If you’re a woman and you have health insurance or are contemplating getting health insurance, here’s an important question to think about. When you think of the term “pre-existing” condition, what comes to mind?

These days it’s probably diseases like diabetes, as well as health problems such as high cholesterol, excess weight, and the like. Serious health problems, diseases that can seriously impact on your quality of life, can require expensive or ongoing treatment — right? Yes…but that’s not all. And you might be shocked to find out what, for women, constitutes a pre-existing condition.

One Woman’s Unexpected Health Costs

In 2001, Jacqueline Ruess received surgery to remove a suspected ovarian tumor. Thankfully, that tumor wasn’t as dangerous as her doctors had first thought.

However, there was an additional problem in the works. Ruess subsequently found out that the surgery, which with hospital and doctor bills came to more than $15,000, was not covered by her insurance. Worse, she found out that she had never been covered for gynecological problems—and she had never even known!

So what happened here? Did she have a major pre-existing condition such as prior cancer, endometriosis, or polycystic ovary syndrome? A potentially serious health issue of any kind?

Nope. She had one instance of irregular periods—an extremely common (and usually inconsequential) issue which affects up to 30% of women at some point during their reproductive years.

The Health Insurance Company’s Side of the Story

The company that managed her insurance policy claimed that because her doctor had once noted an instance of “dysfunctional uterine bleeding” (a fancy way of saying irregular menstruation), she was ineligible for any gynecological cover.

At the time her doctor made that notation Ruess was under heavy emotional stress (a common cause of irregular periods), and her doctor had also noted that there was nothing medically wrong with her. So when her insurance policy application asked about abnormal menstruation she didn’t note down that single instance, simply because her doctor had said there was no underlying medical issue.

Now, there is no doubt that this is standard insurance company practice, and if you hold back on pre-existing condition information, and you’re found out, you will lose your cover — no matter how inconsequential you think that information is.

This specific instance might be a case of insurance companies gone wild, but the message is still the same basic cautionary tale: don’t hold back any information.

Unfortunately for women like Jacqueline Ruess, it’s sometimes too late to remedy the situation. In a final ironic kicker, the insurance company claimed she owed them several hundred dollars because her premiums would have been higher had she noted the information in her application.

photo credit: CJ Sorg

Why Sausage Could Lead to Cancer

Much of the processed meat is cured using preservation methods that have been in practice for years. Such methods include smoking, salting, and placing additives into the meat. As little as one sausage a day could lead you to an early demise, research shows. Experts are recommending that people should try to eliminate processed meats completely out of their diets, but if it is difficult, try to at least lower the amount consumed.

What Kinds of Cancer Could Sausage Cause?

The negative effects that these meats can have on our health include cancer in the bowels, stomach, breast, colon, pancreas and prostate. Red meat too has shown signs of being linked to such cancerous growths and should also be consumed much less (pork, beef and lamb). In the United Kingdom, there are about 100 new cases of bowel cancer reported every day.

So how does processed meat cause so much harm? Well, the substances that are used to preserve the meats have N-nitroso compounds (a product of nitrates); this increases the chances of consumers getting cancer. So if you are looking to keep red meat in your diet, you should try to stick with fresh meat. It is recommended that people consume less than 17.6 oz of red meat each week (since it is a valuable nutrient we need and can’t be eliminated) and to cross out processed meat out of our diets completely.

• Beef, when in its natural form, can be very healthy to consume. The cow has a non-pollutant diet consisting of lots and lots of grass. However, with beef that is non-organic, you will sometimes find traces of harmful products, including mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals. Even pesticides can be found in cow meat.

• Hot dogs are known to have nitrites contained in them to help for preservation, so it too has been linked to cancerous growth. It was even said to cause leukemia in children.

• Just 50g of processed meat being eaten each day can cause your risk of getting bowel cancer to go up by a fifth! This is about one sausage or three rashers of bacon per day. Not much at all.

• You may have found comfort in smoked or cured ham, but this is definitely a no-no and can lead to cancer. It is known to have nitrosamines, a class of chemical compounds produced at high temperatures (like in the stomach or stove).

photo credit: Gaetan Lee

Who’s at Risk for DNA Damage Due to Smoking?

People who began smoking at an early age are especially at risk for MSI. Studies have shown that people who have stopped smoking for 15 years had a reduction in their chances of getting MSI, which shows to prove that quitting smoking is the best option for your health. People who have developed MSI are said to be twice as likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer (even more so with those who have inherited flaws in their genes). Only about 2-5% of colon cancer cases involve inherited genetic malfunctions, while 15% of colon cancer tumor cases involve MSI.

Older women who smoke are also at great risk of getting colorectal cancers due to damaged DNA. When your DNA is damaged, it is unable to help your body fight against harmful tumor growths that later develop into cancer. Without the DNA repair proteins, the body is left defenseless.

How Many Tumors are Linked to Smoking?

With research studies conducted, it is known that continuous smoking habits can cause inheritance of flawed genes that can later promote tumor growths. Most of the studies support the idea of tobacco being strongly linked with cancers that involve MSI. A projection was given that 21% of MSI colon tumors are caused by smoking cigarettes.

Recent studies have also shown that other lifestyle choices can too have an impact on the development of MSI. Smokers who consume fried foods and red meats are at even higher risk of developing it and colon cancer (increased 3-fold). Those who smoked tobacco and consumed red meat cooked very well-done were increased 2-fold.

Creative Commons License photo credit: tosaytheleast