Oh, Holy Crap!

You better watch out
You better not cry
Put down that egg nog
So that you don't die...

From ThirdAge-

"Researchers at University of California at San Diego found Christmas Day and New Year's Day to be the most deadly of the year. More people die of natural causes on those two days, with heart attacks leading the way."

Motivational Quote of the Day

"The difference between try and triumph is a little umph."

-Unknown

I like that.

Take It Off

I heard the news some time ago that those wacky Brits were planning on banning neckties in their hospitals, but now that might happen in the U.S. of A.?

Didn't we kick their butts and any vestige of their culture out 233 years ago? We don't even drive on the same side of the road! What's that you say? We speak the same language? Yeah, right. They think "subway" means "underground pedestrian walkway." It's obviously a purveyor of delicious, yet affordable, sandwiches.

Read all about it! Here

One woman has found a business opportunity in the infectious nature of neckties, by selling ones that have an anti-microbial coating on them. This is a hilarious way to end an article -

"She recently took delivery of the first shipment of ties bearing a design based on the H1N1 'swine-flu' virus. 'I'm so excited,' she says. 'H1N1 is a really pretty virus.'"

Marriage Is What Brings Us Together Today

Married people who have children are happier than married people who don't have children and are also happier than people who are unmarried who do have children. Interesting.

health.msn.com/kids-health

And this is from the Princess Bride, one of the greatest movies ever made -



I met Chris Sarandon (Prince Humperdink) at Albany Airport once. It was a fine day.

Men's Health Dr. Oz Health Tips

This is a great list of easy things one can do to improves one's health by Dr. Oz. Two excellent tips were getting enough sleep and eating breakfast, certainly things most people can do. Another helpful tip is that the best way to help one's back is pull-ups and that staying in bed is only going to make back problems worse. I recently moved and haven't joined a new gym, but I have used body weight exercises to stay in shape. Some of the most challenging exercises are pull-ups and push-ups. So, not having a gym doesn't mean there is no way to get a good workout, all one needs is a bar for pull-ups or I use the I-bar in the basement. Read the whole list here.

Be Happy

Here are five tips on how to be so from ThirdAge. They have nothing to do with driving a fancy car or wearing diamonds around your neck. I'm fairly certain that those things will not make you happy.

1. Reflect more, be true to yourself. "We must recognize the importance of good stuff every day, always nurture the good stuff and reflect on the good stuff," Thibodeau said. He said people smile, laugh, feel good and have energy about the positive things in life. "We forget about the good stuff," he said. "How many messages we receive are positive?" Thibodeau asked. He suggested that people take time for family and visit a friend, read and write poetry, and follow their heart, he said. "Take time for matters of the heart," Thibodeau said.
2. Leave no regrets. The sin of old life is melancholy, Thibodeau said. "No matter what you're doing, show up and do the best you can," he said. He referred to Ann Quindlen, an author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, who said, "I show up, I listen, and I try to laugh." People never forget an act of kindness or someone who took the time to come to a funeral, Thibodeau said. "Your friends need you more than Oprah," he told the audience.
3. Become love. Be a loving presence to others. The biggest regrets are that we have not loved enough and didn't spend more time with family and friends, Thibodeau said.
4. Enjoy more. Live in the moment. Thibodeau asked the crowd to stand up and follow what looked like a dance and the cheer, "I feel good, I feel fine, I feel happy all the time." He said we will be judged for what we have not enjoyed. "Laughter and play are so important to our health," Thibodeau said. "One of the greatest gifts is to give someone the gift of joy."
5. Give more than you take. Give more and nurture a legacy. "What are you going to leave behind?" Thibodeau said, adding that good work always lasts.

Your Flip-Flops Might Kill You

Check out this scary, out-of-context quote:

"Worst-case scenario...you die."

Pretty scary, huh? Dennis Kinney, PhD microbiologist, said that.

If you wear flip-flops around all summer, especially if you live in a city, they have like 20,000 bacteria on them. If you were to get a cut on your foot and a particularly virulent bacterium got into your bloodstream, you could have organ failure and die if you weren't treated with antibiotics.

So, you should not wear them all day long, every day in the city. This goes doubly for women, since they're not flattering the way high heels are. Even that mediocre woman from Sex and the City looked attractive because she always wore high heels, even with a tank top and gym shorts. That's the real lesson here.

Here's the New York Daily News article.

Here are some tips from eHow on how to clean your flip-flops -

1. Step 1

   Start with plain old soap and water and an old toothbrush. Remove most of the grime with a little scrubbing.

2. Step 2

   Put them in the dishwasher. Do not wash them with dishes, and use a gentle cleaner when running your rubber sandals through the wash. Add vinegar and baking soda to the wash to do double duty--cleaning your shoes and your dishwasher.

3. Step 3

   Let your tub fill with water while you take a shower. Soak flip flops to loosen dirt, and scrub with a nail brush afterward.

4. Step 4

   Use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser as an easy way to remove grime from your flip flops and bathtub.

5. Step 5

   Try an oxygen cleaner and water to get stains off your sandals. You may need to add the power of a scrub brush for maximum results.

6. Step 6

   Use steel wool pads with soap to get down and dirty with the grit in your flip flops. This method works best after soaking the sandals in a sink of water for about an hour.

Haven't Talked About Soda In a While...

The American Heart Association is the latest group to come down on sugary drinks. Some day in our post-apocalyptic, Big Brother-run dystopia, one will likely be unable to buy sugarful soft drinks in 12-ounce cans, since they exceed the daily recommended allowance of sugars. I'm glad I did the right thing and got one of those old fashioned bottles at lunch today. I think those are safe. The enormous Mountain Dew that you get with your Taco Bell - not good.

"'Over the past 30 years, total calorie intake has increased by an average of 150 to 300 calories per day, and approximately 50 percent of this increase comes from liquid calories (primarily sugar-sweetened beverages),' the report reads.

"And daily consumption of sweetened soft drinks rose 70 percent between 1970 and 2000. One 12-ounce (0.35 liter) can of regular soda contains roughly 130 calories, which exceeds a woman's daily discretionary sugar budget."

Full article here on Reuters Health.

MSN Health & Fitness to Time Magazine: "You Suck"

So, that Time article about exercise not making people thin was, of course, a big hit with all the people who want an excuse for not losing weight. There are undoubtedly millions of people who want to think that there is nothing they can do about the excess weight they carry and this article justified that mindset.

It reminds me that studies show that most people search the internet not for unbiased information from which to learn, but rather that which backs up a previously held belief.

MSN Health & Fitness writer, David Zinczenko, whose name sounds like he should be playing professional tennis, writes in his article -

"Bottom line: Our responses to diet and exercise are all highly individualized, explains Dr. Church. Sure, some people might compensate for their exercise by eating more, but according to Dr. Church, this isn’t the fault of exercise. More likely, he says, it’s because people don’t realize how easy it is to consume 1,000 calories at the drive-thru compared to burning just 250 calories on a treadmill. 'If your weight is a concern for you, exercise is important. But it doesn’t give you license to eat what you want,' cautions Dr. Church. 'You still need to pay close attention to what you’re putting in your mouth.'

"Exercise can protect your muscle. A Penn State University study found that people who lifted weights along with a program of diet and aerobic exercise had the same weight loss as those who only dieted (or who dieted and performed aerobic exercise). The difference? The lifters lost 5 pounds more fat because almost none of their weight loss came from muscle. Read: Resistance training didn’t improve weight loss, but it did improve fat loss. And isn’t that what really matters?

"Exercise may help you stick to your diet. University of Pittsburgh researchers studied 169 dieters for 2 years and found that the participants who didn’t follow a 3-hour-a-week training plan ate more than their allotted 1,500 calories per day. The reverse was also true—sneaking snacks sabotaged their workouts. 'One healthy behavior without the other will not work—you need to diet and exercise to maintain long-term weight loss,' says lead study author John Jakicic, Ph.D. That’s because both actions can act as a reminder to stay on track.

"Exercise may target belly fat. While weight loss was similar among all four groups in the LSU study, only the groups that exercised saw their waist size decrease. The Time story downplays this finding, but isn’t it relevant? Think about it: This study actually shows that even a small amount of low-intensity exercise—performed in, say, just three 24-minute sessions a week—could help your jeans fit better. In other words, it makes you thinner. Doesn’t sound like a waste of time to me."

I don't think a fair reading of the Time article leads to the conclusion that exercise is not good for you. Time does, however, play up the argument that it doesn't make you thin, and certainly doesn't put much emphasis on the health benefits of exercise, which was a disservice to Time readers.

Time: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

That's the most read and most emailed article on time.com today. It's no surprise that the topic concerns many. That there's so much disagreement about what it takes to lose weight is pretty amazing, considering how much medicine and health care have advanced. The conclusion of the article is basically this -

"The problem ultimately is about not exercise itself but the way we've come to define it. Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity — the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented — may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat. 'You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles,' says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. 'The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don't have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day.'"

So what the article argues is that what you eat is more important than how much rigorous exercise you do. You're better off keeping moderately active and eating less rather than working out feverishly and then rewarding yourself with ice cream and a cigarette (though there isn't one mention of cigarettes in the entire article, which I find somewhat surprising).

Haw Haw Haw, Zere Eez Prohblem Een Zee Fronce

As the healthcare debate rages on in the U.S., the Sarkozy administration is attempting to make some cost-saving changes to the universal system in France. As an American, it is really funny to hear some of the stories from other countries where so much is provided by the government and taken for granted. It's not free though, smart guys. It has to come from somewhere.

This is my favorite -

"Yet even the smallest budget moves are proving controversial. Local residents are up in arms over a cost-cutting measure that makes patients pay €1.10 an hour to park at the hospital. 'It's a scandal,' says retired local Communist politician Gérard Eude. 'It goes against the very idea of universal health care.'"

Read the article on WSJ.com.

This Just In!

This isn't necessarily "news," but it's newsworthy. Well it's certainly noteworthy -

"Increased oxygen consumption associated with moderate- to high-intensity exercise appears to reduce the risk of cancer, a new study has found.

"The Finnish study included 2,560 men, aged 42 to 61, whose leisure-time physical activity was assessed over one year. None of the men had a history of cancer, according to the report published online July 28 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine."

That's most of the article, but it's from MSN Health & Fitness.

Healthcare Debate

The people who are attempting to upend our nation's healthcare system think this way -

"Health care does more than save lives: it also reduces pain and suffering. How can we compare saving a person’s life with, say, making it possible for someone who was confined to bed to return to an active life? We can elicit people’s values on that too. One common method is to describe medical conditions to people — let’s say being a quadriplegic — and tell them that they can choose between 10 years in that condition or some smaller number of years without it. If most would prefer, say, 10 years as a quadriplegic to 4 years of nondisabled life, but would choose 6 years of nondisabled life over 10 with quadriplegia, but have difficulty deciding between 5 years of nondisabled life or 10 years with quadriplegia, then they are, in effect, assessing life with quadriplegia as half as good as nondisabled life. (These are hypothetical figures, chosen to keep the math simple, and not based on any actual surveys.) If that judgment represents a rough average across the population, we might conclude that restoring to nondisabled life two people who would otherwise be quadriplegics is equivalent in value to saving the life of one person, provided the life expectancies of all involved are similar."

Those are the words of Princeton "bioethics" professor Peter Singer in his recent "Why We Must Ration Health Care" piece in the New York Times.

President Obama comes from a similar school of thought -



I don't mean to say that these are easy decisions, but I certainly don't want bureaucrats making them.

Is Obama's Surgeon General Pick Too Heavy?

Fascinating -

Critics Slam Overweight Surgeon General Pick, Regina Benjamin

"'I think it is an issue, but then the president is said to still smoke cigarettes,' said Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine who is now a senior lecturer at Harvard University Medical School. 'It tends to undermine her credibility.'"

A Word to the Wise

College Health Plans Don't Always Cover Student Athletes

"Many student athletes have medical insurance through their parents, but often these plans exclude coverage of injuries sustained during participation in varsity sports and injuries that require out-of-state treatment. Some colleges purchase secondary policies to fill the gaps left by students' family plans, but even these plans have disclaimers that could leave students uncovered in some situations."

Blood Clot Crying

I don't think any of my readers are Jamaican. That's not the point, though. Harvard researchers have concluded that travel, during which a person is seated for 2 hours at a time or more, at least doubles the risk of blood clot. The article was on Drudge Report, so you've probably read it already, but it seems important enough to get the story out to as many as possible.

From Reuters -

"Women who are pregnant or take birth control pills and the obese have an especially high risk, they found."

It's still only 1 in every 4,600 trips, but as the researchers point out, there are 2.5 billion passengers that will fly in 2010. So, every 2 hours, you should stop the car or get up from your seat on the plane and stretch your legs.

Stuff From All Over

I'm making up for my hiatus with a bunch of interesting stuff -

From ThirdAge -

Zicam can cause you to lose your sense of smell. I have a terrible one to begin with, so I'd better avoid that stuff.

One doctor has this to say about homeopathic remedies -

"Very often, the only active ingredient is alcohol, and patients don't know that, and they get a buzz-on. The therapeutic effect is no greater or less than a martini," -Dr. Jerry Avorn, expert in pharmaceutical safety at Harvard Medical School

Postmenopausal women (like Sotomayor and Clinton) have a pretty high risk of bone loss and weakness. ThirdAge lists some ways to counteract the effects of aging on bone strength, courtesy of Dr. Rachel Rohde, and orthopedic surgeon -

• Eat right. Be sure your diet is rich in calcium and vitamin D
• Expose yourself. Sunlight activates vitamin D, so spending 20 minutes either before 10 am or after 2 pm, several times a week in the sun with your arms and legs exposed (and without sunscreen), should be sufficient.
• Supplement with D. If you aren't exposed to sunlight on a regular basis, consider taking a vitamin D supplement
• Get Fit. Engage in a regular fitness program including weightbearing activity three to four hours per week
• Quit smoking. Here's one more reason to quit. Smoking cigarettes can be hazardous to your bone health
• Limit alcohol. If you do drink, do it in moderation. Too much can weaken your bones.
  
  

On happiness - "To be happy and content independent of events is not something that just happens, it is something we must work at every day." - Dr. Lynn (I don't know who that is, but she has a PhD and she's on ThirdAge). This reminds me of my favorite Dalai Lama (whose birth name is Tenzin Gyatso) quote -

"Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can."

From the New York Times. What the?

"Being overweight won’t kill you — it may even help you live longer. That’s the latest from a study that analyzed data on 11,326 Canadian adults, ages 25 and older, who were followed over a 12-year period."

I Was Going to Make the Title of This "That's What Friends Are For" But That's Already Implied by the Title of the Article

From the New York Times -

What Are Friends For? A Longer Life

"Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. A large 2007 study showed an increase of nearly 60 percent in the risk for obesity among people whose friends gained weight. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age. "

I think it says something that I haven't posted anything with "friendship" as a blog label.



God, I miss ensembles likes that.

Here We Go...

From the New York Times -

Health Insurers Agree to End Higher Premiums for Women

AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans) has basically said to the federal government "if you make everyone buy health insurance then we'll stop charging more to women and sick people".
guarantee

Makes sense. There are civil libertarians that are going to be bothered by this, but if we all have to pay for the uninsured to go and clog up the emergency rooms, then we have a pretty big incentive to fix the mess in which we now find ourselves.

People who can afford it will buy private insurance, and those who cannot will be subsidized by the government. This will do very little to control cost, but it's a small step towards addressing the health care crisis in this country. Hopefully people will at least get a little healthier.

Health & Fitness Expo

This looks pretty sweet. Thanks to Vivian for the heads-up -

"We hope to see you April 25th and 26th at the Miami Beach Convention Center for this year’s largest Health & Fitness Expo in South Florida! The Health & Fitness Expo takes place at The Miami Beach Convention Center in the Main Hall. Doors open at 10 AM."

Quinoa

I've been hearing about quinoa for some time and tried it at a buffet once but was not crazy about the experience. Well, I guess I have to decide to like it because it's so good for you. Check out this article from Men's Health.

"'Quinoa is a true wonder food,' says Daniel Fairbanks, Ph.D., a professor of plant and animal science at Brigham Young University. 'It has about twice the protein of regular cereal grains, fewer carbohydrates, and even a dose of healthy fats.' Plus, it's considered a 'complete' protein, which means that, like meat, eggs, and dairy, it packs all of the essential amino acids your body needs to build muscle."

Manly Meals

Men's Health's website is simply fantastic. They have a great new gimmick on the site for making quick, simple, healthy meals (Guy Meals Made Easy). You pick a protein, like pork, then a style in which to cook it, "Japanese," for example, a side starch, and its style, oh, let's try "Spicy Sesame Noodles", and a vegetable. We'll go with "Coconut Ginger Zucchini". This is what pops up for each -

Japanese Style Pork Chops

1.5 pounds of pork chops
3 Tbsp any miso paste
1 Tbsp each sesame oil and peanut oil
Black pepper
Chopped walnuts or soy sauce (or both)

1. Start with 1.5 pounds of pork chops.

2. Combine the ingredients for Japanese flavor—3 Tbsp any miso paste, 1 Tbsp each sesame oil, and peanut oil, lots of black pepper—and rub or smear it all over your protein. Let it marinate if you have time.

3. Light up the grill, heat the broiler, or fire up a cast-iron skillet and cook the pork chops on both sides until they're done the way you like it. Use a small, sharp knife to take a peek inside if you're not sure.

4. Sprinkle on chopped walnuts or a drizzle of soy sauce (or both), and serve it hot or at room temperature.

Serves 4

Spicy Sesame Pasta/Noodles

1 pound of pasta or noodles
1 part sesame oil and 1 parts peanut oil
1 or 2 chopped fresh hot chilies or dried chili flakes
Chopped scallions

1. Start with about a pound of pasta or noodles. Boil them as simply as possible, using nothing more than salt. Undercook pasta a bit so it still has some bite; drain it as needed.

2. Five minutes before you're ready to eat, put the spicy sesame flavor ingredients—1 part sesame oil and 2 parts peanut oil, plus one or two chopped fresh hot chilies or dried chili flakes—into the appropriate size pan with some salt and pepper.

3. Set the pan over medium heat, and cook, stirring once in a while until fragrant; if the mixture is boiling too much, lower the heat.

4. Drizzle the flavorings over the warm noodles, and toss.

5. Add chopped scallions.

6. Taste and adjust the seasoning, and toss again.

Serves 4

Coconut Ginger Zucchini

1 pound of zucchini
Peanut oil
Chopped ginger, garlic, and chilies
Coconut milk
Chopped pistachios, almonds, or peanuts
Chopped cilantro

1. Start with about a pound of zucchini or a combination of vegetables.

2. Slice, chop, or grate them as you like; leave small or thin whole.

3. Put a film of peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

4. Once it’s hot, add chopped ginger, garlic, and chilies. Stir as needed.

5. Add the vegetable(s) and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. If you’re using a combination of vegetables, begin with the ones that will take the longest to cook and build up to those that wilt the fastest.

6. Stir once in a while, searing the vegetables a bit. Adjust the temperature and add oil as needed to keep things moving in the pan.

7. When everything is cooked through, splash in some coconut milk, scraping up any brown bits from the pan.

8. Add chopped pistachios, almonds, or peanuts, and chopped cilantro and toss, then taste and adjust the seasoning.

9. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Serves 4

"The Greatest Abs Workout Ever"!!!!!!

I really think it would sound better to say "greatest ab workout ever" but what do I know? I did add those exclamation points in the title to make this post really eye catching. Incidentally, at David Barton Gym they have a class called "ASSolutely ABBulous". Why must they capitalize the letters they do and why does "ABBulous" have two b's? These are questions to which no one will ever know the answer. Kind of like the square root of a million.

Anyway, click on this photo I snapped of my own abs to read the article at Men's Health.com -

It's intense. Many people do not realize that the only way you're ever going to see your abs is to get rid of the fat that covers them. This must be done with aerobic exercise. You can do lots of crunches and even buy some gimmicky ab roller thingy and never obtain a six pack. This is a particularly noteworthy component of the workout -

Burn Off Your Belly

This interval routine is designed to strip away the excess flab that’s hiding your six-pack. Do it 3 days a week, after your weight session or on the days in between. Use your mode of choice—a treadmill, stationary bike, or rowing machine.

Step 1 Warm up for 3 to 5 minutes at an easy pace, about 30 to 40 percent of your best effort.

Step 2 Run, cycle, or row at 95 percent of your highest effort for 30 seconds.

Step 3 Perform active rest, slowing back down to your warmup speed for 90 seconds.

Step 4 Repeat five to seven times.

Step 5 Once you can complete eight intervals, reduce the length of your active rest periods by 5 to 10 seconds each workout, until they’re only 30 seconds long.

Brain Food

Mmm, Mayo Clinic -

"'This study is exciting because it demonstrates that aging does not need to be a passive process. By simply engaging in cognitive exercise, you can protect against future memory loss,' said the study author Yonas Geda, a neuropsychiatrist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota."

Try out Text Twist. It's a great brain workout. There's a free online version (of course).

I Guess Laughter Truly Is the Best Medicine (ugh, that's sappy)

ThirdAge has an article about a former nurse and nursing home manager who uses laughter therapy. She doesn't even tell jokes. It's funny that laughter is so powerful that it doesn't even need to be real to be healthful.

Please note that the last 3 are not benefits, but simply statements, and maybe facts, I don't know -

The Health Benefits of Laughter

• Laughing reduces the hormones and chemicals produced by stress cortisol and adrenaline.
• It releases dopamine and endorphins, our feel good chemicals.
• Relieves and relaxes muscle discomfort.
• Reduces inflammation, excellent for arthritis sufferers.
• Reduces blood pressure 30 minutes of laughter per day reduces the risk of a second heart attack.
• Burns calories -- 50 laughs is equivalent to 15 minutes on a bike or 10 minutes on a rowing machine.
• Humans are the only animals capable of laughter.
• Adults laugh or smile approximately 17 times a day on average.
• We use 72 muscles to frown and only 14 to smile.

I feel like I should tell a joke now. I've got it! I'll post the video of Louis C.K. from Late Night that everyone's been posting to Facebook -

This Is Why You're Fat

Did you know this??? I was shocked and I'm not being sarcastic for once. From the New York Times -

How sweet it is! The American diet, that is. While the current recommendation is a maximum intake of eight teaspoons of sugars a day, one 12-ounce can of regular soda (or a 20-ounce bottle of VitaminWater) delivers eight or nine teaspoons. That means you are at or over the limit before you’ve eaten a single cookie or container of fruit-flavored yogurt, or even some commercial tomato soups or salad dressings with added sugars. The result is an average daily intake of more than 20 teaspoons of sweet calories.

That first paragraph says basically all you need to know, but you may read the entire article here, though there is something worth noting in that a Dr. Bray who was contacted during the research for the article recommends drinking diet soda instead of the sugarful kind and asserts that aspartame "has none of the once-feared health effects".

By the way, "This is why you're fat" is a lovely snapshot of Americana that you may find here. I'm still hoping they'll post the Classic Sextuple with cheese that I got for Boden at Wendy's, but it just might not be sickeningly glutenous enough to make it onto such a discriminating website.

Here We Go Towards Nationalization...

From The Buffalo News -

[New York] State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday threatened to sue Excellus BlueCross and BlueShield and Univera Healthcare for fraud, accusing them of fraudulently using nine-year-old rate information from an already faulty database to reimburse out-of-network doctors and hospitals.

If you have a dispute with an insurer for something like an out-of-network charge, be aware that insurance companies are not acting in your best interest. They use these opportunities to squeeze every dime they can out of people whom they figure are too small to fight back. Do your best to fight it yourself, but if you can't handle it, try a medical billing advocate.

Save

I saw two billboards over the weekend that I thought were worth repeating:

"There is no such thing as saver's remorse"

"Better save than sorry"

Clever aren't they? I think they are good to think about considering the economic situation. On a brighter note, the national savings rate went from 0% in the first 9 months of 2008 to 2.9% in the last 3 months of 2008.

The Butt Stops Here

"The Butt Stops Here!" I've done it again. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. I'd like to thank my Irish heritage and my parents' having 4 sons for the development of my exceptional sense of humor. Moving along...

It seems that monetary incentives work for just about everything but long-term risk management of a publicly traded financial services corporation. A new study shows that smokers who are given financial incentives to quit smoking are about 3 times as likely to stay smoke-free.

This is the gist of the article from MSN Health & Fitness -

All of the employees were given information about available smoking-cessation programs in their areas. Members of the financial incentive group were also told they would be given $100 for the completion of a smoking cessation program. Then, they would receive an additional $250 if they successfully quit smoking within six months from the start of the study, and they were promised another $400 if they stayed smoke-free for another six months. Smoke-free status was assessed using either a hair or urine sample to test for a substance known as cotinine, which is present when someone has smoked.

Nine to 12 months after the study began, 14.7 percent of the incentive group had kicked tobacco, compared to just 5 percent in the information-only group. Between 15 and 18 months after the study's start, 9.4 percent of those in the incentive group had stayed off cigarettes, compared to just 3.6 percent in the control group.

TMQ Sign-off

Some words of wisdom from a pretty smart guy -

TMQ Season Sign-Off: Tuesday Morning Quarterback folds its tent and steals off into the desert till August, though will resurface briefly around the NFL draft. As usual, I recommend you employ the offseason to engage in spiritual growth. Take long walks. Perform volunteer work in your community. Exercise more and eat less. Attend worship services of any faith. Drink less coffee, more green tea. Appreciate the beauty of nature -- God did not make nature by accident. Read one of the great books you've always meant to read. Be with your family and friends. As Barbara Bush said to the graduating class of Wellesley College in 1990, "At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent."

Of newly released works, in political books, I recommend "The Party Faithful" by Amy Sullivan; in science, "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry Coyne; in psychology, "Beyond Revenge" by Michael McCullough (explains why the desire for retribution is an evolutionary proclivity we must overcome); in general nonfiction, "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt (hilariously shows that traffic jams have plagued society at least since the days of the Caesars); in economics, "Good Capitalism Bad Capitalism" by William Baumol, Robert Litan and Carl Schramm; in history, "A Nation on Fire" by Clay Risen (about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. -- the night before King died, he said, "Only when it's dark can you see the stars"); in self-published books, "The Losing Game" by T.E. Scott, which argues Wall Street is a giant hustle designed to separate investors from their money; in sports, "Positive Sports Parenting" by Jim Thompson, a book every youth-league and high-school coach and parent should read; in humor, "Our Dumb World" by the writers of The Onion; in fiction, "Bridge of Sighs" by Richard Russo and "Lark and Termite" by Jayne Anne Phillips.

Read, mediate, serve others: Do these things, and you will feel justified in racing back to the remote, the swimsuit calendars and the microbrews when the football artificial universe resumes anew in the autumn.

You may find Gregg Easterbrook's final TMQ column of the season here.

Scraping By On 500K/Year

Even though it's more than the president himself gets paid (though he has lots of perks like Air Force One), this article in the New York Times shows how tough it can be to live on such a meager pittance. I think it probably qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment".

Steve and Gandhi

My father recently handed me a transcript of Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford. You may read it here or watch a video of it here.

These are some of the most powerful words I have ever read -

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Then today I received my "Motivational Quote of the Day" from Nightingale-Conant and it was one of Gandhi's -

"Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."

And here's a great tune from Tim McGraw called "Live Like You Were Dying" -



Yeah, a little heavy today. Poop is a funny word. That lightened things up a bit. Hee hee, poop.

Dog Whisperer

I found this piece on dog training very interesting. I love my dog, but have trouble controlling him. I think the dog whisperer has some good tips. Click here for the article.

It's a Start

This is a great article from the Washington Post. A study of 21,000 doctors over a period of 20 years has revealed that even minimal "vigorous" exercise (1-3 times/month!) makes heart disease less likely (18%). The study's results also find that being a little bit overweight (BMI of 25-29.9) makes one significantly more likely to develop heart disease (49% more likely).

So, the point is that, even if you think you don't have time to exercise, or you hate exercising, or you think there's no hope, even a slight change in your behavior can yield you health benefits.

Getting Your Zs

A new study points to the importance of getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night. If you get less, you could be increasing your risk of heart disease -

"On average, those in the study got about six hours of sleep a night.

"However, only 6 percent of those who got at least seven hours of sleep had calcification, compared with 11 percent who got five to seven hours and 27 percent who got less than five hours, said the senior author, Diane Lauderdale, an associate professor of health studies at the University of Chicago.

"The study took into account other known risk factors for heart disease, including sleep apnea, cholesterol, blood pressure, body weight, diabetes and depression.

"In fact, getting an extra hour of sleep had the same effect on heart disease risk as lowering one's systolic blood pressure (the upper reading) by 16.5 points"