Take Control of Your Health

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Editorial Board

With a little help we can all age better and stay healthier longer. By eating a more healthy diet, exercising regularly, drinking more fluids, and supplementing your diet with vitamins and probiotics you can start to take control of your health.

For starters, eating fruits, vegetables, and lean meats can help keep you healthy. This may seem obvious, but sometimes people need to get back to basics. But beware, if you prepare a healthy food in an un-healthy manner you could be undermining your ability to eat well. For example, a salad may be healthy, but a salad with a lot of heavy dressing and fried chicken on it is not. Try to eat vegetables that are grilled or raw with no sauces on them, or if you are having a salad eat it with grilled chicken and a very light amount of dressing on it.

Next, we all need to exercise regularly within any limitations set by your doctor. Whether this means going walking, running, lifting weights, doing Yoga or Pilates, doesn’t matter as much as how often you are active. As long as you are getting your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes each day doing something physical you are helping your body out. Exercise helps dramatically reduce the chances of heart disease; it also helps to produce endorphins, allows you to sweat out toxins, and burns calories. Many people who exercise regularly report that it makes them want to eat healthier too.

Also be sure to drink lots of water! Drinking lots of water is great for your body, and most other drinks do not compare. Water helps your skin. It will also make you less hungry, more energized, and help you get through your workouts without getting dehydrated.

Taking vitamin supplements and probiotics on a regular basis is a good thing so long as your doctor agrees which ones you take. As we get older supplements become a more important part of our daily routine. As people age they have a harder time overcoming illnesses. Older people are also at higher risk to get various diseases. Supplements help with our immune systems, digestive systems, and bones and joints.

It is important for people of all ages to be get direct sunlight to have a sufficient amount of vitamin D, however, it is not good for anyone to have too much of the sun’s rays. Be sure to wear sunscreen and clothes that cover you regularly since it is easy to get caught outside for hours at a time. Protecting your skin will help your skin age better and protect you from more serious hazards.

Start taking better control of your health one step at a time. As with anything else once you start making progress you will be encouraged to stick around for more of the benefits. Try making small changes at first, and do your best to stick with it. As mentioned earlier, before making any changes to your diet or exercise routine please remember to speak with your doctor.

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If you Cannot Keep a Job You May Be Disabled

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Editorial Board

Many disabled individuals are able to do some amount of work. You might qualify for Social Security disability benefits even if you are able to do a part time job. Social Security looks at whether you can do a full time job to decide if you qualify for disability benefits. They also look at whether you can sustain or keep a job over time.

Social Security reviews the evidence in your case to determine your physical and mental functioning. They estimate your ability to stand, walk, and sit throughout the work day. They also estimate how much you can lift and carry, and how well you can use your arms and hands. Your ability to concentrate, follow directions, and interact with other people is also considered. Basically, Social Security estimates how all of your medical conditions affect you. Social Security calls this your “RFC” (Residual Functional Capacity). Social Security then decides whether you can still work despite the limitations of your RFC.

When Social Security decides your RFC they often fail to consider whether you could sustain that level of effort over weeks or months. For example, if you have a knee or ankle condition you might work a full day but then miss work the next day because the joint swells and becomes painful. Other medical conditions allow you to work until you have a “flare up”, such as gout, fibromyalgia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Missing too much work can be just as disabling as not being able to work at all.

Why might Social Security fail to consider your ability to sustain work? If Social Security sent you to a physical or mental exam they look very closely at that exam in deciding your case. However, the exams are done in less than a day. They don’t show how you would hold up under the strain of full time work day after day.

Also, Social Security usually doesn’t have evidence showing how your condition affects you over time. You can’t get a physical and mental exam done every day. To fix this problem, tell your doctor if you had a flare up since your last visit. Describe the flare up and how long it lasted.

At your disability hearing and in any written forms you complete as part of your disability case make sure to explain what your health is like on your good days and your bad days. Then state how often you are having good or bad days as you just described. Remember, if you have some good days when you can be active that doesn’t mean you aren’t disabled. If you are honest about what you can do on a good day the disability judge should believe you when you tell the judge what you can’t do on the bad days.

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Really? Report says Social Security Disability Recipients to Take 21-percent Cut

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Joshua Eyestone

The trustees of the Social Security Administration have issued a new report that mentions the possibility of reducing disability payments to disabled Americans as soon as 2016.  This prediction should mobilize people currently on disability and those who support our nation’s disability program to write our elected officials in Washington to let them know the disability program is not the place the government should make the first cuts!

Here’s the article:

Social Security Disability Recipients to Take 21-percent Cut

“Beneficiaries of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program can expect to see their checks cut to 79 percent by 2016, according to the program’s trustees. by Bob Adelmann.”
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/11860-social-security-disability-recipients-to-take-20-percent-haircut

An injured American worker on disability benefits makes on average a little over $1,000 a month.  How can anyone even consider such massive cuts to the poor & disabled when there are millionaires & billionaires paying less tax than the working middle class?  Can you tell I’m a little frustrated here.

If you agree that we should NOT be reducing disability benefits forward this article on to a friend, or let us know in the comments!

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Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Frye Discusses Problems with Disability Program

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Joshua Eyestone

“Don’t blame the judges!”  This is the message from ALJ Frye, the president of the powerful Social Security judge union.  The judge’s are under pressure by recent press stories that make it sound like there is a big spike in claimants being awarded disability benefits.  As you can see by Frye’s comments to congress the ALJs are trying to get the pressure off their back.

Here’s the article:

Administrative law judge speaks to Congress on disability system

“Most Oregon residents who have first-hand experience with the Social Security Administration’s appeals process for denied Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income claims would likely agree that the system could be better. In fact, similar sentiments were recently expressed by the president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges in testimony submitted to Congress.

According to the Hon. D. Randall Frye, critics of the current system miss the mark in most cases, and particularly when they blame ALJs for the Social Security Disability system’s shortcomings.

One major issue, Frye says, stems largely from the huge backlog of disability appeals, which has caused the SSA to place “far too much emphasis on numerical performance rather than on correct judicial decision making” in recent years. The SSA currently recommends that judges spend no more than 2 1/2 hours on a case and expects its ALJs to issue between 500 and…”
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/component/k2/item/29932-administrative-law-judge-speaks-to-congress-on-disability-system

ALJs are very busy people, and they should certainly be given time by the agency to make the correct decision in each case they review.  Any standards that estimate time per case are obvious attempts by the administration to control the judge’s time per case which shouldn’t be tolerated.

Disability decisions affect the lives of working Americans and their dependents.  If your life depended on a fair and complete review of your case wouldn’t you want to know the judge was carefully and completely reviewing your file?  Americans deserve ALJs who are not rushed, and who are free from pressure from external forces like the recent anti disability program media reports.

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