health insurance: October 2009

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

A Fundamental Secret to Happiness? Get Enough Sleep (and exercise in the morning) http://bit.ly/u7LR

How big is a carbon atom compared to a coffee bean? http://bit.ly/2e4mm9 from The University of Utah -- Learn Genetics portal from The University of Utah http://bit.ly/yJL4E

The Beatles' "Hey Jude" Flow Chart http://bit.ly/2Wa8X1

Michael Arrington: Don’t Be A Featured Loser: Facebook "Helps Out" The Unpopular http://bit.ly/xy91p

Who’s Talking About You on the Internet? http://bit.ly/4easza - Tips how to monitor your online reputation.

Write Comments on any Web Page with the Sidewiki Bookmarklet http://bit.ly/yw0yK - How to place your comment at the top if you own a site.

New Transparent Navbar Styles for Blogger-hosted blogs http://bit.ly/rNHvV - The Navbar should be opt-in or opt-out...

RT @Neil_Mehta "Schools need to create guidelines for use of social media to manage risk http://bit.ly/14jLcz"

(You can say I'm wrong but) I just can't think of social media experts as "rock stars"

Tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source, links, etc. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Health News of the Day

Health News of the Day is a daily summary made from the selected links I post on Twitter. It is in a bullet points format with links to the original sources which include 350 RSS feeds that produce about 2,500 items per day:

Cell: Should scientists be tweeting? http://bit.ly/26r4Vh - Yes, of course they should be.

Graph: the more time people spend eating, the lower the rate of obesity http://bit.ly/aPr4Y

Doctor practices lose financial ground as recession outpaces productivity. Urologist: "We're working 12-13-hour days, and we get told we should work more and see more patients. We cannot". The number of patients seen dropped 11.3% and outpatient procedures dropped 9.9% in 2008. http://bit.ly/1JRZpb

Glatiramer is efficacious in delaying conversion to multiple sclerosis in clinically isolated syndrome/MRI lesions http://bit.ly/3tIhmc

Reliance on self reported smoking status underestimated true smoking by 25% http://bit.ly/4ebAjJ

Over the past 30 years mortality from liver disease has increased 6 times in the UK, rising 8–10% a year http://bit.ly/1SEVm1

Medical news tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source, links, etc. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Follow me on Twitter:

Friday, October 30, 2009

Video: Clinical Pearls in Gastroenterology from Mayo Clinic

The social media department of Mayo Clinic is combining journal articles and videos from the lead authors. This is a useful approach and I suggested it to the NEJM editors during the NEJM Horizons Conference in 2008.

Dr. Amy Oxentenko, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, discusses "Clinical Pearls in Gastroenterology" (http://tinyurl.com/ydwqtk7 for complete article).

References:
Clinical Pearls in Gastroenterology. Amy S. Oxentenko, MD and Scott C. Litin, MD. Mayo Clinic Proceedings October 2009 vol. 84 no. 10 906-911.

Health News of the Day

Two hours of tai chi per week can improve osteoarthritis symptoms in older patients http://bit.ly/3wcfC9

Children still shedding H1N1 virus 2 weeks after symptoms start, may not be synonymous with virus being infectious http://bit.ly/4plZH1

Millions of Americans Don't Get Enough Sleep - 7 hours of rest a night is important for good health http://bit.ly/4KuTE

A practical guide to interpretation and clinical application of personal genomic screening - BMJ Review http://bit.ly/4rXbiA

Postexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Infection - NEJM Clinical Practice http://bit.ly/2dnbF5

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Good riddance to Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

I hate it because it is all about the million pieces of junk we can buy that are pink.

The pink ribbon is everywhere. Ironically it is on things that just might cause breast cancer!

Breast Cancer Action calls these companies "pinkwashers." BMW, for example, gives $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure each time you test-drive one of their cars, even though pollutants found in car exhaust are linked to breast cancer.

Breast cancer is far too dangerous and serious of an enemy to be defeated by pink cleaning rags. From the earliest record of how a breast cancer patient feels to today's survivors who are saying "No thank you to the pink ribbon," it is clear that breast cancer can radicalize you.

It's easy for me to "Think Before I Pink" because I have issues with that uber-girly color. But even I had to do a double take when I saw that Dr. Susan Love has joined forces with Avon to launch Army of Women. Is this more pinkwashing? Or a real move to adjust the conversation from a cure for breast cancer to preventing it in the first place?

I honestly haven't a clue, but my first question is "What is in Avon cosmetics and could it give me cancer?"

Fundraiser: The Advantage and Disadvantage of Zine, a funding proposal

If you read my blog at my blog, you may have noticed a little box over there >>>>

That is a ChipIn widget for fellow Chicagoan, feminist and in her own right, total bad ass, Anne Elizabeth Moore. So it's not me asking for your dollars for me or my own sake, but rather for Ms. Bad Ass. Here's what she's fundraising for:

Advantage and Disadvantage of Zine is a long-term, multifaceted collaboration with a group of young women college students in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I first met these young women when I was offered a residency in their dormitory, where I lived for two months during the winter of 2007-2008. (To read more about this work, scroll down to the right-hand section of this blog, Camb(l)o(g)dia, Condensed.) During my time there I initiated a close relationship with all 32 residents, and together we created two seperate bodies of self-publishing work and initiated an international dialogue about human rights and young women in developing nations. I intend to return in December to continue this work during a time of tremendous need.

So click on over there or fuck it, here's the widget and the full funding proposal:

Give $5, yes the cost of a fancy coffee, and help send Anne back to Cambodia to organize a fabulous group of young women. Or buy the booklette! So what are you waiting for?

Where to send the girls who do like computer science

Originally posted at AWEARNESS

WOW!

I can't believe the response my post about girls and computer science on Wednesday received on Twitter. Thanks. Many of the retweets were of "don't forget us too!" variety, so to follow up on the popular post, here is a quick run down of just a handful of the amazing groups working to recruit girls to computer science and keep them interested. Please, please add additional ones in the comments!

Anita Borg: This is a powerhouse organization that works to connect tech companies to women. ABI offers workshops, publications and information aimed to develop leadership skills; celebrates and highlights the success of women who are changing the face of technology; and provides programs that change the way technology is created, learned and taught. One peek at their board and you'll see that the movers & shakers of technology are gathering at ABI to bring more women to the keyboard.

Read the rest of the resource list over at AWEARNESS please. Thanks!

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Over 400 Hospitals use Social Media - see the list http://bit.ly/3gOTHC

X-rays: Top 10 Foreign Bodies http://bit.ly/qpAHS

RT @JohnSharp Cleveland Clinic now has same day appts in any specialty http://bit.ly/EfjWb

Listorious.com Has A Directory Of The "Best" Twitter Lists http://bit.ly/2WIfU7

Scoble: "Why I don't use Google Reader anymore" http://bit.ly/rw6NY

Check the new Google Music here: http://bit.ly/24DoPb - more info: http://bit.ly/4yRqSm

Health News of the Day

24 risk factors responsible for nearly half of annual deaths, says the WHO. 57% of cardiovascular deaths can be traced back to 3 risk factors—high blood pressure, high BMI, physical inactivity http://bit.ly/7Nujn

Time for a moratorium on vitamin D meta-analyses? http://bit.ly/zWrx4

Warnings about the validity of the oral glucose tolerance test in BMJ http://bit.ly/16IGha

"Doctor who focuses on the disease in the person, rather than the person in the disease" - BMJ http://bit.ly/a2uJJ

On-the-job exercise good for employee and employer: decreases cholesterol and job stress, improves attendance http://bit.ly/2tQaE2

Language of Smiles: When it comes to mood adjustment, is it possible that putting on a happy face might actually work? http://bit.ly/YEjpt

CNN: Bystander or Genovese syndrome http://bit.ly/48vF2A - Terrible.

CNN Video: Psychostimulants popular on college campuses, easy to get

CNN Video: Psychostimulants popular on college campuses, easy to get.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Book Review: The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre

The problem with The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do by Peg Tyre is that it is a good book wrapped up in so many stereotypes it is difficult to find the true nuggets of knowledge.

As a grown up tomboy who ended up marrying a man who sat still as a young boy, I find dealing in stereotypes completely unhelpful to the conversation. In fact I am so allergic to them that it takes a lot of data for me to say uncle. Tyre claims to want to rip the myths to shreds, but I fear that she merely reinforces them.

One myth that needs to die is that boys are violent. Boys may be rougher than girls in their play, but violent shouldn't be tolerated. There is a line and we need to keep our boys on the proper side of that line. Tyre correctly blasts against zero tolerance rules, but we still need to deal with violence in our classrooms or the emergence of violence. Star Wars = ok, bloody murder scenes NOT ok.

Hands on learning is essential to all students, girls as well as boys. Tyre repeatedly talks to teacher after teacher about how boys learn better when they get their hands on something, they run around or put theory into action. Just because girls learn better than boys in a "sit down and be quiet" way does not mean that they can't also benefit from hands on activities. In fact it is hands on activities that will help girls break thru the glass beaker ceiling.

And this is where recess comes into play. Or rather a discussion of how recess is becoming more of a luxury than a staple. Yes, boys need to run the ants out of their pants, but girls need exercise too. From just learning to discover the power of their bodies to staying healthy, we shouldn't paint recess as a solution just for boys. But this was one point where I did learn how horrible our boys do have it with the quick to diagnose ADHD and the insistence that they have the wild rumpus medicated out of them. Again, this is where girls do benefit for being "good" and it sucks. That said, my daughter can't sit still to save her life, so I'm a bit worried of the ADHD verdict as well.

Tyre does tackle the "reading is for girls" stereotype by calling men out for not doing more reading with their sons and the boys in their lives. Her example of a firefighter coming in to read to classes is an excellent way to address the issue. Much different than say my nephew who improved his grades once he saw that some of the pretty girls were also smart! Or the teacher on Donors Choose who sought to entice the boys to read by getting the girls to fall in love with women authors. Oh, the bad well-meaningness of it all!

On the other hand Tyre blames those who championed "children are all the same" for the ramblings of Michael Gurian. Gurian's theory is that boys and girls brains are fundamentally different, so different that single-sex schools are needed. The problem is that no well-regarded scientist will back him up. Tyre's explanation for his success and popularity? That parents of boys NEED to have validation that their boys are different. OK, your boy is different than my girl, but difference can be managed.

And here's where I agree with Tyre. Our schools are in trouble. Boys and girls are suffering from standardized testing and the ramping up of education that goes along with it. Yes, I want all of our kids to read at grade level, do math well and graduate on time. But that doesn't mean that we need to have our first graders doing third grade work or pre-schoolers in professional tutoring to prepare for kindergarten.

Tyre spends a lot of time trying to discredit anyone who claims that the boy crisis is overblown (which I agree). On page 43 she takes Kim Gandy, past President of NOW, to task for drawing a line between how boys (men) are reacting to the changing role of girls (women) and rape. "How can concern about boys in the classroom be linked, even tangentially, with rape?" It's pretty simple to a woman who was pinned to a classroom desk in biology class by a boy while the teacher just stood there. It's about power. Girls are exerting their power in the classroom, yet a boys will be boys mentality still rules in life. Yes, there are zero tolerance policies, but I'll get to those later. Rape is a tool of power or more precisely a lack of power. It's really not that hard to see that aggression against women and girls can start right in the classroom.

Tyre does a great job at running the college admissions numbers. There has been a lot of whining about how hard it is to get into college, but the simple fact is that we have a record number of men and women entering college period. Colleges, especially state schools just cannot handle the increased capacity and thus making colleges even more competitive to get into.

Ironically we are at a point where we can say that boys just might be the canary in the coalmine when it comes to schools. Schools are so scheduled that there is little time for physical activity that is critical for boys and girls. Art and music is pushed out in favor of double reading and math time. Administrators can't fully grasp what it means to have actual sexual harassment occur so they set up zero tolerance rules rather than work to address the reason why boys (more often than not) feel entitled to touch or harass girls.

Boys are different, yes they are. But as Lise Eliot (her book is next!) says in Pink Brain, Blue Brain, the different among boys is far greater than between girls and boys.

I do recommend this book for those of us without sons. It is amazing what our society has done to boyhood, not just in trying to squash it, but also to romanticize it ala a conservative right-winger longs for a return to "Leave it to Beaver" days. If you can keep licking that block of salt, you will learn things that will knock your socks off. For those of you with sons, I fear this would only feed into your fears. Eliot's book is more up your alley.

Need to get yourself a copy? Try an indie bookstore or Powells.com.

Wanted: Girls who like computer science - From AWEARNESS

Originally posted at AWEARNESS

Despite the rise of women attending college and becoming the majority of the workforce, one area that continues to be ignored by women and girls is computer science.

There are many theories as to why girls love using computers (women are the majority of social media users) but don't want to learn how to program or build computers. There are those who chalk it up to gender differences plain and simple. Some believe it is because girls are repelled by geek or hacker culture. Universities and companies who hire computer scientists are constantly recruiting girls and trying to show them why computer science is a great option.

One part of the theory why girls are excluded from hacker culture is that it is too "frattish" and misogynistic. That is why I find the lap dances at a recent Yahoo! event (Yahoo! paid for women to dance in skimpy clothing at a "brainstorming session") to be especially atrocious.

Read the rest over at AWEARNESS please! Thanks.

Health News of the Day

Fewer than half of patients with fatigue get explanation for their symptoms within a year http://bit.ly/ZrtG1

"Smoking's Damage Swift, Irreversible" - inflicting damage on the arteries with the very first puffs http://bit.ly/7zqXG

Migraine is associated with a twofold increased risk of ischaemic stroke among people who have migraine with aura http://bit.ly/Qltjn

Many Tout Curative Properties of Titanium, Copper, Silver and Gold, but the Science Isn't There http://bit.ly/iapgg

Toxins Make Halloween Face Paints Scary: all products tested contained lead, 60% had nickel, cobalt or chromium http://bit.ly/21tmea

Arzerra (ofatumumab) has been approved by the U.S. FDA to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) http://bit.ly/4wsGsE

ESPN: "Andre Agassi used crystal meth while he was playing professional tennis, according to a new autobiography" http://bit.ly/ZEBe7

Tackling 5 factors could increase global life expectancy by 5 years: nutrition, unsafe sex, alcohol, sanitation, HTN http://bit.ly/1VsRrh

Hospitals mandating use of smartphones for affiliated doctors

From American Medical News:

63% of physicians already own smartphones and many have discovered that they can be a valuable work tool. Now some hospitals are buying smartphones for affiliated doctors and mandating use.

Henry Ford Medical Group in Detroit purchased BlackBerry phones for all 1,204 of its physicians. The BlackBerry has become a "tremendously popular time-saver, for example, physicians can give patients their direct cell phone numbers rather than the number to an answering service."

While Henry Ford's physicians have the ability to access patient records via their BlackBerry phones, few do because of the limitations of the small screen. Every physician has the drug reference application Epocrates.

References:
Smartphone use pushed by hospitals.American Medical News, 2009.
Image source: BlackBerry 7250. Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Social media is not for everyone http://bit.ly/FSDXF - True. Social media use by physicians should not (and cannot) be an "obligation".

The genius brothers behind Google Wave - CNN http://bit.ly/3KQ7vi

Gmail account security tips http://bit.ly/26iOAR

Gmail address/contact list is showing that it can be a powerful tool for connecting you to your social contacts http://bit.ly/17bYcz -- RT @steverubel The Next Great Social Network? Your Address Book http://ff.im/-aAUq8

Internet Speeds and Costs Around the World, Shown Visually http://bit.ly/2vxHJQ

Review: The Best Smartphones On The Market http://bit.ly/4soD4C

The new Yahoo search includes social networks by default when searching for a name http://bit.ly/13aXBX

2010 Software Security Suites: The Best and Worst - a PC Magazine review http://bit.ly/1HHODx

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Book Review: So Sexy So Soon by Diane E. Levin and Jean Kilbourne

Britney. Bratz dolls. Thongs for girls. Those are the things we think about and blame for the sexualization of childhood. In So Sexy So Soon, Diane E. Levin and Jean Kilbourne teach us about how commercialization and consumerism is quickly destroying childhood.

First of all, one might think this is a book for those of us with daughters. Nope! This is one is for parents, period. While there is a huge focus on the sexualization of girls, there is also great conversations about boys and how toys and media are screwing with their sexuality.

Levin & Kilbourne don't lecture parents. They are sympathetic to our situation, but they are stern in pushing us to assert our power as parents. It's not all about saying no in here, but they talk about how to say yes, how to talk with our kids about the decisions we make and how to make stores, marketers and product producers accountable.

Take child thongs for example. Look up blog posts about them and those who aren't outraged by them say things like, "If you don't like them, don't buy them for your kid." Well, it's not as simple as that. There is an excellent list of 12 reasons why it's not as simple as parents saying no. #10 sums it up: "It lets the media & marketing industries completely off the hook." So far, so good in my home, but saying it is all up to us as parents minimizes the huge market forces pounding on our children every single day. My daughter didn't see one scene from "High School Musical" or "Hannah Montana" before she was 4, but she knew who they were because kids in her preschool were bringing items plastered with them. And what kids see, kids want.

Honestly it's tiring saying no to everything, so many of us weigh things and say yes to things we think are the lesser of two evils. Levin & Kilbourne enlighten us to how even the lesser of the evils is setting up our children to end up right where we don't want them. There is an excellent discussion about princess culture and how that sets up girls to see beauty and their outward appearance as their source of validation and that sexiness is our goal. Princesses and "tame" teen shows teach girls and boys what it means to be sexy and they strive for that. What the media, schools and parents aren't teaching our kids is what sexy means and how it is different than sex. There's a sick logic to how we go from Bratz dolls for pre-tweens to seeing high school girls embrace Playboy as empowering.

Levin & Kilbourne discuss how children's minds evolve and how to talk to them appropriately AND how to figure out how they jumped to a conclusion without going batshit. For me, this was one of the best parts of the book. Where do kids get such crazy ideas? Well they put it together from what they see, but how much logic goes into it depends on their age and development. Again, it is hard for an 8-year-old to understand the difference between wanting to have sex with someone and dressing up to be sexy. Media and as an extension, toys, are blurring that line that many of us wrestled with in high school.

As for boys...Even though I don't have a son, I have two nephews and a gaggle of boys to love from my godson's family. Levin & Kilbourne discuss how professional wrestling and hyper-masculine toys are screwing up how boys see sex and how that then screws up their ability to deal with the girls in their lives. We all know that adult images are just a few clicks away on the internet. This increase in the rise of sexual images in media coincides with the decline in real sex ed in the schools.

This book is far from anti-sex or prudish. Rather, Levin & Kilbourne are repeatedly talking about the need for sexuality education. Let's teach kids about not the how-to of sex, but the how-to-feel of sex. What does it mean to love someone? What does it mean to have sex with that person? How do you know when it's being done right? For over a decade, abstinence-only sex ed has been telling our kids to "Just say no" to sex, yet TV, movies, music, billboards and even their toys are telling them to be sexy. Talk about a tease! "But sex in commercial culture has far more to do with trivializing and objectifying sex than with promoting it, more to do with consuming than with connecting (p 9)."

Too often the answer to how to deal with the sexualization of childhood is to either stop showing anything with sex in it or to loosen up, they are just kids. Levin & Kilbourne find that uncomfortable middle that does put a lot of agency in parents, but they also arm us with a lot of helpful data and knowledge.

This is a must-read.

Please get yourself a copy thru an indie bookstore or Powells.com.

Disclaimer: I received this book directly from the publishers on my request over a year ago.

EVENT: Media Democracy Day -- Chicago, 2009

Join fellow progressive media professionals and activists to discuss how we can work together to create more media democracy and media justice, important steps to building a just society.

The Metro Chicago Progressive Media Network …
invites you join us for ...

2009 Media Democracy Day - Chicago
Date/Time: November 7, 2009, 1-4-pm
Location: Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn Ave, Chicago, IL
See: www.chicagoprogmedia.org

. PROMOTE MEDIA ACCESS TO ALL SEGMENTS OF SOCIETY!

. PROMOTE MEDIA THAT INFORMS THE PUBLIC ON IMPORTANT ISSUES!

. NETWORK WITH OTHER PROGRESSIVE MEDIA PROFESSIONALS AND MEDIA ACTIVITS

. CREATE MEDIA INITIATIVES TO STRENGTHEN DIALOGUE AROUND THE CHALLENGES FACING OUR WORLD!

Initially Media Democracy Day (MD day) was organized by local Toronto and Vancouver groups of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. In 2002, events were held in cities around the world. A Media Democracy Day has been held in Chicago in the past.

Today the tradition of MD Day is carried on by local citizens and student groups in Canada and around the world. This year a group of media activists and professionals is planning for 2009 Media Democracy Day - Chicago with the objective of including representation and participation from all around the Chicago area. The timing of the event is planned to coincide with the date of Media Democracy Day in Vancouver, Canada.

Goals of 2009 Media Democracy Day - Chicago:
1) to bring together area progressive media professionals and media activists to share their perspectives on how we can promote a media system that informs the public on important issues and provides media access to all segments of society.

2) to create coherent messages and media initiatives to draw public attention and broaden and strengthen dialogue around serious issues and challenges facing the area, the nation, and the planet.

Part I - Panel The event will feature concise (5-7 minutes) presentations by key area media activists, media professionals, media-related organizations and academics covering the full spectrum of the reform media map:

1) mainstream media itself, its content, structure, sources, balance, etc..

2) alternative media of all types, including TV, radio, print, internet, performance, and graphics,

3) public awareness and education about the media, and

4) the media environment, including legislation and regulations.*

The panel is also planned to include media representatives from the Latin-American community, the African-American community, women, youth, and the GLBT community.

Part II - Working Groups and Skills sharing
Tract 1 - Working Groups The second part of the event will consist of facilitated breakout working groups, tasked with
1) discussion and then
2) formulating actionable items.

Tract 2 - Skills Sharing, such as blogging, video, and editing

Part III - Report-back The last component will be a facilitated report-back session. A summary of the report-back will be made available to interested attendees. LIST OF

PANELISTS
Mitchell Szczepanczyk, Chicago Media Action
Joel Bleifuss, Editor, In These Times
Tim Wais, HumanThread
Veronica Arreola; Educator, Blogger (vivalafeminista.com)
Larry Duncan, Labor Beat
Robert Koehler, Syndicated Columnist
Mike Barr, Documentary filmmaker
Karen Bond, National Black Coalition for Media Justice The Metro Chicago
Kevin Gozstola, documentary filmmaker completing a Film/Video degree at Columbia College

Progressive Media Network (MCPMN), which was formed in November 2007, is an area networking group of media professionals and media activists,

*Source: Hackett, Robert A. and William K. Carroll, Remaking Media: The struggle to democratize public communication. 2006

Health News of the Day

Benefit of Perioperative Beta Blockers Confirmed in Large Study - Medscape http://bit.ly/2fHOcI

Cell Phone May Reduce Bone Density in Hips http://bit.ly/4sloSy

Dopamine, as a neurotransmiter, is less about pleasure and reward than about drive and motivation http://bit.ly/3n4d6Y

BBC: Secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter & at least 5 years younger. If the wife was 5 years older than her husband, they were more than 3 times as likely to divorce (comp. to same age) http://bit.ly/1xskH5

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Survey: 79% of American adults use the internet, 85% carry cell phones, 56% have a wireless connection. 48% of African American & Latino adults go online using a mobile device, compared with 28% of white adults. Pew Internet surveys find that 35% of adults use social network sites like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn http://bit.ly/DF07V

Google Social Search: add a link to your Twitter page & Google will find people you follow & content they produce http://bit.ly/fanmx

Video: 11 Years of Google in 2 Minutes http://bit.ly/3SzP48

Google Social Graph API - Find Your Social Media Connections http://bit.ly/4ihx5c

One of the nice things about Twitter is that it makes people who would not blog tweet.

Google not trapping users’ data: by making it easy to leave Google, people are actually less likely to leave Google http://bit.ly/4fzIpj

Google Social Search shows search results from your "social circle" http://bit.ly/3IgIgD - Try it here: http://bit.ly/nD2aC

10 things Google has taught us - CNN http://bit.ly/1X5m1E - Among them, "Life is long but time is short."

"Day (or night) in the life of a nocturnist" - Musings from a hospitalist http://bit.ly/5ScuJ

Scope is the official blog of Stanford University School of Medicine

The Scope blog is written by 13 medical school writers at Stanford who recognize that blogging provides a great way to discuss medical, research, and health-policy news. Their goal is to deliver high quality, timely, and compelling coverage of science and medicine around the world.

Scope is published by the Office of Communication and Public Affairs at Stanford University School of Medicine that has more than 150 years experience covering health policy, medicine, and basic science research.

Stanford also publishes Stanford Medicine magazine, Inside Stanford Medicine, a health policy podcast called 1:2:1, a Flickr photo stream, a YouTube channel, and a Facebook fan page.

This is the Atom feed of Scope: http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/atom.xml (click to subscribe).

Image source: Scope, "fair use" license.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Gender Trouble Week

This week I'll be sharing reviews of books that deal with the gender of our children and our parenting.

I am the mother of a six-year-old girl and as long time readers know, I keep on eye out on how girls and their toys are sexualized. As an advocate for education equity, I keep tabs on the changed that our sons and daughters are making n the classroom.

As a feminist I get told that we're post-feminist, the battle of the sexes is over and it's our boys who need a revolution.

To that I say hell no and hell yes!

Women may be the majority of workers but we still are paid only 78% to a man's dollar (even less so for women of color), tracked into low prestige and low wage careers and we still carry the burden of caregiving for our families. The feminist revolution is far from over.

The next stage will be to free our brothers from the claustrophobic gender role box. If you read media depictions of why boys are falling behind you see feminists being blamed, but also painting boys as lazy and unwilling to learn. The boy revolution will free them from the testosterone ball and chain.

The books I will review this week include:

So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood, and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids by Diane E. Levin and Jean Kilbourne, The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do by Peg Tyre and Pink Brain, Blue Brain: how small differences grow into troublesome gaps--and what we can do about it by Lise Eliot.

As an introduction to this week's reviews, I want to emphasize that while I went into the books very biased, I learned a lot from each one, especially Tyre's The Trouble with Boys. That book gave me such a brain cramp that it's taken me a year to write a review because I've been processing it and trying to figure out how to say what I want to say. Things are changing and we need to change with it.

I do believe that in some sense the battle of the sexes are over -- And I mean that as we need to stop pitting our girls and our boys against each other, especially in terms of education equity because there should be enough education to go around.

Words Really Do Matter

When not thought out – such as a carelessly worded e-mail, words can annoy, hurt or wound the spirit. When they are spoken or written with the full feeling of our hearts, they can heal and even transform. That was what I’ll remember most from attending the third annual Wellness & Writing Connections Conference on Oct. 23 at Georgia Tech.

The conference’s keynote speaker was someone who touched me with her sincerity -- a “sister in spirit” -- author, journalist and 33-year writing professor Julie Davey. A two-time cancer survivor, Julie gives back by teaching cancer patients how to use writing to heal at the City of Hope Medical Center in Los Angeles.
To our group of 100 writers, she shared the stories of some of her students to demonstrate the power of directed writing (as opposed to journal writing) for people needing to face their sadness, fear, frustration, pain.
She told the story of Linda Bergman, a famous Hollywood producer with 26 films to her credit, who got cancer on her 50th birthday as she was filming “Michael Landon: The Father I Knew.” Julie recalled how Linda was about to give up with the chemo treatments that weren’t making her better. She was ready to check out of the hospital and go home to die. Her family and oncologist at the City of Hope convinced her to try one final trial. Four months later she was cured. Linda donates one day a week at the City of Hope, serving as an anonymous greeter to arrivals at the cancer center. Linda wrote about her victory and how much she loves serving others facing cancer in “Free at Last:”

I have reached my goal – I am no longer the victim.
I am assisting those who have come behind me.
I see it on the patient’s faces when I get the opportunity to say, ‘Oh you have leukemia. I had that, too.’
I see the light in their eyes as they search mine for answers.
No, we don’t always have the same disease, but they know I speak their language.
They know I can be trusted.
They know I have faced the demons and lived to tell about it.
They know I am disease-free and standing in the midst of the storm, shining a light to them.
They know I love them because I am them.

Julie also spoke about her favorite student of all time – Violet Wightman, who began taking her writing classes at Fullerton College at age 91. Violet’s ice-breaker introduction was that she was a friend to both Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and the famous aviator Amelia Earhart – statements that she later proved were true. Violet was a former concert pianist who raised her four children alone after her husband, a Hollywood dentist, died tragically in a car accident in Europe. Always outspoken and colorful in class, Violet had aspirations to write her life story. Upon learning she had terminal cancer, this desire became urgent. Julie and others at the college helped Violet pull together her writing collection, Sitting on a Cloud, before her death.

Each of us attending Julie’s talk got to experience directed writing. We were given an envelope with the message, “Please wait to open.” When it was time to open my envelope, it read: “The day I would like to relive (or live over) would be the day…."

I didn’t have to think for long. I wrote, “The day my terminally ill mother asked if I could spend the day with her because it was a good day (she was feeling okay), and I didn’t because of work deadlines. I thought there would be more days but they became fewer in number as her condition deteriorated. I would love to have that day back, because she’s gone and the work wasn’t important.”

My mother died on Aug. 3, 2004, three weeks after my son was born. This brief episode in my mother’s nine-month struggle with stage four lung cancer has always haunted me. I bitterly think about my absorption in work –and I hated myself for not taking a break from the daily grind of client expectations to realize that time was short – that soon I would no longer have my mother to talk with, share confidences with, to be with for those mother-daughter moments that were such a fabric of our relationship. I admit I cried as I wrote those words. Getting them down on paper helped me accept that I am human and most importantly, that my mother knew how much I loved her...that our bond is unshakeable, unchanged no matter how many years pass.

I did my own form of healing through narrative by penning A Breath Away: Daughters Remember Mothers Lost to Smoking 10 months after my mother's passing. I poured out my pain through my own remembrances and those of other daughters who lost their mothers too soon, using my skills as a storyteller and interviewer. It was a healing experience, and one I hope to continue as I explore adapting some of these stories for the stage.

So, how do you get started? Consider these exercises, suggested in Julie’s book, Writing for Wellness, when you have a quiet moment and want to get in touch with your feelings:

Tribute Letter

• Write a letter to someone missing in your life. Write about the good times you shared and describe why you miss them today. Share your letter with a person who knew or was related to your loved one or friend.

Unfinished Business

• Is there some event in your life that still makes your angry or sad? Finish this sentence: When (describe the incident) happened, I felt….

Lessons Learned

• What lessons have you learned so far in your life? Make a list of five to ten – explain in a few words how you learned these lessons, or finish one of these sentences:

I learned the hard way that….

I wish my parents had told me…

I would like to tell my children or friends to always…

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Is It Safe to Post Children’s Images on Online Photo Sites? - NYT http://bit.ly/1CYhIM

Google Docs Batch Export: Now you can export all your docs, spreadsheets, PPTs nd PDFs in a ZIP archive http://bit.ly/SEjQP

Video: Healthcare and Internet in The Netherlands http://bit.ly/17MHyt

Impressions of Google Wave ~ an Australian Perspective http://bit.ly/1jikP4

The Status of the Medical Blogosphere and BlogWorld Expo 2009: Videos and More http://bit.ly/39bBG1 by @laikas

State of the Blogosphere 2009 Survey by Technorati

I summarized a few interesting data points from the annual Technorati survey:

Bloggers are a highly educated and affluent group, the majority have a household income of $75,000 per year or higher. The average blogger has three or more blogs and has been blogging for two or more years http://bit.ly/1G9jfG

Two-thirds of the bloggers are male, 60% are 18-44, only 4%“blog full-time for a company or organization http://bit.ly/II4ax

The rise of the professional blogger continues, 70% are better known in their industry because of their blog. Only 12% of professional bloggers report that they blog about their “personal musings” http://bit.ly/3zJxgE

In addition to its positive personal impacts, bloggers have experienced positive career impacts. Just 6% of bloggers say that relationships with friends or family members have suffered as a result of blogging http://bit.ly/1WXLY6

Blogging is on an upward trajectory in many ways - 57% say that their future plans include blogging even more.

One in five bloggers report updating on a daily basis. The most common rate of updating is 2-3 times per week. Higher authority bloggers are much more prolific content creators, posting 300 times more than lower ranked bloggers http://bit.ly/1vTJqp

Bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to increase traffic to their blogs. 74% of bloggers use a third party service to track site traffic. Google Analytics is by far the most popular tool http://bit.ly/1giB3v

72% of bloggers are classified as Hobbyists, meaning that they report no income related to blogging. Annual revenues from blog advertising: $14,400 for Part-Timers and $122,200 for Self-Employed http://bit.ly/2DG9NH

Bloggers use Twitter much more (73%) than does the general population (14%). Blogs receive only 0.83% of their page views from Twitter referrals. http://bit.ly/19uFeq

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Health News of the Day

Walt Disney offering refunds for “Baby Einstein” videos purchased since 2004, admitting they did not increase intellect http://bit.ly/4qgBGd

This month's Journal of Hospital Medicine is focused on hospitalists as medical educators http://bit.ly/4u7P43 via @medpedshosp

M. D. Anderson Cancer Center mission statement: to “eliminate cancer in Texas, the nation and the world” http://bit.ly/utzka

"Worst Case: Choosing Who Survives in a Flu Epidemic" - NYTimes http://bit.ly/16tOIn

Low vitamin D may increase risk of death in older adults

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone and a component of a complex endocrine pathway sometimes called 'vitamin D endocrine system' (Medscape, 2012).

From Reuters:

Low levels of vitamin D may increase the risk of death in older adults, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Optimal vitamin D levels are considered to be between 80 and 120 nmol/L, although there are no set guidelines. On average, people in the current study had vitamin D levels of 66.0 nmol/L.

The risk of death was 47% higher among those with vitamin D levels between 25 and 49.9 nmol/L, relative to those with vitamin D levels of 100 or higher.

The risk of death due to heart disease was more than twofold higher in people with vitamin D levels lower than 25 nmol/L.

References:

Low vitamin D may be deadly for older adults. Reuters, 09/2009.
A vitamin D3 dosage of 800 IU/d increased serum 25-(OH)D levels to greater than 50 nmol/L in 97.5% of women http://bit.ly/GzBCcA
Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Video: Nook, Barnes & Noble’s Answer to Kindle

Nook, a new ebook reader by Barnes & Noble.

Nook looks nice but does not have a browser - the Kindle does. See a chart that shows how the Nook stacks up in the e-reader race http://bit.ly/35Qwum

Video: What Can Amazon Kindle 2 Do for You?

References:
Video: What Can Amazon Kindle 2 Do for You?
Link via OpenCulture.com.
Not Yet the Season for the Nook. NYT, 12/2009.

Updated: 12/09/2009

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Health News of the Day

Meta-analysis finds 6-13% increased risk of diabetes in those who received statin therapy http://bit.ly/3iX7vd -- Although statin therapy greatly lowers vascular risk, relationship of statins to incident diabetes remains uncertain http://bit.ly/3BFQv5 -- "Statin-Induced Diabetes" - the headline of this editorial may be a bit premature considering the available evidence http://bit.ly/15L33K

Diabetes drug liraglutide contains a satiety hormone that helps decrease appetite, it also lowers blood pressure. Liraglutide helps obese adults (without diabetes) lose more weight than the weight-loss drug orlistat (Xenical, Alli) http://bit.ly/14NW0U -- The injectable diabetes drug liraglutide helps obese people who do not have diabetes shed extra pounds http://bit.ly/1MbzKO

Having 5-8 glasses of water in the past 24 hours was associated with a 40% lower risk of having a gout attack. Drinking skim milk led to a 10% drop in uric acid levels (allopurinol results in a 20-30% drop) http://bit.ly/2JCdW8

Darusentan is a new vasodilatory, selective endothelin type A antagonist studied in treatment-resistant hypertension. Darusentan provides additional BP reduction in patients who have not attained treatment goals with 3 or more BP drugs http://bit.ly/1srCs2

Adult survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk for experiencing suicidal thoughts http://bit.ly/2k4573

Friday, October 23, 2009

NPR Video: How a Flu Virus Invades Your Body

NPR Video: How a Flu Virus Invades Your Body: "It starts very simply. A virus, just one, latches on to one of your cells and fools that cell into making lots more. Lots, lots more, like a million new viruses. This animation shows you how viruses trick healthy cells to join the dark side".

References:
Flu Attack! How A Virus Invades Your Body. NPR.

Health News of the Day

Patients who added a basal or prandial insulin to oral meds had better HA1c than patients who added a biphasic insulin http://bit.ly/3w3wCB

"Worried about flu symptoms but don't want to visit a germ-infested waiting room?" Check AMAfluhelp.org from AMA http://bit.ly/16NMgR

Reducing Improper Internet Use in Your Office: A Quick, Easy and Free Solution - from Medscape. "Average employee wastes 1.7 hours of an 8.5-hour workday, with personal Internet use being the leading time waster" http://bit.ly/4DHseU

Pollution in China in Pictures (Warning: graphic content) http://bit.ly/3J3pww

Video: A contact lens that displays the Internet

Reuters: A new contact lens is being developed that can monitor your health and even display the internet in front of your eye.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Video: "How to Sneeze" Demonstrated by Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius shows NBC’s Chuck Todd the “Elmo way” to sneeze.

Link via Frank J. Oswald.