HealthyConcerns.com

Cross-post: BlogHer.com interview with Kathy Freston

Interviewed Kathy Freston for BlogHer. She's awesome:

http://www.blogher.com/interview-talking-health-oprah-and-veganism-author-kathy-freston

Happiness=lowered expectations?

Medical Lessons pointed me to an article in The Economist that discusses the "U-bend" of happiness. Apparently, once into middle age, we get happier.

Much of this, it is proposed,is because ambition dies, and acceptance is born. We realize we're never going to make it big; we accept that fact; our expectations are lowered, meaning our life is more apt to meet those expectations. Met expectations=happiness.

Reminds me of the time I got a new boss. He had no experience in Marketing and yet was temporarily managing my team...Product Management and Product Marketing. I delivered this awesome presentation on all the phases of Marketing (Inbound Product Management, Outbound Product Marketing, Marketing Communications, etc.)...and where we were performing well, and where we were unable to deliver everything we should. Of course I was trying to make him see how understaffed we were, and the impact it was having on our ability to perform. I also tried to make the point that ambitious, talented people get quite demoralized if they feel they cannot get their job done. It's not a good environment.

I'll never forget his response: Happiness is all about meeting expectations. Why don't you lower your expectations of what you need to deliver? 

I responded: If you could just talk to executive management and get their agreement that we can deliver less than everything i've outlined, that would be really great. Absolutely.

Heh.

Yeah, that never happened.

But I digress.

Medical lessons also reminded me that the nation of Bhutan measures something they call Gross National Happiness (GNH). That link leads to the official Bhutanese site about their GNH index. It's really kind of fascinating, outlining their methodology, among other wonky things.

Funny, I don't see anything about "lowering expectations" as the path to higher GNH. Looks like they list a whole bunch of other stuff like education, good governance, health, etc. 

So which is it?

What makes you happy?

According to new study: Exercise does not prevent weight gain

Depressing study showing that exercise does not prevent weight gain for middle-aged women...unless they're already at a healthy weight. Le sigh.

http://getbetterhealth.com/physical-activity-for-weight-loss-not-for-most-middle-aged-women/2010.06.26#more-22553

Of course as with any study, it raises as many questions as it answers. And since only the abstract is available at no cost on the JAMA site, I'm not sure if the answers are available or not.

Like: Isn't weight loss still (mostly) a mathematical equation? Is the fact that exercise did not prevent weight gain indicative that women who exercised were eating more to fuel their energy to exercise? Or is it disproving the whole generally accepted notion that weight loss is all about calories in vs. calories out.

Inquiring minds want to know, but might be too lazy to find out. Since, you know, there's now no motivation not to be lazy, right?

What? Is that not how I'm supposed to interpret this study? :)

University backs down, but I just can't stand not commenting

So a few weeks ago, via BlogHer, I learned of an historically black college, Lincoln University, that was introducing a new and shocking graduation requirement: If a student is tested and has a BMI over 30, they'll need to take a course on health/fitness to graduate.

BlogHer's post listed numerous rational questions that had come up on the online version of the school's on student newspaper, the Lincolnian:

• Why is the university focusing solely on BMI and physical education, when its cafeteria could be offering better-quality, fresher, organic food to its students?
• Does the university really want to lose bright, motivated students and prospective students who happen to have a BMI of 30 or higher?
• Why only target those who are declared obese based on the BMI, which is already a controversial way of measuring health?
• Why make high-BMI students pay for an extra credit hour, when students with a lower BMI do not have to do so?
• Why is the college not offering the same intervention to students with eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia?
• Is the college opening itself up to discrimination suits?

Amy Tuteur's post on Kevin MD is a scathing look at the policy, and asks several other rational questions:

• Why not have a class on substance abuse for binge drinkers, or on sexual health for those carrying STDs? Both of which cause a lot of immediate health issues...and not only for the student themselves, but for others they may encounter?
• And what, exactly, does obesity have to do with the kind of education colleges are purportedly offering to their students?

Personally, I had some other questions:

• If we grant that health is important enough to be a required class in college, why not have *everyone* required to take it. Surely plenty of people who are skinny in college hit about 35 and realize they can't indulge like they used to. Certainly nutrition and exercise are valuable subjects for all students?
• How about smokers? I mean if we're targeting behaviors that are unhealthy to students and those around them, isn't that an obvious one?
• What makes it OK to think a fat person is less deserving of or entitled to *academic advancement*? Because statistically they might be unhealthier. How big a leap is it to compare such ridiculous thinking to racist or sexist barriers to educational opportunity that used to be thrown up?

It's all kind of moot, because the University themselves realized that being accused of discrimination was not a position they wanted to be in, given their history and target student body.

But Ms. Tuteur agrees with something I blogged long ago: It's still OK to be anti-fat...the last socially acceptable "ism" around.

File that under: I did not know that

So, I've never had a Flexible Spending Account, even back when I worked at a company that offered one. 

For those of you who don't know what an FSA is, here's a good article, but it's basically a way to set aside some of your income, pre-tax, to spend on health-releated expenditures throughout the year. As the article points out, though, it's a use or lose it kind of thing, and apparently a lot of folks leave money on the table! (One of the reasons I was always nervous to do it when it was available to me.

I was pointed to that article by a rep for CVS, and I was only intrigued to look because she listed a whole bunch of stuff you can purchase in a regular drugstore that are FSA-reimbursable that truly surprised me. I think if I had known that the following list was comprised of all FSA-eligible items, I might have felt differently about the FSA opportunity:

 

Cold and flu medications
Hand sanitizer
Medicine-cabinet staples like allergy medication, pain relievers, antacids, and cotton balls
First aid: First aid kits and the products that often fill them, such as bandages and antibiotic ointment
Sunscreens: Sunscreens over SPF 30 are typically included in FSA spending, just make sure it doesn’t include a self-tanner or moisturizer, which may exclude the product. 

Who knew? Not me. I buy all of the above, don't you? 

Then again, there's paperwork involved. Sigh. Trade-offs.

Health tips for geeks

It's hard for me to stick through reading one hundred of anything, but I did make it through this list: 100 Healthy Hacks for Tech and Gadget Geeks.

The tips I really need to pay attention to:

Ergonomics:
#3: Rest Your Eyes: Every 20 minutes or so, focus on an object that is at least 20 feet away.

Diet: (A bunch)
#13: Eat spinach and leafy greens
#19: More whole grains
#23: Pumpkin seed! (Yum, happy to see that tip!)
#29: Quinoa (I've been meaning to experiment with this high-protein grain)

Exercise:
Oh, let's just say I should do 'em all in this category!

Taking breaks: I don't think I'll be taking any cat naps at work any time soon, but I should:
#42: Get up once and hour
#44: Stretch

Check-ups: I'm good at doing this!

Web Tools:
#54: I already use The Daily Plate app (both online and for the iPhone), and love it...I just need to be more consistent about it.

iPhone Apps:
#70: I gotta try this one: Muscle Head and Neck System

Stress
#73: Make time for yourself

Sleep Hacks
#77: Wind down before bed
#80: Address anxiety (by writing down everything stressing you out before bed...I'm skeptical)

Boost Your Immunity
#84: Getting enough sleep is my obvious bugaboo

Daily Habits
#89: Get natural sunlight (I'm trying to do this to boost my Vitamin D)
#95: I admit it, I need to floss more!

Those are just a few of the tips that resonate with me, although lots more are on my list of way I try to be conscious of my health. For every single tip, there's a link to more info or recommendations about how to incorporate that tip into your life, so the post is a real treasure trove of info.

So, check out 100 Healthy Hacks for Tech and Gadget Geeks. and let me know what first couple of tips you're going to try?

Quick Link: Fitting in Fitness this Holiday Season

BlogHer HQ has just moved to a new location, one with a fitness room available to all building tenants at no charge. I've even brought a bag with workout clothes to the office, where it waits patiently in my file cabinet drawer. But I have yet to take the plunge back in to exercising.

Not that I was a great exerciser before, but a few months ago my one reliable walking-buddy broke her foot, which led to surgery, so even that one commitment went out the window. And I didn't replace it with anything else.

Oh sure, a few weeks ago I put fresh batteries in the Wii Fit, so I could get back on track there, but I haven't done it yet.

So, I'm hoping to get a little inspiration from BlogHer's Crabby McSlacker, as she tackles all the common excuses in "Too Busy for Fitness This Holiday Season?"

My personal challenge: I'm traveling at least 3 days of each of the next three weeks. That means cross-country flights, hotel rooms, struggling to find vegan food (although luckily I'm hitting major urban centers, which are typically more veg-friendly.)

It would be so much easier to say I'll wait until my last frequent flier mile is logged for 2009, somewhere around December 17th.

But Crabby McSlacker will have none of it.

What are your tactics for fitting in exercise during this busy, stressful time of year?

I'm much nicer than some bloggers

OK, pet peeve rant ahead: I hate, hate, hate when a site comes up with some "Top 10 list", and then posts it in the most annoying time-wasting way possible. 

Top 10 lists are a little annoying to begin with. I can't abide Top 10 lists about bloggers at all. I know it's supposed to be human nature, but I don't see a need to rank bloggers. There are so many different kinds of bloggers doing so many different kinds of blogs, even within the same blogging niche. Ranking is a fool's game.

I can stand Top lists of apps or devices or other geek p0rn a little better.

I've been meaning to deeply peruse these 14 Practical Ways to Use Evernote, for example.

So when FierceHealthcare posted 15 Free Healthcare Apps for the iPhone, you know I clicked.

Too bad they followed the lead of such traditional media web sites as Fast Company or Newsweek, where they make you click to a new page to see each app.

Yes, I know it drives pageviews, which drives ad revenue.

Yes, I know it increases time spent on the site, which speaks "engagement" readers have with your sites.

But both metrics are, I think, inappropriately skewed by this method of posting. Do advertisers not even visit sites like this to see ho they're getting the traffic and stats they claim to have?

So, here are their recommended apps...go to the app store and search on them and save yourself a whole lot of clicking. I clickedm so you don't have to:

1. WebMd: I downloaded this one, since it's uber-comprehensive.

2. ePocrates Rx: Apparently this one is geared towards health professionals, so I passed.

3. EmergenKey: Designed to help you keep your own health info close at hand. Knock on wood, I don't see a huge need to have this one right now. (Although it reminds me that I don't know my on blood type.

4. Diabetes Log: Also not relevant to me, and hopefully never will be.

5. Health Cloud: Tied into Google Health, which I don't use, so I passed.

6. General Medical History: A basic history template for med students. Also no relevant.

7. Headache Diary: This is intriguing. Haven't had many headaches for a while now. (Which makes me wonder if they went away coinciding with going vegan 3 years ago?)

8. Reach MD CME: For doctors.

9. iTriage: Perfect for those who want to go the next step in Googlenosing themselves!

10. ICD-9 Lite: For medical professionals looking to get proper billing codes.

11. Swine Flu Tracker: If you are a hypochondriac, OCD, germphobe or otherwise fascinated by the Swine Flu, this is the app for you.

12. Sleep Tracker: OK, as a longtime insomniac, I did indeed download this. We'll see if I *use* it. (It's created by the makers of Tylenol, FYI.)

13. Skyscape Medical Resources: Very targeted to medical professionals.

14. Natural Cures: OK, I bit and downloaded this one. Can't hurt, right?

15. MedCalc: Also for medical professionals.

So, out of 15, I decided to download and try 3. Not a good ratio. I recognize that the site is for "healthcare executives", so I realize I'm not their target audience. Then again, the article title, "15 Free Healthcare Apps for the iPhone" sounds kind of universal. If you're a layperson like me, think of all the time I saved you :)

How many and which ones will you try?

Quick link: PCRM's 21-day Vegan Kickstart

If you've ever considered becoming vegan because for health reasons, then you might get the little boost you need by signing up for the PCRM's 21-day vegan kickstart. I signed up, even though I'm already a vegan, because after all: Who wouldn't want daily healthy tips and recipes?

And just in case you'd like some links on vegan being the healthiest way to eat:

PCRM's entire Health section

WebMD: Vegan diet good for Type-2 diabetes

NIH: Vegan proteins may reduce risk of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease

Food Inc is all the buzz this week (cross-post)

Here's one example where one post I write is appropriate for cross-posting at almost every blog I write.

Over at Elisa's Green Scene, I did a brief recap of some of the reviews and some of my thoughts about the new documentary, Food, Inc.

Food, Inc is somewhat based on MIchael Pollan's work and a great deal of its focus is on the health ramifications of our current agro-industrial complex approach to food production on humans, particularly lower-income families.

So I thought it belonged here, and I'm wondering if any of you are planning to see it or have seen it?

Of course, I also have a vegan blog. And a personal blog where I write both movie reviews and occasionally items about animal rights. So this belongs there too.

Might start to feel a little bit like cheating though!

For this blog, I'd like to direct you to a particular part of the site about this documentary: The Hungry for Change Cafeteria.

Healthy school lunches seem like a total no-brainer, but in fact one of the small things you can do is start to activate around your local schools, particularly by telling your local schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. 

Hell, I'd say you should do that even if you don't have kids in school!

But if you do have kids in school: What are their food options like? Food, Inc. wants us all to know...and to work to make those options healthier...for children in every kind of school at every kind of income level.

Who could argue with that?