Student Survival Tool Kit

If it's good for my son, it's probably good for you too.

As Alain was preparing to go away to college, I assembled a kit of vitamins and supplements for him to take. I realized that the number had to be minimal and instructions laid out simply. Yet, I wanted to cover as much ground as possible.

The goal here is to promote general health and wellness. I identified some of the challenges a student might encounter. Therefore, the supplements had to effectively deal with the destructive impact of stress, erratic sleep patterns, possible toxins. They also must prime the immune systems.

So I came up with a short list of supplements and an equally short user's manual. Since everyone who hears of this "tool kit" wants to have it, I am posting it here for all to enjoy and benefit from.

Alain’s Supplements:

• Omega 3. Take 2 daily
• Co-Factors. Take 1 with omega 3.
• Complete Glutathione or NAC. Take 2 when you want to cleanse toxins, after strenuous exercise, lack of sleep. PRN.
• OPC Pinegold. Immune booster. Take 2 when you feel that you are coming down with something. Take 2 every 1-2 hours if you are sick.
• Arnica. Melt 2 pellets under tongue after physical trauma. Every hour for up to 24 hours.
• Sabadil. Allergies. PRN.
• Multi. Take 1-2 daily.
  

That's it. 3 supplements daily and a couple of "just in case".

Since I want Alain to have the best, cleanest products, I carefully selected the brands of each of these products. The first 3 and the multi are from Nutri-West. OPC is the brand name. Call my office to order any of these . Sabadil and Arnica Montana are homeopathics from Boiron and can be found at Whole Foods and better health food stores..

Dr. Jean-Marc

Health Care Cost up 131%

BE Healthy!

When I see these numbers, I get more and more convinced that shuffling who pays for health care is not the answer. Isn't it time to actually BE healthy?

This is a quote from Dr. Gerry Clum, President of Life Chiropractic College West.

"Mid-September also brings us an annual report from the Kaiser Family Foundation on the cost of health care insurance in the United States. In the past year, premiums have risen 5% and, in the past decade, they have risen 131%. This is in contrast to an increase in wages over the past decade of 38% and an inflation rate of 28% for the period. This means health care costs rose at a rate 4.67 times as great as inflation. Some other numbers from the KFF folks...if family coverage increases at a rate of 6.1%, as anticipated, by 2019, the annual cost of the average family's health care insurance will be $24,000...this year, the average individual cost was $4,824 and the average family cost was $13,375...60% of employers provide coverage, down from 66% a decade ago...more than 40% of employers indicated they would be shifting more health insurance cost to the employee...on average, employers pay 74% of the cost of family coverage. The full report from the Kaiser Family Foundation can be found at www.kff.org."

I know from personal experience that MA cost are substantially higher. Now you know why the family budget just doesn't allow as nice a car or as exotic a vacation as it used to. But for some, it is cutting into healthful endeavors like a gym membership, unprocessed food, stress reducing activities. It is fascinating to see how rising health care cost has become a clear cause of poorer health. More on that in a later post...

Dr. Jean-Marc

School on Wheels

Thanks to your generosity, our School on Wheels donation program was a great success. Thank you for all your donations of school supplies for Massachusetts homeless kids. Our school bus boxes were overflowing with backpacks (like the cute Hello Kitty you can see my patient Marie and me trying on), pens, pads, folders, binders, notebooks, pencils, staplers, rulers...

A big thank you to all of you who participated and donated generously!

Dr. Jean-Marc