belted.

More healthy habits from a presentation I wrote.

Habit # 7 -- Teach your kids to wear safety belts.

Child safety seats and belts are referred to as the "wonder drugs" when it comes to saving the lives of children. "If seat belts were medicine, they'd be wonder drugs," says Chuck Hurley, spokesperson for the National Safety Council. "Instead they're like aspirin--so common that people forget how beneficial they are in preventing death and serious injuries."
Nevertheless, too many parents give in to the complaining and resistance from their children and drive without having them buckled into their seats. Six out of every 10 children killed in crashes are unrestrained by either seat belts or child safety seats. In 1997 an 1,244 of the 2,087 children under age 16 killed in crashes were completely unrestrained. In this day and age, there are still parents out there who neglect to put their kids in safety belts. I cannot fathom why anyone driving a car would do this. Additionally, developing the habit of safety will run as a theme in everything you do together. When safety is a habit, that’s a good thing.

There should be some wildly disproportionate penalty for parents who don't seat belt their kids. Public shaming, hot-foot, something. It's just unreal that some parents don't do this.

dude. whatever.

Big big meeting in D.C. this week. Health care is getting a reform! A big old single payer, multiple payer, how do we stop the crushing costs, extravaganza! Ayeyiyiyiyiy! Yip Yip!

Looks like everyone is going to be there throwing in their two cents about what is wrong with American health care. It'll be like lollapalloza but with suits. Instead of Eddie Vedder they can have the surgeon general leading the wave across the rotunda. In a way I think that is long overdue, but ultimately, they aren't going to accomplish much. Not the wave part, I mean the open discussion, seeing a bunch on congressmen do the wave would be wicked cool.

American health care is not health care, it is focused on "sick" care. The paradigm looks like this: You do nothing until you feel sick, then you go to a doctor and get a pill. If your symptoms go away then you are "healthy" again. Oh sure, they want you to come in once a year to get a check-up. Once a year? And you can only talk about one topic with the doctor per visit? How do these people show their faces.

Here is the deal, I just want to say this now and get it out there, that way in 10-15 years when my patients are the only ones left in this country who are actually healthy I can say I told you so.

Health care in this country will continue to suck until we:

1) EDUCATE children on nutrition and make it cool to eat healthy. I say children because adults are too hooked on sugar and other "my mom gave it to me so it must be healthy" foods to change. It is this current generation of kids that need our help and will still listen.

2) Stop performing untested, dangerous pills and surgical procedures as the main form of health care. There are so many other, better ways to provide actual health care than teaching people to pop pills and get cut open.

I know this won't happen. Too much money is being made on Americans being sick, fat, depressed, and addicted for the idea to blossom. I just wanted to make sure I put it out there so that I can say I was right.