Dancing With the Priests

When people are not employed by a for-profit healthcare service, they have the time to put together lists of hints, tips and guidelines. Whether this is actually useful is not the point. It’s the philosophy behind it that fascinates. Socialized medicine actually believes in trying to educate the public. This is what you should know. The following are myths – stop believing them. It rarely happens in the US. Mostly what you get to see are the ads for drugs and the latest medical devices. Little or nothing to encourage wellness or preventative medicine is ever published. No-one here believes in it.

So here is one of the latest offerings from the British National Health Service. It has recognized the number of men who fear the early onset of baldness. It has issued two short documents. One is an encouraging and informative list of the current treatments recommended by NICE – the Brits have an advisory group that, on the basis of the best medical evidence, issues guidance on which treatments are both effective and good value for money. The second document is a myth buster, setting out all the things we are not supposed to believe. The mystery is whether anyone really does still believe that getting a cow to lick your head prompts the hair to grow back. It has all the hallmarks of a frat-boy prank. You can just see some poor sucker persuaded to give this a try during some drunken (not hazing) initiation rite. But now it’s official. There’s nothing magical in a cow’s saliva. All you get is a wet head. The following are the highlights from the rest of the list of myths:

• washing your head in cold water or standing on your head cures baldness – although cold water and changes in the vertical may encourage the flow of blood through or to your head, this has no effect on hair loss;
• brushing your hair or massaging the scalp helps keep your hair – vigorous brushing can actually damage the scalp and increase the rate of hair loss;
• hairstyles have nothing to do with hair loss – any style that puts the hair under tension can cause hair loss – this can be a simple ponytail or more complicated styles like plaits and corn-rows;
• hair products can cause hair loss – the ordinary run of shampoos and medicated hair products do nothing more than encourage the usual daily shedding of hair. That said, some people react badly to different chemicals used in some hair products and this can damage the scalp and roots, causing hair loss;
• the more sex you have, the less hair you lose – it’s tempting to believe the more you prove you are a man, the more hair you will retain but this is a myth;
• losing hair every day is a sign you are balding – everyone sheds some hair every day. Under normal circumstances, these grow back. If you have male pattern baldness, the hairs do not grow back in the defined areas of your scalp;
• young men do not go bald – hair thinning and loss is a natural part of aging but, usually because of the genes inherited from your parents, premature balding can start early.

In all this, there is one unspoken truth. Propecia has been through the full range of clinical trials and there is absolutely no doubt that it stops hair loss in cases of male pattern baldness, Obviously, if you have tension hair styles, you only need to let your hair hang loose. For men whose genetic make-up is encouraging loss, you need to buy propecia to rebuild the level of hormones necessary to keep your hair growing.

This year, the weather has been unfortunate. Indeed, those who take an interest in predicting such things suggest 2010 may be the worst year on record for people who suffer from different forms of allergy. It is all down to the late snow. The increased level of water that fell and was held in the ground will boost the early release of tree pollens. When added to the usual grass pollens, this will threaten a far wider range of people. Research results from the first ten years of this century show the number of people suffering from seasonal allergies rising quite steadily, with many now suffering from environmental allergies all year round. About 60% of those with allergies report it difficult to control symptoms with over-the-counter drugs, with some 20% forced to take time off from work. The majority of those with access to health plans report improvement. This is not simply a question of accessing a different range of drugs.

Medical science has been advancing rapidly and there is a clear understanding of the biology of allergies. The first step is a series of skin tests to discover exactly which elements in the environment you are sensitive to. The basic test covers about twenty of the pollens, molds, animals, insects and foods most commonly causing an allergic reaction. The results can be extremely helpful if you discover you not only have a major allergy to house dust but also a low-intensity problem with dogs. Changing your lifestyle can lead to a major improvement in your health even though it may mean losing your pet. An allergist can advise on strategies to remove carpets, fit different types of sheets and pillow cases on beds, regularly vacuum sofas, and so on. It may be necessary to keep windows closed at certain times, e.g. when it is damp and mold spores may be released and, if you have air-conditioning, fit a HEPA filter.

As it stands, discovering you have allergies is almost inevitably revealing a pre-existing condition, so you need to look carefully at the wording of your current health plan to see what coverage is available. If you are looking for your first health insurance coverage and know you have allergies, you must disclose the fact. Failure to do so gives your insurer the right to cancel the policy when the omission is discovered. Even when allergies are included, the extent to which the plan will pay out on the counseling and advice often necessary to make effective changes to your lifestyle can vary dramatically from one insurer to another. Some are genuinely supportive. Other have high co-payments on even the standard antihistamines. This places the burden very much on you to explore what can be built into the coverage. In this, there is one worrying statistic. The number of children who are developing more severe anaphylactic shock to different elements in the environment is rising. This means preventative as well as treatment care will be necessary.

If your allergies are serious enough to threaten your quality of life and restrict your ability to earn a living, adequate health insurance quotes are absolutely necessary. You are paying out on premiums to keep you functional, whether only through the season or the whole year. This is good value-for-money cover so long as the medical advice you receive does work. If in doubt, always get a referral to an experienced allergist. It may cost you a little more, but it is worth the extra money.