Subscribe to Navigator News
 |
NAHAC
National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants
|
Second Annual Conference
Washington, DC is open to anyone interested in health advocacy
November 2010
The second annual conference will be held
Nov. 4-6, 2010 at the
Hotel Palomar.
| |
ebsite
|
|
|
| Volume 1 Issue 3 | October 2010 |
|
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Welcome to the October 2010 issue of "Navigator Notes," a monthly newsletter designed to inform our readers about important health topics.
Patient Navigator's mission is to bring health care and life care together through advocacy, education and a patient-centered approach to solving problems and overcoming obstacles in the health care system.
Elisabeth Schuler Russell
Founder and President
Patient Navigator, LLC
Guiding your journey through illness .... |
Don't Overlook This Important Health Care Reform
|
Most of you have probably heard about the key provisions of the
"Affordable Care Act" that went into effect on September 23.
However, an important new provision regarding appealing insurance company decisions was less well-publicized. Consumers will now have two ways to appeal coverage decisions or claims: through their insurer or through an independent external review board.
If your health plan was created after March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act ensures your right to appeal, or to ask that your plan reconsider its decision to deny payment for a service or treatment. New rules, now in effect, govern how your plan itself must handle your initial appeal. If your plan upholds its decision after its internal review, the law permits you to appeal to an independent reviewer who does not work for your health plan. Until the passage of the law, only a select number of states honored external review.
How much the law will change your appeal rights depends on the State in which you live and the type of plan you have. Also, some employers' plans may have more than one internal review before you're allowed to seek an external review.
To date, external review boards have reversed about 45 percent of appealed denials, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Questions about your State's laws can be directed to your State Insurance Commissioner. More detailed information about your new rights to appeal your insurance company's decision is available here.
|
Cancer Cell Self-Cannibalism
| Cancer research continues to yield exciting breakthroughs as scientists learn more about the molecular and biological activity of cancer cells.
One important new area of research is called autophagy. Haven't heard of it? You will. Here is a simplified explanation. When cancer cells are mired deep in the core of a tumor, they have limited access to oxygen, growth factors and nutrients from the blood vessels that feed the tumor. So when things get tough for cancer cells, the start eating themselves to get what they need to survive. This is autophagy.
Normal cells rely on autophagy to maintain a balance or during times of stress. Cancer cells do too, not just to survive in the inhospitable environment of a tumor, but also to ward off the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
When autophagy is activated, (when the "self-cannibalism" begins) it is "an intrinsic cell-survival mechanism that cancer cells turn on to recoup essential building blocks when they're being poisoned or irradiated," according to Dr. John Cleveland of The Scripps Research Institute.
Therefore, a greater understanding autophagy's role in cancer has led researchers to investigate whether blocking autophagy can make cancer treatments more effective, cutting off what amounts to an important escape route.
The research is in early stages and there may be substantial differences in the autophagy activity in different cancer types, or even from tumor to tumor. Still, according to Dr. Ravi Amaravadi from the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, the available evidence suggests that autophagy "seems to be a process that could be important in many cancers."
A number of clinical trials testing autophagy inhibition are actively recruiting patients with a variety of cancers, including breast, colorectal, myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. They are testing an off-patent drug called hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ. The largest trial to date involving HCQ is for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme, a brain cancer. There is also a Phase I/II trial testing authophagy inhibition in patients with stage II or III pancreatic cancer.
The September 7 issue of the National Cancer Institute Bulletin contains the complete article from which this summary is drawn. To dig deeper, consult the American Society of Clinical Oncology's work in this area.
|
Food Science - Part 2
|
Food science is a field gaining prominence among patients
with chronic diseases, nutritional imbalances or cancer who want to
attack their disease and boost their immune systems. They are asking for nutritional guidance along with their doctors' prescribed treatments.
Last month we began our series focused on the science and research of nutrition to help you become more informed about food choices. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.
Today we discuss the six problems with the modern
diet. 1. The modern diet consists of foods which have a
much higher glycemic content than the diets of previous generations. This puts
a large amount of insulin into one's system. Insulin not only increases the
chance of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, it increases the free estrogen
in our bodies, increasing estrogen-related cancers such as breast and uterine
cancer. It also increases inflammation
and tissue growth which can lead to other cancers. 2. We
eat much less Omega-3 fatty acids than our ancestors. Omega -3's have been
shown to lower breast cancer rates and to be good for the
brain in fighting dementia. Fatty acids are used to build cell walls, affecting
function in every organ of the body. 3. Because of food engineering, genetic
selection and soil depletion, the modern diet now consists of foods that have a
lower micronutrient density. Many of our crops don't have as many vitamins and
minerals as they did even 75 years ago. 4. Our food has shifted from being
mostly alkaline to being mostly acidic. This taxes our kidneys and bones
which try to keep our acid-base balance in line. Kidney disease and
osteoporosis are some of the consequences. 5. We now have an inverted
Sodium/Potassium ratio compared with our ancestors who ate less than 1,000
milligrams (mg) per day of sodium. We now eat 7,000-12,000 mg/day. 6. There's been a dramatic drop in
fiber content of our foods compared with what our ancestors ate. Fiber
affects elimination and absorption of toxins and food waste. Next Month: What You Can Do
Recommended reading: Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
Sources:
(1) Notes from a lecture by John Bagnulo MPH,
PhD., at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine's Food as Medicine Forum, Washington, DC.
May 2010.
(2) From notes on a
lecture by Kathie Swift MS, RD, LDN, at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine's
Food as Medicine Forum, Washington, DC. May 2010. For more, you can review this illustrative list of research studies on food science.
You can visit the Center for Mind Body Medicine's Food as Medicine site to learn more about this education and training program.
Guest "Food Science" Columnist Deborah Roney holds a degree in biology and received her certification from the Food as Medicine program at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. in May 2010. |
|
|
|
|
