Sight Gag

  
      I went to a small party the other night. It was a barbecue.

     A friend, one of the party-goers, brought a sampling of craft beers produced by the company that his son works for, called Boulevard Brewing Co., based in Kansas City, MO.

     The company brews up a portfolio of specialty beers. My friend brought us four different kinds from among their offerings.

      I'm not usually a big beer drinker -- but, you know, I didn't want to be a party pooper. I tried two bottles. The first one, Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale, was pretty good.

    But it was the second one that really caught my attention. It tasted mighty fine. It was cool and smooth. It was dark and rich. And then . . . there was the name. In fact, it gave me an idea -- maybe I should rename by blog.

     What do you think? 

     By the way, did you know the word booze comes from the Dutch word bowse? But the term only caught on after 1840 when William Henry Harrison, the "Hero of Tippecanoe" ran for president. He billed himself as a common man who lived in a log cabin, and a man named E. C. Booz bottled whiskey in log cabin-shaped containers in support of the candidate. Harrison won. But Booz had the longer lasting legacy. Harrison died of pneumonia only a month after taking office.

Is Fat Really a Disease?

     I do not feel qualified to answer this question. But the AMA has made the decision. Last week the doctors' association officially announced that obesity is now classified as a disease.

     However, as a lifetime owner of a spare tire (which has expanded and contracted with the seasons of my life) I do feel qualified to make a few comments about the issue.

     I think it's a good thing to name obesity a disease if that will help people get treatment -- especially for morbidly obese people who might want to get stomach bypass surgery and have their medical insurance help defray the cost. And by the way, kudos to weatherman Al Roker, and now New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, for going public with this type of surgery. Maybe they can do for obesity what Betty Ford and others did for addiction.

     I also think it's a good thing if it raises our awareness of the perils of obesity, and somehow gets us all to eat less and do more exercise -- though I doubt this is going to happen. The New York Times had an article yesterday, Don't Count on Calorie Counts by Frank Bruni (a former fat person) saying how just informing people of how fattening certain foods are does not seem to get them to switch to a healthier diet. As he says, "Knowledge may be power, but hunger routinely trumps it."

     Yet, in my opinion, labeling obesity a disease could be a bad move if it encourages people to believe that obesity is just something that happens to them, like catching the flu, and that they have no control over their own weight. It's in their genes; it's in their environment; there's nothing they can do about it.

     Some tendency for obesity is surely in the genes. And the explosion of obesity over the past 20 or 30 years offers substantial evidence that our environment is also a significant factor.

     But obesity -- like most things -- is not an all or nothing issue. Our body weight and BMI are not entirely in our control; but they're not entirely beyond our control either. Many people have gone on many successful diets, and they've proved that we can lose weight if we really put our minds to it. It's hard to lose weight. It's hard to quit smoking, too. But a lot of people have done it.

No

     What about discrimination against fat people, the shame that many feel, or are made to feel by their family, their colleagues, the media? I don't know what to think about this. On the one hand, it's a terrible thing for people to feel bad about themselves. It can wreck their lives, regardless of how heavy they are. On the other hand, maybe fear of embarrassment and shame helps keep many of us from gaining even more weight, and thus keeps us healthier.

     But back to Frank Bruni. He says that various studies have shown that posting calorie counts at restaurants doesn't influence people to select lower calorie menu choices. He makes an analogy to smoking. Almost 50 years ago, the Surgeon General required tobacco companies to print warnings on packs of cigarettes. But for the most part people read the warnings, then ignored them and went right on smoking. What finally got people to stop were the various smoking bans that went into effect in the 1980s and 1990s -- in offices, in restaurants, and finally even in bars.

Yes

     To me, that suggests that maybe Mayor Bloomberg isn't so crazy after all, trying to ban those big gulp drinks in New York City.

     I remember a few of my own efforts to lose weight. One time I gave up drinking alcohol. Get rid of all those empty calories and I'm bound to lose weight, I thought. But what did I do? I told myself that I hadn't had a drink before dinner, hadn't eaten any appetizers that go with it. So, surely it wouldn't hurt if I indulged dessert.

     A few years ago I finally got serious and lost 15 pounds. My motivation was a bad knee. The doctor told me he could give me a cortizone shot, and exercise would help. But he looked me in the eyes and said, "You know, it wouldn't hurt to lose a few pounds, either. The less weight that knee has to bear, the better off it's going to be."

     How did I do it? I gave up drinking soda, and went to bottled water. And here's the thing -- I mostly drank diet soda! But it didn't seem to matter. Without the soda, I lost 15 pounds. I did some other things too -- cut out dessert, joined a gym -- but I think it was giving up soda that did the trick.

     Now, four years later, I've kept off about ten of those pounds. I do drink a soda now and then, even though I know I shouldn't. And right now, I can hear B in the living room exercising to her Leslie Sansone CD. And, er, I realize I should probably get up to the gym more often, too. 

Is Your Microwave Safe?

     How many of you use a microwave? I sure do . . . mostly to reheat my coffee, but also to reheat leftovers, especially pizza, and sometimes to cook vegetables, and defrost the frozen chicken, and heat up the maple syrup and the chocolate sauce.

     I used to like to microwave my baked potatoes. It's much faster than waiting around for them to get cooked in the oven. But B put a stop to that. She says microwaved potatoes taste soft and mushy; an insult to cooking and the whole culinary experience.

     Okay, okay, I get it. We're trying to keep up a few standards around here. But I didn't think it might be serious business until I saw a post the other day by a friend of mine on Facebook. Apparently, a secondary school student in Sussex (that's in England, right?) read somewhere that the microwave somehow compromises the structure or energy of the food.

     So as a science fair project she took two identical plants. She watered one plant with water that she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, then let cool. She watered the other plant with water heated to boiling in the microwave, and then let cool. She wanted to see if there would be any difference in the growth between the normally boiled water and the water boiled in a microwave.

     The result after just nine days:

     There is an explanation about how the problem with microwaving food is not the radiation people used to worry about, but how it corrupts the DNA in the food so the body cannot recognize it. Microwaves agitate the molecules to move faster and faster, causing friction which denatures the original make-up of the substance. It results in destroyed vitamins, minerals, proteins and generates new elements called "radiolytic" compounds, things that are not found in nature.

     If this is true, it's really pretty amazing, isn't it? The question is:  Do you believe it? I asked B if she'd heard anything about microwaves destroying the nutrition in food. She hadn't heard anything like that. But she admitted, like me, she hadn't been paying much attention.

     I Googled microwave cooking, and predictably, found articles taking both the pro-microwave and the anti-microwave position.

     My facebook friend is an educated, reputable woman. So I trust her judgment. But I don't know anything about the supposed young student in Sussex.

     Now, I'm no scientist. I have no idea how a microwave works (is it magic?). But I recall the scientific method from the 9th grade general science course I took from Mr. Mele back in 1963. So I have decided to try to replicate this experiment.

     I have two identical plants, in similar condition, and I'm placing them in the same location. I will water one plant, in the gray pot, with microwaved water only. The other will be watered with the same amount of normally boiled water.

     Check back here in a week. I'll post another picture, showing the difference, if any. We'll see what happens. Any predictions? My only prediction is that the difference would have to be very dramatic to make me stop reheating my coffee in the microwave.

3 Medical Opinions

     I was sitting at my computer this morning when suddenly from the kitchen I heard B yelp, "Oww!" Then she followed up in a pained voice, "Oh, I knew that was going to happen."

     "Are you okay?" I called.

I don't care if it hurts, it works!

     "Yeah, I just cut myself with this stupid knife."

     I got up and walked through to the kitchen. She was holding her finger. It didn't look serious. "Here," I said, "let me get you some alcohol." I happened to have a bottle on top of my cabinet.

     "No, I'm just getting a Band-Aid," she said as she turned the corner into the downstairs bathroom.

     "Really, let me get you some alcohol," I pressed. "You don't want it to get infected."

     "No!" she insisted. "Alcohol hurts!"

     "Yeah," I replied. "That's how you know it's working!"

     "Oh, don't be ridiculous," she sniffed. "How old fashioned can you be?"

     So I then offered to find her some hydrogen peroxide, a disinfectant that doesn't hurt. But by then she had the Band-Aid on her finger and was heading upstairs to get dressed for work.

My soft picks

     Okay, let's stop for a moment here. I submit for your consideration:  What do they use when you're at the doctor's office and you get a shot, or some blood drawn? They give you a cotton swab soaked in what else . . . alcohol! So alcohol must be the best, most effective antiseptic. QED.

     Why? Because, I still maintain:  If it hurts, that means it's working!

     Now if you're ready to take more medical advice from me, after hearing this little story, let me recommend to you these tiny little toothbrushes you use to clean between the teeth. They are called interdental brushes, or "soft picks" if they're disposable.

     My dentist suggested them to me about a year ago, when I'd gone to her after yet another filling disintegrated, leaving a hole in my tooth that required the installation of a crown. You use these mini-brushes instead of flossing (although I still floss sometimes, too). And from my experience, they work great. Also . . . they are more fun to use!

A panoply of pain relievers

     Finally, I ran across this New York Times article about pain relievers. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, so to speak, not because I have heart problems, but because I do take Advil and aspirin for my aching right ankle and my sometimes-painful left knee.

     I used to take Aleve for my pinched nerve. But I stopped using Aleve because I heard it was associated with heart problems among long-time users. And, besides, my pinched nerve got better, mostly because I went to physical therapy and kept up the exercises afterwards.

     I still don't know which pain reliever is the safest and best to use. If anyone has any further information, or expert opinion, I'd love to hear it. But I guess the best advice is to use as much as you need, but no more than you need.

     Come to think of it, that's probably good advice for any drug or medication.

I Apply for Medicare, Part I

     My ex-wife is a year older than I am. Last year she turned 65 and applied for Medicare. I remember at one point asking her about the whole process of signing up for Medicare. How do you apply? Is it complicated? How do you know what coverage you're getting?

     She told me not to worry. A few months before you turn 65 you start receiving all kinds of information in the mail. She'd looked over the basics. "Then I was able to sit down with an insurance agent who specializes in Medicare," she told me, "and he explained the whole system to me. He said he gets paid by the insurance companies, so it didn't cost me a thing."

     So I didn't worry. And now this year, in advance of my own 65th birthday, I expected to start receiving lots of literature in the mail, inviting me to join Medicare, showing me how to do it, and explaining all the benefits. I didn't know who it would come from. The government? My insurance company? It wouldn't be from my employer. I no longer have an employer. My company started shedding employees in the 1990s, and got around to shedding me in 2002, so I've been on my own for the last decade.

     The calendar turned over, and the months came and went, but I heard not a word from anybody. Maybe my ex-wife was wrong, I thought. Maybe she got information in the mail, because of where she lives, or because of her insurance company, or because she's a woman. But that doesn't necessarily mean everyone gets information in the mail.

     I started worrying. Maybe, somehow, I've dropped off the the Medicare "membership" list. Maybe my name got lost in the computer. Maybe they forgot about me!?!

     So I finally decided I'd better find out. I realize that for many of you this is "old hat." You've been through all this already. But anyway, like the modern tech-savvy person I am, I typed "How to apply for Medicare" into google. I found lots of general information. There's Part A which is free, and it "helps pay" for inpatient care in a hospital. There's Part B which you pay for, and that "helps pay" for doctor services.

     Well, that's pretty good, I thought, but also pretty vague. I found a link for Medicare Premiums and found out my premium for Part B would be $104.90 a month, as long as my MAGI is $85,000 or less. I know what MAGI means (Modified Adjusted Gross Income), although I'm not sure how to calculate it. But I'm pretty sure my MAGI is less than $85,000 so I'm not going to worry about it.

     This is getting awfully complicated, I realized. And since I really couldn't find out any specifics, I decided to call the Medicare 800 number, which is 1-800-772-1213. I understood what Parts A and B are, at least in theory. They pay for the majority of your doctor and hospital bills. But I wanted to know some of the particulars. Would they pay for my next colonoscopy? What if I needed surgery on my bad knee? Would it make a difference if I went to the hospital, or had it done in the doctor's office? Could I go to a specialist if the specialist wasn't in my medical group?

     Plus, what about Parts C and D? What's the difference between the various Medicare Advantage programs, and the Medigap program?

     I negotiated the Medicare phone tree. I finally got to the option to talk with a real person. Then an automated voice announced the wait would be 10 minutes. Arghh! I must admit, I was too impatient. I didn't want to wait and so I hung up.

     I called my own current medical insurance company. Maybe they could help.

     I negotiated the phone tree and eventually got a very nice lady on the phone. She spoke with a fairly heavy accent, but I understood most of what she was saying. Yes, my insurance company could provide me with a backup plan. There's a PPO plan and an HMO plan. Actually, there are four different PPO plans, and a couple of HMO plans. "What''s your i.d. number?" she began.

     The woman stayed on the phone with me for a good 15 or 20 minutes, trying to explain the basics of the different plans. But I had plenty of questions. How do I find out if my doctor is in the HMO network? She gave me a link on the website. How much would it cost? It depends what plan I picked, and what county I live in. Does the plan cover drugs? One of the plans does; another doesn't. She wasn't sure about the others. Are there any dental benefits? Again, it depends on the plan.

     What if I moved? Like many retirees and pre-retirees, B and I are thinking of moving in a few years, probably to a different state. She told me that their plan was only good in my state. If I moved I'd have to switch plans.

     I confess, I got tired of the conversation before the woman did. She must be used to people asking dumb questions. She finally offered to send me some published materials that would provide me with all the details. It would take about ten days or two weeks to get to me.

     The woman did tell me one concrete and crucial thing. Regardless of what else I did, I should apply for Medicare Plans A and B. And I should do it right away, because if I waited and missed the deadlines, then there are restrictions about when you can apply, and I may be subject to higher rates ... for the rest of my life.

     You can apply by telephone (at the above 800 number), or in person. But I went back on the website where you apply for Medicare. I found the application. I filled it out. It was pretty easy.

     And so as of right now, I await confirmation that I'm accepted into Medicare. And I await some materials in the mail which will presumably inform me what else I need to do to get more than the basic Medicare Parts A and B coverage.

     I'd worried that I'd somehow fallen out of the system, or that it might be hard to sign up for Medicare. Bottom line:  Don't worry, it's easy to sign up. But it is hard to find out exactly what you're signing up for, and to figure out what kind of backup medical insurance you should get.

     More on that in Part II, after I've had a chance to look over those materials.