Last blog I discussed five ways to waste your health care dollars. Here are the last five ways:

5. Skin lotions: Although many are “dermatologist tested” and heavily advertised, the overwhelming majority of these very expensive lotions will do nothing special for your skin. In fact, other than Eucerin or other similar basic moisturizing creams, all the fancy products added to the lotions don’t prevent aging of the skin. Allergies to these creams occur and if you are one of the unlucky ones,  you could experience a generalized nasty redness which along with the money you forked out, would make you feel even more stupid for buying the stuff in the first place.

4.Energy/vitamin drinks: If you don’t need vitamins in pill form (as I discussed in the last blog),  it follows that adding these things to water and charging a few bucks a bottle for the stuff just doesn’t make sense. “Energy” drinks usually contain caffeine but at times have stimulants such as ephedrine. Too many of these energy drinks can be dangerous as high blood pressure, heart attack or stroke might be the result. Beverage companies, hammered by environmentalists and others for selling special water in plastic containers, are simply looking for another market.

3. Antiseptic cleansers: More and more cleaning products are offering pricey, supposedly beefed up versions which claim to kill 99% of bacteria and viruses on contact. Guess what? Soap does the same thing and is a helluva a lot cheaper.

2.Gluten free foods: A small but significant minority of Americans suffer from sprue or gluten enteropathy. These unfortunate souls develop significant symptoms after ingesting gluten products. However the vast majority of us do not have gluten intolerance. Spending the extra money for food which honestly does not taste as good as the regular stuff seems crazy. Just because you might have gas or feel funny after eating some wheat (gluten), does not prove that you have gluten intolerance.

1. Diet pills: These are downright dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. They have caused strokes, heart attacks and deaths. They don’t work. Even the prescription diet pills (and some have been taken off the market due to heart valve problems) don’t work magic. The bottom line is simple: Eat healthy foods and get plenty of exercise.