blog healthy

Hair loss happens naturally to everyone. On average, the ordinary, healthy person loses between 50 and 100 hairs every day. This is the way the head is designed to work. Hairs grow, they rest, they drop out and new hair grows from the roots. In animals, hair loss is seasonal with hair getting thicker when winter comes, followed by shedding in spring. Humans lose and replace hair continuously. As people age, the hair grows thinner each time it regrows and the root system slowly dies back. By the age of fifty, more than half the world's population has lost the thickness and shine in the hair they had when young. From fifty onwards, the hair will slowly recede. In men, this happens more than in women. Its progress is as unstoppable as the passing of the years. Whether older people find this bearable depends on their attitude to ageing. For those who see every wrinkle as something to be fought, hair loss is a further symptom that has to be hidden. Women wear wigs or hair pieces to hide the loss. Men are forced to more drastic measures such as surgery.

For younger people, hair loss comes as a natural disaster like an earthquake, shaking their self-confidence and making them look different and, possibly, older. This hair loss would be easier to bear if it was the result of a disease. Everyone knows that cancer patients who go through chemo- or radiotherapy lose all their hair. But the usual explanation is genetic. Instead of a heroic struggle against a killer disease, people lose their hair because they inherited the trait. Cruel people, intent on causing pain, suggest that balding people have genetic defects affecting them in other ways and so morale is worn down.

So what can younger people do when they notice hair loss? Well, the first and most obvious question to ask, "Is this normal loss?" When you stand in the shower and see hair building up in the drain, this is not a cause for panic. People lose their hair naturally every day. Only when the volume of loss increases and a change in physical appearance begins to show itself is there a need for action. Try a simple test. Have someone take a photograph of your head every week from the same angle. This makes it easier to identify real problems. Once a definite trend is established, it is off to see the doctor. There may be a simple explanation and a quick and easy remedy.

For example, it may be the side-effect of a drug. Changing to a different drug may reverse the hair loss. In the cases where the reason is andogenic alopecia, the so-called male pattern baldness, the answer is propecia.

This is a drug designed to correct the hormonal imbalance that causes hair loss. Taken once-daily over significant periods of time, it can prevent further loss and, in some cases, promote regrowth. The earlier in the cycle men begin using propecia, the better the results.

Clinical tests show it is less effective when the hairline has significantly receded.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that an increasing number of people are now unable to afford medical insurance. Some 47 million people do not have medical insurance. When they begin to fall sick, there is nothing that can be done if money is short. When it comes to a choice between food on the table and treatment, most people decide to eat. They hope they will get better. When health does not improve, there is no improvement in the choice to be made. If treatment remains unaffordable, they have to wait until their sickness worsens to the point it can be considered an emergency. At this point, people decide to go to the emergency room at their local hospital. Federal law is very clear. Hospitals are under a positive legal obligation to treat everyone who walks in through the door. It does not matter whether the emergency is real, in the sense of a traffic accident inflicting unexpected injury, or to some extent manufactured, where the condition only becomes an emergency because of a deliberate delay. People must be given treatment.

The difficulty is that most of the uninsured cannot afford to pay their bills. The hospitals can and do issue invoices for the treatment given and drugs supplied. This is also a part of the law. People have a responsibility to pay for their treatment. But hospitals are realistic about their chances of collecting. Continued pursuit for payment usually results in bankruptcy and the creditors only get a few cents in the dollar. So, hospitals make a rational decision. They spread all the unpaid bills among all those who can pay. In other words, whether you are paying out of your own pocket or you are relying on your own health insurance to pay for your treatment, a percentage of every hospital's bill is a provision against bad debts from the uninsured. The irony is that everyone who is insured is also insuring all the uninsured for their emergency room visits.

If you have been wondering why your own health insurance premiums have been going up so sharply of late, it's because there is a wave of uninsured people going to the emergency rooms around the country. The health insurers are having to pay more and this additional cost gets passed on in the premiums. Is it going to get any better? No. It's actually going to get worse. Ever more people are finding health insurance unaffordable. Even with sites like this which allow people to find the cheapest insurance around, many still find the premiums too much. That does not mean you should give up. Using this site will get you offers. Then it's up to you to negotiate directly with the insurer or its agents to get the best actual premium for the cover. It's not worth the risk of being uninsured. If at all possible, get some cover.