"Concomitantly, rates of depression are lower among the wealthy, according to the Wharton study, and the rich tend to have better health than the rest of the population, says James Smith, senior labor economist at the Rand Corporation. In fact, health and happiness are as closely correlated as wealth and happiness, Smith says."
"The wealthy even seem to smile and laugh more often, according to the Wharton study, to say nothing of getting treated with more respect and eating better food."
Hmmm, the reader and veterinarian's comments suggest that this is not good for the dogs, but it's an interesting phenomenon. People are beginning to share dog ownership (not so bad) and there are services that have sprung up that allow members to rent dogs (that one's tough on the doggies). People are doing it because they want to enjoy the companionship of a dog, but are unable or unwilling to care for one all the time. One interviewee puts it this way -
"Alabama, pushed to second in national obesity rankings by deep-fried Southern favorites, is cracking down on state workers who are too fat."
State employees will begin paying $25/month for their health insurance if their BMIs are at or above 35 (which would put them well into the "obese" category that starts at 30). There are problems with the BMI as a measuring tool, since the only components are weight and height, and just because you're thin does not mean you're healthy. Anyway, it's an interesting trend and one to watch for in other states and nations (and I guess nation states).
The good news comes from an article that discusses the decrease in car crash fatalities in 2007. There were 1,000 fewer than in 2006, when they had actually gone up from the previous year. Read the article here if you like.
The bad news is this -
"Motorcycle deaths increased for the 10th straight year. There were 5,154 motorcycle deaths last year, compared with 4,837 in 2006."
Please, please, please don't ride a motorcycle. If you must, then wear a helmet. You look way cooler when your head's connected to your body and your brain's inside your skull.
As tends to be the case in the world of nutrition, you have likely heard arguments for and against the consumption of coffee over the years. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (they published that list of "X-treme Meals" you should avoid) has made public a recent study of the long term effects of coffee, and they're almost all beneficial.
From what I've read over the past couple of years, it's good for you to drink up to three cups of coffee a day. It's a hell of a lot better for you than drinking sodas (even diet ones!) all day, that's for sure. You can find the New York Times Health article here.
"...[A]re parents really failing to notice their little angels piling on the pounds? Yes, says the U.K.'s Department of Health. 'Today, when more children are overweight compared with previous generations, it can be harder for parents to objectively identify if their child is overweight,' says a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. 'Research shows that most parents of overweight or obese children think that their child is a healthy weight. Some research showed that only 10% of parents with overweight or obese children described their child as overweight.'"
The article discusses the fact that parents of U.K. students will be notified by schools of their children's weight, whether it be normal, underweight, overweight, or worse. Some schools in the U.S. already note students' weights on report cards. The reason the 10% statistic is so alarming is that more than 3 times that amount are actually overweight or obese.
Hey all you Aussies, we're the U.S.A. We don't like being #2 at anything.
And I don't like using stuff posted on Drudge, since I figure everyone reads it already anyway, but this is such an alarming finding, that I feel that I must share it with my faithful readers - "All U.S. Adults Could Be Overweight in 40 Years"
78% of African American women are already categorized as overweight or obese, so for some segments of the population, it's not really a big stretch to get to 100%.
This is from the Reuters Health article -
"'Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible' for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study."
"However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, 'that is the direction we're going'."
I believe Scooby Doo's reaction to this would be "rut row".
LA has instituted a moratorium on new fast food restaurants. Read the Associated Press article here.
"The moratorium, which can be extended up to a year, only affects standalone restaurants, not eateries located in malls or strip shopping centers. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping."
"The definition exempts "fast-food casual" restaurants such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, which do not have drive-through windows or heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order."
Consider the obesity problem solved! Psst, I've been telling people for years that this kind of thing was coming. California has now banned the use of trans fats statewide, by the way.
People are so wound up about things these days. It's a relief that a guy over at the New York Times, whose chosen profession's motto is "if it bleeds, it leads", has decided to publish a list of stuff you can pretty much stop worrying about - 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List
I think he gets a little off topic with his "wormhole" line, since quantum physics aren't really an average dude's concern, but I especially like the one about food shipments and plastic bags.
Sorry, here's another article from Drudge. According to Dr. Yuri Agrawal of Johns Hopkins University -
"The prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly because of an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. Indeed, there is concern that we may be facing an epidemic of hearing impairment."
I worry, in particular, about my friends who live in New York and listen to their iPods when they travel on the subway and walk through the streets. Manhattan is already so loud, that to hear your music you have to turn the volume up to damaging levels to overcome all that commotion.
My paternal grandparents, who have lived well into their late 80s (grandmother's still with us), and spent their adulthood mostly in undeveloped countries, suffered almost no hearing loss during their lives. On the other hand, my Italian great aunts, who lived most of their lives in New York, almost all went nearly deaf, though almost all of them also lived into their 90s. Not bad.
Anyway, it's something to keep in mind. Read the article here on Yahoo News.
Poor John McCain has been suffering from various forms of skin cancer for 15 years. He just had a biopsy done by his dermatologist. That's when they cut a chunk of your flesh out. Not such a pleasant thought, eh? This article was the headline on Drudge.
"'I want to again urge all Americans to wear sunscreen, particularly this summer, to stay out of the sun as much as possible,' he said, with his wife Cindy standing next to him."
"Remember a lot of the damage that people receive from the sun when they're young sometimes comes back later in life."
Thanks to my brother, who found the Tyrese Gibson version of the national anthem that I wanted to post last Thursday. Please try not to get too, too fired up when the English fans start booing the Star Spangled Banner. After all, they did give us the best language in the world and our system for a bicameral legislative branch of government.
My brother loooooooves beets. Loves 'em. He thinks it's particularly hilarious that they make your poo poo purple. He's actually really mature in most other ways.
Well, he sent me an article from the NYT that lists "The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating". In his case, he's eating several of them. But most people don't eat beets, cabbage, swiss chard, cinnamon (not often, at least), pomegranate juice, prunes, pumpkin seeds, sardines, turmeric, frozen blueberries, and canned pumpkin on a regular basis.
Blueberries are great to throw in a protein shake. Cinnamon is good in your coffee (thanks sis), pomegranate juice tastes like death (oh well), prunes are like giant raisins (yum), pumpkin is so associated with Thanksgiving that it's tough to imagine eating during the rest of the year, but it really is tasty (like in ravioli, mmm), sardines are an acquired taste, but also delish, and turmeric is a spice but I forget what it's like. Look it up. That's what the internet's for. Looking stuff up like "what's turmeric?". Or "how do you spell tumeric?" See, it was close, and the internet would figure that out in all it's awesome intelligentness. Swiss chard. Look that one up, too.
Happy Independence Day! Larry Kudlow kept saying all day today that this is "the greatest country in the history of history". I agree. I wanted to post Tyrese's stirring rendition of the Star Bangled Banner from the Mayweather - Hatton fight, but it's nowhere to be found. Here's Carrie Underwood. I'm kind of in love with her and this is a pretty good version. It's from Super Bowl something something. I don't know. The one with the Seahawks.
This is a timely topic, what with the presidential campaign ongoing and all. In a recent opinion piece in Investor's Business Daily, David Gratzer, senior fellow at think tank The Manhattan Institute, discusses the fact that the guy who started nationalized health care in Canada, Claude Castonguay, is now trying to save his country from the failings of a system known to be worse at taking care of its people than its pets.
"What would drive a man like Castonguay to reconsider his long-held beliefs? Try a health care system so overburdened that hundreds of thousands in need of medical attention wait for care, any care; a system where people in towns like Norwalk, Ontario, participate in lotteries to win appointments with the local family doctor."
"People who make less than $20,000 a year, for example, told [Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist] Kahneman and his colleagues that they spend more than a third of their time in passive leisure -- watching television, for example. Those making more than $100,000 spent less than one-fifth of their time in this way -- putting their legs up and relaxing. Rich people spent much more time commuting and engaging in activities that were required as opposed to optional. The richest people spent nearly twice as much time as the poorest people in leisure activities that were active, structured and often stressful -- shopping, child care and exercise."
I wouldn't say that I "hate" people who watch a lot of TV, but it sort of disgusts me. Maybe that's putting it a little strongly. Hate the sin, love the sinner. Some smart dude said that once. I feel sorry for them, really. George Carlin, the late comedian, said this in an Esquire article once - "I wish that we could measure how much the potential of the mind to expand has been stunted by television." So do I, George. So. Do. I.
Well, well, well. Men's Health now has a section called "Men's Wealth". I know, they totally forgot the "h" in "whealth". Also called "Fit Investor", the section has everyday personal finance tips. I think it's new, but I haven't checked the site in a while.
Something I read today was a piece urging people to trade in their debit cards for ATM cards that don't have the debit capability. The author makes the point that you should really just use cash or a credit card, and I agree. The risks of fraud and transaction fees are too great. Read that article here, if you like.
That's what "CVS" stands for. Bet you didn't know that.
I bet you also didn't know that CVS now marks with an "F" each item on your receipt that is HSA or FSA eligible. That is to say, it's tax-deductible if you own a Health Savings Account. I didn't know that either, until I received an excited phonecall about it from my future sister-in-law. I did know the CVS thing, though. I win.
My brother, his fiancee and I flew from New York to Miami yesterday. One of their suitcases was weighed down with loot from her wedding shower, and after throwing it on the scale, it was determined by the airline dude that there would be an additional charge of $50 since the bag weighed more than 50 pounds.
Well, they took some stuff out of that bag and put it in a lighter one, but as we walked away, my brother said "well, I weigh a lot less than many of the passengers on this plane". That's a very good point, and as I have said for years, that is exactly the kind of thing people should expect (along with lawsuits against fast food restaurants for serving unhealthy food, or denying entrance to those restaurants for the obese) And it's already being considered by the airlines. Pretty hard to imagine weighing the passengers at check-in though, isn't it? Or is it (they did it in the 1970s)? This is all related as the nation and world struggle to balance growing prosperity and consumption with diminishing resources and new challenges in our global marketplace.
Here's an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about some of the anti-smoking policies employers are enacting. In the past few years, employers have tried to encourage employees not to smoke with positive incentives, but in many cases those have turned to punitive measures. In a case mentioned in the article, an employer even told employees they had to stop smoking or they would be fired. He enforces that policy by having their blood tested at random. He has even gone so far as to monitor their spouses, as well.
