There's Some Good News and There's Some Bad News

Well, the good news is that I had a delicious sandwich for lunch. The bad news is that there was bacon on that sandwich, and if someday that contributes to my having a heart attack, I'm not too encouraged by the trends in emergency room care.

Emergency room waiting times are up to an average 30 minutes! And up to 25% of heart attack patients wait 50 minutes or more. Less than 20% of visitors to emergency rooms are thought to be in need of immediate care, by the way. Wow, people sure are stupid!

It turns out that ERs are closing as usage is rising. There just isn't room for patients. Resources and time are used moving patients around when they are needed treating sick people.

Dr. Art Kellermann, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, uses the analogy of an airport having planes parked all over the runway, but it's more like airports having planes parked all over their runways as airports are shutting down across the country.

So, if you think about how terrible it is to fly now, just remember that it'll be like that if you need emergency care, but it's like an airport where people go and clog up the lines and have keys and change in their pockets when they go through the metal detector and they sit in the seats at the terminal and they stand in the way as you try to board the plane, and they even fly sometimes, even if they weren't really going anywhere. Plus people who are flying to Hawaii pay the same as those flying to the next state over. AND you're pants are open in the back so everyone can see your butt.

Read the depressing article in Forbes, if you really want to.

Cold Fighting Techniques

Some of these are obvious, but I think worth the read:

1.) Soap and Water
2.) Probiotics
3.) Exercise
4.) Fruits and Veggies
5.) Avoid Germs
6.) Vitamin C
7.) Echinacea
8.) Green Tea
9.) Zinc
10.) Sleep

Read the whole article here.

14 Years! 14. Years!

This is not very surprising, but maybe if people keep hearing this stuff they'll make some changes-

"People with four healthy lifestyle behaviors -- not smoking, physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, and eating five servings of fruit or vegetables a day -- live an average of 14 years longer than people with none of those behaviors, a new British study contends."

Read the entire article in U.S. News & World Report.

Lose Weight by Eating More

Gotta love those Top Ten Lists. My brother forwarded me this one from Men's Health about how to lose weight (fat) and increase muscle mass. A diet of protein and vegetables is a pretty easy way to avoid the junk that this list points out. Barry's rule has been sabotaged in my own house by gifts of cookies and boxes of candy. If you don't have it in your house, you don't eat it. There are lots of other interesting lists on the left hand side of the page you can check out if you want to spend even more time on the Internet than you already do.

The Pursuit of Happiness

No big surprise here. If you're happy, you're healthy. There's a lot of talk these days about inflammation being a cause of many ailments. Being unhappy can lead to that. Here's some news from a study of 3,000 people in Britain.

"In the study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, women who reported more positive emotions had lower blood levels of two proteins that indicate widespread inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation is believed to contribute to a range of ills over time, including heart disease and cancer."

Part of effective preventive medicine is addressing people's happiness.

"We need to help people to recognize the things that make them feel good and truly satisfied with their lives, so that they spend more time doing these things."

Old Lame Song

I guess "Auld Lang Syne" means something like "times gone by" in old Scottish. Here are the lyrics you'll never remember -

Should old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should old acquaintance be forgot
And days of Auld Lang Syne

I decided, for the first time (I think), to write down some 2008 resolutions. I like to challenge and improve myself throughout the year, but why not take yet another opportunity to do just that?

Writing things down is a great way to focus on them and make sure that they happen. I have made it a habit of mine to write down movies I would like to see, music I should buy, places I want to visit around Miami (where I now live), restaurants that have been recommended to me by others, etc.

So, make a list on your Blackberry, or write down some goals on a piece of paper and stick it in your wallet. You might be surprised how much it helps to look at those goals. I'm really hoping "Be more PUNCTUAL" will help me. I know what you're thinking, "more" punctual doesn't make sense. You're either punctual or you're late. Hey, people, I'm trying. Let's work our way up to full-blown punctual.

Cah-lee-faw-ni-a

Those Left Coasters might be annoying sometimes with their preachiness and ballot initiatives, but they do tend to be ahead of the curve, especially on health issues.

Now, from the people who brought you smoking bans... the Sugar Tax. San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, is proposing a tax on sugary sodas and warning labels for highly caffeinated drinks (like Red Bull, which is now banned in France and about whose contribution to high blood pressure I have written on this blog).

"Newsom says obesity accounts for tens of millions of dollars in city health care costs. He cites a recent San Francisco Health Department survey that found nearly a quarter of the city's 5th, 7th and 9th graders were overweight and that high sugar drinks make up a tenth of a kid's daily calorie count."

Good Eats

I came across a reference to this article on mental_floss.com. Great website. The Men's Health's article outlines foods that affect your mood. The one of which I took note most was the fact that sushi and other fish are great mood boosters. It got me thinking that I always feel great when I eat sushi or other fish. I have been trying to work more seafood into my diet. Of course, it's easier when you live in a warm climate and don't have to worry about stinking up the house...

MQOTD

I like this. I'm a big proponent of taking pride in every little thing, though this often renders one an anal perfectionist.

"The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams."
— Og Mandino: Author, The Greatest Salesman in the World.

Forget the Spoonful of Sugar AND the Medicine

Honey has now been proven to be better for a kid's cough than cough medicine. Dr. Ian Paul, of Penn State, was prompted to perform the study after finding in an earlier one that a placebo was just as effective as traditional cough medicines containing dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine.

Since it's cheaper and has no side-effects, it'd be pretty silly not to buy honey instead of cough syrup. You don't want people to say you're silly, do you? I know I don't.


From ABC News.com -

"The researchers enrolled 105 children, between ages 2 and 18, in their randomized, partially double-blind study. On the first night of the study, the children received no treatment. Parents then answered questions about their children's sleep and cough, as well as the quality of their own sleep. The second night, the children were given either honey-flavored cough syrup or honey -- or nothing at all. Parents then reanswered the questions in the survey.

Parents whose children received the honey rated their kids' sleep and symptoms as better -- and their own sleep as improved as well.

Healing Powers of Honey

Paul says that the type of honey plays a role in the treatment.

'Darker honeys have more antioxidants than lighter honeys, and we wanted the best chance to see improvements,' he says, noting that lighter honeys would probably also benefit kids. 'At least locally [buckwheat honey] is available. I can get it here at the local supermarket.'

Honey is also generally less expensive than over-the-counter medications, he says, and bring none of the side effects like dizziness or sleepiness."

Stand Up!

This might explain why bus drivers have such big butts.

"Scientists have found intriguing evidence that one major reason so many people are overweight these days may be as close as the seat of their pants. Literally. According to the researchers, most of us sit too much."

Scientists Say Just Standing Up May Be as Important as Exercise

He's No Christian Bale

Bale is, of course, the very fit star of "American Psycho". And he's Welsh. That's where this dude is from.

I knew this was coming, but I am very surprised to see it already -

"New Zealand Bars British Man's 'Fat' Wife"

I'm not sure why "fat" is in quotation marks there. Would they prefer to be referred to, as in the body of the article, as "morbidly obese"?

Shop Around

Newt.org has a clip of a little anecdote delivered by Newt Gingrich, in case you were thinking of some other Newt. He discusses the kind of market efficiency that is potentially attained by employing HSAs with the example of an expensive sleep apnea machine.

It's Retirement Tips from Britney, Bitch

Sorry. That's like the line from her new song. I couldn't help myself.

The Yahoo Finance page has a great article about how important it is to save for retirement. Well, it turns out Britney Spears spends over $700,000 a month, yet she doesn't save a portion of her income.

The article points out that "the overwhelming majority of American 20-somethings aren't saving anything for retirement, either. Research from Vanguard shows that two-thirds of all 25-year-olds who have access to a 401(k) plan aren't contributing." That is really bad.

Consider this -

"Assuming she could scrape by on 70% to 80% of her pre-retirement income in retirement - or about $590,000 a month in today's dollars - Ms. Spears would have to accumulate a nest egg of just over $300 million by age 65."

"Sound daunting? Nah. All she has to do is keep working and put away 8% or so of her monthly $737,000 income until she retires and she'll hit that goal."

Now, translate into normal recent college graduates' incomes -

"A 25-yr old making $30,000 a year, for instance, and putting away the same 8% of his pay into a 401(k) plan annually for the rest of his career is virtually guaranteed a comfortable retirement by time he hits his 60s."

Read the entire article here.

Delicate Genius Alert!

Dr. Scott Haig, an orthopedic surgeon in New York, has written a piece in Time about patients who Google. I have wondered how the abundance of health information on line has impacted the communication between doctor and patient, and here is an inside look. The phenomenon seems to irritate him quite a bit.

Frankly, the doctor comes off as a pompous jerk. He berates the patient for being selfish, but I think most normal people out there can sympathize with a person who is sick or injured. This doctor seems to prefer when patients don't ask too many questions, but on the other hand, ridicules "non-compliant Bozos who won't read anything longer than a headline. They don't want to know what's wrong with them, they don't know what medicines they're taking, they don't even seem to care what kind of operation you're planning to do on them. 'Just get me better, doc,' is all they say."

George Costanza would definitely throw his hands up about this delicate genius.

Red Bull Gives You Vings! (and high blood pressure)

And increased risk of heart disease, if you drink 2 or more energy drinks per day. I'm sure there are some of you out there...

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/88066.php

More Cheddar, Anyone?

Well, the Green Mountain State has done it again. Vermont not only has the best schools, but also the healthiest residents, based on criteria developed by the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association for its ranking of the 50 states. Half of the top ten are in New England.

Those criteria include, but are not limited to, obesity rates, access to health care, cancer incidence, child poverty, smoking, and heart disease. Southern states, not surprisingly, are the fattest, stupidest, and most likely to smoke. Well shoot, that right thurr is a big surprahs.

Read the article in Forbes right here.

More on the Obesity Epidemic

This comes from an article in Employee Benefit News, that discusses a presentation made by cardiologist James Rippe -

"But since 'obesity is not a reimbursable diagnosis,' Rippe explains, it tends to be significantly under reported as a medical condition. Doctors aren't trained to tell patients that their disease is being fat, so they cite specific diseases that often result from excess weight, such as diabetes, heart disease and muscular-skeletal pain, Rippe explains. "

"In fact, obesity is listed only on 0.3% of claims submitted by physicians, but it causes 40% to 70% of hypertension cases, over 50% of blood lipid problems, over 80% of Type 2 diabetes and almost 100% of metabolic syndrome cases. Over the past decade, the prevalence of obesity has grown by more than 40%, according to Rippe."

Driver's Ed from TMQ

Writer of the wonderful column "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" (TMQ), Gregg Easterbrook, has some excellent advice for young drivers and those responsible for them. I have never liked following or having people follow me in a car. You should get directions and meet at your destination, and not travel by caravan. You should always have a pen and paper in your car, but if you happen not to, just write a text message before leaving, so that a passenger may read the directions to the driver, or the driver can quickly consult them to refresh his or her memory. Here are his thoughts -

Driver's Ed Should Teach Kids Not to Drive in Caravans: People who, like me, live in the Washington, D.C., area were shocked in mid-June when a terrible car crash took the lives of two girls and two young women, all recent graduates of the same high school. People who live in New York state were shocked less than two weeks later when a disturbingly similar terrible car crash took the lives of five girls who were all recent graduates of the same high school. In both cases, the victims were on their way to graduation celebrations -- a beach week and a lakeside week. All the victims were beautiful teenagers or young women, and few events seem sadder than the death of beauty in youth because it is assumed -- whether truly or falsely -- that the world lies at the feet of the young and attractive. Alcohol was a factor in the first crash, an autopsy showing the driver legally intoxicated under Virginia's strict standard for those younger than 21; cell phone use while driving is suspected in the second. The tragedies did have one thing in common, however: In both cases, the crashed cars were traveling at highway speed as a caravan of carloads of friends headed to the same destination, and in both cases, it was the lead car that crashed.

AP Photo/Dan Elliott

Alcohol, drowsiness, cell phone use -- and caravan-driving -- are causes.

Here's a safety rule that ought to be taught in driver's ed: Do not travel in caravans! Caravan driving is more stressful than regular driving, especially for the lead driver, as she must look in her mirrors constantly to see whether the trailing car remains in view. Caravan driving tends to cause lead drivers to take intemperate risks to avoid getting blamed for causing the following car to become lost. And if those in the trailing car are using their phones to provide running commentary to the lead car, another layer of distraction is created. Police found that in the New York tragedy, the driver's cell phone received the text message "what are you doing?"about 30 seconds before the crash; the driver might have been attempting to text back when she lost control. On congested highways, it is nearly impossible for two cars to stay right together with the first driver leading the second. Use MapQuest, use GPS, use good old Rand McNally, agree to meet at a certain place and time -- but don't drive as a caravan! Distraction is a principal cause of crashes by young drivers, and few road situations distract a young driver more than attempting to lead a high-speed caravan.

Clip No More

This is the kind of thing that you think everybody knows about (like having a AAA card), but not everybody does. If you buy something at an online retailer, you should go to a search engine and type, for example, "Toys R Us Online Coupon" or "Borders Coupon". That will direct you to a site such as Q-Pon Central or Coupon Cabin. It might only be a couple of bucks that you save, but why not save a couple bucks?