wellsley College, MA." (I am pushing this limit as a bottle of wine has about 5 glasses worth split between me and my lady that's about 2 1/2 on a nights dinner with a bottle of wine. A few wines a week and I'm more than halfway there. Not to worry though, I don't need that extra 1.6% brain volume anyway.)

Our Amazing Yet Complicated Bodies

I really enjoy reading Healthbolt.net as that blog continually digs up very interesting medical stories every day. Two stories linked to today I found particularly interesting. I had a Windows Vista moment after reading them both. Wow!

The first article was Treating The Dead. This is about recent discoveries pointing to heart attack victims not dying because of lack of oxygen to the cells for 10-15 minutes but dying because of the reintroduction of oxygen to the cells after 10-15 minutes. This is kind of like when you sit on your leg for a bit and then get up. Your leg is weak for a spell and then you get the pins and needles feeling. If it's bad you can hardly stand let alone walk. Its the reintroduction of oxygen to cells that have been deprived.

The second is the discovery of a Gene Linked to Longer Life Span. This gene is activated in adults (animals) when the subject has a restricted caloric diet. The animal must not be starved but the amount of food eating must be 50% less than average. In clinical studies animals of various types have been found to live up to 40-50% longer lives when this gene is activated. Tests are currently going on in primates and if proven in primates could bode well for humans. I've been reading CRON Diary regularly and she voluntarily restricts her calories in an attempt to add years to her life. This gene discovery is an interesting scientific argument backing up her lifestyle and the lifestyle of calorie restriction.

Are There ANY Anti-Aging Doctors Out There?

I am calling my (a) doctor today to schedule my first check-up in who knows how long. I've been putting this off for a few months now... ever since my string of visits to the dentist back in January and February. Now it's time to get the rest of me checked out.

I came across this article 'Age management' is a controversial new medical focus linked from a CR Diary's recent post on the new and strangely controversial medical focus of 'Age Management' or 'Preventative Medicine'. 

Being interested in longevity I read on and clicked through to another linked article: The secret of living to 100 and found the website: Living To 100.

According to their calculator I am on pace to hit 81 and I can raise the bar close to 90 by doing some basic things. One of which is getting my check ups regularly. My life expectancy appears is growing as we speak. :)

Anyway, I think more doctors should get onto the bandwagon of Preventative Medicine and more people should think of doctors in this light too. A doctor shouldn't be there to just treat problems but to help prevent problems from ever cropping up. To quote the movie Patch Adams:

We need to start treating the patient as well as the disease.

Updated 6/29/09:
For those who are interested in similar topics I'd invite you to take a look at How To Live A Longer Life for some relevant information on disease prevention and longevity.

Fight Cancer before You Get It

Considering my last post I thought this article from Healthbolt.net was of particular relevance. Eating your berries consistently can help fend off cancer and keep it from ever attacking in the first place.

Eat strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. They all contain phytochemicals that appear to reduce cancer risk. Those chemicals apparently block metabolic pathways associated with cancer development. They also contain antioxidants in anthocyanins, a substance that gives them their great blue, red and shiny black colors. Every week you should eat one to two servings (one serving equals one half cup).

There you go. Maybe I'll have to do this from time to time and expect a longer, healthier life.

The Economics of Medicine - What's Lacking

So Flor introduced me to a really interesting blog yesterday called Medicine and Economics. Being interested in Economics and the fiscal side of just about everything I began reading and decided to start at the beginning of the blogs archives, August 2006.

This post is very interesting as it is about the industries lack of the "Coke" or "Walmart" branded health care option. The author brings up the point that Walmart and Coke bring basic products that people want and sometimes need to the general public for a small price and extreme convenience whereas health care is not offered for low cost and high convenience anywhere.

I find this post even more interesting because I was just talking to Flor one day ago about the need for speedy high volume, low margin health care procedures.

Now I was at the time thinking about high cost specialized procedures such as CAT Scans, etc. but this same model works even better for small stuff such as "my kids ear hurts", or "what does this rash look like to you", or "does this finger look broken or jammed?"

Basic medical checkups should follow the Walmart approach, high volume traffic, in-and-out, at razor thin margins. After all, this is the basic premise of capitalism. With high volume you serve more people and you can then stand proud that not only are you making money but you are doing a service to the entire community.

There are two good quotes from Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company:

"The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life. "

"There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible."

Why can't we apply these principals to medicine? ...and lets pay our Walmart employees a pinch more too while we're at it.

Can Too Much Zinc Make You Tired?

It's been a very busy time at work for me as of late. Today is no exception. This is the first time all day I took to relax a bit. I feel tired and beat up, which leads me to my subject question.

As I've begun to think more about my own health I've decided to delve into the practice of taking multivitamins and I have found that I am still feeling tired.

To satisfy my curiosity as to why I'm tired for no good reason I began poking around online and compiled the following information.

Zinc helps adults to get over colds in about 50% of the time they normally would.

Over the last week or so Flor has had a cold so I have been taking a daily zinc lozenge and a vitamin c pill in hopes of not getting a strong cold.

According to the above link, Zinc blocks the body from using Copper which allows the body to absorb Iron and an Iron deficiency is what causes fatigue in many people because, and I quote the above linked site:

With insufficient iron, adenosine triphosphate (ATP; the fuel the body runs on) cannot be properly synthesized. As a result, some iron-deficient people can become fatigued even when they are not anemic.

ATP!

Interestingly enough Flor has been teaching me all about ATP and how the body needs it to run efficiently so this jumped out at me.

Anyway, continuing on I decided to read the labels of my goods I've been taking and what do I find?

I find that As I've been taking a zinc lozenge and getting zinc from my multivitamin I now have 38mg of Zinc coming in every day compared to my minimum requirement of 11mg. This amounts to an approximate 3.5:1 ratio. I would hope that my copper ratio is the same but it is not. I'm getting 2mg compared to my minimum requirement of .9mg, a ratio of 2:1. That means that all that zinc is canceling out more copper and I'm consequently not absorbing Iron properly... right?

I think so at least.

Digging deeper I find that the multivitamin has no Iron in it at all so I'm poorly absorbing what little Iron I get by eating my sub sandwiches at lunch and my body is responding by not synthesizing my ATP properly and in turn making me feel fatigued.

To top all that off I also find that my tube of Airbourne to also help fight a cold before it comes also has Zinc in it compounding the problem even further. Whew! That was tiring all by itself.

OK, so long story short I guess I need to take in less zinc or take in more copper and iron. Maybe then I will start feeling more refreshed.

How To Calculate Your Daily Nutritional Requirements

I recently have been thinking a bit about my body and it's composition as it relates to my health and though I think I'm a pretty healthy guy I can't help but wonder how I might be healthier.

I've been visiting a site recently called NutritionData.com. I've found it really interesting and informative. I'd recommend to anyone to check it out at least.

Anyway, they have a tool on their site called ND's Daily Needs Calculator. This calculator asks for your sex, age, height, weight, and activity status (sedentary, somewhat active, active and very active) and they calculate what your rough Body Mass Index is, your daily calories burned is, and your recommended minimum daily nutritional needs are.

According to them after plugging in: 26, Male, 73 Inches, 145lbs, and "somewhat active" they say my BMI is 19.1, I burn 2,702 calories in the average day, and I need the the contents of the table to the right every day.

So what does this mean to me... well not a huge amount. Mostly I just find it interesting. I'm thinking about trying a one-a-day multivitamin. They seem to cover all of these for the most part. Some nutrients are slightly lacking compared to this chart but some are more plentiful. Regardless, it's probably better than continuing to take nothing at all. :)

Health, Cholesterol, and a new topic... longevity

When I was kid I always wanted to live to 100. I think the spark of interest was lit by an old lady in our church. I was very young, maybe 3 or so and there was this old lady in our church named Penny. she was 99 when she died but while she was still alive she fascinated me and I became convinced I was going to live old like her, even older than her! Twenty-some-odd years later nothing's really changed much. I'm still convinced that I'm going to live a long time but I've never really consciously attempted to live extra healthily in attempts to make sure I live long. Recently however the taught has been cropping up from time to time about what I can do to ensure a long lifespan and I'm beginning to think about doing what I can.

I've read in the past 2 months from about four different sources that oral hygiene is significant for lifelong health and not just that of your teeth and gums. Apparently the cleaner your teeth and gums are the smaller the chances of heart diseases and such. Anyway, I note this in particular without specifics because I've been in a dentist visiting period as of late as I have a couple cavities that I'm getting filled. Needless to say I've been much more diligent in my brushing, flossing and hope that I can remain as diligent in the future.

All of this is to say that I think I'm going to continue being interested in the concept of longevity or increasing ones lifespan and I will probably chronicle some of the various things that I find here in this blog.

Not to long ago I was looking for lists of medical things to be done to 20-something guys and found some decent stuff but since then I haven't seen the doctor so I will soon be making an appointment for a general checkup. According to the list I should be doing dental exams, which I'm currently doing, and should know my blood pressure, which is currently a healthy 120 over 80 but I should also know my cholesterol levels so maybe I'll ask my doctor to test those for me on my first visit just to know where I stand. According to consensus I should have over 60mg/dL HDL, low would be less than 40mg/dL; less than 100mg/dL LDL, high would be 160-190mg/dL; for a total of less than 200mg/dL cholesterol. Lastly Triglycerides should be less than 150mg/dL while high levels would be higher than 200mg/dL.

I guess once I get to the doctor I'll see where I stand. After all I probably won't live past 100 years of age if I don't make sure I'm safe when it comes to my cholesterol levels.

Medical Tests For Young Adult Men

So I haven't been to the dentist in quite a while so I thought I'd make an appointment today for sometime next week. As I was thinking about this I figured I should make an appointment to see a general doctor too seeing as though I've only been to one once in the last 6 years or so.

The thoughts on the doctor however were also inspired by an article in Best Life magazine, which I subscribe to. This is by far my favorite magazine these days by the way. Anyway, the article was entitled "The Best Medical Tests For Men". The article featured many different tests you should have performed in your thirties, forties, and fifties. It briefly described the tests and informed how often they should be performed.

I thought this was an excellent article but it mentioned nothing of a man in his twenties. I of course went on-line but I have been shocked to find that there is hardly anything on the subject matter for men at all let alone men in their twenties. I've found that most site say you should live a healthy lifestyle and see your doctor but nothing seems to say what I should see my doctor about. I don't even know what has been done to me in the past to checkup on!

I did however find the following on MebMD for health tests in all decades of life and descriptions of them all. They should be helpful even though some of these pages are designed for women.

I'm just going to have to start trying to formulate my own health maintenance regimen without the help of a to-do list guide. Stink. Anyway, I guess it's worth it, and maybe he'll magically make my neck stop hurting. The following are WebMDs health tests by decade:

Health tests in your 20s and 30s
Health tests in your 40s
Health tests in your 50s
Health tests in your 60s and up
Medical Tests A-Z

Tests for the thirties according to BestLife Magazine include:

• Fasting Blood Glucose (Once a year), 
• HIV ELISA/Western Blot (Once every 5 years), 
• Testicular Exam (Monthly Self-Exam), 
• Body Mass Index (Once every 3 years), 
• High-Sensitivity CRP & Homocysteine Test (Every 5 years), 
• Full Lipid Profile (At least once every 5 years), 
• Blood Pressure (Once a year), 
• and a Dental Exam (Twice a year). 

Further tests suggested by WebMD include:

• a Skin Exam (Once every 3 years), 
• an Eye Exam (Once every few years), 
• and a Check-up on Immunizations. 

Looks like this will keep me busy at the doctor for a while. :)