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One of my favorite yoga poses is “child’s pose,” probably because that’s when we get to take a breather! But it does, unfortunately, call for one to place one’s forehead firmly on the mat where one’s feet have just been. That has added two priorities to my yoga practice – having my own mat, and keeping it clean. Read on …
I went to planned parenthood a month ago and they did a pap smear and now they are saying that I have cancer. I noticed a lump on my vagina. Is that because of the cancer or has that always been there? Am I over reacting? Read on …
Parents Can Download Vaccine Scheduling Tool
If your kids are behind on their vaccinations (and the CDC says that at least 28% of toddlers are) there’s a free new software tool that can help you create a personalized catch-up schedule. You just download the software, input your child’s birth date and previous immunization dates, and receive a personalized schedule of dates for future immunizations. The software was created by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is available free through the CDC Web site. Dowload the tool …
Salmonella? Check Your Salsa
At least 127 people – the majority of them unvaccinated – across 15 states have contracted measles as part of the biggest U.S. outbreak since 1997, according to the CDC. While ongoing transmission of measles in the U.S. was declared eliminated thanks to more than 50 years of vaccination against the disease, travelers who became ill while visiting other countries returned to the U.S. and spread illness to unvaccinated people here. No deaths have been reported in the current outbreak, which has thus far impacted Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington State and Washintgon, D.C. Learn more …
Childhood obesity is the number-one health concern facing our kids, parents responding to the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health have said. The issue ranked third last year. Here’s the full top 10:
1. Childhood obesity
2. Drug abuse
3. Smoking
4. Bullying
5. Internet safety
6. Child abuse and neglect
7. Teen pregnancy
8. Alcohol abuse
9. AD/HD
10. Chemicals in the environment
Almost 20% of kids ages 6 to 11 weigh too much, according to the CDC. But fitness guru Dawn Strozier doesn’t blame the kids. It’s up to parents, she contends, to monitor kids’ nutrition and activity. But who has time?
“They’re busy working, so they’re not focusing on feeding the children the proper food,” Strozier says. And that’s one of the biggest problems for kids today, according to Strozier, who calls herself The Fitness Queen of Keeping You Lean and has a new DVD out to help get kids moving.
Low-fat eating has been en vogue with adults for years. When my daughter was small, some friends of even took fat-free food to such an extreme that their pediatrician had to prescribe an “ice cream diet” for their toddler. It seems the poor child wasn’t being fed enough fat to fuel her developing brain.
It’s for that reason that pediatricians have long recommended whole milk and full-fat dairy products for children under age 2. But a statement released July 7 by the American Academy of Pediatrics changes all that. Read on …
Here are some thoughts from Noah Samuels, L.Ac, Dipl. OM, MTOM, who practices Traditional Chinese Medicine and specializes in treating ADD/ADHD:
It was in my first few months of working for a large acupuncture clinic in San Francisco that “David” first arrived as a patient. David was 8 years old. His parents brought him in as a last resort. They were holistic minded and did not want to put their 8-year-old child on medication. I was in the back office when David, parents in tow, arrived. I could hear the sounds of papers being ruffled through, the sounds of a woman saying, “David come down off of that.” When I came out of my office to check out the scene, there was this boy in the waiting room, pacing back and forth. His mother was seated filling out the necessary paperwork, while her son proceeded to run to the back of the clinic and then back to the front. David had Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Read on …
This morning my 16-year-old daughter’s alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. On a weekend. During summer vacation. But that’s not the most astonishing thing about that little beep beep beep that woke the birdies.
The most astonishing thing is that she set that alarm so that she could get up in time to go hiking with me before the heat set in. And that’s because she wanted to get a little exercise.
Lauren isn’t on a fitness regimen by any means. To the casual observer, in fact, it looks more like she just does stuff for fun. She takes dance classes a few hours a week and rides horses for a few hours every weekend (and if you don’t think riding a horse is a workout, you’ve likely never been on one). And when she senses too much of a get-moving gap between activities she drops into my fitness-fun regimen, either coming to my weekly yoga class or, like this morning, getting up in time for a hike.
I don’t lecture her on the need to be active, but since she was little I’ve worked hard to stay active myself. Before we lived near hiking trails and before I discovered yoga, I took walks in the neighborhood and had a stair machine in the basement. And we were more than happy to sign her up for volleyball, horseback riding, dance, and any other active activity she thought she’d like.
So while I’ve tried to lead the way to staying active by example, I’ve also been leading by something just as important. Opportunity. We’ve happily taken advantage of every opportunity for Lauren to try something active and fun. And I’m an opportunity as well. Lauren knows I’m going to yoga on Tuesdays, and that she’s welcome. And she knows I’m happy to have her along on my daily hike. As long as the alarm goes off on time.
As the holiday weekend approaches, here’s your annual reminder that it’s not safe to play with fireworks. Why? In 2006 11 people in the U.S. died and around 9,200 were treated for firework-related injuries in emergency departments, the CDC reports. Almost half of the injuries were to folks under 20 years old, including kids. Fireworks can cause blindness and third-degree burns, and can start fires! So leave the fuse-lighting to the professionals and go see a show in your neighborhood. Learn more …
More than half of the country’s 31,000 gun-related deaths were suicides in 2005, not murders, according to a July 1 Associated Press report. And suicide has outranked both homicide and accidents in firearm deaths for 20 of the past 25 years, the CDC says. So in striking down the Washington, D.C., handgun ban, the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t create as much danger for the general public as it did for the gun owners themselves. Learn more …
As the number of people sickened with Salmonella climbed to 810 across 36 states, the CDC continued June 28 to try and pinpoint the cause of the outbreak. Yes, tomatoes are the likely culprit, but experts’ search for the farm that produced those tomatoes has been hampered by a common practice called “repacking,” where distributors repack tomatoes from multiple farms to meet specific customer orders. Experts were also considering whether contamination could have happened at a packing or distribution center, rather than at a particular farm. Learn more …
