By: admin,
on 4/8/2013
I went to Philly this weekend and ran the Rocky Steps. The weather was perfect, and it was such a pleasure to run in cool temps with no humidity! I ran up and down 65 steps, 30 times.
Author: Burke Lennihan
Publisher: GreenHealing Press
Genre: Health
ISBN: 978-0-9834430-2-5
Pages: 248
Price: $14.95
Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon
There are many over-the-counter remedies for common ailments, but how many of these chemicals do you feel safe taking? Have you ever wondered if there is a more natural treatment? In Your Natural Medicine Cabinet, Burke Lennihan provides a wealth of information on how to treat illness in a less toxic manner that may even work faster than the traditional remedies.
In the first section, Lennihan shows us the basics of healthy living. The easiest way to treat illness is to never get sick at all, and these suggestions work toward overall good health. But if you do get sick, the second section covers the most common ailments and how to treat them using homeopathic remedies. The last sections explain how to stock your own natural medicine cabinet. Flower essences, cell salts, herbs and combination remedies are explored, so the reader has a basic understanding of what would be best to try first.
Lennihan reminds us that these natural remedies won’t work on every illness, and there are times it is imperative to see a traditional medical doctor. But it’s possible that homeopathy will work well in conjunction with your doctor’s care. And when the smaller issues pop up, such as a bout with the flu or occasion insomnia, your natural medicine cabinet is the first place to turn. I highly recommend this book for all who want to stay healthy in a more natural way.
Reviewer: Alice Berger
By: admin,
on 3/12/2013
To celebrate this great milestone, Maria and I went to Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlour and ordered the biggest sundaes we could find
Monday marked my One Year Anniversary of Running Stairs. I have been doing aerobic workouts for more than 17 years, but a year ago I started running up and down the courthouse steps with my neighbor, Maria. She and I had been walking our dogs together for a while and decided to try running the stairs after my husband told me he tried it while on a midnight run.
There are 28 steps. We call it an “inning” when we run up and down once (56 steps). The first time I ran, I strained to do 13 innings. Stepping of this sort is one of the most strenuous exercises. Over the course of this past year, I ran more than 1,000,000 steps, up and down, that’s more than 17,850 innings! The most innings I ran at one time during that year were 100, or 5,600 steps. It took about an hour. On a regular basis (5 X per week), I ran 60 and sometimes 80 innings, 40 at the least. We ran in the rain, extreme heat and some cold (for FL) weather.
Some tips if you want to try this: Bring a towel for sweat and plenty of water. Buy a cheap stopwatch to time yourself so you can mark your improvements. Stretch your calves on the steps before you run. Have a cell phone in case of emergency. Take 60-90 second walking breaks between innings. We break after 20 or 25 innings. Don’t stop moving when you take a break or when you have just finished! We walk 1/2 mile to and from the courthouse, so it is a great warm up and cool down. Make sure you stretch when you’re done or your calves and quads will get very tight. I run barefoot due to plantaar fascitis. When I wear any type of shoes it causes heal pain and even knee pain. No shoes = no pain for me.
Let’s see how many steps I can run in the next 12 months and hopefully I can accomplish some other milestones unrelated to working out.
By: David Billings,
on 3/9/2013
When you think of vegans, you might think of wimpy, lethargic, malnourished weirdos doing yoga while they drive their Priuses to the next Natural Spirit and Judgmental Diet seminar.
That might describe a few vegans, but that’s not a good definition by any stretch.
I’m vegan. I’m also kind of a sturdy fella, if you know what I mean.
At 42, I feel better than I ever did. I feel strong, I have plenty of energy, and I still fit in the same size pants I’ve been wearing since I was 20.
Sure, I could probably exercise more and drink less. However, I wouldn’t change the amount of chocolate I consume, unless it would be more. Always more with the chocolate. In other words, I’m human.
The main reason I feel this healthy is because of my vegan diet. Jenni and I are both vegan, which means we don’t consume any animal products at all.
I grew up on the standard American diet of Mac n’ cheese, Hamburger Helper, fried chicken and steak. I was accidentally skinny for a long time, too, which was deceiving because my bad cholesterol levels at 21 were well above 300. And I smoked. Along with my genetics, it was a great way to guarantee a heart attack in my future.
When I altered my diet to eliminate animal products (and cigarettes), my life and health changed forever. It’s been nothing short of amazing. I don’t get sick often, I heal quickly, and I’m stronger than I ever was.
In the past I haven’t been one to proselytize our vegan lifestyle, because I’ve always had a live and let live philosophy. While that hasn’t changed, I think that after ten years of following a vegan diet (20 as a vegetarian), its about time I started sharing.
In the past year, during many travels around the U.S., I’ve been getting a ton of interest and lots of questions about our vegan diet. Mostly people want to know how to do it. The food I eat always looks fresh and tasty and I have to guard my plate. It’s not easy to travel and stay vegan. It’s an adventure. But the interest in my food is, well, interesting.
So I’m going to start writing about this more. We eat really well at home and that gets us through long days and nights of running our screen print and design business.
I’ll start sharing. One thing I want you to know (this is hugely important) is that I don’t judge anyone based on their dietary choices. I’ll answer questions,I’ll guide, I’ll share. Ultimately what you eat is up to you.
If you have questions, toss ‘em out in the comments below. If you want to stay under the radar and follow along, stay tuned for more posts. We’ll share some recipes, tips, and ways to stay strong on a vegan diet. Adventure is out there!
By: David Billings,
on 3/9/2013
When you think of vegans, you might think of wimpy, lethargic, malnourished weirdos doing yoga while they drive their Priuses to the next Natural Spirit and Judgemental Diet seminar.
That might describe a few vegans, but that’s not a good definition by any stretch.
I’m vegan. I’m also kind of a sturdy fella, if you know what I mean.
At 42, I feel better than I ever did. I feel strong, I have plenty of energy, and I still fit in the same size pants I’ve been wearing since I was 20.
The main reason I feel this healthy is because of my vegan diet. Jenni and I are both vegan, which means we don’t consume any animal products at all.
Sure, I could probably exercise more and drink less. However, I wouldn’t change the amount of chocolate I consume, unless it would be more. Always more with the chocolate. In other words, I’m human.
I grew up on the standard American diet of Mac n’ cheese, Hamburger Helper, fried chicken and steak. I was accidentally skinny for a long time, too, which was deceiving because my bad cholesterol levels at 21 were well above 300. And I smoked. Along with my genetics, it was a great way to guarantee a heart attack in my future.
When I altered my diet to eliminate animal products (and cigarettes), my life and health changed forever. It’s been nothing short of amazing. I don’t get sick often, I heal quickly, and I’m stronger than I ever was.
In the past I haven’t been one to proselytize our vegan lifestyle, because I’ve always had a live and let live philosophy. While that hasn’t changed, I think that after ten years of following a vegan diet (20 as a vegetarian), its about time I started sharing.
In the past year, during many travels around the U.S., I’ve been getting a ton of interest and lots of questions about our vegan diet. Mostly people want to know how to do it. The food I eat always looks fresh and tasty and I have to guard my plate. It’s not easy to travel and stay vegan. It’s an adventure. But the interest in my food is, well, interesting.
So I’m going to start writing about this more. We eat really well at home and that gets us through long days and nights of running our screen print and design business.
So I’ll start sharing. One thing I want you to know (this is hugely important) is that I don’t judge anyone based on their dietary choices. I’ll answer questions,I’ll guide, I’ll share. Ultimately what you eat is up to you.
If you have questions, toss ‘em out in the comments below. If you prefer to stay under the radar and just follow along, stay tuned for more posts. We’ll share some recipes, tips, and ways to stay strong on a vegan diet. Adventure is out there!
Author: Deborah Kesten, M.P.H and Larry Scherwitz, Ph. D.
Publisher: White River Press
Genre: Health / Weight Loss
ISBN: 978-1-935052-61-6
Pages: 256
Price: $20.00
Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon
Did you make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight this year? How is it going? If you’re like many people, you have probably struggled with your diet and maybe even given up. But have you ever explored the reasons why you’ve been unsuccessful?
In Making Weight Loss Last, authors Deborah Kesten and Larry Scherwitz explain some of the ways you might be sabotaging your weight loss efforts through the unconscious habits you follow. Do you eat alone or with others? Do you eat while also doing other things? How much satisfaction do you get from those fast food meals? Looking carefully at these and other patterns of eating can show the real reasons you’re not losing weight.
If you’re looking the latest diet or plan of eating, this book isn’t for you. But if you want to know WHY you’re continuing to struggle with your weight, Making Weight Loss Last can help. Make the decision today to change your eating patterns, and you may finally be successful at your weight loss efforts.
Reviewer: Alice Berger
Author: Terri Shearer Trenchard
Illustrator: Tracy Councill
Publisher: CreateSpace
Genre: Boys / Health
ISBN: 9781466427846
Pages: 74
Price: $12.99
Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon
Having a “facts of life” discussion with his parents doesn’t usually top the list of bright ideas a pre-teen boy might consider. But when whispered conversations with friends leave him wondering what’s really going on, he needs somewhere to turn for information. Bork Reveals the Real Deal About the Facts of Life can provide the answers.
Speaking in a humorous and light-hearted manner, Bork explains puberty and adolescence in a way boys can understand. Body changes, fluctuating hormones, and even “the facts of life” are covered in this all-inclusive book about growing up.
Most boys would probably rather not talk to a parent about this topic, unless they first have some basic understanding, but Bork encourages them to try. Even if they choose not to, they will have enough information to handle the many changes going on inside them.
Reviewer: Alice Berger
By: Darcy Pattison,
on 2/1/2013
 |
If you are self-employed, you are worried about health care. I know: I had surgery in July and it took six months to get all the bills cleared up.
The new Affordable Heatlth Care plan goes into effect in 2014, with enrollment beginning October, 2013, when self-employed persons can sign up for one of a tier of products. The Small Business Administration has just started a new website and blog about health care to help educate the public. Here are some places to start:
By: Rae,
on 1/31/2013
I'm beginning to think that living here in Abu Dhabi is hazardous to my health. Or at least it would appear that way.
I write this on the last leg of yet another sickness. This week, I've been miserable: coughing, sneezing, fever, chills, sore throat, no voice...the works. I honestly think I had a relapse from last week. I went to the doc last week when it first began. Doc offered two or more days off work, but I only took one. I got the meds prescribed, but I didn't take them as often as told. Then, instead of taking the 3-day weekend to rest, I went to Sri Lanka instead.
The result? Being sick this whole week. I hate being sick. I couldn't even enjoy the three days off work my doc gave me this week cos I was sick. BLEH!
I've been sick while living here more than I've ever been in my entire life. As a child & teen, on days I didn't feel like going to school, I'd wish for sickness to overtake me, but to no avail. I rarely got sick. But now? I feel like I'm always sick.
I'm told it's the change in climate: the desert...the sand. It doesn't help that they don't have filters for the vents here. So all the yuckiness floating around the air in my apt, I'm breathing in. YUCK!
Whatever it is, it's making me sick. Literally. It sure does put a dent in things.
Will I find relief? Stay tuned...
By: Kirsty,
on 1/21/2013
Depression in old age occurs frequently, places a severe burden on patients and relatives, and increases the utilization of medical services and health care costs. Although the association between age and depression has received considerable attention, very little is known about the incidence of depression among those 75 years of age and older. Studies that treat the group 65+ as one entity are often heavily weighted towards the age group 65-75. Therefore, the prediction of depression in the very old is uncertain, since many community-based studies lack adequate samples over the age of 75.
With the demographic change in the forthcoming decades, more emphasis should be put on epidemiological studies of the older old, since in many countries the increase in this age group will be particularly high. To study the older old is also important, since some crucial risk factors such as bereavement, social isolation, somatic diseases, and functional impairment become more common with increasing age. These factors may exert different effects in the younger old compared to the older old. Knowledge of risk factors is a prerequisite to designing tailored interventions, either to tackle the factors themselves or to define high-risk groups, since depression is treatable in most cases.
In our recent study, over 3,000 patients recruited by GPs in Germany were assessed by means of structured clinical interviews conducted by trained physicians and psychologists during visits to the participants’ homes. Inclusion criteria for GP patients were an age of 75 years and over, the absence of dementia in the GP’s view, and at least one contact with the GP within the last 12 months. The two follow-up examinations were done, on average, one and a half and then three years after the initial interview.
Depressive symptoms were ascertained using the 15-item version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). We found that the risk for incident depression was significantly higher for subjects
It revealed that the incidence of late-life depression in Germany and other industrialized countries is substantial, and neither educational level, marital status, living situation nor presence of chronic diseases contributed to the incidence of depression. Impairments of mobility and vision are much more likely to cause incidents of depression than individual somatic illnesses such as diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. As such, it is vital that more attention is paid to the oldest old, functional impairment, cognitive impairment, and smoking, when designing depression prevention programs.
GP practices offers ample opportunity to treat mental health problems such as depression occurring in relation to physical disability. If functional impairment causes greater likelihood of depression, GPs should focus on encouraging older patients to maintain physical health, whether by changing in personal health habits, advocating exercise, correcting or compensating functional deficits by means of medical and surgical treatments, or encouraging use of walking aids. Additionally, cognitive and memory training could prevent the onset of depressive symptoms, as could smoking cessation. If these steps are taken, the burden of old age depression could be significantly reduced.
Siegfried Weyerer is professor of epidemiology at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. He has conducted several national and international studies on the epidemiology of dementia, depression and substance use disorders at different care levels. He is also an expert in health/nursing services research. He is one of the authors of the paper ‘Incidence and predictors of depression in non-demented primary care attenders aged 75 years and older: results from a 3-year follow-up study’, which appears in the journal Age and Ageing. You can read the paper in full here.
Age and Ageing is an international journal publishing refereed original articles and commissioned reviews on geriatric medicine and gerontology. Its range includes research on ageing and clinical, epidemiological, and psychological aspects of later life.
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Image credit: Grief. Photo by Anne de Haas, iStockPhoto.
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By: Sara Burrier,
on 1/2/2013
By: Alice,
on 1/1/2013
A little evergreen tree has died alongside our road and, as we walked by it yesterday, my husband wondered why. All the other trees around it are healthy and it did not look like it had been hit by lightning or damaged by wind or attacked by bugs. The tree is about six feet tall, so it lived several years. We are in the Rocky Mountains and this little guy took root on its own, growing precariously in that place by the road.
Oak Tree. Photo by Glyn Baker. Creative Commons License.
Could we have done something to save it? If we were in the city, would we have babied it and maybe kept it alive? Or would it have died sooner there?
These are the same questions we ponder about why some people get sick, why one disease affects one person more than others, why people who live healthy lives still can’t beat some illnesses, yet people with deplorable habits keep going and going.
It’s the old nature versus nurture argument. Bad genes or bad environment? Or both?
I am sort of over being angry at people who have dodged major illnesses — largely because there aren’t that many of them. Seems like most people I know have something to contend with — debilitating arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s somewhere in their network of family and friends. But when I first got cancer I did look around at people who obviously were not living as healthy as I was and wondered: why me and not them? And then I realized that I had no idea what they were dealing with and I should just stop being so angry and judgmental and get over myself. It was not their fault I got sick.
Still, you have to wonder about this poker game we all play with our health. Some seem to be dealt a good hand to begin with, some make the best of a poor hand, some try but can’t make a straight out of a pair of twos, and some look at their cards and just fold.
I have one friend who never exercises and has a diet full of fat, yet she is in her mid-80s, hale, hearty, and youthful-looking. Another smoked all his life, drank, and never exercised, yet he is pushing 80 and has nothing seriously wrong physically, although I do think he looks back at his life with serious regret. But the big C didn’t get him, nor did any major illness. I wouldn’t swap places with him, though, even if I knew my cancer would return.
I also know a wide variety of cancer patients who approach the disease like the individuals they are — fighters who refuse to let the disease get the upper hand; questioners who search for their own information rather than listening to the docs; accommodators who go along with whatever the doctor says; worriers who can’t get beyond the fact that they might die. Most of us are a mix of these traits, fighting one day, living in worry the next. But we are all built differently, both physically and mentally, so we all react to our disease differently. Nobody is right, nobody is wrong. We’re all just us, being our own little trees fighting our own little battles.
We cannot escape our genes — they make us prone to certain diseases, give us the strength to fight others, and offer a blueprint for either a long or a short life. Still, we can change some of that; the science of epigenetics demonstrates that lifestyle and environmental factors can influence our genetic makeup so that, by improving things such as diet and physical activity and by avoiding unhealthy environmental pollutants including stress, bad air, and chemicals, we can eventually build a healthier DNA.
I was born into a history of cancer. My grandmother and both of my parents had forms of cancer, although none of them had breast cancer. I was the pioneer there. But both parents lived into their 80s and remained in their home until they died, surrounded by their family. So, I might have a tendency toward cancer, but perhaps my genes also mean I will hang around for a couple more decades. And my particular mix of nature and nurture has given me an ability to love, to laugh, to process health information in a way that might make me proactive, and to keep going, assuming all will be well, at least at some level.
Maybe I won’t end up as one of the stronger trees in the forest; maybe I will be the gnarled, crooked one. Maybe disease might slow me, but I feel I am rooted deeply in decent soil — family, friends, community — so I am going to push on, grow how I can, and, in the process, help shade and nurture the other trees around me.
Patricia Prijatel is author of Surviving Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, published by Oxford University Press. She is the E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor Emerita of Journalism at Drake University. She will do a webcast with the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation on 16 October 2012. Read her previous blog posts on the OUPblog or read her own blog“Positives About Negative.”
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By: Nicola,
on 12/24/2012
You can tell a lot about someone from their face, from simple demographic information such as sex and ethnicity, to the emotions they’re feeling based on facial expressions. But what about their health? Can the shape of someone’s face tell you how likely this person is to catch the common cold?
Studies have found that some facial attributes are associated with having good health. For instance, individuals with physically attractive faces report better health, are perceived as more healthy by others, and score better on objective health measures. Similarly, facial sexual dimorphism (i.e., the masculinity of male faces and the femininity of female faces) also appears to be associated with better health outcomes.
This ability to judge someone’s health based on facial features may be particularly important when choosing a sexual or romantic partner. This is because this will be someone with whom who you spend a lot of time in close proximity with, conditions in which pathogens or diseases are easily transferable from one person to another; also, any resulting offspring may inherit susceptibility to pathogens from their parents. As a result, humans have evolved to prefer facial cues of good health when choosing a sexual or romantic partner. This preference for facial attractiveness or sexual dimorphism may be stronger in those who are more sensitive to pathogen or disease threats.
To test this, in a recent study we asked a large sample of participants to rate the appeal of ostensible online dating profiles. Each profile contained a facial photograph and a personal description, which were embedded in a dating profile template – some examples are shown below. Photographs were chosen to represent a wide range of facial attractiveness, and these were manipulated with special software to be more or less masculine/feminine. Personal descriptions were chosen to represent a wide range of perceived intelligence. Participants also filled in a questionnaire that measured their pathogen disgust – an individual’s level of aversion to exposure to pathogen contagions that could threaten their health.
Examples of dating profiles with male (top) and female (bottom) profile pictures, as well as masculinised and intelligent (left) and feminised and less intelligent (right) pictures and personal description. Note varying degrees of facial attractiveness and intelligence were used.
Findings supported our predictions. For both men and women, individuals higher in pathogen disgust reported greater attraction to facially attractive profiles compared to those with lower pathogen disgust. Similarly, individuals with higher pathogen disgust also showed a greater preference for profiles higher in facial sexual dimorphism. The same effect was not found for the perceived intelligence of the profiles. In fact, interestingly, the more participants preferred facially attractive and sexually dimorphic profiles, the less they preferred intelligent profiles.
While human attraction is a complicated process influenced by a large number of factors, this research suggests that an individual’s perceived health is an important factor when assessing a potential partner’s attractiveness. We found that individuals who are sensitive to pathogens place greater importance on traits associated with good health – in this case, facial attractiveness and facial sexual dimorphism – and we were able to show that these effects occur in circumstances relevant to contemporary settings (i.e., internet dating). It appears that evolved mechanisms shift around what we want in a partner in ways we’re not even aware of, and we’re only just beginning to reveal these fascinating processes.
Anthony J Lee is a graduate student at The University of Queensland, School of Psychology in Australia. His research interests include the role of sexual selection and mate preferences on human evolution; in particular, how contextual factors (such as pathogen prevalence and resource scarcity) influences human mate preferences, as well as preference for genetic quality in a mating partner. He is the author of the paper ‘Human facial attributes, but not perceived intelligence, are used as cues of health and resource provision potential’ in the Behavioral Ecology journal, which is available to read for free for a limited time.
Bringing together significant work on all aspects of the subject, Behavioral Ecology is broad-based and covers both empirical and theoretical approaches. Studies on the whole range of behaving organisms, including plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and humans, are included. Behavioral Ecology is the official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology.
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Image credit: Datebook profiles image used with permission of A. J. Lee. First published in Behavioral Ecology journal.
The post Can the shape of someone’s face tell you how healthy they are? appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Nicola,
on 12/1/2012
1 December is World AIDS Day. Here Kenneth Mayer, MD, explains what makes the 2012 observance different from all those before – and, hopefully, those to come. Dr. Mayer is Co-Editor of Clinical Issues in HIV Medicine, Co-Chair of the HIVMA/IDSA Center for Global Health Policy’s Scientific Advisory Committee, founding Medical Research Director of Fenway Health, a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School, and an attending physician and director of HIV Prevention Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
Last year, on World AIDS Day, U.S. President Barack Obama set ambitious goals to reach more people with treatment and fundamental prevention. Echoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s call for an “AIDS-free generation,” he envisioned a tipping point in a 30-year battle to subdue the world’s costliest epidemic.
This World AIDS Day, the administration’s release of a global AIDS roadmap takes the vision into practice. Outlining the U.S. government’s commitment to apply research to reality, with the efforts of affected countries and other donors, it is as much a promise as a challenge.
The plan serves as a solid indication that three decades into a struggle that began without direction, and that sometimes seemed futile, the U.S. has set a course to continue the pace it has achieved in the last year, while giving partners encouragement and reason to match those efforts. It underscores, at a time of worldwide economic challenges and competing concerns, that this investment will yield gains, this is a battle that can be won, and this is not the time to stand still.
The global health community and its researchers, policy makers, donors, field workers, and affected populations know what to do to begin to end this epidemic, and now need to do it. To realize the magnitude of this opportunity, compare where we are now to where we were 31 years ago when fear, ignorance, and prejudice stymied responses while AIDS’ death toll multiplied exponentially as it circled the world. With little clue as to how the virus was transmitted from 1981 to 1985 rumors and mistrust also spread. Through epidemiological research we overcame the terror of those years, understanding that without blood exchange or intimate sexual contact the virus was not readily transmitted. Researchers’ discovery in the mid-1990s that combinations of antiretroviral drugs could arrest the virus changed it from a death sentence into a manageable disease, for many. Shamefully, the cost of those drugs kept the benefit of that breakthrough from being shared in the poor countries where relief was most needed. Finally, in the last decade, with the importation of generic medicines, the establishment of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, work to confront the epidemic emerged from laboratories and wealthy countries, to what are now some of the most formidable front lines.
Yet we continue to fall short. We know that injection drugs are a major vector for HIV transmission, but many countries punish users of those drugs rather treat them with opioid substitution therapy and protect them with needle exchange programs. Homophobia and criminalization of gay sex threaten efforts to even count the toll in countries where HIV is most prevalent. Programs to prevent transmission of the virus from mothers to infants are hobbled by constraints on family planning commodities. Sex workers are marginalized by efforts that exclude their input. Treatment and prevention programs fail to reach people with physical and mental disabilities. While tuberculosis is the primary killer of people living with HIV, screening and treatment for the two diseases remain unlinked. While donors have imported some of the means to fight the epidemic, too often they have imported answers as well, failing to allow for the diversity of needs and affected populations in different countries.
With a plan that includes the needs of all affected populations, the tools we have now will be powerful. The study known as HPTN 052 showed that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy could decrease the transmission of HIV in couples in which only one partner was HIV-positive by 96 percent. The use of an antiretroviral drug as pre-exposure prophylaxis in combination with other risk-reduction measures, was shown to be effective in protecting men who have sex with men, and heterosexual men and women from acquiring the virus.
These discoveries will be useless, however, if people who need medicine to save their lives don’t get it. While eight million people are getting treatment, 34 million are living with the virus. Maintaining the momentum of treatment coverage that the U.S. has achieved in the last year in Africa is imperative to meet the original humanitarian mission of the response as well as to continued progress.
Then, with shared responsibility and political will, the next World AIDS Day can be one on which we can see the end of the road, far ahead but certain, when we can stop the further spread of HIV.
To raise awareness of World AIDS Day, Dr. Mayer and Daniel Kuritzkes, MD (Co-Editor of Clinical Issues in HIV Medicine) have selected recent, topical articles, which have been made freely available for a limited time by The Journal of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Infectious Diseases. Both journals are publications of the HIV Medicine Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
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Image credits: World AIDS Day press images via worldaidsday.org media centre.
By: Debbie Ridpath Ohi,
on 10/9/2012
I'm posting some of my older comics here as I catalog and tag them in prep for a print book compilation. You can find my comics for writers on Inkygirl (http://inkygirl.com), Tumblr (http://inkygirl.tumblr.com) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/inkyelbows/comics-for-writers-inkygirl-com)
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By: shena,
on 9/12/2012
We’re all familiar with the benefits of eating a healthy diet, but it seems the importance of eating seasonably is less well-known. Those who already grow their own will agree when I say that fruit and veg are at their best when freshly picked. But there’s more to eating seasonably than this.
Autumn
Winter (coming soon)
Spring (coming soon)
Summer (coming soon)
By: shena,
on 9/11/2012
Any idea when courgettes come into season? How about cucumbers? No? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Research shows that most people aren’t sure when most British fruit and vegetables are in season which is a real shame as it means they’re missing out on when they’re at their absolute best.
While it’s easy to enjoy blueberries with your breakfast in winter, being accustomed to buying whatever we want, whenever we want it means we are increasingly becoming disconnected from our food and its relationship with nature. Eating with the seasons means getting back in touch with nature’s rhythms and eating the right thing at the right time. What could be more delicious than a crisp salad when it’s hot and sunny a wholesome stew when it’s cold? Ask any chef and they’ll tell you that fruit and veg are at their best when they’ve just been picked, so why settle for sickly looking strawberries in Winter or unappetising asparagus in Autumn?
1. Fruit and veg are at their freshest and tastiest when they are first picked
2. Eating seasonably is a great way of eating more sustainably
Growing fruit and veg in season requires lower levels of artificial inputs like heating, lighting, pesticides and fertilisers than at other times of the year and so has a lower environmental impact.
3. Grocery bills are cheaper due in part by reduced transportation and production costs for growers. Everybody wins!
Get the whole family involved! Try cooking and eating seasonably to experience the joy of eating fruit and vegetables at their peak of perfection: fresher, tastier, better value and better for the environment. For more info check out our ‘Eat the Seasons’ page, and also our recipes page.
Our friends at Eat Seasonably also have a great interactive calendar that will keep you in the know all year through, click here to view.
Author: Joy Feldman
Illustrators: Beth Slocum & Amanda Mueller
Publisher: JHF Nutritional Consulting
ISBN: 978-0-615-55515-7
Pages: 40
Price: $8.95
Author’s website
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Matt and Maddie have always eaten healthy food. Even though their friends have sugary snacks, their mom insists they eat food that will help their bodies grow strong. But one day she relents and lets them eat all the junk food they want.
After scarfing down piles of sugary treats, and especially lots of ooey-gooey donuts, they don’t feel well. And their dreams that evening hauntingly remind them of the many donuts they consumed. But was it really a dream, or have they contributed to their bodies using donuts as building blocks?
Kids hate to feel different, and parents who want them to eat healthy often feel pressured to conform to the norms of society. But snacks can be delicious and nutricious, and recipes for healthy treats are included at the back of this book. Is Your Hair Made of Donuts? is a funny tale reminding kids that junk food really is bad for them, and may encourage them to eat healthier.
Reviewer: Alice Berger
Author: Dorothea Hover-Kramer
Publisher: Sounds True
Genre: Health
ISBN: 978-1-60407-452-9
Pages: 384
Price: $16.95
Healing Touch Program
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Western society relies on traditional medicine for almost all its needs, but there are alternative healing modalities that can complement what our doctors do for us. Some healing can be done by using touch. Healing Touch describes one method of hands on healing.
Using real-life examples, author Dorothea Hover-Kramer shows us how we can use Healing Touch(HT) in our own lives. Beginning with the history of HT, she provides evidence of the effectiveness and safety of this method. Then she shows us hand positions and several methods of performing HT. Finally, she explains how a practitioner is certified and how to go about setting up a practice.
While HT is similar in some ways to other hands on healing techniques, the training is more intensive and the outcomes have been measured, to some extent. If you’re looking for a hands on healing method you can practice at home, this book provides all the information you need. I highly recommend this helpful guide to Healing Touch.
Reviewer: Alice Berger
By: admin,
on 7/9/2012
Photo courtesy of Frank Toral
Please read my article on About.com about Frank Toral, an extraordinary Fort Lauderdale attorney who established The Toral Family Foundation to help people and their families challenged by Traumatic Brain Injury.
By: John,
on 7/10/2012
QUIT SLOUCHING!! Have I got your attention? :)
My husband sends me great info like this regularly (he’s a fitness trainer). These tips are extremely useful for anyone who sits all day (and probably incorrectly). It’s not just the old “sit up straight” talk either:
- Sitting provides stability to perform high visual & motor control tasks
- General Goal: Optimal Sitting Posture = Design of Chair + Posture
- Specific Goal: Seated Minimal Muscle Cocontraction + Neutral Spine
- Utilize Backrest & Do Not Slump Forward (Excessive Kyphosis)
- General Backrest Inclination: 90-105°
- Lumbar supports — Help Achieve Neutral Lordotic Curve
Another great reminder: make a point of regularly sitting up, stretching, and moving around. Got a laptop? Try switching during the day from a seated desk to a standing desk (if you have one; or if you have a bookcase with adjustable shelves you can set one to the right height and try that out).
Watch out for your health, because if you don’t no one else will!
ps: If you know who actually created this medical illustration, please let me know! That name embedded in this JPG is not the illustrator. So, another tip: Don’t claim to own illustrations that aren’t yours! GRRR!)
“Everyone poops—yes, it’s true—from aardvarks to the humped zebu.”
Artie Bennett, author of the award-winning and much-acclaimed The Butt Book, delivers the inside scoop on every type and use of poop in his “number two,” spanking-new picture book. In hilarious verses, with eye-popping illustrations, Poopendous! relates the many, often remarkable uses of poop throughout the world while paying homage to its prolific producers, from cats to bats to wombats! Virtuoso illustrator Mike Moran gives us a Noah’s Ark of animals doing their less-than-solemn doody. So pick up your pooper-scooper and come along for a riotously rib-tickling ride. You just may agree that poop is truly quite . . . poopendous!
“For anyone who loved The Butt Book, you must immediately go and buy Artie Bennett’s follow-up, Poopendous! It appears there is no topic Mr. Bennett can’t make funny and educational. There aren’t many picture books that teach kids that “Monkeys fling when under stress. It helps the monkey decompress” and “Seeds inside a critter’s poop might go as far as Guadeloupe!” I’m not kidding when I say this came in handy at my son’s preschool last week.”
—The Huffington Post
“Poopendous! is an awesome picture book. If you are looking for a really funny book, with great pictures, any kid will sit through, this is the book. Artie Bennett obviously knows what makes kids laugh and the former children’s librarian in me applauds him for his use of unique vocabulary and content that keeps kids engaged and talking.”
—Long Days, Short Years
“Bennett addresses this subject with a nimble rhyme: ‘Rabbit pellets, raccoon tubes, / Owl whitewash, and wombat cubes./ Camel poop is desert-dry. / Wet poop comes from birds on high.’ There are kernels of wisdom to be found in Poopendous!, but the main point is entertainment.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A book like Artie Bennett’s Poopendous! comes in so incredibly handy. The rhymes and illustrations make it nicely lighthearted. It does a beautiful job of walking the line between ‘everyone does it and it’s just part of life’ and ‘it’s not something you want to bring in for show-and-tell.’ Plus, it’s so packed with information that it’s perfect for a parent whose kid is firmly in the “why” phase but who doesn’t want to dig up a lot of fecal facts.”
—New York Family
“Breezy and breathless!”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Artie has done it again. Kids of all ages love to talk about poop, and Artie creatively capitalized on that with his colorful, educational, and funny book Poopendous!”
—Family and Life in Las Vegas
About the author: Artie Bennett is the executive copy editor for a children’s book publisher and he writes a little on the side (but not the backside!).
His itch to write gave us The Dinosaur Joke Book: A Compendium of Pre-Hysteric Puns (currently extinct) when he was a much younger man. The Butt Book, however, was his first “mature” work. The Butt Book was showered with praise and won the prestigious Reuben Award for Book Illustration. His “number two” picture book, fittingly, is entitled Poopendous! Wh
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By: admin,
on 7/21/2012
Driving through rural Alabama, I noticed the quaint little doctors’ offices tucked away in historic buildings and the pint-sized medical centers built to serve a variety of small communities. In essence, residents don’t have many choices when it comes to finding a doctor or health facility in these remote areas; they just appreciate that there’s a doctor in their small town.
It made me grateful too, for all the choices I have in healthcare at home in bustling South Florida. This includes the fact that I live 3 blocks from Memorial Regional Hospital, one of the best hospitals in the country. I guess I have to give up the quiet, wide open spaces for the modern conveniences (and myriad of choices) of living in a very populated area. But I’m fine with that.
Should you ever need a list of the Broward and South Palm Beach hospitals, their specialties and contact info – and I hope you never do – here’s my article on About.com. I’ve done a lot of the homework to make it easy for you to find the hospital that best suits your healthcare needs.
By Alyssa Sheinmel, for The Children’s Book Review
Published: August 16, 2012
Alyssa B. Sheinmel
I have to admit, I had a really fun time writing The Lucky Kind. Of course it was plagued, from time to time, with bouts of self-doubt, questions over where the story was going and how I was going to get it there, but overall, I look back on the experience of writing that book as a great time. I loved the characters, I loved the voice, the dialogue seemed to crackle and pop as I put it down on paper. Writing The Beautiful Between was difficult, but always exciting, because it was my first novel and there was so much possibility in every new chapter. I didn’t know if I was writing it just for me and me alone or if it would be published.
Writing The Stone Girl, however, was not particularly fun. It was exhilarating, from time to time, because I was writing about things I’d never written about before, going someplace darker and deeper than I’d ever been as a writer. It was thrilling, sometimes, when the words came quickly and I wrote chapter after chapter in rapid succession. But the words never came easily. There were times when I would go weeks and weeks without looking at the book at all.
I came up with the idea for The Stone Girl in a car, driving from the San Francisco airport to the hotel where my then-fiancé and I were planning our wedding. It was a few days before my 28th birthday, a few years since I’d last made myself throw up, and I was reading Blackbird House, by Alice Hoffman, for the first time. Suddenly, in my mind’s eye, I saw a girl, still and silent as a stone, crouched beside a toilet. At once, I knew everything about her. I knew her name was Sarah Beth, but she preferred to be called Sethie. I knew the boy she loved was only half of a boyfriend, and I knew she was destined to be hurt by him. I knew exactly when and how she first learned to throw up. I know she wore her clothes a couple sizes too big so that waistbands and cap-sleeves wouldn’t dig into her skin. I knew that sometimes she wanted to take a knife to her body and cut the fat pieces away.
I began scribbling in the spiral notebook I always take with me when I travel. A few messy pages of notes later, I’d begun writing The Stone Girl. But I quickly put it aside. The Beautiful Between hadn’t even been published yet. I had only just begun writing The Lucky Kind. And did I really want to write a book about a sick, sad, lonely girl anyway?
Whether I wanted to or not eventually became besides the point. I kept thinking about this girl and I kept scribbling notes, typing stray chapters, imagining where her story would take her. I remembered things long forgotten, from the years I spent wrapped up in my own body-obsession: my illogical “fat-free” days,
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Authors: Dian Griesel, Ph. D & Tom Griesel
Publisher: Business School of Happiness
Genre: Cooking / Health
ISBN: 978-1936705078
Pages: 268
Price: $24.95
Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon
In TurboCharged: Accelerate Your Fat Burning Metabolism, Get Lean Fast and Leave Diet and Exercise Rules in the Dust
This cookbook provides a basic introduction to the program, but assumes the reader has already read TurboCharged. Section headings include Beverages, Dips & Dressings, Appetizers, Soups & Stews, Salads, Vegetarian, Eggs, Fish, Meats, Poultry, and Desserts. These yummy recipes can be used by a TurboCharged dieter or anyone who follows a low carbohydrate diet.
Some of these recipes combine more than a dozen ingredients, so a well-stocked kitchen is advised. Time may also be a factor in creating some of these dishes. But if you’re serious about following the TurboCharged plan, this cookbook would be a great investment.
Reviewer: Alice Berger
Oh no...change of climate could certainly do that to your body. Shake everything up.
Hope you feel better soon :-)
Thank you! :D