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Health care in the United States costs around $2 trillion annually, or 16 percent of GDP. So there’s a lot of concern about what will happen as those costs increase. That has led to three seismic shifts in health care; prevention, transparency and quality care.

We all know that prevention is better than cure, but are we practicing it? We all know that, to reduce health care costs, while still improving quality we need to reduce the burden of disease on the system.  Forty percent of the premature deaths in the United States are caused by obesity, inactivity, and smoking, all of which ought to be preventable. So a natural starting point is to help people stop smoking and help them lose weight.  There are many companies who don’t hire smokers; some good examples are set by Disney CEO Bob Iger who decided that there would no longer be people smoking in films made by Disney. He can easily get other producers to do the same.  As far as inactivity is concerned, people have to understand that they need to get up and move around more or their whole body will start to deteriorate…there is no other option.

Many health systems are taking initiatives to bring in transparency through patient portals as they understand that patient’s information belong to the patient and he has right to have that information. myPennMedicine was launched by Penn Medicine recently to increase patient’s accessibility. In addition to that, Penn Medicine is moving towards open access scheduling, and have already started utilizing online scheduling to offer convenience of online booking and same day appointments to its patients as well as to bring operational efficiency into the system.

Now an informed patient wants same experience from the health care provider as he gets in a restaurant or a spa.  He forms his opinions and talks to people about that experience.  And if patient volume is the concern than we think that it can be solved by addressing the aforementioned seismic shifts.

We all say that “exercise for health”, but why it is so painful?

There are many intense home fitness program such as Insanity, p90 and P90X, sometimes people get super excited and wants to get in shape overnight.  One of our friends did the same thing and instead of taking it slow, she jumped on the most intense level of p90x.  She gave her best to sustain those grueling 60 minutes for 3-4 days in a row.  Than as expected she found herself in extreme pain…generally when we subject our muscles to intense training, we tear the fibers. So what exactly happened with her?

Interestingly, there are two types of muscle soreness; one which happens during the workouts as the fibers experience more and more trauma, to prevent us from seriously damaging the tissue beyond repair the body begins to produce some serious byproducts, mainly lactic acid.

The other muscle soreness happens after working out called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).  It begins 24 to 48 hours after exercise and peaks at 48 to 72 hours So what is likely happening is when you contract the muscle hard the body tells it to do so but when you stop the signal to relax is a little slow getting there. During this point in time the muscle stays contracted, cramped, and you experience the pain of a hard contraction and the burn from the waste products on the damaged fibers.

So things that can be done to prevent muscle soreness are: adequate hydration as body lose electrolyte during intense workouts so it is important to stay hydrated.  Stretching exercises help to lengthen the muscle fibers and is especially useful for muscles which are prone to cramp up, and eating right is most important if you want to reduce muscle cramps, add milk, fresh fruits, and oats in your daily diet.

All in all, we think it is healthy and good for muscle growth to experience muscle cramps every now and then, just as long as the involuntary cramps are not ruining your workouts.  So keep on doing it, may be take slow when your body demands.