Health on The Huffington Post

Sound Body Equals Sound Mind, Study Finds

2009-12-06T10:08:28Z

A new study proves the old Roman saying, "A sound mind in a sound body" �" the more fit one's heart is, the more one's brain seems to benefit, scientists now find.

Scott Mendelson, M.D.: Dementia: The Fate My Father Did Not Deserve

2009-12-06T07:00:00Z

My father, Harry Mendelson, was no big shot. He certainly never made much money. I recall, as a young Jewish boy growing up in goyishe Prairie Village, Kansas, occasionally hearing people talk about "the Jews", and how they had all the money. It confused me. I remember wondering if they were talking about some different sort of Jews.

Though he never got rich, my father was a good man. He went to trade school and became a draftsman. He worked at the Colgate-Palmolive plant drawing blueprints for construction of assembly line machinery. He worked there for nearly 40 years. The job didn't pay enough to meet the expenses of raising three boys, at least not in the fashion that my mother expected, so he took extra work when he could. Things were often worse than I knew, but we never went hungry and we never did without. That is, not without too much.

His pleasures were the simple ones. He had a wonderful sense of humor, he loved a hearty meal on the table, and he possessed the uncanny ability to sniff out the perfect fishing hole. On television, he preferred the Ernie Kovaks Show to Playhouse 90. He was the kind of guy that perfect strangers would strike up conversations with in a ticket line or at a bus stop. He was honest and dependable. When he said he would do something, you knew that he would do it.

On warm summer nights, the Kansas City A's ball game would be on the radio as he grilled some chicken or hamburgers for our supper in the backyard. The lilting, yet emphatic radio voice of Merle Harmon would float through the twilight, mingling with the chirping of the crickets, and the hissing and popping of the meat on the hot grill. At those times he seemed most at ease. Not Madeline cakes and lime blossom tea, but rather the peppery aroma of grilled meat blended with the scent of newly mowed, summer grass evoke Proustian memories of my father and my childhood.

My father was athletic. As a young man he boxed and practiced judo. I remember him doing push-ups every morning. But all his life he suffered high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It led to heart disease, and at age 65 he underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. The surgery saved his heart, but he was never the same. It is not unusual for this surgery to loose showers of tiny fragments of arterial plaque into the blood coursing to the brain, and I suspect that some lodged in areas of his frontal cortex. It is not clear whether the surgery did the damage, or if it accelerated a more subtle pathological process already in motion. I suspect it was both. In any case, he began to change.

I recall one telling incident that occurred a few years after the surgery at a large family reunion. After our meal, cousins, uncles, and aunts stepped up to the microphone at the front of the banquet hall to say a few words. One of our cousins rose from his seat and lumbered over to the microphone. This cousin could kindly be described as "odd". However, as a member of the family, his eccentricity, obesity and ill-fitting clothes were always given some allowance. As he stood before us and fumbled with the paper upon which he had written his speech, my father let loose a loud, prolonged, and heartfelt, "Oh, my God!" Although most of us were thinking the same thing, my father's outburst broke the rules of social engagement and gave embarrassing testimony to the early stage of his illness.

Over the next few years my father had increasing difficulty expressing himself. His word choices sometimes made no sense. A sad, but undeniably humorous example arose when a couple my parents knew invited them to tour the Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City. The old gallery is built of stone, with high ceilings and long hallways. In unrestrained fashion my father passed gas loudly and forcefully in one of the exhibition rooms. The report echoed down the spacious corridors.

That lapse in social grace was another byproduct of his dementia. However, for days afterward he perseverated in reporting his troubling perception that their friends were very angry with him "because I fluctuated at the art gallery." Even when challenged about his choice of the word, "fluctuate", he simply looked puzzled then continued on using the word to express his annoyance with himself and his friends.

As is often the case in dementia, some of his living skills seemed to remain intact, but only deceptively so. Like many with the illness, he continued to drive his car far longer than he should have. That ended the afternoon he took a right turn into what he thought was a driveway, but was actually a wide walking path in a neighborhood park. He drove its entire length, looking for the parking lot he had expected to find at its end. The strollers were irate and the police were not sympathetic.

My mother kept and cared for him as long as she could at home, but episodes of confusion, incontinence, and falls finally forced her to place him in a care facility. There, his social disinhibitions and indelicacies gradually faded into long silences and social withdrawal. Finally, he drifted into apathy and a complete inability to speak at all. Not too many months after he lost his speech, he suffered the loss of his ability to swallow. That unfortunate man, who so dearly loved to eat, was thus deprived of his last pleasure. Eventually a tube was inserted through his abdomen and into his stomach to provide him with nourishment.

The last time I saw my father, he was propped up in a chair staring impassively, neither moving nor speaking. I remember a painful sense of disbelief at how old and diminished that once bright and physically powerful man looked. He turned his eyes toward my face and let them linger for the briefest of moments, which served as the only evidence of any recognition of who I was. Not many months later he died in his sleep.

The progression of my father's illness was frightening to watch. The look of bewilderment that would fall across his face from time to time leads me to suspect that it was frightening for him as well. A mind in pieces does not easily harbor peace of mind. As we have aged, my brothers and I have grown justifiably more concerned about our own potential for developing dementia. Though it was certainly nothing he would have planned, in journeying down the dreadful path of dementia right before our eyes, my father shouldered yet another burden for his sons.

He revealed to us our vulnerability, and he prepared us for what might happen if we did not care for ourselves. We understand our lives and our selves differently from him having been ill. As a psychiatrist, I have been able to learn from this experience and help other individuals and their families through the heartache of being diagnosed with dementia. I have learned and written about how to avoid the illness, which, of course, is the best of all possibilities. In many respects, I owe my book, Beyond Alzheimer's, to my father. I dedicated it to him.

It is now 10 years since my father died. It saddens me that he was never able to enjoy the little bit of money he had set aside for his retirement. It saddens me most that he was never able to be a grandfather for my children. My 9-year-old twin girls, who never knew him, only giggle when they hear his name, which they interpret as, "Hairy Mendelson". He would have enjoyed that. My father was a decent, hardworking family man, and he did not deserve the fate of dementia that he suffered. But, in all honesty, not the worst of us does.

Dr. Mendelson is the author of the new book, Beyond Alzheimer's.

UC Board Of Regents Approves Proposed Partnership To Open New Hospital In South Los Angeles

2009-12-05T11:59:23Z

The proposed partnership between the University of California and Los Angeles County to open a new hospital in South Los Angeles moved closer to reality with the recent unanimous approval of the UC Board of Regents.

The County Board of Supervisors' ratification, by acclamation, this week the agreement to provide urgently needed inpatient and emergency services to residents of South Los Angeles and beyond. We applaud both the Supervisors and the Regents as they understood and acted on the urgency and magnitude of the need.

Over the past decade, a dozen emergency room facilities have been closed in LA County. Since King/Drew Medical Center ceased inpatient and emergency room services, about a million South LA residents have been woefully underserved. As a result, private hospital emergency rooms in Southeast L.A. have been pushed to the breaking point. The strain on the county's healthcare safety net has been tremendous. A study by the Community Health Councils reported only .68 beds available in South L.A. per 1,000 people compared to 1.83 beds available in West L.A. and 1.23 beds available countywide. Approximately 16.6% of residents in Southeast LA stated that they have difficulty receiving medical care compared to only 10.9% of the residents in West LA and 14.7% of residents countywide.

Everyone recognizes that the old King/Drew Medical Center had its problems. But we are not talking about reviving an old hospital.

To the contrary, we are working to create a new non-profit hospital that will not only be a first rate medical institution, but a model for hospitals around the country. King-Harbor will benefit from the best expertise and technology available from the University of California's hospitals. It will draw on expertise from other institutions too.

The technology exists now to enable hospitals to exchange images and lab information, indeed all kinds of health information, in real time. MLK Hospital will hopefully be an early participant in what will be a national health information grid. Its doctors would then be able to access instantly the best available information and expertise, wherever it may reside, so as to make the right clinical decision for their patient.

A great deal of private sector faith and trust are being placed in UC, L.A. County and their soon-to-be non-profit partners from the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation to the California Endowment. Significant private sector involvement has been pledged and more pledges will be forthcoming.

For the county's part, upwards of $400 million will be invested in construction and start-up funds for New MLK Hospital. This is a major investment that can be leveraged to create a ripple effect of economic activity in South Los Angeles, which has suffered disproportionately from job loss and small business failure during the recession.

The new hospital will start small in terms of size and hospital beds. But the New MLK Hospital will launch large. The rebirth of MLK through the combined efforts of the public and private sectors will have the potential to become a national model for hospitals serving underserved communities throughout our country.

Let no one underestimate the task that stands before us. Whatever must be done to bring the new hospital online and to operate it effectively and successfully must and will be done right. Our primary ethical obligation must be high quality patient care. It's motto can and will be to "put the patient first." This is our collective moral imperative.

Yet the new hospital's potential as a national model pales in comparison to what it will mean to a mother with a sick child, a motorist injured in an accident or a senior citizen with a high blood pressure and chronic health problems.

By the promising and prudent actions by the private and public sectors, respectively, the message is resoundingly clear: Let the new partnership begin.

Mark Ridley-Thomas is the Supervisor for the Second District in Los Angeles County and Patrick Soon-Shiong is the Chairman of the Chan Soon-Shiong Foundation.

Julia Moulden: The Aging Population: A Silver Tsunami?

2009-12-05T07:00:00Z

I just spent two days with some smart, thoughtful people, talking about something everyone knows is coming, but most of us are in denial about. No, not climate change. Our aging population. Here's a small slice: in 2000, there were 600 million people 60 and over worldwide. By 2025, that number will double. And right now in the developed world, people 80 and over are the fastest growing population group.

Two hundred people from around the world gathered at The Business of Aging Summit in Toronto (co-hosted by MaRS Discovery District and the Province of Ontario), to talk about the challenge and opportunity of what was quickly dubbed the "silver tsunami".

In fact, whether our aging population will be a deficit or a dividend was hotly debated. By the end of the summit, I was listing heavily to one side. Yes, there are huge challenges, and we must acknowledge and address them. But, ohmigod, such amazing things are underway and we are going to reshape the world!

In my head, I replaced the tsunami with a gorgeous wave - huge but not terrifying - and all of my favorite experts were yelling "surf's up!" and paddling their boards madly into the roiling waters. Here are the people you'll see riding the crest of this wave. (If you're like me and need a little soundtrack to go along with your visualization, try the boomer-friendly Hawaii 5-0.)

• Jane Barratt
Jane will be the first one into the water. Secretary-General of the International Federation on Ageing, she kicked off the summit with the thought that aging begins at birth. "I'm not an older person, I'm a person who's growing older." She got us thinking about why we need to create an age-friendly society, and how each of us can contribute. In fact, she was particularly emphatic that this work can't be left to the "experts", that we all need to speak up and chip in.

• John Beard
He had me from hello. John showed us a news item about a woman working on her 100th birthday. "Why is this news?" he asked. "Because she's 100, of course, and because she's working. This won't be abnormal in the future." He then debunked a bunch of myths about aging, like that older people are a burden on society (in fact, most of us continue to live independently right up to our last year of life). That the real objective is how to stretch out what he calls the middle years - by doing things like preventing chronic illness, creating environments that foster engagement, and introducing age-appropriate care. John is Director of the Department of Ageing and Life Course at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Check out their website for data and publications about how we can all adapt to what's coming and realize potential benefits.

• Alvaro Fernandez
Imagine a workplace brain fitness program that will help you think better now and ward off the symptoms of dementia as you age. One that is grounded in two decades of research. That's what Alvaro and his team are developing at Sharp Brains. It's one of the projects launched by Cogniciti, a joint venture between MaRS and Baycrest (a health sciences centre), created to bring cutting-edge research to market.

• Laurie Orlov
Laurie's New Radical career started with a deeply personal event: the death of her mother in 2006 (New Radicals are people who put skills acquired in their careers to work on the world's greatest challenges, for more please see archived articles). A technology industry veteran, Laurie realized that tech could be used to help seniors achieve one of their goals - to "age in place". So she founded Aging in Place Technology Watch to provide insight, analysis, and guidance about technologies that can help people do just that. Great resources on her site. Not to be missed.

• Saul Kaplan
The fact that he calls himself Chief Catalyst and his organization the Business Innovation Factory speaks volumes about Saul. He got us all stirred up by asking "where's the urgency, where's the outrage?". He insisted that we don't need to simply tweak existing systems, but transform them. His team designs and tests new solutions in real-world laboratories, including something they call the "Elder Experience Lab". Highly recommended. (And count on Saul to be wearing the most creative trunks.)

Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two astronauts to walk on the moon (and fellow HuffPo blogger), was supposed to wrap up the summit, but had to cancel due to illness (we wish him a speedy recovery!). As the full moon rose in the early evening sky over Toronto, Buzz's stepdaughter, Lisa Cannon, showed us a video that brought back memories for everyone in the room (where were you when they walked on the moon in 1969?). She spoke about the insatiable curiousity of humankind, and our desire to try new things - in JFK's phrase, "Not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

I'll be writing more about who's out there surfing the wave, including what technology companies like Cisco are doing, about cool new ideas in urban planning, transportation, health care, and storytelling - and how it all fits together. In the meantime, be sure to sign up at the Business of Aging website.

Now, over to you. Do you think the "silver tsunami" is a problem or an opportunity? And should we suggest to Arianna that HuffPo add a new section called, perhaps, Silver? Please comment below, or feel free to email me directly: Julia (that familiar symbol) wearethenewradicals (punctuation) (COM).

Julia Moulden is on tour, talking about the New Radicals.

Joe Lieberman Explains His Opposition To Public Option Health Care

2009-12-04T20:17:27Z

Mr. Lieberman notes that the public option serves no other purpose: "It doesn't help one poor person get insurance who doesn't have it now. It doesn't compel one insurance company to provide insurance to somebody who has an illness. And . . . it doesn't do anything to reduce the cost of insurance."

Slim Fast Cans Recalled Nationwide Due To Bacteria

2009-12-04T18:29:18Z

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. — Unilever PLC's U.S. subsidiary says it has recalled all canned Slim Fast drinks because of the possibility of bacterial contamination that could cause diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.

The company says the probability of serious health problems is remote.

Iyah Romm: Lessons from Massachusetts Health Care Reform

2009-12-04T16:08:28Z

As Massachusetts physicians-in-training, we've had a sneak preview of the future of health care in the United States. Across the country health policy-makers are looking to our state as a model. As in Massachusetts, the U.S. Senate and House bills preserve the role of private health insurers, while subsidizing coverage for the poor and near-poor, and imposes an individual mandate requiring everyone else to purchase insurance or pay a fine. Coverage has increased in Massachusetts, with five percent or less of residents now uninsured. The Connector, an Expedia-like marketplace of insurance plans, has offered residents a choice of coverage and is the archetype of a national exchange. When national reform proposals have been criticized for not bending-the-cost curve, proponents have pointed to the cover-now, pay-later strategy in Massachusetts, which is now considering a global-payment cost control proposal to curb unprecedented spending.

If Massachusetts is going to be a model for reform, however, we must consider both the successes and failures of the past three years. It has become painfully obvious both in our studies and clinical practice that coverage does not equal care. Despite boasting the strongest primary care workforce in the country, the newly-insured in Massachusetts report waiting months for appointments. Meanwhile, the Connector has added 4.5 percent overhead to the already crushing administrative costs of our private insurance companies. Premiums have increased drastically since 2006: care in Massachusetts now costs more than anywhere else in the history of the world. Since the Commonwealth has committed to subsidizing low-income residents, premium increases have often come directly from the state's coffers.

Instead of enacting structural reform to rein in costs, the Governor and legislature have chosen to restrict access to care. In May, the legislature eliminated $130 million of health insurance subsidies for 28,000 legal immigrants (mostly green-care holders) who have been here for less than five years. Under pressure from national Democratic Party leaders to highlight Massachusetts' 'successes', the legislature reinstated $40 million to cover this population as a bridge to the next fiscal year. Given the impossibility of ensuring care for this population on a shoestring budget, the state sold these Massachusetts residents' healthcare to an out-of-state, for-profit HMO, CeltiCare. This single-source, anticompetitive contract was signed without the knowledge or consent of these patients.

So far, CeltiCare has restricted access by offering an unprecedented and dangerously limited provider network. CeltiCare has signed up enrollees and then contracted with too few physicians to care for them as a means of suppressing health care utilization and cost. The CeltiCare network excludes most of the safety-net health centers, hospitals, and primary care doctors that previously cared for these patients. CeltiCare has also dramatically increased copayments, amounting to a tax on some of the most vulnerable legal residents of the state.

In our work, we witness the medical consequences of this short-sighted and unjust policy. We see young women in emergency departments for possible ectopic pregnancies - a life threatening diagnosis requiring close monitoring - but now our colleagues cannot provide critical follow-up care in their clinics. So women are sent home and told to look elsewhere for care. Or, when a patient calls in excruciating pain, the only way we can do our jobs is to spend hours searching for barely-permissible loopholes in policy.

To add insult to injury, the Commonwealth has only guaranteed coverage for this cohort of legal residents until June 30, 2010, thus making CeltiCare a bridge to nowhere. What's more, last week the Commonwealth announced that more than one million Medicaid recipients will soon be required to pay higher co-pays and obtain prior approval for critical medications in order to close the state's $307 million Medicaid budget shortfall. As cutting care becomes a proxy for genuine cost-containment, we're left wondering who will next be pushed down this slippery slope.

Health care for all is the moral issue of our generation. We have come of age in a globalizing world. Denying care to foreign-born patients who have played by the rules -- who came here legally to work and pay taxes - is economically, medically, and morally senseless. If universal coverage is our goal, we must recognize that subsidies and individual mandates that exclude many people or leave them with prohibitively high co-payments can never truly be universal.

Architects of reform must not replicate the splintering Massachusetts system, but rather look to the innovative and excellent health systems across Europe and Asia. We must create a federally-funded, privately delivered single payer system, Medicare-for-All as proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) this week. A single payer system could save $400 billion every year on administration, eliminating the need to "cover-now, pay-later" or place arbitrary restrictions on providers. Having all physicians under one network would eliminate fragmentation of care while empowering patients to have real choices - not just which insurance product to buy, but which doctor to visit.

Looking to a future that breaks the mold built by Massachusetts, we see the possibility of a single payer system that makes our fragmented care whole, that defines a new standard of inclusion, and provides comprehensive, secure, and inalienable rights to all. This is the system in which we, the next generation of America's doctors, aspire to serve our patients.

Iyah Romm and Sylvia Thompson, M.D. are physicians-in-training in Boston, and national policy leaders in the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).
Read more: Health Care Reform, Massachusetts Health Reform, Politics News

Alanis Morissette: Alanis Morissette and Author Anna Thomas Make "Love Soup"

2009-12-04T13:24:21Z
Integration (AKA "growing up") is the new frontier for me these days, and it has been showing up in so many different ways:

-- Working mixed with fun
-- Service mixed with self-care
-- Sex combined with profound connection
-- Practical "root chakra" considerations seen through the lens of the more soulful "crown chakra" ones
-- Athleticism combined with activism
-- Art as social commentary and consciousness raising service
-- Beautifying self and environments while considering the earth's longterm well-being...

Etc, etc.

There is no better combo these days than healthful eating combined with sensual rapturous-ness and satisfaction. :)

This was never more the case than a few nights ago, when I invited the luminous Anna Thomas to come to my house, along with 25 of my girlfriends, to learn how to make soup from her. She just released a book called "Love Soup" and, those being two things I am obsessed with, I thought we'd both might be oriented to a similar 'true north'.

Soup! Love! Let's do it!

We were.

The opportunity to have 25 women in one place is my FANTASY, as without my ladeez I am NOTHIN'. And a gaggle of them all about, all focused on Anna's labors, fruits and guidance was right up there in my top 10 favorite communal experiences.

The hands-down favorites were the green soups, proving that healthy does not have to mean disgusting.

It's as though all the investigations, health-wise, that I have been embarking upon over the last year or so have culminated, and become more and more multi-layered and variety-filled and FUN. Whether it's been doing marathons for charity (for NEDA -- National Eating Disorder Association -- and the Masaai conservation trust), yoga and kirtan with my brother Wade two days ago, playing volleyball with friends on the beach, committing time to my spiritual practice, going to workshops (Jack Kornfield and Daniel Siegel most recently), carving out the perfect amount of time to write my new book, etc, etc, the theme seems to be: COMBINE AND INTEGRATE ALL... creating the bridge between the extremes. Finding the delicate balance between too much and too little. If moderation is a clear symptom of growing up, I must have been stuck at "7-year-old-ranger" for a long time. :)

I had no idea growing up could be so sexy and delicious and fun, and kind on the body. :)

I used to think being hip meant being tweaked somehow. Dutch angle lens. Tortured. Overburdened. (Back of hand on forehead.) Now I see that it really just meant depleted and unfulfilled. Ouch. That essential hipness and stream of consciousness expression actually comes through me most when I am FULL.

Here's to the pendulum coming back to the middle, to women, to raising our own bars higher than we ever imagined possible, and to Anna (thank you Anna, you are the coolest) and to awakening and to growing up and to delicious winter soup.

Some pictures from the party:

Read more: Healthy Eating, Soup, Slideshow, Cooking, Music, Anna Thomas, Health, Books, Alanis Morisette, Love Soup, Vegetarian, Buddhsim, Vegan, Eating Disorders, Alanis Morissette Party, Meditation, Alanis Morissette, Books News

Stephen J. Pasierb: Medicine Abuse: Not Just a Television Plotline

2009-12-04T13:17:59Z
One in 10 teens -- that's more than 2.4 million young people -- reports abusing over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicines to get high. With most parents unaware of this behavior, that begs the question: where are teens finding out about this type of drug abuse? For years, the answer has been either through their peers or online. But this fall, there's a new force in the promotion of OTC cough medicine abuse: primetime, network television.

Just last week, FOX's hit drama House, became the second show this fall to portray OTC cough medicine abuse, joining another FOX blockbuster, Glee. Both shows depict characters taking excessive amounts of OTC cough medicines to get high off of the active ingredient, dextromethorphan (DXM). And both shows failed to accurately depict the dangers of this type of abuse.

A mid-September episode of Glee featured a former shop teacher who abuses OTC cough medicine, the consequences of which are shown to be humorous and the act itself depicted as trivial. While the recent episode of House took a more serious look at cough medicine abuse through a character who abuses the medicine in an attempt to escape his reality, the episode ends with the patient being allowed to continue his abusive behavior.

House and Glee are raising awareness that OTC cough medicine abuse occurs -- they even show some of the negative consequences of this behavior. But what these shows fail to mention is that cough medicine abuse is a highly dangerous practice that involves teens taking up to 25-50 times the recommended dose, which when mixed with other drugs or alcohol, can not only be dangerous, but sometimes even deadly.

By depicting this type of abuse without accurately demonstrating the dangers of this behavior, these shows run the risk of perpetuating the problem among their teen viewers. Research indicates that a teen's likelihood to abuse drugs is directly related to their perception of risk, and recent studies show that teens' perception of risk related to drugs and alcohol are already softening. When popular culture (in this case network television) portrays OTC cough medicine abuse or any substance as low-risk, the abuse itself becomes normalized and may be more enticing to teens.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the makers of these medicines, have been hard at work trying to raise the perception of risk among parents and teens in order to prevent the abuse of OTC cough medicines. Together, we implore parents to educate themselves on the issue of teen cough medicine abuse and use these television series as an opportunity to discuss a rather serious issue with their teens. After all, research indicates that teens whose parents talk to them about the dangers of drug abuse are half as likely to abuse drugs.

For more information on cough medicine abuse, including warning signs, ways to prevent this behavior, and tips for talking with your teens, visit StopMedicineAbuse.org. And if you think your teen may have an immediate problem, visit timetoact.drugfree.org. Most importantly, the next time you're watching television with your teen and the issue of OTC cough medicine abuse is raised, use this as an opportunity to set the record straight: cough medicine abuse is not just a television plotline -- it's a serious issue with serious consequences.

Read more: House, Glee, House Otc Episode, Fox House, Otc, Over the Counter Cough Medicines, Teen Drug Abuse, Otc Cough Medicine Getting High, Using Over the Counter Medicine to Get High, Teen Drug Addiction, Cough Medicine Abuse, Otc Addiction, Politics News

Todd Kashdan: What Maids Teach Us About Physical Health, Life Longevity

2009-12-04T12:41:09Z
I have no idea what the politically correct term is for women who clean hotel rooms. Maid? Chambermaid? Housekeeper? Female room attendant? Hoover lady? If I offend anyone, my apologies for failing to master the appropriate terminology. But everything else is true and rather inoffensive. In this brief post, you will learn a single secret to physical fitness and mental health that might translate into longer, better living.

Hotel maids are notorious for waking up at ridiculously early hours to start working. They also are confronted with unwanted flesh at surprising intervals and in surprising situations. There's the man who refuses to make a peep while sitting on the toilet until spotted. There's the man who opens the front door with swinging genitalia lacking a single synaptic connection to the idea of covering up. There's the guest's drunken friend who rests peacefully face to the ground, ass in the air, burrowed behind the curtains. I'm not being sexist. Ninety-seven out of 100 encounters, the naked being will be male. But I digress.

Hotel maids are stressed out and thus, have little time for a formal workout. If you don't believe me, go ask a hotel maid how often they go the gym or jog in the park. They certainly do enough bending, lifting, climbing, and moving to burn off calories. Which begs the question -- what if maids were made mindfully aware and open to the idea that a fitness routine is embedded into their job? Could changing their mindset lead to actual changes in their physical and mental health? A few researchers sought to find out.

As the most minimal of interventions, one group of hotel maids were informed about the importance of daily exercise and how their regimen of climbing stairs, vacuuming, cleaning linen, and scrubbing tables and tubs affects their body. They were given exact details, for example, a 140-pound women burns 50 calories after vacuuming for 15 minutes. They were told that their typical workday far exceeds the exercise recommendations of the Surgeon General. A second group of hotel maids were given the same information about the benefits of exercise but weren't told anything about how their work effort is in fact, exercise. With this comparison group, the researchers could determine whether there was some unique benefit to being mindful about what constitutes exercise.

So what happened when these maids were tracked down a month later? After only four weeks of learning that work might serve as exercise, the maids lost an average of two pounds, lowered their blood pressure by an average of 10 points, and trimmed their body fit even though they didn't change their diet or add any exercise to their routine. The only thing that changed was that how they attended to their physical exertion at work. That's it! As for the comparison group, they basically remained in the same shape as when they started.

Yet another testament to how our mindset can alter our bodies. We can't always feel good but we can almost always be profoundly aware and open to what we do. Being fully alive during these moments are the building blocks to a life well lived.

Here's a question that we should all be asking -- what do I fail to notice in my daily routine that's important to my physical, mental, and social well-being? And tell your hotel maid how muscular her arms are looking so she can live a long, healthy life...

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at George Mason University. He is the author of Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. For more about his books and research, go to www.toddkashdan.com

Visit his new website featuring the Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena
Read more: Stress, Mental Health, Work, Mindfulness, Sex, Work-Life Balance, Physical Exercise, Stress Reduction, Happiness, Positive Thinking, The Secret, Politically Correct, Positive Psychology, Google, Health, Living News

Jason Mannino: HIV and AIDS Are NOT In Recession! (VIDEO)

2009-12-04T12:00:36Z
Brace yourself! Tuesday, December 1, 2009 marked the 21st annual World AIDS Day. In that time do you think that the number of incidence of HIV infection is going up or going down? Last year the CDC announced that as a result of new technology and methodology the number of cases of new HIV infections was actually close to 60,000 annually, which is up almost 20,000 cases from the previously estimated 40,000 new annual cases of HIV infection. It's hard to determine if this indicates an increase in HIV infection or simply a reflection of enhanced methodology. Nonetheless, the numbers are going in an undesirable direction.

The grim truth is that as the number of HIV infections rise, funding for HIV Prevention and AIDS services has remained flat, or as we have seen in the past year, has been decimated by careless government officials. For example, I learned from Craig Thompson, Executive Director, AIDS Project Los Angeles that Arnold Schwarzenager took 35 million dollars in negotiated budget cuts in AIDS Services and HIV Prevention in CA and carelessly turned it into an 80 million dollar budget cut. In conjunction with World AIDS day I feel compelled to share what the real life ramifications are to these funding cuts. I reached out to HIV/AIDS Service providers all over the country to find out.

In regards to HIV prevention two significant issues stand out to me. First, with prevention dollars being all but removed from education services and funneled into HIV Testing and Counseling (which I experienced first hand as the program in which I was facilitating educational workshops at LA's Gay and Lesbian Center has been completely eliminated) we each have to commit to taking responsibility for our own behavior and for looking out for each other. Second, in speaking with HIV/AIDS service providers across the country I received a general consensus that it is critical for prevention and survival to get patients with HIV into treatment in very early stages. When people start receiving treatment in early stages it is more likely that their viral load can go to undetectable levels, which helps to significantly halt HIV transmission. In addition, Dr. Michael Saag, Director of the Division of Infectious Disease, and President of HIV Medicine Association, shared with me that mortality rates go from approximately 50 percent for people who have a cd4 t-cell count of 50 and below to five percent for those who have a CD 4 count above 200.

Getting people into care, however, immediately after they test positive for HIV is becoming more and more challenging while new cases go up and funding for services gets cut drastically. Dr. Saag informed me that just this past week Department of Health and Human Services put forth new guidelines indicating that everyone with a t-cell count less than 500 must be receive care (if the clinic is federally funded). Saag, agrees, but also said, "They're not providing the funding to do it. Funding is not following increased patient burden. A lot of Ryan White funding has been flat funded for the last 10 years. Clinics only have so much dollars to hire staff. The more clinic patients that show up the more costs are generated and the more clinics go into the red, and can't bail themselves out. Clinics across the country are struggling with this issue."

Cuts in ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) are being experienced universally. ADAP will maintain direct HIV treatment related drugs in its formulary, however, the drugs that treat the heinous side effects accompanying them will be eliminated. Speaking with Tyler TerMeers, Director of Men's and Youth Programs at Southwest Center in Phoenix shared that in Arizona drugs that treat side effects sometimes as severe as heart disease, diabetes, and mental health issues will no longer be covered. He said, "We have many low or middle income families relying on these assistance programs for this medication and are no longer able to access them because they are unaffordable... A lot of people are very frightened. When they see assistance programs at the federal or local level that have to be changed and restructured they get nervous about whether or not services or their quality of life are maintainable. It is hard to keep clients morale up, under these circumstances."

Quentin O'Brien, Director of Health and Mental Health Services at Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center said, "When people living 200 percent below the poverty line can no longer afford their drugs there is a good chance they will just stop taking them. From a Public Health perspective this is severely dangerous. People develop resistance to drugs they stop taking leading to a rise in viral load and greater chance of transmitting the virus to others." Dennis Torres, Director of Stamford Cares a program offered by Family Centers in Stamford, CT informed me that what he referred to as wrap-around services are being decimated. Wrap around services are essentially survival services like housing and food. He said, "Getting people housed and survival needs met is critical so that they can get to a point where they are even thinking about getting treatment for HIV."

I spoke with a woman named Jasmine, in Long Beach, CA. Her father, 51-years-old, was diagnosed approximately six months ago with HIV that had already progressed to AIDS. After months in the hospital, he was transferred to a nursing home and was bed bound when the insurance company executed procedures to have him discharged and sent home. She applied for home health care services from AIDS Project Los Angeles to support her father two weeks after APLA lost funding. APLA had to put her father on the wait list because they are lacking resources as a result of cutbacks. Jasmine's father was only home for a week, at which time he had to be rushed back to the emergency room with bacterial infections and pneumonia. He is still in the hospital. She is confident that with someone like a home health services expert available some of what her father is now struggling with could have been curtailed, because they would know how to better handle symptoms and what to look for.

Stories like this are being echoed across the globe, but right here in our own back yard we don't have to look very far to be a witness. With funding for prevention severely diminished and services being drastically cut it is critical that we generate the internal and external resources to maintain our health and well being. More specifically, this means not buying into things like abstinence only education regardless of how old you are. If you are sexually active responsibility means ensuring items like condoms are accessible and that you actually use them. It also means getting tested regularly and knowing what your HIV status is. And, it means having compassion for those living with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers. We also have to do whatever we can to support one another and help ensure that funding for critical services remains intact. If you have not yet done so call local senators and congress people to help ensure that funds that have already been decimated don't get cut any further and that they are eventually restored.

Read more: Aids, HIV/AIDS, Living, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles, Budget, Lgbt. Lgbt Issues, Health, Living News

Breast-Feeding May Protect Moms' Health

2009-12-04T11:08:23Z
Breast-feeding may offer mothers long-term protection against a condition linked to diabetes and heart disease, researchers report today.
Read more: Women, Preventive Medicine, Healthy Lifestyle, Children, Health, Milk, Breast Milk, Breast Feeding, Women's Health, Pregnancy, Heart Disease, Parenting, Babies, Wellness, Living News

Aetna Forcing 600,000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise Profits

2009-12-04T10:57:06Z
Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations.

In a third-quarter earnings conference call in late October, officials at Aetna announced that in an effort to improve on a less-than-anticipated profit margin in 2009, they would be raising prices on their consumers in 2010. The insurance giant predicted that the company would subsequently lose between 300,000 and 350,000 members next year from its national account as well as another 300,000 from smaller group accounts.

"The pricing we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering," said chairman and CEO Ron Williams. "We view 2010 as a repositioning year, a year that does not fully reflect the earnings potential of our business. Our pricing actions should have a noticeable effect beginning in the first quarter of 2010, with additional financial impact realized during the remaining three quarters of the year."

Aetna's decision to downsize the number of clients in favor of higher premiums is, as one industry analyst told American Medical News, a "pretty candid" admission. It also reflects the major concerns offered by health care reform proponents and supporters of a public option for insurance coverage, who insist that the private health insurance industry is too consumed with the bottom line. A government-run plan would operate solely off its members' premiums.

Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated.

"They were surprised by an acceleration in medical costs in 2009 which pressured their earnings," Josh Raskin, an industry analyst for Barclays Capital, told the Huffington Post. "In an effort to get back to a more profitable level, they are raising their prices to match cost trends. When you raise rates, you run the risk of losing your membership. Health insurance is a very competitive marketplace."

As Williams told investors on the call: "The pricing that we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering."

Aetna is one of the largest insurers in the private market, covering roughly 17.7 million people according to its 2008 annual report. It is also a major player in the current health care debate and inside Washington D.C. The insurance company has spent more than $2 million on lobbying just in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

American Medical News, which first reported the story, noted that this is not the first time the insurance giant has cut the rolls in an effort to boost profit margins. "As chronicled in a 2004 article in Health Affairs by health economist James C. Robinson, MD, PhD, Aetna completely overhauled its business between 2000 and 2003, going from 21 million members in 1999 down to 13 million in 2003, but boosting its profit margin from about 4% to higher than 7%."

A spokesperson at Aetna did not return calls and emails for comment.

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

Read more: Aetna Consumers, Lose Coverage, Insurance Rolls, Aetna Insurance, 000, Health Care Consumers, Medical Costs, Aetna, Aetna 600, Prices, Business News

Vaccine Tested In Fight Against Tainted Beef

2009-12-04T10:45:41Z
Jason Timmerman coaxed a balky calf into a chute on his feedlot one recent afternoon and jabbed a needle into its neck. He was injecting the animal with a new vaccine to make it immune to a dangerous form of the E. coli bacteria.
Read more: Food and Drug Administration, Food Poisoning, Cows, Fda, Beef, Health, Tainted Beef, E Coli Vaccine, Vaccine, Bacteria, Germs, Wellness, E. Coli, Living News

Lloyd I. Sederer, MD: Antipsychotic Medication Use In Children And Adolescents: What's A Parent To Do?

2009-12-04T10:37:11Z
If you are among the great predominance of families whose children merely drive you mad, rather than suffer from some form of serious mental illness, this commentary need not concern you (directly). But a small percentage of children in this country will suffer, by the time they are 18 (especially in late adolescence), from symptoms of a major mental disorder where thinking, behavior and mood are severely impacted and functioning as a member of the family, a friend and in school is clearly compromised. The conditions I am referring to are the psychotic illnesses of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as well as some youth with autism (on the severe end of the spectrum), aggressive behaviors, and an uncommon but disruptive tic disorder called Tourette Syndrome. These are conditions for which doctors often prescribe antipsychotic medications such as aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa) quetiapine (Seroquel), and risperidone (Respirdal and other brands).

A recent Journal of the American Medical Association article (October 28, 2009) by Dr. Christoph Correll and colleagues reported on a 12 week trial of these four antipsychotic medications, so called "second generation" drugs because of their more recent development, in children from age four to 19 who had not previously received this class of medication. The children received medication doses decided upon by their doctors; a comparison group of youth was followed and did not receive any of these medications. The research sought to ask if there were significant changes in three important physical measures in this short period of time: weight, lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), and insulin resistance (a measure of how the body handles sugar that is predictive of obesity and diabetes). Their results were disturbing.

All four of the studied antipsychotic medications were associated with weight gain, ranging from about 10 to 22 pounds, with the comparison group showing no significant changes, in 12 weeks. Significant changes in body lipids were associated with three of the medications but not with aripiprazole or the comparison group. Evidence of changes in glucose and insulin were noted only for olanzapine.

In 2007, New York State Commissioner of Mental Health Mike Hogan (disclosure - my boss) and I wrote an advisory entitled: Bipolar Disorder in Children: Why are the Rates Rising?

Rates of the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents had risen forty (40) times in ten years. What was going on? Genes surely don't mutate that quickly, nor families, and while the environment continues to worsen it is not at that rate. The diagnosis of bipolar disorder was being made liberally, perhaps to better identify those youth in need of treatment, but at a price we are increasingly seeing since the diagnosis is usually accompanied by the prescription of an antipsychotic medication. New additions to what doctors will prescribe are likely now that the FDA Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee (June 2009) approved quetiapine and olanzapine for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar mania (risperidone had already been approved) - though the FDA has yet to act on the Committee's approvals.

I am not crusading against the use of antipsychotic medications in youth. These medications are a proven treatment for youth with psychotic illness and thus critical to their safety, health and recovery. Untreated psychosis, over time, is known to be "neurotoxic", which is to say that in ways we do not yet understand the brain undergoes tissue destruction, at a time of important brain development, with resulting loss of functioning. The dilemma, thus for families and doctors, is that a needed treatment brings with it significant side-effects and health risks. Serious mental illness in a child is a very tough and sometimes heartbreaking journey for a family, all the more unsettling by evidence that treatment can carry its own - and a different - set of problems.

As Commissioner Hogan and I wrote in the Bipolar Advisory, and the same applies to all major mental illnesses, doctors and families need to prudently pursue a thorough diagnostic evaluation to feel confident that a psychotic disorder warranting antipsychotic treatment is what your child is experiencing. Families are entitled to full information about their child and should not be shy about asking questions that are answered in everyday English that explain the basis for the diagnosis offered - and what to expect from treatment, including benefits and risks. A second opinion, when in doubt, or if treatment is complex or not working well enough, should be sought; any doctor who does not welcome a second opinion is probably a doctor worth getting rid of. Youth change, and so does their illness, so
reconsidering the diagnosis from time to time, and the treatment, is fair and should not be dismissed as some form of denial of the reality of a child's illness.

When antipsychotic medications are needed, guidelines for their use have been developed for psychiatric practice. In general, a doctor should seek the minimal effective dose; there is no evidence for using more than one antipsychotic medication, called polypharmacy, though in exceptional instances, with an individual patient, it may prove useful (but ask the doctor to explain why one antipsychotic will not suffice); and medications should be sustained as long as necessary but that does not necessarily mean forever. With the now indisputable evidence of the effects of "second generation" antipsychotics on weight, lipids and likely glucose metabolism (over time), and the consequent risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke (to name a few diseases) these health measures need careful monitoring combined with efforts to improve nutrition and exercise, and help youth elude the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and drugs that will add to their problems. Research is underway to determine if there may be medications (now used in diabetes treatment) that may help avert these problems, and the search for better antipsychotic medications, with more benefit and fewer side-effects, continues.

Families need to also understand that medications are only one of the interventions that can be provided your child. Specific psychotherapies complement medications and work to improve thinking, mood and everyday social and educational functioning. Don't settle for just medications when more can be done. And talk to other families who also struggle with the dilemma of how to care for their child while minimizing harm.

The opinions expressed herein are solely my own as a psychiatrist and public health advocate.
Lloyd I Sederer, MD

Read more: Mental Disorder, Relationships, Children, Psychological Disorder, Tourette Syndrome, Parenting, Wellness, Lloyd Sederer MD, Bipolar Disorder, Diagnosis, Health, Schizophrenia, Autism, Medication, Medicine, Family, Living News

D. Brad Wright: The Price of Prescription Drugs Around the World

2009-12-04T08:50:54Z

We've come to the end of the health care costs world tour and conclude today with a look at the price of three prescription drugs: Plavix, Nexium, and Lipitor. Please note that the $0 for the U.S. Medicare figures are outdated--I guess that Part D didn't report to this group or something. But the rest of the numbers are interesting.
Really, what can I say about these figures? It all has to do with patent law and direct-to-consumer marketing (the U.S. is the only country on the chart that still permits this practice). If you've ever wondered what all the fuss over "drug reimportation" was about, now you know. Prices in Canada are one-half to one-fourth the prices in the United States. Show me one American (who doesn't work for a pharmaceutical company) who would be opposed to getting their drugs at 50% to 75% off. I think you'll be hard pressed to do so. And this says nothing of the high-end U.S. prices. They're simply asinine.

Subscribe to Wright on Health to see what else I have to say during the week. You can also contact me here.
Read more: Health Care Reform, Health Care Costs, Health Care, Health, Prescription Drugs, Politics News

Dr. Jon LaPook: Steve Martin and the Latest Mammography Recommendations

2009-12-03T18:41:17Z
The recent recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that women should no longer routinely start getting screening for mammograms at age 40 is the latest example of a time-honored tradition of doctors changing their minds. While frustrating for patients, that tradition is a good thing.

A recent review found that, in general, medical advice changes about every five and a half years because of new evidence. There are many examples in the past decade alone. In 2002, the Women's Health Initiative found that hormone replacement therapy, formerly thought to protect against heart disease, actually increases the risk of heart disease and breast cancer. Since 2005, several studies have shown that, contrary to previous assumptions, B6, B12 and folic acid don't prevent heart disease. Last year, a large trial challenged the belief that selenium and vitamin E can help prevent prostate cancer.

Patients should be wary of recommendations that are set in stone. Few things frighten me more than a doctor who is not open to the possibility of being wrong. For thousands of years, holes were drilled in the skulls of patients to release pressure or evil spirits, and as recently as the 1920s people were bled to help restore the correct balance of "bodily humors."

The cocksure physician was perfectly parodied by Steve Martin, who memorably played the bloodletting, leech-applying medieval barber Theodoric of York (Watch the clip here) in a 1978 "Saturday Night Live" skit. Responding to a mother's plea to help her ill daughter, he says:

"Well, I'll do everything humanly possible. But unfortunately, we barbers are not gods. You know, medicine is not an exact science, but we are learning all the time. Why, just fifty years ago, we would have thought your daughter's illness was brought on by demonic possession or witchcraft. But nowadays we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors, perhaps caused by a toad or a small dwarf living in her stomach."

When her daughter dies after a bloodletting, the mother lashes out at Theodoric of York:

Mother: "You charlatan! You killed my children, just like you killed the rest of my family! Why don't you admit it! You don't know what you're doing!"

Theodoric of York: "Wait a minute. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps I've been wrong to blindly follow the medical traditions and superstitions of the past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test those assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a "scientific method." Perhaps this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance! [he thinks for a few seconds] Naaaaaahhh!"

I think this should be required viewing in all medical schools. It was the "scientific method" nearly invented by Theodoric of York that, when it finally arrived, made medical knowledge a moving target. The best physicians understand that they can never entirely master a discipline that remains an art as much as a science. They welcome new ideas, even if it means abandoning comfortable, preconceived notions. They also understand that new information is not necessarily the best information and are open to lessons from the past. In recent years, leeches have made a comeback - not for bloodletting but to help with wound-healing. Neurosurgeons still drill holes in patients' heads - to relieve pressure caused by bleeding inside the skull. And bloodletting has persisted as a treatment for iron overload in the body (hemochromatosis).

I've often thought, "What am I doing today that will seem utterly ridiculous to doctors a hundred years from now?" I recently came across a book called The Cottage Physician, written "For Individual and Family Use" by Dr. George W. Post at the end of the 19th century. It sits by the side of my bed and I read a few pages now and then - both for entertainment and perspective. In a section called "Diseases of the Heart," Dr. Post describes the recommended treatment of the era:

"In all cases of heart disease, the body and mind should be kept as easy and cheerful as possible. The diet should be well regulated, - nourishing but not stimulating. Coffee, tea, liquors, and tobacco must be dispensed with. The feet should be kept dry and warm, and occasionally rubbed with mustard.

For inflammatory diseases of the heart, the bowels, if constipated may be moved with compound tincture of jalap. To each dose add ten grains of cream of tartar. Keep up a perspiration till the pain is relieved by giving a teaspoonful of compound tincture of Virginia snakeroot; also a warm infusion of pleurisy root. Mustard plasters over the chest and spinal column are also to be employed. If the patient is troubled with sleeplessness, give eight to ten grains of compound powder of ipecac and opium (Dover's powder) at bedtime."

For this week's CBS Doc Dot Com, Dr. Christopher P. Cannon, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School, discusses the latest recommendation for heart health described in his new book, The New Heart Disease Handbook. While watching the segment, you might ask yourself, "A hundred years from now, which suggestions will still ring true and which will go the way of ipecac and opium?"

Watch CBS News Videos Online
Read more: Mammograms, Breast Cancer, Mammography, Health, Mammogram Guidelines, Living News

Dr. Steve Rosenberg: Pregnancy: Has My Shoe Size Changed Or Did My Feet Grow?

2009-12-03T15:34:19Z
Ladies, can pregnancy change your shoe size? Can pregnancy cause your feet to grow?

These are two common questions that patients always ask me during their pregnancy. The answers are, pregnancy can change your shoe size and your feet can change, becoming longer.

The reason is, a hormone called Relaxin, which is released into your blood stream during your pregnancy. The ovaries produce the hormone Relaxin during pregnancy. Its function is to cause pelvic and cervical expansion by loosening the ligament attachments in the joint between the pubic bones in the front of the pelvis and the joints between the sacrum and the pelvis in the back, allowing the fetus to travel through the birth canal. It also inhibits muscular contractions of the uterus and prevents the otherwise natural abortion of the fetus, stimulates the growth of the glands in the breasts which are responsible for milk production and increases the amount of water in the uterus. The hormone Relaxin is only found in pregnant women and remains in their body for only 24 hours after the child is born.

So the big question is what does the hormone Relaxin has to do with feet and will it affect every pregnant woman? The bones and joints in the feet are connected together by ligaments. Therefore, when Relaxin is released during pregnancy it can also target the ligaments in the feet causing them to relax and elongate. Relaxin affects the weight-bearing joints in the feet (joints in the mid-foot or arch area) and some women's feet will change in width as well as length. When these joints are affected the ligament attachments weaken and the arch can flatten causing the foot to get longer. Not all women's feet change size during their pregnancy but for the ones whose feet do it can become pretty frustrating. The change is permanent and your feet will not revert back to its original size, therefore, causing havoc in pregnant women's shoe wardrobes.

During your pregnancy if you feel that additional arch support is needed because your feet get tired from standing and carrying a little extra weight, look into over the counter arch supports such as Instant Arches or custom made orthotics. These types of foot products can help support your feet and make you more comfortable when walking and standing. The arch supports will not prevent any of the changes in your feet due to the hormone Relaxin. For those women who have experienced a change in their shoe size after their pregnancy try taking your shoes to a shoe repair shop to have them stretched.

If all else falls, then it's off to the shoe store!
Read more: Feet, Pregnancy, Hormones, Arch Supports, Health, Living News

Carole Carson: Weight Loss: The Fat Gap, Generation Gap And Appetite Gap

2009-12-03T15:01:52Z
Americans are falling into three gaps that threaten personal health and national solvency. Unless we reverse the trend, 43 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2018, and the nation will spend $344 billion to address health-related problems.

The fat gap, a term coined by British researchers, refers to the discrepancy between how individuals see themselves and the number on the bathroom scale. Evidently, our notion of what constitutes being overweight or obese has been supersized because those around us--friends, family and colleagues--have similarly supersized their bodies.

In a British study reported September 23, 2009, in the Telegraph, only one person in 10 identified themselves as being obese, when in fact one in four was obese (roughly 30 or more pounds overweight). As a result, "Ten million Brits are unaware they are obese because being fat is now seen as the 'norm'." This lack of awareness unwittingly places the individual at risk for medical problems triggered by obesity.

In the United States, two out of three adults are overweight or obese. And since there is no reason to believe that our self-perception skills are more acute than those of our cousins in England, we can assume that millions of Americans are unaware that they are similarly at risk for medical problems associated with surplus weight.

Lest you think I am judging these individuals for their lack of self-awareness, I hasten to add that when, at five feet one inch, I tipped the scales at 183 pounds, I did not see myself as obese. Even though I was 60 pounds overweight, I saw myself as slightly pudgy. Besides, I didn't think I looked any worse than the people around me. I was trapped in the fat gap and was in the 90th percentile for risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. If I hadn't lost weight and got fit, I would likely have become disabled or died.

I'm not alone in my self-deception. Dr. Nick Yphantides, author of My Big Fat Greek Diet, fell into a similar massive fat gap because of an inaccurate self-perception. Just before his own radical, nonsurgical weight-loss adventure of 270 pounds, Nick estimated and told others that he weighed around 350 pounds. Not until he straddled two scales did he discover that he actually weighed 467 pounds. One of Nick's core messages is "you have to change the way you see before you can change the way you look, and this certainly applies to how we see ourselves."

Dr. Nick Yphantides. Photos Courtesy of Dr. Nick Yphantides.

These anecdotes explain why the fat gap is triggering a generation gap that is reversing decades of improvements in the health of seniors. For the first time in decades, Americans currently in their 60s are going to suffer more disabilities and medical problems--leading to a loss of independence--than did the preceding generations.

Researchers report this disturbing trend in a study funded by the National Institute on Aging reported in the November 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Seniors who grew up in the 1920s and 1930s enjoyed healthier food (junk food had yet to be introduced) and regularly participated in physical exercise in schools. They may also have worked in jobs that required physical effort. These and other factors have tended to protect their health.

In contrast, the biggest factor contributing to the declining health of the next generation of seniors is the expanding rate of obesity. Those who are overweight or obese strain their joints and cardiovascular systems, and they are more susceptible to diabetes and stroke. Consequently, even if the members of this generation survive a heart attack or stroke, they may be left with disabilities.

The decline in health may increase as future generations with even higher rates of obesity reach their senior years. In 2018, researchers predict that 43 percent of Americans will be obese.

Diabetes has already reached epidemic proportions among children, and 70 percent of adults 65 and older are either diabetic or prediabetic, which means they are on their way to being diabetic unless lifestyle changes are undertaken.

The explanation for the rising incidence of obesity may be related to yet another phenomenon--the appetite gap. The appetite gap is the discrepancy between what the body needs to maintain a normal weight and a sense of satiety that triggers an end to eating. If food doesn't trigger a sense of having eaten enough, individuals keep eating even though they may already have consumed more calories than required to maintain their weight.

The results of an experiment with rats, reported in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, attempt to explain the chemistry behind appetite gaps. Rats fed a diet high in saturated fat for only three days--comparable to a human eating cheeseburgers and french fries for three days--showed a reduction in the hormones that trigger a sense of satiety.

Eating a diet high in saturated fats increased the appetites of the rats and these findings raised an interesting question: why would consuming saturated fat trigger a craving for more fat? Logic tells us that the opposite should occur: if the rat ate copious amounts of fat, the rat should feel satisfied. That the biochemical mechanism would trigger a craving for more fat seems counterintuitive. (Interestingly enough, healthy fats, such as those found in olive oil, did not suppress the satiety hormones.)

If a diet high in saturated fats produces weight gain in rats and the body chemistry of rats is similar to that of humans, then the growing epidemic of human obesity would be understandable. Saturated fats are common in many American foods--from fatty cuts of meat, bacon and processed meats to cookies, cakes, ice cream and muffins. Consuming these foods may be triggering a craving for even more fatty food and contributing to the rising level of obesity.

The mystery of the appetite gap remains unsolved pending further investigation. Although pieces of the puzzle are being put in place, it's unlikely that scientists will quickly determine the precise cause (or causes) of obesity and mass-market a simple, safe solution that will help us bridge the gap. It's more likely we'll need to modify our own behavior.

Dr. Yphantides considers behavior modification to be a key issue. "In order to achieve and sustain an ideal weight, people need to rediscover the importance of eating to the point of appropriate satisfaction and satiety rather than packing themselves like a cannon or a Thanksgiving turkey."

Besides moderating portion size, individuals who want to avoid falling into the fat gap may want to replace junk food with the Mediterranean-based diet suggested by the Mayo Clinic. The diet recommends the following:

• Eating a generous amount of fruits and vegetables
• Consuming healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil
• Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods
• Eating small portions of nuts
• Drinking red wine, in moderation, for some
• Consuming very little red meat
• Eating fish or shellfish at least twice a week

Besides including the food groups from the Mediterranean diet, individuals can also benefit from regular exercise and meals with family and friends.

We have choices, and we must make them in full knowledge that our future is at stake. If we want to enjoy longer, healthier lives and reduce our burgeoning medical expenses, we'll have to find or create ways to close the gaps.

Read more: Healthy Eating, Weight Loss, Dr. Nick Yphantides, The Fat Gap, My Big Fat Greek Diet, Obesity Epidemic, Fat Research, Obesity, Health, Living News

Samuel S. Epstein: The Hidden Dangers Of Pre-Menopausal Mammography

2009-12-03T13:16:12Z
Women have been and remain assured that radiation exposure from pre-menopausal mammography is trivial, and similar to that from a routine chest x-ray, about 1/1000th of a rad (radiation absorbed dose). However, the practice of taking two mammograms for each breast results in 500 times greater radiation exposure of half a rad, focused on each breast, rather than on the entire chest. Thus, pre-menopausal women undergoing annual routine mammography over a ten-year period are exposed to a total of about 5 rads for each breast. This approximates to the very high radiation whole body exposure of women one mile away from where the atom bombs were dropped in Japan.

This information is not new. Furthermore, as recognized by the prestigious National Academy of Science in 1972, the pre-menopausal breast is highly sensitive to radiation, each rad exposure increasing the risk of breast cancer by one percent. This results in a cumulative 10 percent increased risk of breast cancer over ten years of pre-menopausal mammography. This warning was subsequently emphasized in my 1978 The Politics of Cancer, "Whatever you may be told, refuse routine mammograms, especially if you are pre-menopausal. The x-ray may increase your chances of getting cancer."

This warning against premenopausal mammography was further detailed in a 2001 scientific article, "The Dangers and Unreliability of Mammography: Breast Self Examination As A Safe Effective and Practical Alternative," published in the prestigious International Journal of Services. This was co-authored by Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a leading international expert on the dangers of radiation, the late Barbara Seaman, founder and leader of the women's breast cancer movement, and myself.

Furthermore, the hidden risks of radiation are up to four-times higher for the two percent of woman who are silent carriers of a gene known as the A-T, and highly sensitive to radiation. This accounts for up to ten percent of all breast cancers diagnosed annually.

For these reasons, annual pre-menopausal mammography should be phased-out in favor of monthly breast-self examination (BSE), and annual examination by a gynecologist or trained nurse. This recommendation against premenopausal mammography has been very recently endorsed by the prestigious Task Force of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Task Force also recommends that mammography be delayed until the age of 50, when the breast is much less sensitive to radiation. The recommendation is also supported by the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

This information is critical, especially in view of the current high incidence of breast cancer. Disturbingly, this has increased by about twenty percent since 1975 in spite of routine premenopausal mammography, and its multi-billion dollar insurance costs. Such funds should instead be directed to establishing BSE clinics nationwide.

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition; and a former President of the Rachel Carson Trust. His awards include the 1989 Right Livelihood Award and the 2005 Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for International Contributions to Cancer Prevention. Dr. Epstein has authored 270 scientific articles and 15 books on cancer prevention, including the groundbreaking The Politics of Cancer (1979), and most recently Toxic Beauty (2009, BenBella Books: www.benbellabooks.com) about carcinogens in cosmetics and personal care products.

Read more: Breast Self-Examination, Mammograms, Breast Cancer, Radiation, Breast Cancer Awareness, Health, Living News

D. Brad Wright: The Price of Lab Tests Around the World

2009-12-03T12:12:33Z
I hope everyone had as enjoyable a Thanksgiving as I did -- as you might have sensed from my little hiatus from blogging. Well, I'm back and I'm breaking from my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule to get the price series wrapped up this week. I continue today with lab tests and Friday will end things with prescription drugs. My apologies for the small charts, but it's too late for me to do anything about them at this point. Hopefully you'll get the gist.

Imaging: More expensive in the U.S.

Physicians' fees: More expensive in the U.S.

Hospital fees: More expensive in the U.S.
Laboratory tests? Oh, come on. You know what these charts are going to look like before you even see them, don't you? Fair enough. Here they are to confirm what you already knew. First, the Pap Smear, and then the throat culture:
Aha! Not so fast! Sure, the high end U.S. prices still blow everyone out of the water for the Pap smear, and beat all but Australia for the throat culture, but take a look at the low-end U.S. average for both tests. The U.S. prices actually look reasonable by comparison -- a handful of countries actually pay more for these tests. How can that be?! What makes these lab tests different from all of the other aspects of health care that we have seen thus far? Is it that they are just too common, too basic a technology to get away with charging exorbitant amounts under the guise of "medical technology?" These are older tests to be sure, but there was certainly a time when they were anything but routine. Does that mean we'll eventually see the price of MRIs go down, too? I'm not sure what explains this phenomenon, but I am intrigued. If you've got the answer -- or think you do -- let's hear it.

Subscribe to Wright on Health to see what else I have to say during the week. You can also contact me here.
Read more: Health Care Reform, Health Care Costs, Health Care, Health, Politics News

Susan Reverby: A New Lesson from the Old "Tuskegee" Study

2009-12-03T11:51:08Z

"Don't take the swine flu vaccine. Remember the Tuskegee Experiment Syphilis Vaccine," a recent post on Twitter warns. The message is simple: "Tuskegee," America's notorious medical research study, is still considered as our own equivalent to Nazi experimentation that links state power to scientific fervor. Nearly forty years after the study ended, the name "Tuskegee" evokes fears of the dangers of government involvement in medical care. But as Congress debates how to provide health coverage for everyone and fear of the swine flu vaccine runs rampant, there is a different critical lesson to take from the infamous medical research project which targeted poor rural African American men and ran unabated for decades.

From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted a study on "untreated syphilis in the male Negro" in Macon County, Alabama in and around the city of Tuskegee. 439 African American men with late stage syphilis were selected as research subjects, and 185 without the disease became the study's control group. A mostly sexually transmitted disease, syphilis left untreated can cause fatal heart and neurological problems. The men thought of themselves as patients obtaining needed medical care for what was known as "bad blood" from the government's doctors. The PHS physicians never told these men they were actually research subjects being followed in a "no treatment" study.

Instead, the researchers explained that the aspirins, tonics, and diagnostic spinal taps given were "free treatment." In a county with only 16 doctors whose prices the men could rarely afford, a government program of free care enticed them. The study's nurse kept visiting the men's homes and helping them to get medical care for other ills. The study's subjects and controls were also promised money for decent burials in exchange for the use of their bodies for autopsy after their deaths.

The study was not kept secret. Medical articles charting its progress appeared over the decades, while several health professionals questioned the study's ethics. In 1972 the research experiment came to an end in a storm of media coverage that brought in federal investigators, a Senate hearing, and a subsequent lawsuit against the PHS, the state of Alabama, and many of the doctors involved.

In "Tuskegee's" wake, major changes in federal rules governing medical research were established, including written informed consent and the creation of institutional review boards to oversee human subject research. The study also created another legacy--it became the metaphor for the distrust of scientific research, the risks of government provision of medical care, and the exploitation of poor patients.

Rumors and myths about what happened continue to circulate in whispers, blogs and media coverage. Most egregious in the face of the need for H1N1 vaccine is the erroneous claim that the government's doctors intentionally infected the men with syphilis. But no "Tuskegee experiment syphilis vaccine" was ever created; no shots of the bacteria that cause syphilis were put into the men's veins.

As the Obama administration takes on the huge task of reforming how we organize and pay for health care for all Americans and we line up for our shots, "Tuskegee" can offer another perhaps less obvious, if ironic, lesson. These men living in rural Alabama came forward for treatment not because they were uneducated and easily duped by their government, but because they needed health care for themselves and their families. They, as with increasing numbers of Americans, had no real access to the medical care they required, could not pay for what was available, and had to find it where possible.

Perhaps as the debate over health care reform winds its way through the Congress, a new post on Twitter should read: "Don't forget the 'Tuskegee' syphilis study. Everyone deserves the right to affordable health care and this is what our government should and must provide."

Cross-posted from Race-Talk.
Read more: Health Care Reform, Race-Talk, Swine Flu, Tuskegee, Politics News

Gregg Defends His Obstructionist Manifesto

2009-12-03T11:18:11Z
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) took to the floor of the Senate on Thursday morning to defend the health care reform obstructionist manifesto he penned a day earlier.

Speaking minutes after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) mocked his document as the first "detailed plan" introduced by Republicans in the health care debate, Gregg lashed back. Saying that he was doing merely what the Founding Fathers envisioned the minority party's role to be, Gregg claimed that Reid would be walking the same path if the majority leader were in his shoes.

"I suspect he actually would pass this out to his members for information were they in the minority, maybe even in the majority, because they'd like to know how the rules work in the Senate," the New Hampshire Republican insisted. "Isn't there an ironic inconsistency to his outrage that we have insisted that people should know the rules here while he has basically tried to go around the rules?"

"I just find the irony of the situation so unique... that a memo of that nature, which essentially says the minority has certain rights in order for the institution to function correctly, I'm wondering: why did we create these rules in the first place?" Gregg added. "Wasn't it so that we could continue the thoughts of Adams and Madison, who suggested that the Senate should be the place where, when legislation comes forward -- which has been rushed through the House -- that the Senate should be the place where that legislation receives a deliberative view, where it's explored as to its unintended consequences and as to its consequences generally, and where the body has the opportunity to amend it effectively so it can be improved?"

Earlier, Reid granted that all legislation -- and especially a historic health care bill -- deserved a thorough and transparent consideration. But Gregg's memo wasn't about affecting the bill. It was about delaying it. The New Hampshire Republican outlined every conceivable procedural tool the GOP could use to delay health care's passage, which, as Reid noted, wasn't the same as strategizing about how to get a Republican amendment added to the legislation.

Indeed, as Max Baucus, the senator who followed Gregg on the floor, noted: the notion that Republicans needed a refresher course on the rules granted to the minority party was spurious at best, and an indictment of their institutional knowledge at worst.

"This is the fourth day on this bill, and we're only late this morning coming to our first vote. Even for the United States Senate, this is a slow pace," said Baucus. "I note that some have made plans for delaying this bill even in a more extreme fashion. As the majority leader noted earlier today, on Tuesday one senator circulated a list of delaying tactics available under the Senate rules. I presume that all senators know the Senate rules already, so to send that letter to me, I think, leaves the impression that that senator would like to urge senators to use some of those delaying tactics stated in that memo."

WATCH VIDEO OF THE EXCHANGE:

Back in 2006, Gregg blasted what he called "obstruction for the purpose of obstruction."

"If distributing an obstruction manifesto didn't already prove it, the unbridled hypocrisy of Senator Gregg lays bare that Republicans have no interest in enacting insurance reform, but only in killing it. Republicans are proving with each floor speech, with each delay tactic, and with each lie that they are willing to say and do anything to kill insrance reform, even if it means American families and businesses will drown in soaring premiums in perpetuity," said DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan.

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

Read more: Republican Obstruction Manual, Gop Obstruction Manual, Obstruction Manual, Gregg Obstructionism, Health Care Republicans, Health Care, Judd Gregg, Gregg, Healthcare, Politics News