Tag Archive for health

Healthy Seniors

May 23, 2016 Comments Off on Healthy Seniors

Two days from now (May 25) is National Senior Health and Fitness Day.  It’s a day when we older people think seriously about how we’re treating our bodies. The theme for this 23rd annual event is “Improve Yourself for a Better Self.”  All sorts of organizations are planning events we can participate in, including free health screenings and workouts :

  • Area Agencies on Aging
  • Banks
  • Health Clubs
  • Houses of Worship
  • Hospitals
  • Malls/Shopping Centers
  • Park & Recreation Departments
  • Retirement Communities
  • Senior Centers
  • State/Local/Aging Departments
  • And Many More!

You have a couple of days to call one of these or look in your local newspaper to find an event near you.  Be healthy!

 

 

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Planned Parenthood/Targeted Death

November 30, 2015 2 comments

This whole attack on Planned Parenthood has me in a quandary.  Personally, I don’t like abortions.  I would very much like, in this imperfect world, to see abortions a thing of the past.  However, I question the logic of the actions of some people who share my feelings.

How can you claim to want to save lives, then take lives (physically and/or emotionally) by bombing, shooting up, or setting fire to Planned Parenthood clinics?  How can you destroy the lives of medical staff who have nothing to do with abortions as they serve poorer women’s basic health needs (e.g., exams and mammograms)?  Without health care, these women are in danger of sickness and death.  For that matter, how can you endanger the lives of the very unborn babies you’re trying to save?  You never know for sure if a pregnant woman is present, not for an abortion but for prenatal care that she couldn’t afford to get elsewhere?  How much control do you have over the bomb fragments and debris or the bullets you shoot off–enough to be sure a person just walking past the facility or police officer  doing his or her job isn’t maimed or killed?

I just don’t get how those lives are any less innocent or worthwhile than the unborn life you want to save by violently attacking an entire clinic.  Isn’t all life sacred?  It should be.

 

 

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Protection for Smokers’ Rights

October 12, 2015 Comments Off on Protection for Smokers’ Rights

I’ve come up with a way to reestablish the currently trampled-on rights of smokers.  I’ve invented the NoSmoke Hood.  I don’t have a prototype for it yet, so let me describe it.

Its basic design is very similar to the picture below. It fits loosly around the head and snugly down on the shoulders.  Mine has a clear plastic front, with a triangular protrusion to allow space for the cigarette or cigar.  The smoker carries a small air purifying pack (can fit into backpack or purse).  A set of tubes runs to and from that pack to the hood to carry the smoky air to the unit and clean air back into the hood.  The unit will also have a small air-cooling device, to keep the smoker cool and comfy.

By using my invention, people can smoke away, anywhere and any time they wish and not face those ridiculous health regulations in public places or hear those annoying complaints from stupid, overly health-conscious bystanders.

I think I have a winner here.  What do you think?

 

 

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A Positive Look Back and Forward via UC Berkeley

December 30, 2014 Comments Off on A Positive Look Back and Forward via UC Berkeley

The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley has published its 2014 “Top 10 Insights from The Science of a Meaningful Life.”  For an explanation of each, click on their article cited above. Meanwhile, here’s the list:

  1. Mindfulness can reduce racial prejudice—and possibly its effects on victims.
  2. Gratitude makes us smarter in how we spend money.
  3. It’s possible to teach gratitude to young children, with lasting effects.
  4. Having more variety in our emotions—positive or negative—can make us happier and healthier.
  5. Natural selection favors happy people, which is why there are so many of them.
  6. Activities from positive psychology don’t just make happy people happier—they can also help alleviate suffering.
  7. People with a “growth mindset” are more likely to overcome barriers to empathy.
  8. To get people to take action against climate change, talk to them about birds.
  9. Feelings of well-being might spur extraordinary acts of altruism.
  10. Extreme altruism is motivated by intuition—our compassionate instincts.

I think there’s a lot to chew on as we finish one year and embark on a brand new one.

 

 

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Plastic Poison

December 13, 2014 Comments Off on Plastic Poison

40,000 garbage trucks filled with plastic = 270,000 tons of it floating around our oceans.  That’s what the current estimate is. And that’s a conservative guess, since fish, birds, and other species eat a good amount of it.  It’s unsightly and deadly for the critters who eat it or get hopelessly entangled in it.  It’s not healthy for humans, either.

This is something to think about next time we’re about to toss a plastic bottle cap, bag, food wrapper, or other item onto the roadway or gutter, where it can wash into the waterways leading to the ocean.  Or tossing those items off of a boat or bridge.

The item can’t be that heavy to hold onto until you see the next recycling container.

 

 

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Focus on Kids, not Parental Sexual Orientation

July 15, 2014 Comments Off on Focus on Kids, not Parental Sexual Orientation

Why (according to a University of Melbourne study) are kids of same-sex parents healthier?  One possibility cited is that same-sex families tend to get along better.  Another is that because same-sex parents are likely to share more child-rearing duties, basing them on skills rather than traditional gender roles, the children grow up in a more harmonious household.  These factors lead to increased health for a child.

But how about in other areas–temperament, behavior, mental health, emotional role, and self-esteem?  Those children scored the same as ones in the general population.  Except that kids with same-sex parents suffered due to the stigma of their parents’ sexual orientation.

What hurts most, apparently, is a child’s growing up in a single-parent household, especially with as single mother, who tends to struggle more financially than a single father.

In my opinion, this shows that a child thrives best in a home in which parents work at their marriage, share their talents in caring for a child, and maintain a harmonious household, whatever the sexual orientation of the parents.  No sensible person believes anymore–considering all the studies and anecdotal evidence–that homosexual parents raise children to be homosexual.  So why not concentrate on how kids are being raised and not add stress to their lives by focusing on what their parents do in the bedroom?

 Read about the study at http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/children-same-sex-parents-are-healthier-study-n149901.

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Save the World Through Meditation

April 4, 2014 Comments Off on Save the World Through Meditation

Meditation doesn’t just make you a better person mentally and physically, but it could also make you a better person when it comes to compassion.

A new study from Northeastern University and Harvard University researchers shows that meditation can improve compassion and do-gooder behavior. [These, researchers say, lead to a more content, healthier more compassionate life.]   The new findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.

[For the rest of this article from The Huffington Post, click on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/meditation-compassion-do-good_n_2993793.html.]

 

 

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Democracy in Tunisia & the U.S.

March 18, 2014 Comments Off on Democracy in Tunisia & the U.S.

Recently Tunisia passed a truly historic constitution widely heralded as a progressive and monumental document. 

Here’s just some of what these brave elected representatives agreed upon in the face of strong pressure from the more extreme factions of their parties:

  • Guaranteed equality between men and women
  • A constitutional mandate for environmental protection, only the third country in the world to do so
  • A declaration that health care is a human right, with preventative care and treatment for every citizen
  • A democracy with civil laws that respects freedom of religion
  • An established right to due process and protection from torture

 [Unfortunately, the U.S. falls short on some of these goals.  Let’s hope we and Tunisia can truly achieve all of them soon.]

In one stroke, Tunisia’s become more democratic than many Western countries have been for years. 

This is a revolution of democracy and a great victory for human rights — and the more we recognize that, the more Tunisia can shine as an example for the Western and the Arab world!

From http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4238?n=61068103.4ibRdx 

 

 

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A Lighter Look at Obamacare

October 9, 2013 Comments Off on A Lighter Look at Obamacare

My philosophy is, if you can’t understand something, pun(t). Thanks to Christine Murphy for sending me this one.

The American Medical Association has weighed in on Obama’s new health care package.  

The Allergists were in favor of scratching it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.

Meanwhile, Obstetricians felt certain everyone was laboring under a misconception, while the Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.

Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while the Pediatricians said, “Oh, grow up!”

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.  Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing and the Internists claimed it would indeed be a bitter pill to swallow. 

The Plastic Surgeons opined that this proposal would “put a whole new face on the matter.”  

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea. 

Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and those lofty Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the [sphincters]* in Washington.

*Sorry this is a family blog, so I changed a word. – Jackie

 

 

 

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Save Money & Be Healthy

September 30, 2013 Comments Off on Save Money & Be Healthy

Starting tomorrow, we’ll pay LESS for health insurance premiums–that’s according to (believe it or not) an insurance company, Kaiser, who cites a government report as its source and apparently believes it. Under “Obamacare,” rates will vary among states but will be overall lower than current rates.  If that’s true, and if all Americans will have affordable access to health care (a healthy nation is a strong nation!), why is that one group of legislators trying to kill the plan?*

Read the article for yourself in KHN News.

*[Note: I’m still soliciting members for my new political party, the Coffee Party, where our motto is “We are the caffeine to wake up America.”]

 

 

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