More Than 100 State Cooling Centers Open Across Illinois

CHICAGO - With hot weather expected this week, Governor Pat Quinn today is urging residents to take advantage of the state's cooling centers. This summer, Governor Quinn opened more than 100 cooling centers around Illinois in order to help those without air conditioning beat the heat.

"The combination of high heat and humidity is dangerous for people and pets alike," Governor Quinn said. "I urge residents to take the proper precautions to stay safe as another hot summer comes to an end."

The cooling centers are located at Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) offices throughout the state. IDHS cooling centers are open to the public during regular business hours from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to the IDHS cooling centers, the Illinois Tollway Oases in the Chicago area are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Governor Quinn and the Illinois Department of Public Health are also encouraging Illinois residents to watch for signs of heat-related illnesses. Symptoms of heat-related illness include headaches, skin that is hot to the touch, increased body temperature, loss of consciousness, seizures and irregular heartbeats.

To stay cool and avoid illness, people should increase their fluid intake but avoid drinks with caffeine, alcohol and sugar; decrease strenuous, outdoor physical activity and remain in air-conditioning when possible.

The Illinois Department on Aging also encourages relatives and friends to make daily visits or calls to senior citizens living alone. When temperatures and humidity are extremely high, seniors and people with chronic health conditions should be monitored for dehydration and other effects of extreme heat. Additionally, seniors should eat lighter meals, take longer and more frequent rests, and drink plenty of fluids.

To find a cooling center near you, call the IDHS hotline at (800) 843-6154 or visit www.keepcool.illinois.gov.

by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

At the end of this year, the coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act will take effect.  Regardless of what a person thinks about the massive changes the law will make to America's health care system, it's important to understand the economic impact of the health care law's regulatory burden and 23 tax increases.

The reality is that the Affordable Care Act creates multiple levels of new government regulation and the cost of the law is covered with taxes and penalties on businesses and consumers who already pay for their insurance.  Health insurance premiums are expected to jump significantly as insurers shift costs to comply with mandated health care benefits.

The law also continues to cause great uncertainty among employers.  The employer mandate requires companies with at least 50 workers to provide health insurance to those who work at least 30 hours.  In anticipation, some employers have cut back hours or added part-time staff instead of full-time positions.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics' recent employment report shows that of the 162,000 jobs added in July, a disproportionate share is skewed towards lower-wage, part-time work.  The ranks of part-timers being hired are swelling due to the uncertainty created by the employer insurance mandate.  The White House in July unilaterally decided to postpone the employer mandate, but the one-year delay does not remove the future burden on employers.  The delay also opens up insurance subsidies to fraud, as the IRS likely will not be able to certify if those who apply legally qualify.

The tax increases prescribed in the Affordable Care Act to raise $1 trillion over a decade include :

• a 2.3 percent excise tax on the sale of medical devices effective January 1, 2013, increasing the cost of hip and knee replacements and other medical innovations that our aging society has come to depend on to extend quality of life;

• a tax penalty on individuals for not buying qualifying coverage effective January 1, 2014, that gradually increases over the next three years.  In 2014 the penalty tax is limited to $95 or 1 percent of taxable income, whichever is greater, but by 2016 the tax grows to $695, or 2.5 percent of taxable income.  In the years following, the penalty will increase by a cost-of-living adjustment;

• a payroll tax hike on higher-income taxpayers, lifting Medicare Part A's tax bite to 2.35 percent from those workers' paychecks;

• a 3.8 percent surtax on investment income for higher-income taxpayers;

·         a tax increase that limits contributions to Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs) to $2,500 and eliminates tax-free reimbursements for over-the-counter medicine for both FSAs and Health Savings Accounts;

• limits on medical itemized deductions;

• an excise tax on insurers of employer-sponsored, high-end health plans, effective in 2018;  this change places a punitive tax on those who have health coverage to help pay for those who do not;

• annual fees on prescription drug manufacturing and health insurers; and,

• a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services.

Expanding access to health care coverage for the uninsured has broad support and steps need to be taken to increase access to coverage, especially for individuals, and to increase transparency and competitiveness in the cost of health care services.  But the new federal taxes, excises, penalties, mandates and fees in the Affordable Care Act come with tremendous economic costs.  What's more, the health care law won't bend the spending curve on exploding health care costs or encourage medical innovation.

All things considered, just as Washington can't tax our way to prosperity, the federal government can't tax its way to universal health care coverage without inflicting more harm than good.

What's it like to be an English bulldog? More people are finding out, say integrated health specialists Dr. Michael Gelb and Dr. Howard Hindin.

"A bulldog's airway passages are quite restricted because of the shape of its face, and they are often especially vulnerable to illnesses such as cardiac disease and cancer," says Dr. Michael Gelb of The Gelb Center in New York (www.gelbcenter.com), a holistic dentist known worldwide for pioneering integrative treatments.

Dr. Hindin of the Hindin Center for Whole Health Dentistry (www.hindincenter.com) partners with Dr. Gelb in a multidisciplinary approach to treating chronic disease affecting millions of Americans.

"Our faces are becoming more like a bulldog, with smaller mouths, bigger tongues, misaligned teeth and bigger necks - all of which changes the structures of our mouths and makes breathing significantly more difficult," Dr. Hindin says.

The doctors say that's creating a health crisis.

They say these issues are often associated with Airway, Breathing and Sleep (ABSleep):

• ADHD and other children's issues: Ninety percent of our brains are developed by age 12. Obstructions and even increased effort in breathing cause children to have sleep disorders, and the effect is a range of related problems, from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, to obesity and diabetes. The good news is that much of this is preventable - at 6, 18 and 30 months of age, doctors can predict children who are likely to develop behavioral and cognitive disorders due to poor breathing. Treatment is often complex and requires a team approach. Removal of tonsils and adenoids are among preventative measures, along with palatal expansion and myofunctional therapy. Additionally, early intervention can improve the shape of a child's face, lips and smile.

• TMJ: As our faces are becoming pushed in and our mouths are getting smaller there is increased pressure on the TMJ as well as increased muscle tension and clenching.

• Sleep apnea: People with sleep apnea can stop breathing hundreds of times each night. Each time this happens, the brain triggers the person to awaken, ever so slightly, in order to resume breathing. Up to 90 percent of people with obstructive sleep apnea have not been diagnosed, according to the American College of Physicians. Sleep apnea is just one of the disorders that can have serious lifelong consequences. But the causes are easily corrected. Children who snore loudly are twice as likely to have learning problems and are more likely to develop behavior problems and ADHD.

• Chronic headaches: Morning headache is one sign of obstructive sleep apnea. As the face is pushed in, nasal breathing is obstructed and mouth breathing results in a forward head posture. This puts a strain on the muscles and nerves at the base of the neck which increases headache.

• Other sleep disorders: You do not need to have apnea to have a sleep disorder that will interfere with performance and health. Snoring, restless leg syndrome and simple daytime drowsiness can be a signal that you are not getting the proper quantity and quality of restorative sleep. If you are suffering from chronic pain, inflammation, poor performance or behavior problems, consider looking into airway-breathing treatment.

About Michael Gelb, D.D.S., M.S.

Dr. Michael Gelb is an innovator in airway, breathing, sleep, and painful TMJ disorders pioneering Airway Centric. He has studied early intervention for sleep disordered breathing (SDB) specializing in how it relates to fatigue, focus, pain and the effects all of these can have on family health. Dr. Gelb received his D.D.S. degree from Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery and his M.S. degree from SUNY at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. He is the former Director of the TMJ and Orofacial Pain Program at the NYU College of Dentistry and is currently Clinical Professor in the Department of Oral Medicine and Pathology at the NYU College of Dentistry. He is a co-inventor of the NORAD, or Nocturnal Oral Airway Dilator appliance that reduces snoring by positioning the patient's tongue and jaw so that airways stay open. He co-founded the Academy of Physiologic Medicine and Dentistry (APMD) and a non-profit to prevent the proliferation of chronic disease in the U.S. based on airway, sleep and breathing awareness, research and education.

About Howard Hindin, D.D.S.

Dr. Howard Hindin is trained in all aspects of general dentistry. Since the 1990s, his practice has also focused on cosmetic dentistry, temporomandibular joint disorders and craniofacial pain. He is a graduate of New York University College of Dentistry. An acknowledged pioneer in the relationship between dental issues and whole body health, Dr. Hindin is President (2000-present) of the Foundation for the Advancement of Innovative Medicine (FAIM). He is also an active member of the American Academy of Pain Management, American Academy of Cranio Facial Pain, American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, Academy of General Dentistry, American Dental Association, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, and the New York State Society of Acupuncture for Physicians and Dentists and is the co-founder of the American Association of Physiological Medicine and Dentistry (AAPMD).

It's hard to stick to a low-calorie diet day after day to lose weight, but new research shows you don't have to, says Dr. Susie Rockway, a veteran nutritional and biochemical expert in the U.S. health industry.

"Recent studies show you can lose 10 to 30 pounds in eight weeks through alternate-day fasting," she says. "Every other day, dieters in the study ate only lunch - no breakfast or dinner - between noon and 2 p.m. The following day, they could eat whatever they wanted. Not only did they not 'gorge' as expected on the feed days, most had an easier time sticking with it."

Dieting is as much about the mind as it is about the body, and most people have a difficult time staying with any sort of very strict regimen, says Sebastien Hebbelinck, a 20-year-plus veteran of the nutraceutical industry.

In the alternate day fast studies conducted by Dr. Krista Varady of the University of Illinois at Chicago, participants on average consumed only 110 percent of their energy needs on feed days, Rockway says. Lunch on fast days was 400 to 500 calories for women and 500 to 600 calories for men.

Hebbelinck, the CEO of Apax Business Development, which produces the water-soluble fat-binding supplement Lineatabs, www.lineatabs.com, offers these other suggestions for indulging your taste buds while losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight.

• Eat your bigger meals earlier in the day. Avoiding large meals at dinnertime is effective in helping to lose weight, particularly abdominal fat. In fact, another fasting study -- presented at this year's American Diabetes Association conference - showed that dieters who ate big meals at breakfast and lunch and skipped dinner lost more weight than participants who ate six small meals a day.

• Don't belly up to the buffet bar. Whether it's a cheat meal or a cheat day, throw all those studies out the window if you gorge on huge quantities of food. Eat controlled portions of healthy, nutritious foods. You can enjoy a nice lunch with a glass of wine and even a dessert, but don't go back for seconds and don't order the Decadent Chocolate-for-Four if you have no plans to share!

Rockway adds the following tips based on her nutritional and biochemical expertise.

• Include plenty of fiber and water (stay hydrated!). Unlike most nutrients in foods, we don't absorb fiber. It passes through our digestive tract, and if it's soluble fiber, it can help us feel full since it forms viscous gels. High-fiber foods include legumes, beans, avocados, nuts, whole fruits (versus juice), and whole-grain foods such as whole wheat spaghetti. On a cheat day, you may splurge on    a higher fat hamburger or fries, which case this is the perfect time to take a fiber-rich fat-binding supplement such as Lineatabs before the meal to help prevent some of the excess fats from being absorbed. Rockway likes Lineatabs because, unlike other fat-binding supplements, it dissolves in water and is consumed as a beverage, making the fiber soluble in the stomach and immediately available to bind to fats. It then forms a viscous fiber in the small intestines to form a barrier to reduce absorption. AND you get the fluid your body needs!!

• Healthy eating: Plan meals that are higher in lean protein and lower in simple carbohydrates. This will help you avoid a sugar spike that will leave you feeling hungry soon afterward. It also stabilizes your insulin levels, and protein foods are the most satiating.  If you are satisfied after you eat, you will be less likely to snack later. Some great high-protein choices include turkey or chicken  breast, pork loin chop, tuna and salmon and whey protein shakes. Avoid foods high in simple carbs, such as syrups, soft drinks and jams.

About Dr. Susie Rockway, Ph.D., C.N.S.

Dr. Susie Rockway, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a veteran nutritional and biochemical expert and decades-long health industry expert. Rockway has worked for multiple companies in executive capacities, including as an executive director of product development, a director of research, and a manager for science developing health and wellness products, where she communicated nutrition and new science updates to consumers. She has also designed testing strategies for clinical efficacy studies.

About Sebastien Hebbelinck

Sebastien Hebbelinck is an internationally recognized business entrepreneur who has been active in the nutraceutical industry for more than two decades. He is the founder and CEO of Apax Business Development, a 21-year-old company that has experienced major success in Europe with the dietary supplement Lineatabs, www.lineatabs.com. The product contains Solusitan, an all-natural fat-binding complex contained in an innovative delivery system that dissolves in water, making it immediately available in the stomach to bind with fat molecules in food.