This year, it has been driven home to me just how many Americans are suffering from heart disease. Several of my friends and relatives have had cardiac problems (one who’s 5 years younger than I am had a stroke!), and ended up in the hospital for all sorts of procedures, including bypass grafts, stents, and angioplasties. Yikes! What a wake-up call!

Cardiovascular diseases claim millions of lives every year, with coronary artery disease being the single leading cause of death in the United States (more than 450,000 in 2004). In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that, by 2010, cardiac disease will surpass AIDS as the number one killer worldwide. Enormous sums of money are spent annually to fund research into it’s cause and cure, yet the numbers of people who succumb to heart disease climb higher every year. Heaven knows we have a host of drugs created to manage heart disease, and there’s more than enough evidence proving that diet, bad habits (like smoking cigarettes) and exercise play a critical role in cardiac health, yet we seem unable to change our dangerous behaviors. Could it be we simply don’t care? Or could it be something more? Continue Reading »

As we look forward to the promise of a new political direction here in the USA, it seems that hardly a day goes by without an announcement of a new cabinet appointment, or a statement by the president-elect about his plans for the country once he has taken office. There is even a place on the Obama website (change.gov) where we mere mortals can voice our opinions and make suggestions to the new regime, giving us a sense of actually being included in the political process beyond merely casting a ballot. Next to the current world-wide economic crisis, which must take precedence if we are to continue to be able to live in some kind of civilized society, my pick for the issue needing greatest attention is: Universal Healthcare versus ‘Affordable Healthcare Insurance’ (what else would you expect from a nurse?). It appears to be a given that providing some system by which all US citizens can access healthcare is in the works. On the surface, that is a good thing. Continue Reading »