Healthy choices vs. bad diagnosis
08/28/2008
People seem to have endless energy to devote to listing, categorizing and analyzing their various physical symptoms to see if they meet the criteria for a disease as defined by the medical professionals, but seem to have very little interest
in actually taking common-sense action to avoid or fix their health problems. What magic does the average person seeking medical treatment for a nebulous condition such as fibromyalgia syndrome think the healthcare professionals can do for them that will make up for years of physical inactivity, consumption of processed food and chronic stress?
The choice is clear: People can either take responsibility for their own health and well-being by exercising at least an hour a day, eating unprocessed food and managing their stress, or they can continue on with their destructive habits, submitting to the vagaries of popular medical opinion and continue with their suffering.
Julie Schaab, Ventura
Too much gab during the Olympics
You pay to see a performance by a world-level musician and are forced to stand in the lobby viewing their baby pictures and listening to stories about their disabled grandmas while hearing the musician you came to see play faintly through closed auditorium doors. You miss most of their performance.
Your waiter stands by your table giving a long discourse on how the chef is feeling tonight, how psyched he is, and how long he’s been making this food that you ordered and how good his parmesan was four years ago.
People wouldn’t put up with this behavior in daily life. What makes it OK when it’s the Olympics? When the product is far more interesting than the person delivering it will ever be, please, shut up, get out of the way, and hand it over.
Other countries just show the athletes doing what they came to do. I do not want to remember any of the nice, wonderful people making such a production of ‘bringing me’ the Olympics. Just hand ’em over. Thank you.
Samuel Harley, Ventura
Get it together, Cali legislature
On Thursday, July 31, the governor signed an executive order to cut the pay of 200,000 state workers to the minimum wage until the budget is passed. At $6.55/hour, these are poverty wages. In addition, 10,000 workers have already been fired. On July 1, legislative employees stopped being paid and doctors and hospitals had their rates cut. Even worse, by the end of July, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics stopped receiving the money the state owes them; and by the end of this month, schools and community colleges will have nearly $1.3 billion in payments suspended. Workers, families and communities are paying the price because some legislators refuse to work with their colleagues and compromise.
William Silletti, Simi Valley
Losing the view
I walk daily up Hillmont and the streets above Foothill. The 90-foot tall, yellow pile-driver can be seen from many places.
As far as “losing our view,” residents could be creative, accept what they cannot change and place some attractive shrubs in the tubs, on the deck (to hide the pile driver). A screen could be made too, perhaps with a pretty mural on it. At worst, they could have a brick wall outside the windows; so the pile-drive driver seems minor to me.
I have a Realtor friend who lives at the highest point of Grove St. A young pine tree has now matured. Over the years, now it is very tall and cuts off some of their view, but they accept it. They still have beautiful views.
How many hours a day does one just sit around and look at the view? No doubt out of town guests would be impressed. 4th of July fireworks are 1 hour, and that uses ‘the view.” Usually we don’t look down, but look out at the distant ocean.
The poor, and often uninsured, for whom the clinic is being built may never own their own home let along one with a view.
Ruth “Mickey” Whitney, Ventura
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