Sunday, June 20, 2010

HEALTH REFORM #5 - Thursday 17th June 2010

Health Reform # 5 is working out how to get doctors to charge less for their services. Some of the fees, particularly for specialists are just rapacious.

This is a highly protected, greedy, elitist profession. The greater the level of protection the higher their fees.

I went to the dermatologist the other day for a skin complaint. She picked it immediately as psoriasis which I'd inherited from my mother. She wrote out a script for some waxy stuff that calmed down in 3 days what my doctor couldn't treat for over a year. The fee, $175 for 15 minutes. A drover's dog could have done what she did - with a bit of practice. That's not bad dough it is? Just add it up, per day, per week, per month, per year. It's definitely an income that's not commensurate with the service delivered.

(Just don't get me started oln what my dentist charged to pull a tooth the other day. $560 for 40 minutes in the chair. Add that up.)

Changing the definition of primary health care and opening up primary health care treatment to other professional groups is probably the best way to bring about a reduction in medical costs. Nurses, fitness practitioners, pharmacists and naturopaths are obvious choices.

The second way to do it is to let medical graduates loose into surgeries after 5 years of study. If they don't know how to diagnose or treat a particular illness they can send their customer to someone more experienced. As likely as not they will send them to a fitness practitioner, pharmacist, nurse or naturopath.

Maybe doctors should do their first couple of years of practice in a surgery with someone a bit more experienced than themselves. Different practitioners will have different specialities. They'll be able to spread the work amongst themselves.

You don't need 10 years of study to fix a crook back, or write out a certificate because someone has a cold.

Support for fitness practitioners, nurses and naturopaths in private practice will deprive a lot of doctors of the work they've been doing, much of it ineptly. Goodness knows what they learn in medical school these days.

They'll have to smarten themselves up and lower their prices to maintain the payments on the Mercs.

On the track
No track.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and don't work so hard on the weekend that you have trouble raising a sweat for the rest of the week.


John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

HEALTH REFORM 4 - Wednesday 16th June 2010

Health Reform #4 is amending the medical insurance legislation and establish a compulsory first party medical insurance levee based on people's income and their level of fitness.

On top of this people may choose to insure themselves against the gap between what the medical practitioners charge and what the government is willing to pay on their behalf.

Medical costs have reached 10% of GDP which means the starting price for the Medicare tax should be 10%.

Let's be realistic and make it 5%.

Take off 1% if you're close to your ideal weight. Under 25% fat for men and 35% fat for women

Take off 1 percent if you don't smoke.

Take off 1% if you're fit. You can run 35 x 20m laps in 5 minutes and do 20 situps and 20 pressups and 20 squats.

That brings down your compulsory, first party health insurance to 2%, thereby enabling the government to subsidize some of your medical costs and some of the costs of those unable to look after themselves.

This is the easy way to encourage people to keep themselves fit and healthy to the best of their ability. How much they pay becomes a choice.

It gives people and incentive to work on their fitness.

It gives fit and healthy people a reward for effort and pays for their gym membership. At the moment they subsidize the fat and lazy. That's not fair.

Sound easy? You betcha.

On the track
Out with the boys. Still sluggish.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and save yourself a poultice in Medicare fees; keep yourself in good shape, and what every you do, don't smoke.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

HEALTH REFORM 3 - Tuesday 15th June 2010

Health reform 3 is getting people fit and healthy.

We don't have a $100B medical problem in this country, it's a $100B fitness problem.

The easy part is giving .

For governments and health bureaucrats it's easy solving fitness problems by giving money to the medical industry to patch people up. The thing they find hard and the thing they steer clear of is encouraging people to keep themselves fit and healthy.

Well I can tell you, it's not all that tough an assignment and I'll tell you how it can be done tomorrow.

On the track
No track. I'm still stuffed from the weekend.

In the meantime stay tuned, until tomorrow, when all will be revealed.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

HEALTH REFORM 2 - Monday 14th June 2010

The Rudd Labor Governbment is trumpeting its recent healthfare initiatives as the greatest reform of the medical system since the beginning of Medicare in 1975.

That's bunkum. What's been delivered is Medicare 1975, version 35. All that's happened is the medical industry has gained another $10B in protection and more ambulances are being sent round to the bottom of the cliff.

The second great health reform challenge is to work out how to look after those who can't look after themselves and at the same time stop those who can look after themselves but don't from jumping on the gravy train.

A week or so ago I said that the Commonwealth Government is spending nearly 20% of its budget on healthfare. The states are spending close to 25%. Most of the money is being spent on people who are quite capable of looking after themselves and paying for their own medical treatment.

Hospitals are full to over flowing by people in just plain bad shape and people who can afford to insure themselves against a medical emergency.

Until the Governments of Australia work out how to deal with that there is no such thing as health reform.

On the track
Out with the boys in the freezing cold. Didn't have the energy to raise more than a walk this morning. Do you know I can't keep up with them walking. I can run faster, but can't keep up while walking. I just let them get ahead and then take a short cut. I'm on my own - but it's good thinking time.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and keep yourself in good nick.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

HARD YAKKA - Sunday 14th of June 2010

The second round at Cameron's place.

Yesterday Cameron forced me to stop the chainsaw there was so much rubbish lying around. He said it would take a skip to get rid of all the stuff on the front lawn.

This morning, Christine and I bundled all of it onto the ute before he got there.

Kids of today don't know what hard work is. No-one's every showed them what men and bullocks can do.

By the end of the day and after 4 trips to the dump everything was all cleaned up. Skip, my arse!

Somebody said it couldn't be done and he with a chuckle replied
That maybe it couldn't but he would be one who wouldn't say so 'til he tried.
So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin on his face if he worried he hid it
And he started to sing as he tacked the thing that couldn't be done, and he did it.

On the track
That was the track.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and don't let someone half your age tell you what you can't do.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION - Saturday 13th June 2010

Gurdjieff said that it you're depressed one of the best things you can do is get out in the garden.

I think that's true.

Well, I'm not depressed but I had a great day out in the garden today working like buggery up at Christine's son's place in Hackett.

I used to help my Dad in the garden when I was a kid. He worked on Saturday morning. He'd come home, have lunch, get changed and go out into the garden. He was raised on a farm and turned gardening on a quarter acre block into an artform.

Life seemed to be one continuous routing of mucking stuff out of the chook house and spreading it on the garden and then barrowing new dirt back in it's place.

At the end of the day we'd often go down to the beach to get the chooks some seaweed and cuttlefish bones to scrape their beaks on.

There's nothing quite as satisfying as hosing down the paths and the tools at the end of the day and looking back to survey your work.

My Dad knew how to work hard

A few weeks ago I ran amok with the chainsaw cutting an old creeper and a tree off the carport.

Today involved more chainsawing, putting the rubbish on the ute and taking it to the dump.

Christine and Cameron got stuck into it as well. It was a great day.

Jeez I slept well.

On the track
The track today was the garden.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and if you feel depressed get out into the garden.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

HALF WAY THERE - Friday 12th June 2010

I can't say it's been easy but the Blogarithm started on the 12th of December. It's now the 12th of June. Half way there. That's a milestone.

On the track
No track today. Had to get up very early and drive to Sydney. Came back very late.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and remember that nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

HEALTH REFORM 1 - Thursday 10th June 2010

35 years ago I attended a lecture by futurologist Fred Emery where he said that one of the challenges for the recreation industry was how to run down gracefully sports that had had their heyday.

Now I don't know which sports he was referring to, but two sports that seem to be on the decline are the two rugby codes. I don't think many people find them appealing enough to actually play the game. Soccer seems to be on the increase in terms of participation by young people but it's a shit of a sport; you can't score, watching it is like watching pain dry and the A league competition is such a second-rate competition it has to be played in summer.

There are some sports that a very small that keep getting propped up by the Australian Olympic Committee. A lot of them could hold their annual championship in a phone box.

In the health arena health reform challenge #1 is how to gracefully run down an inefficient and increasingly ineffective medical industry.

The type of medical practice the governments of Australia are throwing $100B at each year is just not the health practice that people need in a sedentary culture, where most of the heroic diseases have been banished and most of the body system dysfunctions are personally generated.

Continuing to pay doctors to fix fitness problems with medical and pharmaceutical solutions is a complete and utter waste of money. Protecting the medical industry only encourages them to practice more and more junk medicine, particularly at the local level - and to put their prices up.
The solution is breaking down the notion of primary care and including more professional groups in the definition.

On the track
No track. Living on yesterday's glory.

In the meantime stay tuned highly tuned and keep your fingers crossed that as the protection of the medical industry gradually declines the protection of the fitness industry increases.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

WHAT'S OLD - Wednesday 9th June

It never ceases to amaze me the continued call on public funds to meet the rising cost of medical services because of the increasing age profile of the community.

There are a few things that come to mind here.

1. What's old? I asked Adolf, at 83 the second oldest member at Fit and Healthy, (the gym I used to run) whether he thought he was old. He gave an emphatic 'NO'.

2. Getting older is not a cause of poor health. Being older doesn't mean you have to be in poorer health than you were when you were younger. OK, there will be a bit of wear and tear, that's normal, but chronic poor health, is by and large preventable. Certainly it doesn't mean that once you get old you can expect to be sickly all the time. The fact that some older people are sicker than some younger people has got nothing to do with age. I keep telling people that the older they are the longer they've had to train!

3. Why have succeeding governments sought to accept such a large public responsibility for individual poor health, when most of the poor health around is privately generated and privately preventable? This seems a bizarre proposition. I support the public role for the support of some poor health. Of course the best thing governments have done to improve health over the last 100 years is to improve sanitation.

The definition of old
Sooner or later the Government has to provide a definition of what's old? Is it 65, 70, 75, 80?Adolf didn't feel old at 80.

The main generators of health problems at any age are lack of vigorous physical activity, an inappropriate diet and an inability to manage the stress of one's internal and external environments. To attribute the blame for poor health on getting older is drawing a particularly long bow.

We live in the golden age, where more and more people are being blessed with the conditions of life that foster and support the ability to grow older. Good government, technology and affluence have enabled this to happen, quite apart from what we do for ourselves. If people never had it so good in Harold McMillan's England, they've certainly got it better in the Australia that's been handed down through the generations of governments from Mr Menzies to Mr Rudd.

Let's not spoil our old age by being unhealthy.

On the track
Out with the boys.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and age healthily.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

65 THE NEW 40 - Tuesday 8th June 2010

Today I turned 65 and I have to say I don't feel like I'm 65.

Ok, I'm a bit greyer, balder and fatter than I'd like to be. I can't do much about the grey or the balding./

At the beginning of the Blogarithm I was 87 Kg. On the 13th of December it was 86.6Kg. Today I'm 84.8. Didn't even lose 2 Kg in all that time. At 26% fat, that's way to high and I've given myself a fail. I've let myself down. I eat too much.

One of my goals was to get down to 78 Kg and fit into the trouser I bought in London seven or so years ago. It's still a goal. I've let myself down.

But on the track today here's what happened.

40 minutes on the stepper for 40 minutes at level 8 all over 140 bpm; 617 calories and 817 steps. Give that a pass.

Situps 65, presups, 50 and squats 50. I'll give that a pass as well, but at 65 I saw Tom Hafey do 100 situps and 100 pressups. That was 10 years ago. I imagine he can still do them.

I would have liked to do the 5 minute, 20 metre run, but I keep tearing my right calf muscle. The good news is that using The Stick has got rid of my Achilles tendonitis. That's very good news. Now I'm working on the calf.

All in all I give myself a 6/10. Fail.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned an stop eating so much. You;re a disgrace.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

NAPLAN - Monday 7th June 2010

The Deputy Prime Minister and minister45 for Education is puffing her chest out as kids around Australia put their heads down and do their NAPLAN tests.

I had to Google what 'NAPLAN' stands for - National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy.

It's typical, pick on something professors of education and nerds around the country would feel was a pushover.

They don't give a stuff about art, wit, humour, physical activity, personal development, music, dance, woodwork, cooking, ... Neither do the teachers they train not the principals who supervise them.

It's why by the time kids reach the last year of high school they're dull and depressed.

How good an education do you think school children are getting if those who teach them do not have a good command of the basic physical skills, like, running, jumping, throwing, catching, kicking, skipping, rolling, hanging, climbing, swimming ...

Here's the NAPPE - National Assessment Program - PhysEd - a list of some of the key motor skills that I reckon form a basic foundation of motor skill development and physical fitness. They’re the sorts of activities that kids at age 12 and teachers of any age can do, if they’re reasonably well trained.

Run your eye over the list of skills and see how many of them you can still do. If you can make the grade, I’ll take my hat off to you. If the teachers you know can make the grade I’ll take my hat off to them as well.

Juggle three balls

Skip with a rope

Do a good 30 seconds worth of double under skips.

Run 40, 20m laps in 5 minutes

Do 20 good situps

Do 20 good pressups

Do 5 good chinups

Sitting down, reach forward and get your wrists past your toes

Sit down and stand up 10 times in 30 seconds

Keep a yo yo going up and down for 30 seconds

Throw a ball 20m

Hop 20m on one leg, and then the other

Catch a tennis ball from 10m

Throw a tennis ball up in the air and clap 10 times before it comes down – and catch it.

Put a bean bag between your heels and kick it over your head

Swim 50 metres in less than a minute.

Duck dive and swim 5 metres under water

Dive into the water from a height of a metre- or more

Swing on a horizontal bar

Swing across a monkey bar.

Put one leg over the horizontal bar and swing up into a sitting position

Hang by your legs from a horizontal bar - swing and land on your feet.

Pat a tennis ball with your hand

Pat a ball with a wooden bat or tennis racquet, flat on and also on the side.

Crab walk for 10 metres

Lie on your back and put your feet up over your head and onto the floor behind you

Do a forward roll

Do a backward roll

Do a frog balance

Do a cartwheel

Do a 5 second handstand

Hit a ball against a wall for 30 seconds using a bat – forehand and backhand from 5 metres

Climb up a rope

Ride a bike, no hands ...

And there must be dozens more things that kids ought to be able to do that suggest fitness and motor skill proficiency. If you can think of some, send me an email.

On the trackOut with the boys at 6.45.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and let me know how you go on the NAPPE.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

YOUTUBE FOR EXERCISES - Sunday 6th June 2010

Arthur C Clarke said something to the effect that whatever you think about the future it will be utterly fantastic. He also said, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’

Well the future is here in the form of YouTube and it definitely is utterly fantastic and magical.

And not only is it YouTube but it’s YourTube because of its ability to entertain and inform you.
With respect to back pain stretches it has a whole host of exercises that you can troll through and then do on a regular and systematic basis to get your back back into better shape.

Once you’ve cottoned on to the fact that it’s muscles that move bones out of alignment and that the cause of the pain is rarely at the site of the pain you can start looking for exercises that will strengthen and loosen those muscles that are the cause of your pain.

YouTube is an incredible online community that so willingly gives of it’s time, effort and thought to help other people. It says a lot for the generosity of mankind.

It’s built on the maxim that giving comes before getting. Sure, some of the videos lead to money changing hands but that’s a fair exchange for information you think is worthwhile. A lot of it comes from the goodness of a heart or some professional or personal passion. There just seems to be a heck of a lot of people out there wanting to share their knowledge.

It takes time and effort to set up the camera and show someone a set of back pain stretches that, in all likelihood will relieve your back pain. Then it has to be downloaded and uploaded. The reward in many cases is just good, old fashioned, personal satisfaction. It’s quite extraordinary.

It’s YourTube because you put out by going there to get information. You’re putting in time and effort, so you deserve to be rewarded. The rewards are huge. No more back pain.

I was on YouTube the other day looking for back pain stretches. Sheesh, I could have spent weeks there. It was like shopping in an oriental bazaar; going so far down streets and ally ways I got lost and couldn’t find my way back to where I started.

Then I ducked over to look for hip stretches; same thing. If your hip’s playing up, search for the ‘Fire Hydrant’ mobility exercise.

Knee problems anyone? I saw this PhysEd guy from California walking backwards on a treadmill with the elevation set on high. It looked a bit hairy, but it’s worth a try.

It’s a fascinating journey. I bookmarked a few sites, wrote to a few people to let them know I admired their work and looked at a range of gadgets and devices.

The other thing I like about YouTube is that if someone has found an exercise useful and bothered to upload a video of themselves doing it, there’s a fair chance that it might do you some good as well.

If you think you’ve got all the answers, think again. Go to YouTube.

It’s utterly fantastic.

On the track
On the stepper, 40 m inutes at 140 bpm for 593 calories and 785 steps.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and keep stretching those hamstring and buttock muscles.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

THE TEA YOU HAVE BEFORE TEA - Saturday 5th June 2010

It’s like this. You leave work tired and hungry. You have to pick up a few things from the supermarket.

Have you noticed that you never go to the supermarket on a full stomach? And being a while since you had something to eat there’s always a bit of slack in your trousers.

Anyway, you push through the turnstile and blow me down, if there aren’t any baskets there. Every second time I go shopping I have to scrounge around the checkouts and bring a stack of baskets back to where they should be.

You do the right thing. You start in the fruit and vegetable section, move round to the fish, drop a bottle of peach tea into your basket, load up with a few groceries and then think ‘Hmmmm, I could do with something on the way home.’

You sneak back to the vegetables section and get a handful of cashews.
Now nuts are good for you. If you look at cashews, they possess herbal health benefits that include killing bacteria and germs, stopping diarrhea, drying secretions, increasing the libido, and reducing fever, blood sugar, blood pressure muscle spasms, migraine headaches, tension, soreness and fatigue. They help reduce gallstones, facilitate the utilization of iron and the elimination of free radicals.
The big problem is they pack a powerful energy punch. Cashews are around 2,400 kilojoules (kJ) per 100gms, which is about the size of the handful you scooped into the plastic bag. To put things in perspective, depending on your size and the amount of physical activity you get each day, you need between 7,000 or 8,000 a day.

Be that as it may, you’re as hungry as a horse and 100 grams doesn’t seem all that much as you navigate the lid on the box, and dip the shovel in. Two cashews fall on the floor. You look around. No-one’s watching. You stoop down, pick them up and stuff them into your mouth; can’t let good food go to waste.

You’ve cleaned the full 100gms up by the time you’re half way home and stick the empty bag under the seat to hide the evidence.

It’s your turn to cook tea. You’re still hungry. The smell of food in the supermarket and the thought of food at home has made you even hungrier. You could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck.

But first, before you get started, you need a few Ritz cracker biscuits just to tide you over. (They’re called Ritz because no-one ever had 1 Rit.) Now, whilst Ritz cracker biscuits have 2118 kJ /100gms, the redeeming feature is that each one is very small. But that only provides you with all the more reason to get through 20 of them while you’re cutting up the vegetables. There’s around 600kJ.

And they do taste better with some dip. Some of the dips contain 2000 kJ/100 grams. On this night you pull back and only have half the container, there’s 1000kJ, and all of which raises a thirst; and after all it’s been a long hard slog at the office. You’ve come home tired and depressed so the next thing you reach for is a central nervous system depressant. Duh!

The Heart Foundation reckons you’ll benefit by having a glass of wine a day; you interpret that as one’s good, two’s better and three’s best. Today it’s mid week so you decide to go easy, and restrict yourself to two glasses. A regular glass contains about 300kJ, your glasses contain 400 kJ. All up 800 kJ.

So if you want to know why your trousers are so tight they’re ring-barking you, let’s add up the kilojoules you’ve had before you’ve had your tea:

• cashews 2400
• cracker biscuits 600
• dip 1000
• wine 800

Total 4,800 kJ

On the track
Out on the stepper this morning. Started a bit late so only got in 35 minutes all at level 6: 510 calories and 657 steps.

Then off to the gym. Christine and I are back in the gym, which feels good after an extended break. We took It easy - otherwise you have to pay for it tomorrow.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and eat and apple on your way home.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

Epilogue. I forgot to tell you about the Cherry Ripe that someone put into the basket at the supermarket. That was an extra 1500kJ after tea.

I CAN'T HELP YOU - Friday 4th June 2010

Despite what the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says, the health of Australians is getting worse.

You know that because the medical budget continues to escalate at more than 10% a year.

The Commonwealth Government is allocating nearly 20% of its budget to protect the medical industry. The States are spending around 25%. That's why there's no money for infrastructure and people have to pay to drive on roads they pay for every time they fill up their tanks. It's time people woke up to the fact that you can't have a free run into the hospital and a free ride on a tollway.

Meanwhile surgeries are pack to the rafters with people who are either given poor advice and keep coming back or people who are given good advice and keep coming back.

Spare a though for the good clients of poor doctors. They take their (junk) medicine in good faith. Their condition worsens. They keep coming back.

Spare a though for the doctors with poor customers who don't take their doctor's advice and keep coming back.

If doctors refused to write junk medical prescriptions for people suffering from personally-induced metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological dysfunctions and told customers who don't listen to them, 'I can't help you, you have to help yourself', then maybe we'd start to take more notice of them.

But they don't.

On the track
Out with the boys for the thrice-weekly walk/run.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and help yourself to stay in exceptionally good nick.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

PREVENTIVE HEALTH - Thursday 3rd June 2010

The big buzz-phrase in Australia at the moment is 'preventive health' (for chrissakes), medical speak for doctors telling people to exercise more, smoke less, eat better and lay off the grog.

But just ask yourself, 'How do you prevent health?'

What is really meant by the term is 'preventive medicine' but this is the term that dare not speak its name. What doctor is going to promote preventive medicine when it will reduce the number of people traipsing through their rooms?

The problem with surgeries is that the more time people spend in them the worse their health becomes. Small problems become big problems.

The health of the community is getting worse because doctors know nothing about fitness and because of that they're forced to practice junk medicine - where they prescribe drugs to mask symptoms rather than prescribing treatments which restore poor function to good.

Most health problems these days are fitness problems. Fitness problems cannot be solved by medical solutions.

The fitness industry has gone to ground.

Most of the health promoting treatments require time and effort on the part of the surgeree. Most of them don't want to expend that time or effort. They conspire with the doctor to take the escalator down to an even lower level of health, fitness and wellbeing.

Meanwhile doctors keep giving the preventive health sermon.

But guess who listens? I'll tell you who listens, nobody. That's because everyone knows a sermon is the price you have to pay to get a prescription.

All you want is for the pain to go away as quickly as possible.

The doctor is quite happy to go along with this charade.

In fact it's like this. There's a dark room with a table and three chairs. Behind the table there's a bloke saying to himself, 'How can I get rid of this bastard as quick as possible and still keep up the payments on my Merc.

On the other side of the table is a bloke saying, 'How can I get away from this bastard in the shortest possible time without paying anything.'

They collude with each other. The doctor reaches for the pad. The customer snatches the prescription off the table and heads for the chemist.

In this country the third chair is occupied by a dill with a cheque book, the Minister for Health who's quite happy to pick up part of the tab for this tawdry exchange.

So there you have it. Doctor happy, customer gone in 7 minutes flat and waiting room full to over flowing.

Customer happy, got out of there in seven minutes flat with a prescription to relieve the pain.

Minister for Health happy, electorate thinks she is a jolly good fellow.

But back to the preventive health sermon.

You just roll your eyes and let it pass in one ear and out the other.

On the track
On the stepper this morning. 40 minutes all over 140 bpm, for 562 calories and 744 steps. That feels better.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and move heaven and earth to keep yourself out of the surgery.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

GP'S SWING ON GOVERNMENT TIT - Wednesday June 2nd 2010

Saw an advert in the paper


'Grants supporting after hours GP services.'

You'd reckon if you were running a business and people wanted you to open after hours you'd jump at it, particularly a business where you earn $400,000 a year.

The health bureaucrats should spend more time at McDonalds and Woolworths to see how it's done.

According to the advert, 100 new grants are up for grabs up to a maximum of $100,000.

That's not bad dough it is, particularly when it's on top of whatever it is the doctor is getting for a consultation - $80 for 15 minutes?

No wonder the Commonwealth Government is spending $40,000,000,000 more this coming year than it earns.

It's called robbing the poor to give to the rich.

I reckon they ought to scrap the idea of a super profits tax on the mining industry and impose it on the medical industry.

On the track
Out with the boys for a walk/run at 6.45 in the freezing cold.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and put in for a grant to open your fitness centre before 9am and and after 5pm.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

Saturday, June 19, 2010

FITNESS AUSTRALIA BACKS DIETITIANS OVER FITNESS PRACTITIONERS - Tuesday 1st June 2010

I forgot to mention yesterday that while the Fitness Australia bloke was telling me fitness practitioners weren't qualified to run CrookBack Clinics, he says to me that they've also put a stop to fitness practitioners running diet seminars.

This was because Fitness Australia had done a deal with the dietitian industry - who are judged by Fitness Australia to have all the answers about eating wisely.

They don't.

How on earth could you trust what comes out of the mouth of a profession that is sponsored by Nestles and Kelloggs, two of the largest manufacturers of junk food in the world - let alone what they're encouraging people to put into their mouths.

This is the industry that still tells people to stuff themselves with bread and pasta and parrots on about the glycemic index and Barry and Martin Rice.

These are the people that encourage you to eat more chocoilate because it's got a low glycemic index.

These are the people playing a firm hand in causing not fixing the problem of obesity.

Consider this.

The National Nutrition Guidelines recommends that people 'eat plenty of cereals (including breads, rice, pasta and noodles), preferably wholegrain)'. They don't say what 'plenty' means, but one set of guidelines recommends men eat 24 slices of bread a day. Can you believe that? A loaf of bread a day keeps the doctor away! Hello!

If you don't believe me click on this link: -

http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/publications/synopses/n31.pdf

A serve of cereals is 2 slices of bread. Men between 19 and 60 should have between 6 and 12 serves a day.

You'd have to be living in LaLa land to make that sort of recommendation.

If you want to balloon out, follow the NH&MRC cereal guidelines. Most people living in the Western suburbs do. That's why half of them are 40Kg over weight. If you don't believe me, just go to any shopping centre on pay Thursday and watch.

30% of the people I see are suffering from flour induced headaches and a lack of energy. Their doctor tells them they're depressed. The more bread and pasta they eat the worse they feel, the fatter they get. Their blood pressure goes up. Their doctor sends them over to the chemists.

They don't teach this stuff at dietitians school!

These are also the people who wrote the NH&MRC guidelines which say, 'Development of type 2 diabetes does not appear to be related to ingestion of sugar or other carbohydrates: it is predominantly influenced by genetics, body weight and lifestyle factors.'

If eating flour and sugar isn't a 'lifestyle Factor' what is?

You can read more about this crap on this link -

http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/publications/synopses/n33.pdf

The guidelines read like a stream of essays cobbled together like a string of sausages from a series of essays for Diet 101. You're meant to be impressed by the list of references but it's the same old, same old selective evidence stuff from the diet research industry beavering away in the bowels of the sheltered workshops for the academically gifted.

Just about everything the NH&MRC writes about healthy living is crap. The back care stuff certainly is, along with the diet stuff and anything to do with depression.

The dietitians are the people who advise the National Heart Foundation to give the tick to bread and pies.

As an industry it's a joke. It makes you want to roll your eyes through to the back of your neck. The fitness industry doesn't have to take any lead from these people.

You can read all about this dietitian nonsense on this link: -

http://www.fitandhealthyonline.com/hourglassdiet/index.htm

I think I'll put the Hourglass Diet up as a CEC course and see what happens. Some skinny dietitian with the appetite of a sparrow will give it a right royal shit-bagging, just you watch.

Fitness Australia must think fitness practitioners are a bunch of cretins. No wonder the industry is wallowing in the health backwater.

On the track.
No track, slack - and freezing cold.

Christine went to a conference and bought me a copy of Mark McKeon's book 'Every Day Counts.' (Mark is a former coach of Collingwood.) Apparently not every day counts, you can have a day or two off a week to recover. Today I must have recovered.

In the meantime stay tuned and eat more bread and pasta.


John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

FITNESS AUSTRALIA DUDDS FITNESS PRACTITIONERS - Monday 31st May 2010

You wouldn't believe this.

I just got word back from Fitness Australia that they won't accept the CookBack Clinic as a program for which fitness practitioners can claim continuing education credits (CEC).

A year ago I sent them off a submission and course outline for a half day program for fitness practitioners, teaching them the CrookBack Clinic methodology.

When 50% of people have some sort of musculo-skeletal dysfunction and when 80% of it relates to low levels of strength and flexibility, my thought was that this would be a good opportunity for the fitness industry to attract people to their centres and start to make an impact.

Plus it would, of course keep people out of surgeries and physio and chiropractic rooms and enable doctors, physios and chiros to get in a round of golf on Wednesday afternoons.

Well, it took four of five months for them to get back to me. I had to ring and ring to get any response from their secretarial staff. Getting none I had to pull rank.

Finally I got the review. Their reviewer had the hide to tell me that fitness practitioners didn't have the authority or qualifications to diagnose anything. That was a doctor's job. I've said before that doctors don't have a clue how to diagnose the cause of musculo-skeletal dysfunction, let alone metabolic and psychological dysfunction. That's why they practice junk medicine.

Their reviewer also queried my qualifications and that fact that they were awarded 40 years ago, and the fact that the CrookBack Clinic course for fitness practitioners was a bit short.

I guessed then that it had been reviewed by a physiotherapist. His or her response (for some reason I suspect it was a her) was that how can you teach someone where to look for the cause of a crook back in a half day (or a day) when people were attending physiotherapy courses for 4 years.

I wrote back in my second submission that maybe physiotherapy courses should be 4 years and one day!

Anyway I seriously revamped my course outline; wrote a new book. It took me a month solid. I had dozens of new diagrams done. I searched the literature about the cause of musculo-skeletal dysfunction and wrote that up as well. (The main cause as identified by the NH&MRC and the Arthritis Foundation is that it comes out of the blue, for chrissakes. They say that back pain is caused by a herniated disc, which is tantamount to saying that a crook back is caused by a crook back. This has to be the vapid of vapids.)

I took out the bits about diagnosing and toned it down to 'looking for clues'. I explained that my qualifications were current (a 2-year diploma from a university is still a diploma from a University) and that I'm a registered fitness practitioner. I also explained that I hadn't been sitting on my arse looking out the window for the last 40 years either.

I expanded the course to a full day.

Anyway, three months after I resubmitted the application I ring up the bloke from Fitness Australia to give him a hurry-up (again) and he tells me it has been knocked back for a second time, and, you guessed it - by a physiotherapist. These are the people mind you who still rub, crunch, vibrate and shock the spot where it hurts.

I said to him, 'Why didn't you get it reviewed by a fitness practitioner?' He couldn't answer that one. What an insult to a profession to get some from outside it to review your work.

On the track
Out with the boys for a walk/run.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned because when I get the written response from Fitness Australia and their physiotherapist reviewer I'm going to stack on one hell of a turn.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

MASTERCHEF- OVERDONE- Sunday 30th May 2010

I was a bit hard on Gary Mehigan and George Calomaris when i last wrote about Masterchef. They;re good blokes.

I've watched them giving feedback to the contestants, it's always fair and honest. They're appreciative of good work, firm when it's shoddy.

They're good teachers, they love their students and get misty when they have to chuck people off the show.

As for when it's all going to end; I think it will be at exactly the same moment as Matt Preston splits his strided and the buttons on his jacket part company and end up in a bowl of soup on the other side of the kitchen.

On the track
40 minutes of the stepper just about all at level 8. 589 calories and 780 steps.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and ate more, of the right food at the right time.

John Miller
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

Thursday, June 3, 2010

RUDD BACK IN HOSPITAL - Saturday 29th May

He's back - in hospital with a beaming Victorian Premier, John Brumby.

Brumby should be ashamed of himself. He's been dudded by his health bureaucrats and suckered by Rudd for a few hundred million dollars in a grubby self promotion exercise, the upshot of which has been to pour more public money down the medical black hole.

The health of Australians continues to decline in direct and inverse proportion to the degree to which this bloated and inefficient medical industry is protected by Australian governments.

On the track
On the stepper for 40 minutes all at level 8. That's good. 618 calories and 808 steps.

In the meantime stay tuned and keep Kevin Rudd out of hospitals.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

WASTED EFFORT - Friday May 28th 2010

I had a call from my mate, Graham Dodd today.

We went to University together and did PhysEd - before it had been taken over by Human Movement Science, biomechanics, perceptual motor mechanics and the rest of it. Science has destroyed academic physical education. The simple has become complicated. Graham and could no longer get into university to do a PhysEd course because we're too dumb.

The ability to be a good teacher has little to do with academic achievement in maths and science.

How smart do you have to be to teach children how to kick and throw and catch and how to keep themselves fit for life? Not very.

Looking back we agree our profession had done a dreadful job.

Just about everyone under 60 in this country has had some sort of a PhysEd program when they were at school. They didn't learn much. Look at them, fat, weak and depressed.

There are kids leaving school as I write in just plain dreadful shape. What sort of reflection is that on our profession.

The new national curriculum is going to set out guidelines for PhysEd up to the end of year 10. After that, God knows.

What I do know is that for many kids years 11 and 12 are so stressful it nearly crucifies them. They stop all physical activity just to get through their exams.

Graham and I busted our boilers writing books, running the PhysEd professional association and publishing the Daily Physical Education (DPE) program.

Where is the DPE now - gathering dust on staff room bookshelves.

We should have spent more time with our families.

On the track
Out with the boys for a walk run.

In the meantime stay tuned and don't take yourself seriously.

John Miller
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.crookback.com.au

FITNESS INDUSTRY SUCKS UP TO THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY - Thursday 27th May 2010

I was reading an article put out by the Fitness Australia - of which I'm a member.

Here they are meant to be supporting and protecting their own industry and they're sucking up to the medical industry and it's preventive health agenda. How you prevent health beggars my imagination. The question Fitness Australia should be focusing on is how to stop people ending up in surgeries. It prompted me to put pen to paper. and send them a note.

It's time Fitness Australia got off it's backside and got the fitness industry firmly placed at the primary health care table.

When most of the people in this country are in just plain dreadful shape the Commonwealth Government has budgeted $57,000,000,000 for medical services in its next budget.

The Government just doesn't get it that you can't solve a fitness problem with a medical solution.

The Preventive Health Task Force is a limp and useless tool. The big money continues to go to the medical industry.

For every person who loses a kilogram, someone else will put on 2.

For every one who can score another lap on the 20m run, another person will score 2 less than they did last time.

For everyone who eats an apple a day, 2 more people will eat a Mars Bar and down a bottle of Coke.

The bulk of the money pledged for sport will end up funding Olympic Sports who could hold their AGM in a phone box.

For every dollar the Government spends funding 'social marketing campaigns to raise national awareness of the risks of obesity' the junk food industry will spend $1,000,000.

This is yet another snow job by the medical industry bureaucrats.

The Fitness Industry has nothing in common with these dills. Ignore them.

Concentrate on

1. getting members of the Fitness Industry recognised as a primary health care providers with all the rebates and perks that the medical industry receives

2. getting people into fitness centres.

3. getting the Government to alter the medical tax levee scales so that fit and healthy people get rebates for keeping themselves in good shape. There has to be an incentive for people to keep themselves fit and healthy.

4. getting the government to subsidize the fitness centre costs of people who are in good shape or getting themselves into good shape.

This preventive health stuff is a side show, a diversion away from the main game - which is fitness professionals being supported in their work of getting people fitter and healthier.

On the track
I don't think there was any track today either. More slack than track.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and if you want to prevent health, keep yourself in exceptionally good shape.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

LOWER BACK STRETCHES - Wednesday 26th May 2010

Talking about the future, Arthur C Clarke said, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'

Well the future is here in the form of YouTube and it definitely is magical.

If you've got lower back pain and you're looking for back pain stretches I recommend you go to YouTube.

There you'll find a host of exercises that you can troll through and then do on a regular and systematic basis to relieve back pain.

YouTube is not just an entertainment portal, it's an incredible online community that willingly gives of its time, effort and thought to help other people. There just seems to be a lot of people out there wanting to share their knowledge. It says a lot for the generosity of mankind.

At YouTube, there are hundreds of stretching videos that people have taken in bedrooms, offices and fitness centres and then up-loaded, some more professional than others, but all designed to help you restore poor function to good.

Most of the people who submit their videos are from the Yoga or fitness industries. That's because back pain is not a medical problem it's a fitness problem. Many of these people are real experts in the field of musculo-skeletal health, many are unsung heros and you're getting the benefit of their wisdom for free. Most of these people have already helped hundreds of people relieve their back pain. They can help you. It's a fantastic resource.

Self help
What I like about the back pain stretches on YouTube is the fact that all the videos, and there are hundreds of them, promote self help. This fits in with one of the principles I encourage people to adopt and that is; 'it's a big ask expecting to get better by having someone do something to you; sooner or later you have to do something to yourself.'

Once you've cottoned on to the fact that it's muscles that move bones out of alignment and that the cause of the pain is rarely at the site of the pain, you can start looking for exercises that will strengthen and loosen those muscles that are the cause of your pain. Focus on loosening hamstring and buttock muscles and strengthening trunk muscles - front, back and core.

I was on YouTube the other day looking for back pain stretches. Sheesh, I could have spent weeks there. It was like shopping in an oriental bazaar; going so far down streets and ally ways I got lost and couldn't find my way back to where I started.

It's a fascinating journey. I bookmarked a few sites, wrote to a few people to let them know I admired their work. I also looked at a range of gadgets and devices people are using to decompress their vertebrae, loosen tight back muscles and strengthen abdominal muscles.

Many of the exercises to fix back pain come from yoga. I'd bet on them; they've been around for thousands of years. In fact if you're looking for a good set of lower back stretches I'd seriously encourage you to join a yoga class, go a few times a week and spend some of your own time doing the exercises they recommend while you watch TV. The cost will be far less than lining up at the chiropractory every week for a crunch and a rub down.

If you think you've got all the answers on relieving back pain, think again. Go to YouTube.

It's magical.

There's only one catch; the people who've posted the exercises can't do them for you.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and if someone has found an exercise useful and bothered to upload a video of themselves doing it, there's a fair chance that it might do you some good as well.

On the track
Out with the boys on a walk/run.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and go to YouTube for your lower back stretches.

John Miller

www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

THE GUY IN THE GLASS - Tuesday 25th May 2010

I found this on Linkedin.

The Guy in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow, The Guy in the Glass

On the track
No track. Read a book saying you shouldn't train every day.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and watch out for that guy in the glass.

John Miller

www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

A NEW HEALTH SYSTEM - Monday 24th May 2010

I'm a member of Linkedin, an internet directory.


Crace Couter, also a member asked this question:

‘I need to catch up on timely healthcare reform information and speak intelligently about it quickly. What reliable and updated resources can someone recommend to me that I can quickly digest (i.e. Cliff Notes)?’

My reply
The chances of finding timely health care information is remote. Most people equate the word 'health' with the word 'medical'. You'll find stacks of stuff about the medical industry. The medical bureaucracy, the medical research industry and the medical commentariat are burgeoning with hangers on all making a living out of bolstering a bloated, inefficient, greedy and expensive medical system. The interest of this industry in promoting good health is practically zilch. Over the last 30 years the medical industry has presided over the greatest decline in health since Adam.

The greatest of the health challenges are health-related, not medical-related.

The big challenges are:

1. How to get people to take responsibility for their own health, fitness and wellbeing.

2. How to get people to keep themselves fit and healthy to the best of their ability.

3. How to gracefully run down a medical industry that is based on a 20th Century germ theory not the theory of personally-generated body-system dysfunction.

4. How to stop people from going to doctors for things doctors can't fix.

5. How to reduce the protection of a bloated, inefficient and expensive medical system.

6. Recognition of the fact that it's a big ask expecting to stay healthy without being fit.

7. Recognition that you can't solve a 21st Century fitness problem with a 20th Century medical solution.

8. Recognition that most of the health problems of the western world are personally-generated body system dysfunctions.

9. Most health problems are related to a lack of physical activity and junk diet.

10. Recognition that the three great dysfunctions, metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological are not medical conditions - until they reach a tipping point of grave and irreparable dysfunction.

On the track
Out with the boys for an early morning walk/run.

In the meantime stay tuned highly tuned and do whatever it takes to steer clear of the medical industry.

John Miller
www.millerhealth.com.au
www.fitandhealthyonline.com
www.globalbackcare.com
www.crookback.com.au

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

MASTERCHEFS - MASTERSIZED - Sunday May 23rd


If this country is the second fattest country on earth then no wonder.

The nation’s top chefs aren’t providing much in the way of leadership. On the contrary they’re leading by poor example. They’re overweight. It’s sending the wrong message to suburbia that when you cook good food be prepared to stack on weight.


We’re big Masterchef watchers in our family, though as far as I’m concerned the welcome is starting to wear thin. By the rate at which they keep chucking contestants off the show it looks as though we’ll still glued to the set in September.

Good, wholesome food shouldn’t fatten people up. When the nation’s chefs are fat you know that they’re either eating too much of a good thing, cooking the wrong sort of food, or stuffing themselves with fat, flour and sugar off camera.

While serial gourmand and food critic Matthew Preston sits in on the show raising his eyebrows and picking at food like a sparrow, the buttons on his sports coat look like they’re ready to explode across the room. It’s obvious he’s tucking in after the show.

Guest celebrity chefs are no different. While they lavish attention on the finer arts of food preparation and turn their noses up at pre-prepared mayonnaise, half of them look like they’ve been super-sizing themselves at McDonalds.

In this country you’d never trust a man who didn’t drink. It’s equally hard to trust a fat chef.

On the track
A good workout on the stepper. 40 minutes all over 140 bpm. 563 Calories and 746 steps.

In the mean time stay tuned, highly tuned and remember, most people who are overweight don't eat enough - of the right food at the right time.

John Miller
http://www.fitandhealthyonline.com/
http://www.globalbackcare.com/