Higgs particles, dark matter, string theory, black holes, the big bang…What will scientists discover at CERN? I find this incredibly exciting. What do you think?
Scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) are celebrating after successfully colliding particles at record-breaking energy levels in what some are calling a new era of particle physics.
A team of scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) have achieved high-power collisions of sub-atomic particles in a bid to create mini-versions of the big bang.
Will we find out how the universe came to be?
And if you prefer RAP to physics, check out this YouTube Rap Video about the science behind CERN…
Childhood obesity is taking a huge toll on the health our kids. Diseases that in the past have only been seen in adults are (for the first time) being seen in children. And these are serious medical conditions that can potentially reduce the life span of our children by up to 20 years.
It’s clear that something needs to be done to help children make healthier food choices and reduce their risk of life threatening illnesses. Even the First Lady is getting involved, Michelle Obama recently announced her Let’s Move initiative to help solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.
We also need to address the emotional and psychological toll that obesity is taking on our children. Living with obesity can dramatically effect a child’s self-esteem, and in many cases these children can also become severely depressed.
“Overweight kids are more likely to have depression and low self-esteem, to be teased or bullied, and to bully other children,” said Catherine Davis, associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia. “These can be serious problems for these children.”
That’s why it is so important to make sure that while helping our kids get to a healthy weight, we do everything in our power to protect their fragile psyches.
A few weeks ago I noticed that I was seeing an increasing number of commercials advertising inexpensive “easy to get” health insurance. The first thing that came to my mind was…This has got to be some sort of scam. Otherwise, wouldn’t everyone be getting cheap insurance? It’s sad really, with over 46 million Americans uninsured, there is no shortage of scammers lining up to exploit them.
It seems I was right. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
These fake and deceptive health plans are spreading like wildfire across the country, taking advantage of our troubled economy and playing on people’s fears. Victims of this insurance fraud have been saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills when their bogus insurers refuse to pay. And this isn’t a problem that is going to go away any time soon, so consumers need to learn how to recognize these fraudulent policies and protect themselves.
With the recession, rising unemployment and continued debate over health care reform, “there’s a perfect storm of circumstances that resulted in a new proliferation in fake and deceptive health insurance,” says Jim Quiggle of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, a Washington-based consumer watchdog group.
“Some of these policies are completely phony, delivering nothing but a piece of paper. Others promise full health benefits, but provide shriveled coverage and expensive hidden costs.
Typically, crooked plans aggressively market full health coverage, but deliver no coverage at all, stripped-down policies that deliver little, or medical discount cards (which require members to pay most expenses themselves). Blast faxes, invasive telemarketing, insurance agents and enticing websites are among the marketing tools. Regulators in most states have been forced to crack down over the last two years. But the plans are hard to shut down. Often they simply disappear and resurface under new names, without required state licenses.
Are healthcare, politics, and the high cost of healthy foods related?
Yes.
Let me start by saying…I am so sick of politics I could throw-up. But that said, this is about much more than politics. It’s about the warped reality we are all living in, from the White House to our local supermarket and fast food joint.
About two weeks ago I read an article comparing the cost of health care to the cost of food. It suggests that the best way to solve the healthcare crisis, is for all consumers to be forced to pay more for healthcare – Because then people would think about the cost before “choosing” certain tests and treatments. What a shocking revelation…Who would have thought (other than the CATO Institute) that the people who can’t afford expensive health care services would “choose” not to have them? Although, I wouldn’t really consider that a choice.
Ironically, the article also makes an analogy reinforcing the fact that low-income families are essentially forced to make unhealthy food choices do to the high cost of healthy foods. And not only is this OK with the author of this article, but it’s actually the method he proposes to solve the health care crisis.
Not all breast cancers are created equal…And of all types of breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer is the most deadly (as well as on the rise). The reason it is so deadly is because it is virtually invisible.
So, what makes inflammatory breast cancer so much more deadly than other types of breast cancer?
For starters, it can not be detected with a mammogram. It might as well be called the invisible breast cancer. And without a method for early detection, this type of cancer is most always not diagnosed until the end stage (which brings the survival rate even lower).
Another obstacle with this type of cancer is…
Symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer are nothing like symptoms of other breast cancers. In fact, symptoms of this deadly form of cancer are often mistaken for mastitis (a painful but treatable condition). This type of misdiagnosis only further delays a woman’s diagnosis and treatment. By the time most women are diagnosed, their cancer has already spread.
We’ve heard a lot about too many mammograms leading to too many invasive biopsies. But now a recent study is showing that doctors may be doing too many invasive heart tests as well.
Every year more than a million people in the United States are given an angiogram to check for blocked arteries, but in many cases the tests reveal no significant blockage.
Does that mean that all of these tests were unnecessary? Not at all. The study suggests that doctors begin to do a better job determining which patients really need an angiogram…Specifically, that careful evaluation be done when patients have no known heart disease and they are not in an emergency situation.
Are you eating the one thing that increases a woman’s risk of stroke?
A new study has found that a diet high in fat (specifically trans-fat) increases a woman’s risk of stroke. We already know that high fat diets increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers – just to name a few. But this new study looked specifically at women, and found that women who ate the most trans fat had a 30 percent greater risk for stroke.
This new research emphasizes the dangers of not just trans-fats, but the trans-fats in cookies, cakes, and pastries — Sad news for anyone (me) who may have been in San Francisco and found out how yummy a gourmet cupcake can be.
Even a small amount of stress can have negative effects on your overall health and well-being. Can you spare six minutes of your time to reduce some of that stress? If so, give this a try.
Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for the next six minutes.
COLORFUL MEDITATION – For meditation and stress reduction is 6 minutes of continuous highly complex computer generated kaleidoscopic imagery with an original New Age ambient music soundtrack…
from www.cinemandala.com
Did you try it? Did it help? Let me know in comments.
I was honored to be asked to attend the Avon Foundation’s Breast Cancer Forum last week in San Francisco. And I have a lot of information to share with everyone. I’m going to start with an interview I did with Dr. Laura Esserman. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, she was one of the researchers behind the controversial change in mammogram recommendations. I wrote about it for BlogHer back in November in a post titled…
I guess the title of the post speaks to where I stand on the issue.
Although my feelings on this topic are contrary to Dr. Esserman’s point of view, I do think that she believes she has a woman’s best interest at heart.
Dr. Laura Esserman, a nationally known breast surgeon, is the director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the Mount Zion campus. Her work is devoted to developing new, more effective ways to care for and empower breast cancer patients during treatment and to tailor treatments using biology, personal preference and constant feedback regarding outcomes of care.
Shortly after Dr. Esserman spoke about her study to the attendees of the breast cancer forum, I had an opportunity to interview her.
My name is Catherine Morgan...I'm a writer, nurse, and mother. I'm also a contributing editor for BlogHer Health & Wellness.
Welcome to my blog...I write a little bit of everything with an emphasis on healthy living, inspiration, nutrition, and health news. I hope you'll find topics that interest you here, and I would love to know what you think in comments. Thanks for stopping by.
Are you eating the one thing that increases a woman’s risk of stroke?
