Column

The month of March always has me in deep reflection. As an awareness month to educate the public about Cerebral Palsy and all that this medical diagnosis signifies, I think about all that my 11-year-old daughter has survived. I think about what emotional turmoil my family and I have survived and about the many families with a special needs diagnosis.

While caring and awareness may be brief for some, the many “hats” that I must wear are the forever symbols of the delicate care I must incorporate, as life is now filled with priorities much different than those of mainstream society. It is a rocky path strewn with emotional, physical, financial, and medical challenges, but these bumps in the road can be faced with help from caring organizations like CARE Parent Network.

Founded over 30 years ago after the implementation of The Lanterman Act (laws to protect and grant equal rights for those with disabilities), CARE Parent Network is a family resource center that provides support for the disabled and the loved ones that care for them.

When my daughter was first diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, a medical condition due to injury of the Cerebral Cortex (the part of the brain that controls muscle movement and function), I thought her world had been shattered into pieces, resulting in many future hardships. Families feel lost after being told by a medical professional that their child has a condition that will limit their physical or developmental ability. They can feel alone with their fears as they navigate medical terminologies, paperwork, and life-long commitments to readjusting their daily schedules—let alone the educational options and legal rights of which one must be knowledgeable in order to wear a respectful but firm hat of advocacy. While a parent cares for the child, CARE Parent Network takes care of the family unit, providing a network of supportive and informative options.

Whether through support groups or one-on-one support, CARE Parent Network’s  staff are not only knowledgeable but empathetic, as they are, themselves, special needs parents, like program director Hannah Michaelsen. With a degree in public administration and the parent of a son was with Autism, Hannah was a volunteer for CARE for 14 years before becoming its program director. The most gratifying part of her job, she states, “is to share in a chapter where others are more empowered and confident because of CARE’s existence; to equip the parents to advocate and navigate not only the system, but their daily lives.” Through CARE, doors are opened to compassionate directions of understanding. They help clients navigate the intricate paperwork of IEPs (educational planning and goals) and legal rights, as well as addressing personal concerns and frustrations.  

May the months that introduce awareness also introduce connections that inspire compassion and a purpose to create a sustainable and capable community; one where a disability turns into visibility beyond the fog that can overwhelm us.

The ribbon we wear this month is about being aware that there are people who do care. It is a ribbon worn not just once a year but every day. May CARE Parent Network continue to weave together all ribbons and teach families to wear them with not just pride but unwavering hope.  

For more information, please visit careparentnetwork.org or visit their Facebook group page: Care Parent Network

IT IS NOT THE GERMS WE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT, IT IS OUR INNER TERRAIN—Louis Pasteur

As I walk by innocent victims of “modern medicine” lined up for their drugs at our local market, it is strikingly clear to me that we have often been misled to believe that taking drugs when we are sick will help us to be disease resistant and healthy, when actually we are only treating symptoms and not preventing disease. 

When I get to the checkout line, I see one big reason why there is a sick line. The baskets are filled with mostly inflammatory and unhealthy foods. Medicine has known for decades that chronic inflammation is themajor cause of disease.

If germs caused diseases all by themselves, we wouldn’t be here. We become more susceptible to disease when we eat unhealthy food, thus lowering our immune system’s response to the exposed germs. Have you ever wondered why some people get sick all the time, while others rarely do? The “flu season” should be more accurately referred to as “the season of obnoxious eating.”

Between Halloween and Easter, when sugars and starches are at their minimum in nature, and the store shelves are at their maximum in candy sales, society does the opposite and stuffs itself with garbage. Due to advances in grain storage, refrigeration, and shipping from southern hemispheres, we have access to foods normally only eaten in summer all year long. This eliminates the very important ketogenic dietary period of the year when we lose weight, give our liver a break, and prevent cancer.  Grains have just recently in our evolution become a dominant source of food. Most nutritionists recommend whole grains, when research has found many deadly conditions and diseases result from their consumption. Gluten has recently been identified as a major cause of leaky gut syndrome which allows gut fluids with bacteria to enter our blood.  Fish farms are even feeding grains to many farmed fish to lower their costs. Cattle get indigestion from grain requiring antacids to be added.

Those of you who have been following my articles are aware that my practice is holistic, treating the patient, not the symptom. A very effective method of destroying your terrain and maintaining your body in an inflammatory state is the intake of inflammatory foods and additives. Doctors should understand this, and yet, does your doctor ever inquire into your eating habits?

My youngest daughter was born with severe asthma and modern medicine’s answer was steroids. I consulted an alternative doctor and within a few months she was asthma free, growing up to become a world class athlete as an adult, all by dietary changes.

I have been on a grain and dairy food free, paleo diet for over eight years, and I now experience the best health of my life.  I gladly share my ideas with my patients. By the way, perfect nutrition requires supplementation, but you need help from an expert who has studied nutritional knowledge from holistic sources.

For more information about my sleep and TMJ practice in Danville, California, visit www.aodtc.com. 

There’s a savings/investment account available to most working people that offers tax-advantaged contributions to be used for future medical expenses or retirement, or both.  Think of an IRA, a ROTH, and an FSA (Flexible Spending Account) all in one. It is an HSA, or Health Savings Account. I first wrote about HSA’s in 2017.  They were good then and are great now. For the most part, advantageous tax benefits and multi-purpose uses come with an HAS, but the bad news is, not everyone is allowed to contribute to one. The primary requirement for an HSA is a qualifying high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The IRS definition of this term changes annually. For 2020 it refers to a health insurance plan with a deductible of at least $1,400 for self-only coverage or $2,800 for family coverage.

What is an HSA?

An HSA is a type of savings account that allows you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. I mentioned above the requirement that you have a “high deductible health plan” (HDHP). High deductible plans usually have lower monthly premiums than plans with lower deductibles. By using the untaxed funds in an HSA to pay for expenses before you reach your deductible and other out-of-pocket costs like copayments, you reduce your overall health care cost. Contributions to an HSA can have a meaningful tax impact. HSA contributions are an above-the-line deduction on a tax return (similar to an IRA contribution). For 2019, Americans can still fund $3,500 for individual plans and $7,000 into family plans. Further, if you are over 55, you can also do a “catch-up” contribution of $1,000. For many, this can translate into real tax savings. You have up to the tax deadline of April 15, 2020 for a 2019 tax-year benefit.  Consider contributions to HSAs as important as your 401K and IRA savings.  The HSA contribution limits are set annually by the IRS; for 2020, they’re $3,550 for an individual and $7,100 for a family. In addition to these limits, HSA participants who are 55 or older can contribute an additional $1,000 as a catch-up contribution. So, if you’re at least 55 years old and have self-only health coverage, you can contribute a total of $4,550 to your HSA in 2020.  If you’re 55 or older and are the primary insured on a qualifying family health plan, you can contribute as much as $8,100 to your account.  Here’s an important note on your contributions: If your employer makes HSA contributions to your account on your behalf, it’s important to realize that these are included toward your annual limit. When my ERPE Excerpts featured an article on HSAs in 2017, the contribution limits were $3400 for an individual and $6750 was the family limit.  Since then, there have been efforts to dramatically increase these contribution limits, including a bill that passed the House of Representatives in 2018 that would have roughly doubled them. However, no new laws governing HSA contribution limits have passed.

HSA Tax Benefits

When I call HSAs tax-advantaged accounts, I mean HSAs are tax-advantaged accounts!  I’m talking tax-deductible, tax -deferral AND tax-free benefits. As mentioned above, your contributions are tax-deductible. Your money in your HSA compounds tax-deferred.  Then, when you take your money out to pay qualified medical expenses, it’s not taxed—these withdrawals are tax-free.

Using HSAs

As I noted above, if use for qualified medical expenses, HSA distributions are tax-free. While the cost of medical in retirement is high, using tax-free funds will be quite helpful. However, you do not have to use this source of funds for health expenses. You could instead choose to let your HSA money grow and grow, compounding tax-deferred, for use later, maybe in retirement.  It is important to remember when investing in an HSA that you have a long-term horizon. If you are using your HSA for retirement planning, you could have a significant additional amount of money at 65, or older. That money can stay in, growing with postponed tax consequence as long as you want, unlike an IRA with required minimum distributions. Similar to other long-term savings accounts, such as an IRA or 401K, most HSAs allow you to choose from a menu of mutual fund investments. As you know, great growth can come from these over time.

HSA Tax Penalties

If your withdrawals from an HSA are not used for qualified medical expenses, you will have a tax bill. Tax penalties from HSA withdrawals are both a function of your age and what you use the money for. As noted above, using your HSA money to pay qualified medical expenses is tax-free. However, withdrawals to pay for anything else will trigger either a tax penalty or an income tax liability, or both. The “both” case applies to HSA withdrawals before age 65 (again, only for non-qualified medical expense withdrawals). These withdrawals before age 65 will cost you a 20% tax penalty AND be taxable at your ordinary income tax rate. For example, suppose you take $5,000 from your HSA and use it for unqualified expenses before you are 65. Say your income tax rate 25%.  That reduces your $5,000 to $3,750. The second tax, the 20% penalty, will take an additional $750, leaving you with only $3,000.  It’s not so bad if you are over 65. After age 65, you can use your HSA withdrawal for non-medical expenses without paying the 20% tax penalty. Spend it any way you want. You just have to pay income tax that year on the withdrawal amount. 

I encourage you to consider an HSA. Their benefits speak for themselves. 

I suppose what I am about to say will likely pigeonhole me as being sexist, but there is a line in what is arguably one of the greatest films of all time that I’d say rings true; it’s perfect in fact, particularly in light of the challenges we face in today’s world. Here is the line:   

“I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.”

Did you guess it? Of course, this was Vito Corleone, offering fatherly advice to his son, Michael, in the 1972 classic, “The Godfather.”

I translate the “men can’t afford to be careless” notion to “being ultimately responsible.” To my way of thinking this has everything to do with being an adult. What is an adult? It’s a person (man or woman—see, I’m not sexist after all) who will be brutally honest with one’s self when needed, and who makes decisions and choices after thinking critically and logically, rather than emotionally. They then also accept the consequences of their choices and decisions. They also understand the difference between the things in life that they can control or influence, and the things they cannot.

Becoming an adult doesn’t happen magically at a certain age, by the way. You can readily identify grown-ups, and everyone else (the children), by their level of understanding and willingness to accept responsibility. There are plenty of people running around who do all they can to avoid personal responsibility. They point to everything and everyone else for their condition or state of being, never even considering that a glance in the mirror might be the most logical place to start if they really want to change their own circumstances. Why do you think the medical industry is such a huge part of our economy? Could it be because a large number of people avoid the personal responsibility of maintaining their own health (ie., eating right and exercising) and rely on their doctors and medications to keep “healthy?”

After nearly fifty years of observation, I have also seen how politicians have evolved, with those of one party in particular now being “all in” with candidates trying to capitalize on the many “not-quite-yet-adults” in America today. So there is no confusion, these are the candidates telling voters with immature minds things like; “’someone else’ will pay your college debt,” and “you aren’t responsible for paying for your child’s daycare, someone else is,” and, “the government (aka, other people) will pay for your healthcare,” etc., etc.

Another interesting mental exercise sometimes used to deflect the need of acting like a responsible adult is our tendency to always accept “expert” advice. In fact, people are often criticized for even questioning such admonitions. Recommendations regarding the Coronavirus is great example of this. Over the past few days I have heard it said numerous times by “medical professionals,” that “wearing a mask is only necessary if you are sick; that it won’t protect you from the virus.”

Hmmm. Is that true? I am a layman, not a doctor. But I do have some knowledge of biology and know how to think logically. I was always told that entry point of viruses is through our mucous membranes; primarily the nose and mouth, and that washing hands is the best defense because hand-to-face contact is how the bad stuff gets in. Wouldn’t covering the nose and mouth help create a barrier or at least provide a reminder not to touch our faces?  And if masks don’t protect, why are the people who work in possibly infected zones (see left) wearing masks, not to mention full-body hazmat suits?

In the end, to be considered adults, we must be willing to take responsibility. Men—and women—cannot afford to be careless.