June 1st is National Cancer Survivors Day in the United States and is being celebrated around the country.  MD Anderson, the #1 rated hospital for cancer care in the U.S. News and World Report "America's Best Hospital" listing, is expecting more than 1,000 survivors will come out for the Survivorship Houston '08 event just in the Houston area alone.
I AM A SURVIVOR!

According to the National Cancer Institute, almost 64% of adults and 75% of children will survive a cancer diagnosis (beyond five years).  Today that's more than 10.5 million people.  Worthy of being celebrated, it is not without struggle.  Cancer may become a chronic disease, needing regular monitoring and treatment, survivors may endure side effects, or experience physical, financial, psychological, or spiritual impacts.

Tools for cancer survivorship include:

>>Know your legal rights: know your state regulations regarding job rights, insurance claims, protection of assets; be aware of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services office of Civil Rights and how these government agencies work to protect those surviving cancer

>>Have advance directives in place for your medical care: medical power of attorney, living will, DNR (do not resuscitate order)

>>Have a notebook with your medical records organized: medical history, cancer diagnosis, surgeries, radiation treatments, chemotherapy treatments, pathology reports, imaging studies (PET and CT scans, X-rays), treatment complications, side effects encountered.

Survivors are activists--they become involved.   Lance Armstrong, Dr. Julie K. Silver, Cynthia Nixon and other survivors lead the way by writing blogs, supporting fund-raising, pushing for government-funded research, or by speaking candidly about their experiences.  You too can make a difference.

Related: There Is No "Normal" With Breast Cancer (A Survivor's Story)

             Choices In Breast Cancer Treatment

Even with shorter life expectancies, the lifetime medical costs for obese individuals are greater than costs for non-obese individuals, but those costs are unlikely to spur obesity prevention efforts, according to a new study published by researchers at RTI International and Merck & Co.

The study, published on-line in the journal Obesity, found that lifetime medical costs for moderately obese 20-year-olds range between $5,000 and $21,000 more than costs for normal weight individuals. For individuals with greater levels of obesity, the costs are higher, ranging from $15,000 to $29,000 more than for normal weight individuals. Obese White females had the highest lifetime medical costs for both groups. However, the authors note that these costs are unlikely to generate significant investments in obesity prevention efforts.

"Because individuals switch jobs every four to five years, employers are unlikely to reap the financial benefits of successful obesity interventions," said Eric Finkelstein, Ph.D. director of RTI's Public Health Economics Program and the study's lead author. "For young workers, the truly detrimental effects of obesity typically occur far in the future, when the costs become somebody else’s problem, ultimately Medicare."

The study shows that Medicare has a greater incentive to invest in obesity prevention than does the private sector because many of the diseases that obesity promotes are more likely to occur at older ages. Therefore, obese individuals who enter the Medicare program incur immediately higher costs.

The study found that Medicare could spend from $2,630 to $3,460 annually on successful obesity prevention efforts and still save money.

The authors suggest that legislation that subsidizes wellness programs or mandates coverage for obesity treatment might make all firms better off if the interventions are effective at reducing the medical costs resulting from excess weight.

"No one wants to be the only firm in town covering high cost obesity treatments," Finkelstein said. "However, if they work, and if the firm could be ensured that his competitors are covering them too then it could make everyone better off. The challenge is finding interventions that are successful and cost-effective enough to implement on a broad scale."

The study used nationally representative data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2001 to 2004 to identify the annual medical costs of obesity.  The costs were then adjusted for survival using the National Health Interview Survey linked to the National Death Index. 

Republished with permission of RTI.

Eric A. Finkelstein, PhD, MHA, is a nationally acclaimed expert on the subject of economics and obesity. He is a health economist with the research organization RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and teaches health economics at Duke University. His work focuses on the economic causes and consequences of health-related behaviors, with a primary emphasis on obesity. Finkelstein has published over thirty peer-reviewed articles on the economics of obesity and related behaviors. His research has been featured on the front page of USA Today and has been covered in the Economist, the New York Times, Forbes, the Washington Post, and many other newspaper, radio, and television outlets. The Fattening of America, authored by Eric Finkelstein, has just been published.

Read Eric Finkelstein's Blog: 

Should The Big Mac Be Taxed?

Nutritional Facts of a Krispy Kreme!

National Medical Spending Attributable To Overweight And Obesity: How Much, And Who's Paying?

Ex-Car Dealer Shows How To Save Big When Buying A New Car.

Heartbroken From GRIEF? If You Are Devastated By The Loss Of A Loved One And Wondering How You Are Going To Survive, Back To Life, Our Personal Grief Guidebook, Provides Just The Answers You Are Looking For!

Tips And Strategies For Avoiding Or Getting Out Of Foreclosure.

Rocky Lang is a film director, screenwriter, producer and author of four books. He produced Ridley Scott's White Squall and the Emmy Award winning mini-series Titanic. He has directed three feature films and series television. He recently produced Racing For Time for Lifetime.  Rocky Lang is also a co-author of Confessions of Emergency Room Doctors and Lara Takes Charge. This May, Mr. Lang will be honored as Father of The Year by the American Diabetes Association for his books for children and his diabetes advocacy.

Guest Blogger Rocky Lang--

It was six and a half years ago when my ex-wife called me from a summer trip with our daughters Nikki and Erica.  She told me that Nikki, who was ten at the time, was rushed to the hospital and had been diagnosed with type-one diabetes. My ex is a doctor, calm and cool, but I heard panic in her voice. She insisted I get on a plane immediately and indicated Nikki’s blood sugars were so high that her life was in danger.

Nikki is now 16 and a half and is an amazing person, singer and musician with a bright future. She sang at The Monterey Jazz Festival last year and has a CD out called Time Has Stopped, which is available on Itunes. Through Nikki’s determination to not let her disease stand in the way of her dreams, she inspired me to get deeply involved in creating products and writing books that would empower children living with diabetes.

I am a film producer, writer and director. Never in a million years did I ever think I would be creating lunch boxes, backpacks, and purses that were specially designed for kids with diabetes. I wanted them to have functional and cool accessories that didn’t have a medical look to them. The Courage Bag is one such item named for the courage I see in my daughter. Then, the other shoe dropped, and my ex-wife Jeannie had a daughter with her new husband named Lara. Lara was diagnosed with diabetes at 18 months old. To see a toddler need to have shots and finger pokes multiple times a day is heart breaking. The psycho-social toll is huge because a child doesn't understand why her mother and father are hurting her with shots and needles.

I am not a clinician, I am not a researcher, and I don’t have millions of dollars, so I wrote a children’s book for Lara called LARA TAKES CHARGE. It is an empowering simple book that lets kids know that they are as normal and as capable as anyone else as long as they manage their blood sugars. I am happy to say that book is in the hands over of 15,000 families, hospitals and libraries.

Recently the American Diabetes Association approached me. They wanted to honor me as a “Father of the Year." At first I declined because there are many other fathers much more deserving than I am and I’ve never been an award oriented guy anyway. I do what I do because I love my kids and want to help other families as well. After repeated attempts by the ADA, which I find to have a wonderful bunch of people working for them and to be a worthwhile organization, I accepted the honor. I did so in the hopes that I can inspire other fathers to get engaged in their children’s lives and to see that even with diabetes and other chronic diseases, the beacon of hope remains bright as long as we empower our children to be strong and pursue their dreams.

Related: Confessions of Emergency Room Doctors

              Are You Insulin Resistant?

              The Real Cure For Type 2 Diabetes

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