Obesity and Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), most Americans do not know that there is a strong connection between obesity and cancer. On top of that, many obese and overweight Americans do not consider themselves such.

"In the new ACS survey, 45 percent said they are overweight, while 58 percent said at least one of their family members is overweight. However, those numbers don't match up with the facts: According to the ACS, nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and 30 percent are obese."

You can tell yourself that "fat is beautiful," but it's unhealthy. Read here.

East Meets West

According to Prince Charles, he has been receiving alternative medical treatment for years. Check out the article in Australia's The Advertiser. He is lobbying for Britain's National Health Service to cover the costs of alternatives to traditional Western medicine. Our (USA) HSAs allow people to make their own decisions about those options. The government can be left out of it.

Credit Card Info You Need to Know

The author has a regular column and gives good advice about credit cards, something most Americans need:
MSN Money

BEWARE OF INSURANCE SCAMS

My mother just forwarded me an email offer that seemed to be too good to be true. It was unsolicited and offered health coverage for $1 for the first month, and $19/month thereafter. I implore you to be very careful when using the internet. Do not give credit card information to anyone suspicious, never give out your passwords, and check the legitimacy of the site by going to sites like snopes.com. I will sometimes type into a search engine the company or offer in question and then the word "scam" or "fraud" and see what pops up. Best to err on the side of caution.

¿PMS No Mas?

Could the period be ending its monthly sentence? That sounds like the end of an old Batman episode.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060521/ap_on_he_me/
no_more_periods_2

Fast Food Causes Depression

If your ratio of omega-6's to omega-3's is typical of an American diet, 10-20 to 1, rather than the recommended 1 to 1, you could be at increased risk for depression:

http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/depfishoil

"Researchers speculate, in fact, that this imbalance has contributed to inflammatory diseases and a rise in the rates of depression in the United States."

Private Health Clinics Fulfill Need in Consumer-Driven Healthcare

Steve Case is on the, uh, case. Smart guy who, in his days at Williams College, started a shuttle company to get students to and from Logan Airport in Boston. He also founded AOL.

Keep your eyes peeled as walk-in clinics like these pop up around the country:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/business/14clinic.html

Monkies!!!

"'Far and away the biggest predictor of weight gain was how active the monkeys were -- that overrode how much food they were eating,' Cameron tells WebMD.

The study may explain why people who try to lose weight by dieting alone rarely succeed."

http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/121/114092.htm

Make Your Own Luck

Having a positive attitude can lead to lots of luck. Men's Health stole the funny title I would have given this post:

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel
=guy.wisdom&category=howto.guides&conitem=dba0b6c832597010Vg
nVCM100000cfe793cd____&page=4

Sun of a..!

As summer approaches, or in the case of my town (Miami Beach), has arrived, it is so important to avoid excessive exposure to the sun. However, limited exposure (5-15 minutes a day without sunscreen) provides a plethora of positive effects. Take a look at the following tips about getting your vitamin d and all kinds of other good stuff (like clearing up acne and psoriasis). I think I've used enough parentheses for the day.

http://www.thirdage.com/news/articles/ALT02/06/05/08/
ALT02060508-01.html

Sex, Drugs, and Social Mores

A new study reports that Hollywood fails to depict the consequences of risky behavior. Big shocker, right? It is something to think about, considering the health concerns and broad influence Hollywood now wields across the globe:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1180596&page=1

Chronicle of a Doctor's Frustration With US Health Care

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1186553,00.html

Some Sorta Serious Soda Stories

One of Bill Clinton's efforts to curb child obesity:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=10000087&sid=aSpHwVqaCvBU&refer=top_world_news

Class-action suits in Massachusetts and Florida alleging excessive benzene levels:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/politics/14319204.htm

The Most Important Meal of the Day

We've all heard it a million times. Some quick tips from my alma mater's newspaper:

How to | ...break your habit of skipping breakfast, the most important meal of the day - Balance