CVS, You Tried, You Failed.

I heard the breaking new this morning and started laughing.

CVS is going to stop selling tobacco products.

I guess I am missing the point.

 Are the CVS stores trying to minimize its sales of poison?

Are they not interested in selling something that is designed to destroy your health?

As soon as I got to my office, I started to do some research on the matter, and it again, makes me laugh.

CEO Larry Merlo noted that chronic conditions are made worse by smoking.

‘‘We've come to the conclusion that cigarettes have no place in a setting where health care is being delivered,’’ he said

So, I assume that Larry seems to think that health care means pharmaceutical medications?

Lets start with the facts. The CDC has examined the death toll of tobacco use and has come up with a wild number of about 480,000 deaths a year are attributed to the use of tobacco. 

Of these 480,000 deaths, the breakdown of causes seem to be a bit disorganized as to how they link them to smoking of cigarettes. We all know that smoking cigarettes is linked to lung cancer. This makes sense. Cancer is related to stress on a function of the body, and smoking puts stress on the lungs causing the cells to mutate and become cancerous. 

We have all seen pictures of what lungs look like in a smoker instead of a non smoker.

We all know the risks of smoking and how harmful it is for the body. 

Anyone that smokes cigarettes is not sold something that is supposed to benefit their health. Smokers make a conscious decision to light up and harm their health.

The second leading killer due to cigarette smoking is heart disease?

I have done extensive research on the inflammatory condition called heart disease.

According to The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, "Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease. When combined with other risk factors—such as unhealthy blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and overweight or obesity—smoking further raises the risk of heart disease."

So, to be clear, is smoking the risk factor, or does smoking raise the risk of. I am not sure, but I do know this, You will not develop heart disease unless you eat more sugar than you are supposed to. Arteriosclerosis is caused by inflammation in the arteries. Sugar is the cause of elevated LDL cholesterol, the cause of increased insulin in the blood, and increased fat tissue in the body. 

What is the major risk factor for heart disease?

The VAST MAJORITY of HEART DISEASE PATIENTS are OVERWEIGHT.

Some underweight people do get heart disease. They could suffer from idiopathic elevated cholesterol. They can suffer from undiagnosed Type 1 Diabetes.

The other factor is that ALL diabetic patients that go through the health care system, and take the "medications" for Type 2 Diabetes will develop and die from heart disease. That is a fact.

What causes people to be overweight?

HMMM, maybe CVS should rethink the long isle of candy, sugary treats, soda, potato chips, and alcohol.

The real cause of heart disease lays within our diet and lifestyle, maybe CVS should think about changing into a Whole Food Store? Instead of a great place to get discount candy after Halloween or any other holiday?

The real story here, is that smoking is bad. Everyone knows that. No one has ever tried to sell someone a cigarette with the explanation that it will help your health. 

So, CVS is stopping selling these products because it is known that they do not help your health, and a place that is associated with the the health care system does not want to promote a product that hijacks your health?

Again, CVS sees that assisting the medical system in passing or dealing their drugs to a consumer that have been prescribed by a "health" care professional is what they should be doing to promote "health."

What are the facts within the heath care system?

I have some alarming statistics that will help you understand my confusion as to why CVS thinks that stopping selling a product that everyone knows is bad for your health and continues to sell a product that is praised as the only way to better your health. The problem is, the medications your buy from CVS have minimal research, and typically, botched research to prove that it will help you at all.

These stats are not the most current, because the FDA and the Pharmaceutical industry realized how bad they are for business. This is what our health care system is all about, right? Business?

• In an average year, 1.6 million people are hospitalized due to side effects of prescription drugs, and 160,000 will die. (1992)
• In America, we consume about 15 tons of aspirin a day, or 19 billion tablets per year. Aspirin is considered harmless, right? 
• A single aspirin will be responsible for 1500-2000 deaths/years
• leading cause of kidney disease
• Create ulcers, headaches, and Reye's Syndrome.
• 61,000 Americans will suffer from prescription drug induced Parkinson's Disease a year.
• Americans over the age of 60, over 1 million will have adverse reactions to medications.
• 243,000 will be hospitalized
• 163,000 will suffer from permanent memory loss
• 32,000 elderly Americans will suffer from hip fractures due to drug induced falls.
• 1500 will die.
• 196,000 Americans will die from PROPERLY PRESCRIBED DRUGS.
• Health Care costs have reached $15 Trillion dollars and no help is in sight.
• Drug mishaps cost Americans about $182 million dollars a year, kill as many as 198,000, hospitalize 8.8 million and account for over 25% of all hospital admissions.

Do I even need to discuss VIOXX? It was a medication that was not researched with long term studies to decide its side effects and it resulted in 500,000 deaths. Half a million deaths occurred due to this medically prescribed medication. Health Care?

I guess I have a different definition of "health" care than that of CVS and the medical industry. 

I am congratulating CVS on this change. Not promoting a poison is a positive advance in our health status in America. I am just afraid they are trying to put out the raging forest fire with canteens, while their biggest money making industry are fueling it with gasoline.

Wait, did CVS forget that they sell alcohol? Doesn't it seem a little hypocritical to stop selling cigarettes but continue to sell a full shelf of alcohol products?

So, maybe this is all business?

Cigarette sales being stopped will cost CVS $2 billion dollars this year. They represent only 4% of total tobacco sales in the country. 

Will this make any real impact on decreasing the amount of smokers? I don't think so. The vast majority of patrons in any pharmacy are those of the elderly population, considering the average elderly person takes 15 different prescriptions a day. 

What are the amount of cigarettes being smoked by this population?

FIGURE 1. Percentage of adults aged ≥18 years who were current smokers,* by age group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2005–2011

As you can see. Only 7.5% of the elderly population smoke. More importantly, the total smokers in America are declining. 

Smoking as a whole is declining, yet health care costs continue to rise?

Again, CVS, stop trying to put a forest fire out with a canteen. You have to keep the $50 billion dollars in advertising from big pharma from happening to make any impact on our health.

~Dr. Moz

If you are tired of seeking pain relief with no results, call (812) 799-0668 TODAY and schedule a FREE CONSULTATION, and let's get you back to the PAIN-FREE Life you are missing.

Visit www.NewStartHealthCenter.com TODAY!

Why is it so hard to say goodbye?

Saying goodbye to something or someone you depend on for security, look to for entertainment, or even rely on to cheer you up when you are down is not an easy task. Every relationship we have with things ranging from cars to phones to family, has its blessings and hardships. There is no relationship that doesn't put its stress on you in demand for comfort and compassion of their problems. This stress can come in the form of giving a shoulder to cry on to getting your car a new air filter or oil change. 

The relationship that we have created with social networking is different.

I do not think we are dependent on our relationship with Facebook like we are dependent on our mothers, brothers, or automobiles. We do not need these social network relationships to get through our daily task or make ends meet. 

We are addicted to their interaction. 

We are addicted to the irrelevant posts, pictures, and videos that entertain us. 

This addiction is no different than the addiction to cigarettes or alcohol. We all know that nicotine is dangerous, and will only cause us harm in the long run, but yet the addiction remains. You forget about the negative effects of cigarettes because you are only fixated on the benefit. The relaxation of smoking, the oral fixation of smoking, the activity that gives you something to do on you 15 minute break from work. Not a single person is unaware of the negative effects of alcohol on the body. Everyone that drinks knows that there are no health benefits to alcohol, only liver damage, but yet, they continue to drink just to get the buzz, or numb the mind of the situations around them.

Just like all addictions, the addiction to social networks has minimal benefit to us in a societal setting. We are addicted to the news feed about what everyone that we know, and even some people that we don't, are doing. We have become satisfied and feel superior when someone we know are losing their hair, or their cars are not as nice, or are participating in activities that we feel like we are "above". All of this social media information may seem like it gives you a high similar to alcohol, but we have neglected to analyze the negative effects of this constant contact has on the stress levels or adrenal function in the body. 

The adrenal gland produces a hormone called Cortisol in response to stress. Stress can come in three forms, emotional, physical or chemical. The most crucial to the adrenal gland, and Cortisol levels is emotional stress.. If you are in constant contact, and you find your mood or demeanor affected by the drama that you read on social networks, you should be careful. Adrenal Fatigue is the primary step in developing thyroid dysfunction, hormone imbalances, and chronic fatigue syndrome. 

Addictions are hard to break. You develop neural pathways in the brain that only the thing you are addicted to can satisfy. Your body can be addicted to emotional stress and seek it to satisfy your desire to feel superior. The real time effects of using social media to make you feel better about yourself will never leave you in a better place at the end of the day, just like a White Russian will not help your health at the end of the day. 

Do not get me wrong, there are some healthy and beneficial things that can come from social media interactions. A Screwdriver mix drink has orange juice in it, right? You just need to figure out if you are at a level of unhealthy addiction to it.

If you find your mood change when you read the posts. If you find yourself losing touch of the personal interactions around you because you are plugged in. If you notice that most of your conversations are digital, it could be time to take a step back.

Using social media can be healthy, but you need to be sure you don't get to a point of unhealthy addiction. Make sure you spend more time each day with one on one interactions instead of digital interactions.

The feeling of freedom

I have been unplugged for almost a week. This is an image of my phone disconnecting from Facebook. Ironically, I still receive emails from Facebook that let me know how many friend requests I have, how many notifications, or even that someone poked me since I last logged in. (I didn't know you could still poke) Facebook is trying to keep me connected, which is just another reason that disconnecting is just so difficult.

Some say that considering I read this email means I am still connected, and in some ways I agree. But the truest feeling of freedom is being able to know that I have friend requests, I have been poked, I have 24 new messages, and I really don't care who they are from, or what they say. The people that truly want to talk to me still do, they just cannot use social media to do so. A friend request on Facebook does not mean I gained a new friend to me, it means someone is interested in seeing what I am doing or trying to show me what they are doing without making the effort to actually see me. 

I have constantly told myself that I need Facebook for my business.

To some extent, this is true. It is a great place to market the great results we get a New-Start Health Center. This is the hardest part of disconnecting. I know there are ways to keep a business account active without logging into my personal account, but I haven't figured it out yet.

For the last week, I have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of not knowing what everyone is up to, what they like, or where they are checked in. It is the truest form of "Ignorance is Bliss!" 

It's Time for Me to Pull the Plug, and Say Goodbye...

I have grown up in the age of the development of constant contact and a world where no conversation can die. No matter how bad it wants you to let it go, how bad it wants to rest in a place more peaceful. Instead, it goes on, tied to a machine with any piece of life pumped into it.  Meaningless ongoing conversations have so many mediums to be transmitted that we never really take a chance to pull the plug and let them die.

I feel like over the last 15 years I have watched something so genuine and healthy turn into a sad, unhealthy, lifeless form that is plugged into every machine, and even wirelessly, unable to die.

Conversations used to be genuine, and real. When I had something to ask my brother, I would wait for him to get home and we would talk about it. If I had not talked to my grandmother for a while, I would make an effort to drive to her house, eat her delicious cooking, and have a real conversation about life. After I spent the afternoon catching up on all of the family gossip (because grandma knows all) I would say goodbye, and go home. The conversation would have met its maker, and it would die. It did not die in vain, it just past on, and went to where conversations are supposed to go, memories.

I remember when I was in middle school, and the internet went into every home. This was an amazing breakthrough. After you got your computer hooked to the phone line and waited for it to dial up. You watched it dial, heard the crazy fax machine like sounds. Finally, after about 5 minutes of getting online and your homepage loading, it was time to chat. It all started with emails. You could send a personal message to someone and they could receive it anytime anywhere, as long as they were tied to a computer and phone line. ICQ was the first instant messenger that was popular in my area and then went straight into a new and improved Microsoft Instant Messenger. I am sure you all remember the green and blue head and body icons that came along with it.

So, that’s how it started, you got yourself a new cool “Hotmail” account and you were ready to chat.  If you were really cool, and had expensive internet, you could get an AOL account. (I heard it was better, but couldn’t get to that level)

My first phone was a Motorola flip phone. It had analog signal, and as long as you were in a good place for signal, and you had the antenna pulled out, it was capable of making phone calls. The idea that I could call anyone anywhere was wonderful at the time, but it is just another poison for the already dying conversation.

In my undergraduate years, I finally got to the next level of phones, color screen and even a camera.  During this time, a new concept had hit the heart of the genuine conversation, Texting. I fought and fought about how dumb it would be to type out a message. All I could think about is how much work that is, and I made the decision, I will just call.

People started texting me, and I realized it was just like email, I could send a personal message to anyone I want, from anywhere I want, and they can get back to me when they get the chance. I don’t have to stop what I am doing for this conversation, I can continue on my day, and have a conversation without even putting effort in.  Text messages are one of the biggest culprits for this downfall of the genuine conversation. Conversation had completely lost its mannerisms. There is no way to judge the emotion in a text conversation, everything gets taken out of context, and you are just left wondering if you had a good conversation, or if that smiley face was sarcastic. We lost the ability to spell correctly, enunciate, or even be honest if we thought something was funny. During genuine conversation, if something is funny, we laugh… LOL, LMFAO, HAHA, HEHE, TTYL, BRB, ILY, IDK, WTF. What a joke… This conversation deserves to die, let it.

During my junior year at Purdue, I was introduced to next great thing… FACEBOOK. How great was this breakthrough. I could be friends with people I don’t even know, try to generate a BS conversation with them, and even act interested.

 I could put on there if I was interested in a relationship, and if I found a girl I thought was attractive, I could poke her. Maybe she will poke back. She didn’t poke back. What does this mean? Does she not think I am pretty? Oh I might not be pretty. Let me find out real quick. So I post a selfie (I took 5 or 6 and got the best one). AHHHH. YESSSSS. 34 likes and 14 people told me “great pic.” 

This isn’t real Life.

This is us holding onto a dead conversation, hoping to find some support from people we don’t genuinely want to talk to.

Since then, there have many so many new social media sites that only let you post pictures or you have to live your life in 140 characters or less, and all you care about is having more followers than people you are following. That is real satisfaction, Right?

Even better news, about six and a half years ago, the latest and greatest breakthrough for killing all genuine conversations became real. The first generation IPhone. This put all of you mediums to constant contact from text, to Facebook, to Instagram, (which works well because you can just snap a new picture with your phone and post immediately) in the palm of your hand. You can make these lifeless conversations go on and on, anywhere you want and never let them die.

Over the last 15 years I have seen the development of Email, Instant Messenger, Cell Phones, Text Messaging, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and any amount of other social media. And above all, I have seen the slow downfall of genuine conversation to a lifeless, heartless, emotionless, form of interaction that is only holding on by a thread. We never let them just pass away and move on to MEMORIES.

I am going to make a movement to Pull the Plug, Disconnect a Dying Conversation, and let myself cherish the memory of a conversation.

I am going to lock my Social Media accounts, and have someone I care about change the password. I am going to start with one month and see how much I miss the social world.

I want to rejuvenate the life of the Genuine Conversation. I want to have face to face conversations and real phone calls about things that matter. I want to go see my nieces, nephews, and not rely on pictures online to watch these kids grow.  I want to genuinely become a part of someone’s life, not just “Facebook Official.”

I

 have spent 15 years, tumbling down the path to lifeless conversations. I am going to pull the plug, and say goodbye to the conversations that have no meaning, no emotion, no life.

Goodbye for now Facebook and text messages, I am moving on.

Dr. Moz

What can spending $10 billion a year in advertising sell?

Have you ever wondered what it would cost to completely skew the minds of the masses in America and sell a product that is not only proven not to work, but proven to make you worse? Well you can spend money in many ways to advertise a product, but to sell a product and make everyone believe they need it without regard to any clinical evidence takes a lot of money and well organized/strategic marketing.

This product is so well sold in America, even when research surfaces, that clearly discusses the evidence that this product is harmful to your health and shows only negative effects to the body, the masses of America still defend it. They defend something that has taken years to ingrain into each of our brains that this product is necessary, against all odds, against all real research, the product must be good because doctors prescribe it and celebrities use it.

The top 10 pharmaceutical companies spend $10 billion dollars a year on marketing to the uninformed public.  

1. Pfizer
2. Eli Lilly
3. Abbott Laboratories
4. Merck
5. Amgen
6. AstraZeneca
7. Allergan
8. Boehringer Ingelheim
9. GlaxoSmithKline
10. Otsuka Pharmaceutical

These companies have mastered the art of selling you and me products to help heart burn, lower cholesterol, help the common cold, and vaccinate us from the years flu bug.

But how has this marketing strategy really affected us?

Whether or not you know what Psoriatic Arthritis is, or how it affects the body, we, as Americans, all know that Phil Mickelson suffers from it. We know that he is a professional golfer that has a condition that can only be helped by taking a very specific medication and if he doesn’t take it, he will never be able to play golf again.

Enbrel: a medication that is classified to block TNF or tumor necrosis factor will help stop the production of inflammation that is correlated to Psoriatic Arthritis.

Before the commercial talks about the side effects that come along with this medication such as: increased risk of diabetes and heart disease or increased risk of serious infection, this advertisement makes each of us believe that if Phil Mickelson takes this medication, it must work, and if I have pain in my hands or legs, I must have Psoriatic Arthritis, and this medication will help.

This advertisement is designed to put a personal touch on a celebrity or professional athlete and help each middle age American male think about if their pain that they are suffering from can be treated with this MIRACLE medication called Embrel. So we all tread off to the overworked, understaffed, ever too busy medical doctor and ask if this will help. All the doctor has to do is ask if you have pain, and when you say yes, you are linking yourself to the symptoms that Phil suffers from on the television, and you are not there for anything other than the same medication he uses. This means you are already a customer to this Pharmaceutical Company, and you are a lifetime buyer of their product. This is successful marketing, but at what cost???

Always pay attention to the “fine print”

We have all been taught to analyze the “fine print”. We know that in the fine print you will find things about any product that you would not like. Like the interest rate on a credit card. It is not in big bold print on the front, unless it’s a 6 month promotion of 0%APR, but the fine print will say something like, if you don’t meet your minimum payment or any carried credit balance will be subject to 21.99%APR after the 6 month grace period. So to be clear, we all know that the “fine print” of any product give details that the provider does not want you to focus on, and they create a diversion to keep their perspective client focused on the “good” of the product and not pay attention to the “bad”.

When you have $10 billion to spend on marketing, you can make sure that each one of your ads are professionally designed and ran through many control trials to analyze their effectiveness to the consumer before they ever hit the public eye. The entire ad is designed to get your attention, make you feel like you or someone you care about is suffering from the condition they are trying to exploit, and then show you the only way it can be treated, their miracle medication. After the commercial gets you all warm and fuzzy inside, and you have already self-diagnosed yourself, all you have to do is get your primary care physician already on the phone to schedule an appointment to get your prescription, then they lay the “fine print” on you. This comes in a form of extremely fast, monotone script of the many side effects that come along with the minute benefits of this miracle drug ,but you are already so warmed up from the well-designed commercial that you don’t even make an effort to pay attention.

Side effects like increased chance of infection, rapid pulse, increased urge to gamble, drowsiness, etc do not mean anything to us. We are not worried about what can happen, we are only focused on what we want to happen, and these pharmaceutical ads are genius at telling us that they can do just that.

I am not writing this blog to solely reiterate what we all know about the dangerous side effects that come with all medications, the fact that they exist, and the fact that we all ignore them. I am writing to tell you about how spending billions of dollars on advertising can sell anything, even things that can harm your health by trying to help it.

Have you ever wonder how much it cost to make a medication?

Would it alarm you if you know that a study shows that pharmaceutical companies have reached a level of domestic sales to a number of $235.4 billion, in the US alone. Research shows that 13.4% of this amount is spent on research and development of new medications.  To do the math for you, about $32 billion is spent on research and development of new medications.

How much is spent on marketing their products?

The same research paper states that pharmaceutical companies spend 24.4% of their sales on promotions of their products. This is how pharmaceutical industries spend $57.4 billion dollars on marketing. About $10 billion goes to direct marketing to consumers in the form of TV ads, billboards, and celebrity promotions. The rest is spent on Pharmaceutical Reps, Salespeople, doctor’s lunches etc.

With this volume of advertising, we can not help but become clients. It is all we see, all day, every day. A pill for this, shot for that.

Do you think it is odd, that if you get a flu shot at CVS, they will give you 20% off your store purchases that day?

I am a well-researched anti flu shot physician. I know all of the harmful side effects, and lack of scientific evidence that it is even remotely effective to prevent the flu, and I almost went and got a flu shot to get the 20% off.

The biggest industries have the most power and influence over us.  We need to stop buying into the system, and start a proactive way of living to promote our own health and stop being pawns in the medical scheme.

I truly respect this quote, and I only wish things were this simple. My thought though, does our food system pay attention to our health system?

The truth of this quote is, “people eat food with no regard to their health, and seek health care from an industry with zero intentions of helping.”

~ Dr. MOZ

 If you are tired of seeking pain relief with no results, call (812) 799-0668 TODAY and schedule a FREE CONSULTATION, and let's get you back to the PAIN-FREE Life you are missing.

Visit www.NewStartHealthCenter.com TODAY!

Make you and your family's health a priority this winter.

Hello, this is Dr. Mozingo, I am writing to help you understand the winter woes of your health.

Each day when you walk out into the cold crisp air, do you feel yourself tense up?

A natural reaction to cold temperatures is for your shoulders and spinal muscles to draw in tightly, trying to hold your body tight and maintain an optimal core temperature. Shivering is another natural response to cold temperatures, and all shivering is, muscle contractions to increase thermal energy in the body to maintain a healthy body temperature.

Does this have any negative effects on your health?

The body's primal defense mechanism for the common cold, or flu bugs, are the white blood cells that course through the body. When the body is invaded by these bad bacteria or viral agents, the body automatically sends the proper white blood cell to the area to attack and and destroy the condition causing nuisance.

Did you know that you can help your body defend these pathogens without getting a dangerous flu shot?

The immune system is a very complex machine in the body, and it needs a lot of support from your daily activities. I am writing to help you learn ways to improve your health by making your immune system as strong as possible. 

1. Drink plenty of water: 
1. Water is necessary to aid the digestive system and also flush out the bad stuff that accumulates in the liver that can inhibit your immune system.
2. Stay away from antibiotics:
1. The digestive tract utilizes many good bacteria to build the immune system. When you have optimal levels of probiotics in the large intestine, you body is better equipped to build antibodies, or attack mechanisms, against all of the bad bugs that we become exposed to.
3. Eat whole food vitamins:
1. There is an endless amount of reasons how vitamins course through our body making it more effective at fighting disease. Vitamin A, D, E, C, and Bs, are all very effective antioxidants that will give your body the fuel it needs to fight off the winter woes.  
4. Get Adjusted:
1. When the body is tensed up do to the cold weather, it can put added pressure on the spinal segments and cause spinal fixations. Some chiropractors will cause this a "Subluxation" but due to the inability to define such a thing with science, I only use the term fixation.
2. The lymphatic system is the primary control to send white blood cells to the place of attack by the winter bugs, and this lymphatic tissue must be pumped through the body by movement. 
3. Spinal fixations can inhibit both the flow of lymphatic tissue, Eustachian tube tissue, and also cerebrospinal fluid. When these fluids are blocked up, you can experience 
1. Chronic infections
2. Ear aches
3. Migraines
4. Back and neck stiffness 
5. Many more!!

There are many ways to continue to make your health better each day. The New-Start Solution is designed to ensure that you are following the proper path to health. Lets face it, no one likes to be sick or get the flu, and the flu shot doesn't really work that well. 

How about trying a natural approach to improve your health?

It could change your life....

~Dr. Moz

If you are tired of seeking pain relief with no results, call (812) 799-0668 TODAY and schedule a FREE CONSULTATION, and let's get you back to the PAIN-FREE Life you are missing.

Visit www.NewStartHealthCenter.com TODAY!