Being a parent of a child with food allergies isn’t easy. it’s a constant battle to keep your child safe, when your at home you have control over the food your child is exposed to. It’s when they are away at school or at a play date that you hope your child doesn’t end up in the emergency room.

To make sure no one unknowingly gives your child a food item that they are allergic to, you need to be sure everyone that comes in contact with them knows of your childs allergies and that they should only give them food that you have provided. While you have made every effort to inform caretakers and your child has been taught the dangers of their allergies, sometimes they forget. That’s why we created this button to help you. It displays a bright red stop sign along with the message “Only feed me what my mom sent me”. A great way to protect your child in situations where you can’t be by their side.

Are you worried about Obamacare and his death panels? No need, I have the answer for you. You can call it your “Private Insurance Policy”.

I am pleased to announce that I am in consideration for appointed by the president to the 2010 National Health Care Death Panel. You can assure your good review with recommendation for longer life and continued health care by simply making a donation to my Death Panel campaign fund. In other words buy a button.

These funds will be used to create favoritism towards my continued service on the panel thereby continuing your life, that is, if I like you.

If you are suffering from cough, runny nose, aches and pains along with a fever, you more than likely have the Swine Flu, correction, the H1N1 virus. Even though this virus has been declared a pandemic, it is not the end of the world. The World Health Organization reports that the number of cases of (H1N1) are continuing to increase and the worst is still ahead.They anticipate that up to 30% of the population could eventually be infected and a dramatic increase of cases will be seen this fall as kids return to school.

I know from experience that you can avoid contracting the disease. I recently took care of my sister who had the virus. As soon as she fell ill, she stayed isolated in her bedroom. If she needed anything, she would call me on my cell phone. All her meals, drinks and medications were prepared outside of her room and brought to her. I developed a system where I would wear a surgical mask when I entered her room and I kept my distance. She in turn tried to cough into a tissue. Any dishes I removed from her room would instantly be run through the dishwasher. After leaving her room, I washed my hands with a hand sanitizer and I was very cautious in avoiding touching my face. Sanitary wipes were used to handle and wipe down anything that could have become contaminated such as door handles.

We were advised by our local health department that H1N1 patients are typically contagious for seven days from first sign of symptoms or 24 hours after the last symptom has disappeared, whichever is longer. She felt ill for about 8 days and had a lingering cough for a couple days after that. She described the virus as the worst flu she had ever had, nothing to take lightly.

I hope this experience will help others who are exposed and if you’re a survivor, get your H1N1 2009 outbreak survivor button and let others know this virus can be beaten. For the latest and best information on this subject visit the W.H.O website.

With President Obama pushing his heath care plan to congress with the goal of passing this bill by the end of August, one has to wonder if rushing such a complicated problem through the process is wise. There is no doubt that health care needs reform. Claims are that close to 50 million Americans are without insurance, I say claims because I don’t know whether to believe anything I hear on television anymore. I do know that a large percentage of the country are but one layoff away from being uninsured and those with insurance are having a difficult time paying the premiums and deductibles while the number of procedures that their policy covers dwindles. The cost of medications for some citizens in this country is hundreds of dollars a month and that’s with so called “insurance”. This while the drug companies continue to make record profits.

I question whether the government is capable of creating a system to handle the heath care needs of this country in such a short period of time. A mistake at this point could be the straw that breaks the camels back in regard to our long term economy. It seems we have piled enough of a tax burden on the backs of our children, but only time will tell. I have no choice but to have faith in our politicians. They have kids and grandchildren as well and I can only hope they will make the right decisions.

One thing I know for sure is that we have to start looking at health care in a different way, which brings me to the point of this post. Doctors and health care specialists need to work towards reducing disease by promoting preventative medicine through education. No more letting the drug companies control health care in this country, it’s much more cost efficient to work towards preventing diabeties and cancer rather than padding the pockets of drug companies by treating patients after they have developed these diseases.

We need to get back to basics, our bodies are not garbage disposals in which we should dump Big Macs, fries and sugary soda’s into on a daily basis. Our kids need nutritious, well rounded meals to fuel their bodies, not the crap they are serving in school lunch rooms these days. Pizza, cheeseburgers and preprocessed foods are not going to turn our children into healthy adults. I even think it might be time to tax these unhealthy food options and provide food subsidies for healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables so that average consumers can afford to buy them. Watch any struggling single mom at the grocery store and her purchases are not made by what might be the healthiest choice but more likely by what she can afford. Same thing with fast food, it’s not just popular because it’s fast, but because it’s cheap. Education and making healthy choices available to all is a big factor in reducing health care costs in the long term.

Last and by no means least is for this nation needs to get off the couch. Exercise goes hand and hand with nutrition in keeping a human being healthy. Instead of insurance companies paying for someone’s anti-depression medication, maybe they should be sent to a gym where they could receive supervised exercise program. Something as simple as putting walking partners together or having a exercise coach motivating a patient could provide a relief from depression while increasing their overall health without the risk of long term drug addiction. So, if your reading this and you’re wondering how you can decrease your health costs, ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you.