HealthyConcerns.com

So, apparently I've been doing it wrong: Vitamin D and sunlight

Ever since I found out I have a Vitamin D deficiency (like half the population), I've been trying to get a little more sunlight into my life, unblocked by sunscreen

This consisted mostly of me exposing my face and lower arms to the sun when I got a little chance to. (Not for extended periods of time mind you, I was shooting for 10 minutes.)

Well, apparently, my approach is all wrong. 

Thanks to this link from Jack Norris, RD, I got this very different advice about sun exposure from a Vitamin D expert, Dr. Michael Holick:

“I typically recommend people go out for a period of time—depending on the time of the year, the time of day, the latitude, and the degree of skin pigmentation—if you know you’re going to get a mild sunburn after 30 minutes, I typically recommend about 10, no more than 15, minutes of arms and legs exposure, or if you’re in a bathing suit, abdomen and back exposure as well, 2 to 3 times a week. Always wear sun protection on your face because that’s the most sun-damaged area and it’s only about 9% of your body surface, so it doesn’t provide you with that much vitamin D. Go out, enjoy yourself, get some sensible sun exposure, then put sunscreen on if you plan to stay out for a longer period of time. People with a higher degree skin pigmentation, such as African Americans, are walking around with an SPF of 8 to 15. That’s why they need to be exposed for much longer periods of time and why people of color are at especially high risk of having vitamin D deficiency.”

So yeah, "always wear sun protection on your face". D'oh.

I've been doing it wrong :(

Vote: Good idea/bad idea?

I gotta ask: Will this teddy bear-shaped blood bag designed for use in pediatric wards make kids feel all comforted and cozy?

Or scare the living daylights out of them, giving them nightmares about bloodthirsty teddy bears coming to life and wanting to swallow all their blood?

I'm just asking. Is that so wrong?

Hat tip: Kevin MD.

What's up with those nasal strips?

OK, so can someone please explain to me why nasal strips, like these Breathe Right ones, are supposed to do anything? I've been having bad allergies, so my fiance brought me home some of these strips, saying I've been snoring. (It's fairly ironic, since he snores pretty badly, occasionally driving me to sleep elsewhere!)

I put this thing on, and honestly I can't imagine what it's supposed to do. Why not just stick a piece of tape on your nose and save the money?

Now, this is all exacerbated by the fact that I'm a mouth-breather anyway! That's what years of chronic congestion will do to you. (And explains why I loathe the dentist, since I always feel like I'm practically going to suffocate when they're working in my mouth.)

Meh. I don't buy that they do a damn thing. And I'm cranky about it.

More on what happens to health coverage after a disaster

As soon as I posted my post about wondering what happens to employer-based health coverage after a disaster such as Katrina I found this post over at Matthew Holt's blog. You get a two-fer: an interesting post and then an entertaining pissing match ion the comments section.

If you can make heads or tails out of that just let me know.

Blogger is denied: what's the story?

I ran across this blog post from someone who was rejected for Sponsor short-term insurance by eHealthInsurance.com, even after talking to one of eHealthInsurance.com's live representative.

The blogger was exploring how to get health insurance if s/he left a job, and has Diabetes, which does complicate matters I'm sure.

I had a couple of concerns after reading this post, so I wrote to me Q&A person over at eHealthInsurance.com, asking two questions:

-Is it true that anyone with diabetes will be unable to get individual coverage via eHealthInsurance.com?

-Is it further true that they have you apply for coverage one carrier at a time, so if you get denied by the first one all the rest will know to deny you too?

As per usual her answer is long and informative (but even she has to check on part of it.) You can get the scoop if you read on...

What the heck are HSAs?

After I posted my tale of the health care cynic, commenter John Parker suggested that Matt might be able to further benefit from having a Health Savings Account (HSA). He mentioned that since Matt is a sole proprietor and has a "high-deductible plan" he could get additional tax saving by putting money aside pre-tax for his health costs.

I was familiar with the concept because several of the companies I worked for had that kind of option...which I never took advantage of.

But since I, too, am a sole proprietor with what I consider to be a high-deductible plan, my interest was definitely piqued.

So, I turned to my trusty sponsor and asked: "hey is this true, and what does it actually mean?"

Read on for the answer...which made me realize how non-savvy I am as a consumer...

Got a question?

An ongoing feature of this blog will be Q&A.

Hey, if we've got a sponsor with health insurance experts...legal and otherwise...what better way to leverage them for the greater good right?

Here's the scoop:

They can't try to diagnose you by email. (They're not Bill Frist after all.)
They can't promise you health insurance by blog.
They can't even (and this one is a 50-state regulation that simply kills me) "incent" you to get health insurance!

But they can answer questions about various regulations, and how health insurance works, and demographic-type questions, and the definitions of certain mumbo-jumbo terms you might be poring over in your coverage policy.

Like they answered my question about how my boyfriend's company could cover same-sex domestic partners, but not me.

I'll collect the questions, and I'll pass them along, and we'll probably address some once a week or so. You can either post a question in comments or hit the Email link to email me...but obviously if you post it in comments you might get other people who've shared an experience and have some feedback...I'm all for audience particiaption, the hallmark of bloggy goodness.

So, got questions?