MANDATORY health insurance

[anitram]

Some people have the opposite effect to anti-histamines and it actually makes them very alert and jumpy...sort of like caffeine.

Interestingly or not, that is the effect I have with alcohol. Whereas everyone else passes out, I am so wired when I'm drunk that I frequently don't sleep that night at all. It's an uncommon reaction, but it happens.

Regarding prescription sleep aids, I actually prefer using an anti-anxiety medication like Ativan (at high doses it's used for insomnia, at low doses, for anxiety) than an outright sleeping pill (although Lunesta has worked very well for me). They feel more natural in the sense that they really relax you and so you feel tired and groggy and fall asleep. The sleeping pills knock you out cold in no time and it's a bit artificial for my liking.

[martha]

My problem is that I sleep for about 4 or five hours and then BAM, I wake up and it either could be over for the night, or I wake up every hour after that.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by martha

I was thinking about resorting to this. Is it that bad?

for me, i feel like i'm awake and asleep at the same time and i wake up and i'm exhausted and irritable.

but i'm a bit more advanced in my sleep issues -- for some, it probably works. i guess it's worth a try.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by melon

From my unqualified POV, I'm imagining it is a combination of stress and adrenal issues, particularly when you mention falling asleep and being suddenly wide awake. The adrenal glands, in theory, get exhausted from all the stress hormones it must produce to keep up, thus allowing you to fall asleep in the first place, but once it "rests up" a bit, it goes back into overdrive, thus keeping you awake. I used to have many of these issues, but they have seemingly gone away. Omega-3, Magnesium, 5-HTP, and phosphatidylserine helped on a lot of this, personally.

Just in case you were interested...

i am. i take fish oil, but none of the rest of this. when do you take them? where do you get them?

i get huge surges of adrenaline when it's dark and quiet and i'm in my bed, would love to combat this with something other than ambien.

[Liesje]

I don't know enough about politics OR the health care sector to know the solution, but I do find it depressing that I can get better, faster, and more affordable care for my dogs than for myself. Yeah, I know the standards are different but still.....

[joyfulgirl]

Originally Posted by melon

From my unqualified POV, I'm imagining it is a combination of stress and adrenal issues, particularly when you mention falling asleep and being suddenly wide awake. The adrenal glands, in theory, get exhausted from all the stress hormones it must produce to keep up, thus allowing you to fall asleep in the first place, but once it "rests up" a bit, it goes back into overdrive, thus keeping you awake. I used to have many of these issues, but they have seemingly gone away. Omega-3, Magnesium, 5-HTP, and phosphatidylserine helped on a lot of this, personally.

Just in case you were interested...

I averaged about 3-4 hours a sleep a night for most of my life until I started seeing a clinical nutritionist a few years ago. My problem was that I couldn't fall asleep and then around 4AM I would finally have poor quality sleep until I had to get up for work or school. In addition to exactly the supplements you just mentioned, I was told I had an amino acid deficiency from what was then 15 years of vegetarianism so I added aminos. B6 in the form of P5P was also recommended. The very first night I added these supplements to my diet, I slept 10 hours. No kidding. And I have slept extremely well, consistently, ever since. The results for me were astonishing - immediate and lasting with continued supplementation. I go on and off them now.

[corianderstem]

Huh.

[martha]

P5P works pretty damn well. I use it on the nights I don't want the melatonin drugged feeling.

Although I love the melatonin drugged feeling.

[joyfulgirl]

Originally Posted by martha

P5P works pretty damn well. I use it on the nights I don't want the melatonin drugged feeling.

Although I love the melatonin drugged feeling.

I love P5P so much I kind of almost OD'd on it, popping it like a sleeping pill even when I didn't need it. I like it because it enhances my dreams (you remember those lucid Radiohead dreams I was having? P5P, baby ). One day I started getting some tingling in my feet. I started to panic because I know so many people with MS and this was how it started. I did a little research and figured out it was too much B6. I stopped taking it every day and the tingling went away. Too much of a good thing.

[Irvine511]

what is P5P and where can i get it?

[deep]

we need mandatory Marriage Insurance,
if we are going to save this country.
(one nation under god)

[martha]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

what is P5P and where can i get it?

When you and Memphis come out to visit, I'll take you to dinner at Mother's, a health food store nearby. They have it.



But you can probably get it at a health food store where you live.

[joyfulgirl]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

what is P5P and where can i get it?

Whole Foods. It's a form of B6. I forget why P5P is better to take than B6 but there's a reason.

[joyfulgirl]

Originally Posted by martha

When you and Memphis come out to visit, I'll take you to dinner at Mother's, a health food store nearby. They have it.

I ate there, didn't I?

[martha]

I think you did.

They used to have a hot little stoner busboy, but he left.

I burned him a bunch of RH boots to make him smile.

We won't talk about how much younger he was than I am.

[corianderstem]

I am intrigued by this P5P and may have to check it out.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by martha

When you and Memphis come out to visit, I'll take you to dinner at Mother's, a health food store nearby. They have it.

[martha]

That's right.

[financeguy]

I have a sleeping disorder too, but owing to a muscular condition.

[diamond]

Here's the answer:

Mr Burd Goes to Washington

Business will pay for government health care.By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

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It's Steve Burd's eighth or ninth trip to Capitol Hill this year -- he can't quite remember. Sitting in a hotel lobby late last week, what the busy Safeway CEO does know is that by the end of this trip, he'll have told all 100 U.S. senators his company's health-care story. That alone might deserve applause.

As most of corporate America sits on the health-care sidelines -- issuing vague statements, trying not to offend a new U.S. president -- Mr. Burd has charged into the political debate. "I'm here because health-care simply isn't a partisan issue," he says. There is what works, and what doesn't. "I'm genuinely concerned someone might try to solve this by nationalizing health care, at the moment we at Safeway have proven that it is the market that reins in costs."

Prove it, he can. As recently as 2004, Safeway was suffocating under health-care costs growing at 10% a year. Mr. Burd, who had long been intellectually and politically drawn to the health-care issue, decided it was time to hit the restart button. He blew up the company's existing health-care structure and replaced it with one that embodied market principles -- choice, responsibility, competition and price.


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Steve Burd (R), president and CEO of Safeway, testifies before Congress.
Today, Safeway has accomplished what Washington claims is the goal: The company's per-capita health-care expenses have remained flat, compared to the near 40% increase experienced by the rest of corporate America over the past four years. This has not been done by cutting care or shifting costs to employees. Nearly 80% of the 30,000 nonunion Safeway workers who take part in the program rate it good, very good, or excellent.

Magic? Not even. Mr. Burd explains that the "cure for today's ills is simply removing the obstacles to a free health-care market."

The Safeway plan has two main parts that work in tandem. The first involves giving employees a financial stake in the system. Safeway demolished the traditional PPOs and HMOs that encourage consumers to be cavalier about costs. The company today fully pays for an array of primary and preventive visits and tests. But beyond that, employees have skin in the game. The company deposits $1,000 each year into a "health reimbursement account," which workers can use to pay for care. The next $1,000 in expenses is the employee's responsibility. After that, employees pay 20% of costs up to a $4,000 maximum.

Safeway workers these days treat that first $1,000 carefully, since anything beyond it comes out of their pockets. The company is alive with stories of people who no longer visit the emergency room for routine care but instead call around to doctors to ask prices, and swap information with colleagues. Safeway is doing its part to improve price transparency, by having its care administrator, Cigna, analyze claims information. One discovery was that within 30 minutes of its California headquarters routine colonoscopy prices ranged from $700 to $7,000. By the end of the year, employees will be able to go on a Web site, punch in a zip code, and get a list of providers and costs.

The second part of Safeway's plan was an embrace of the obvious: Healthy people cost less. Mr. Burd notes that 75% of health-care costs are the result of four conditions -- cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. The majority of these are preventable. "Obesity in this country went from 18% to 40% in 20 years -- this is not genetics, this is behavior," he explains. He says that an obese employee can require 10 times the number of doctor visits in a year than someone of healthy weight.

The result was Safeway's "Healthy Measures" program, which is voluntary. Employees are tested for smoking, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol. Every area they "pass" results in a reduction in their premium, of as much as $1,560 for a family, a year. Those who fail but prove progress can get refunds. Safeway complements this with an intense culture of health: weight-loss tips, fitness competitions and smoking cessation programs.

Critics of price incentives argue that they pressure consumers to forego necessary care. Mr. Burd counters that Healthy Measures and the company's free preventive care -- designed to catch problems before they become expensive -- have in fact resulted in a healthier work force. Safeway's smoking and obesity rates are roughly 70% the national average. The program has even been cautiously greeted by Safeway's union leaders, who understand that soaring health costs are eating into union wages.

When I ask Mr. Burd what he hopes to accomplish here, he is blunt that one goal is to prevent a "public option" that would only "piggyback on the experience of Medicare." It's a "Trojan Horse" that will steer people to government and ultimately squeeze out innovative programs like his.

He's also working to ensure that any health-care bill contains provisions that would replicate or encourage Safeway's success. That includes changing current law so that he can offer even steeper premium discounts for good behavior. It also includes his idea to make available Medicare's vast database of providers and costs so Americans can shop around. An optimist, Mr. Burd says he's had "extraordinary receptivity" from both sides of the aisle.

As for his fellow CEOs, Mr. Burd is eager to debate anyone who thinks he will escape costs by dumping health care on the government. Business will still be taxed to pay for the program, making the U.S. less competitive. Far better, says Mr. Burd, for companies to control their destiny, and prove markets can also work for health care. We're about to find out if Washington will let them.