December 2009

  • January is National Lose Weight Month

    By sarajean on 12/31/09 2:36pm
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    It’s no surprise that, with all of the resolutions being made by nearly half the country, January just happens to be Weight Loss Month. Though losing weight can be beneficial in terms of long term health,  longevity, physical fitness and other facets of life, it should be a personal choice made because the person wants to lose weight for him or herself—not because it’s what your mother, your spouse, or society in general expects of you. It’s true that there are many obese people who could benefit from weight loss; it’s equally true that many of them function just fine, and that there are also plenty of healthy, slender people who believe themselves “fat” and plan on dieting to become “model thin.”

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  • January is Cervical Cancer Screening Month

    By sarajean on 12/31/09 5:45am
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    Getting screened for cervical cancer is one of the best investments you can make this new year. In 2009 alone, over 11,000 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed, and over 4,000 women died from the disease.

    A pap smear is usually enough to keep monitoring the health of your cervix. If you’re already on birth control, you may have to have an annual screening already at the request of your gynecologist. If not, you may be able to get by with one every three years up to age 29, depending on your risk factors and family history. All women who are sexually active should get a pap smear—and if you’re not sexually active by age 21, you should still get one by that time.

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  • How Much Exercise is Enough?

    By becksta on 12/30/09 11:54am
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    MET ChartMET ChartI never make News Years resolutions, but when people do, exercise and diet are usually at the top of the list. The NYT recently had a short article specifying how much exercise is really enough.

    Basically, the author researched several different studies and found different recommendations. For a mental health benefit, the absolute minimum of exercise is 20 minutes a week. This could include anything from walking to mild housework such as vacuuming. The problem is that this little amount of exercise would do absolutely nothing for your cardiovascular health. Nada. While it could be a start for those making New Year’s resolutions, it isn’t enough for most health benefits.


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  • The Health Benefits of Olive Oil

    By Niki Fears on 12/23/09 11:02am
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    olive oilolive oilOlive oil not only offers a great taste to a variety of dishes including pasta, chicken, and even salads, but it also has many health benefits and is a great substitute for high fat and sodium content items such as butter or oils made from animal fat. Here are just a few of the health benefits that you can get from adding olive oil to your diet.

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  • Health Care has 60

    By ecoscott on 12/20/09 5:14pm
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    Looking good in there!Looking good in there!As we come up toward the Christmas break, the senate is butting up against the deadline that President Obama wants them to finish the bill by. We all know they need the 60 votes, and we all know that somebody is being a holdout. The most recent holdout has been Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska.

    I was listening to Friday’s Morning Edition on NPR this morning, which threw the timing off a little for me as it’s Sunday morning, but on the program, Ben Nelson was saying that he didn’t think there was much of anything that anyone could say to change his mind and get him to sign on to the health care reform bill before the Christmas recess. He said that the language around abortion wasn’t strong enough, and that that was only the tip of the iceberg about his issues and reservations about the bill.

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  • Why the Senate SHOULD rush to pass the healthcare bill before Christmas.

    By ecoscott on 12/18/09 8:57pm
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    Where it's all happening...Where it's all happening...What? Now all of the sudden it’s a race to the finish? Now we are supposed to listen to the Senate democrats and believe that they are actually trying to pass the healthcare bill before the Holiday recess? Well, yes. And here’s why I think it’s a good thing:

    1.    It’s about time. The last deadline that the senate was racing against was the one that Obama suggested and that was… August. So, for the last 4 months they have essentially worked on one piece of legislation, and yeah, it’s not at all out of the box thinking or pressuring anyone about anything to think about passing it… sometime… this… year…

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