Monday, March 31, 2014

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6 Episode 6: Reading is Fundamental Recap

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6 episode 6 starts with Laganja Estranga letting us know up front that she’s not used to losing. Oh honey you’re going to have to get used to the not winning. It happens a lot in life, even when you try your best or when you’re a really great person. It’s called life. Hunty. With that, we set up potential future conflict between Laganja and Adore as well as BenDeLaCreme and Darienne Lake. To be clear: Darienne is mad at BenDeLaCreme because Ben is happy she won a 2nd challenge. Again, Darienne, sometimes people win more … Continue reading


The post RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6 Episode 6: Reading is Fundamental Recap appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.






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Never Enough

The finish line is imminent. Don't give up now! You have planted the right seeds and now you are waiting for the harvest. Now all there is left to do is wait... that's the most difficult part.



While waiting for your plans to come to fruition, it is never enough to simply speak about your dreams, you must actively pursue them. So many people have great ideas and visions that the world may never behold because they fail to cultivate their dreams by engaging in the necessary tasks to achieve their goals. No good thing in life comes without work and sacrifice, so dormant goals are just that -- an imaginary reality.



Once you invest time and energy into your dreams by praying or meditating, reaching out to individuals who have attained success in the area of your desire, and becoming a scholar of your specific area of interest, you will begin to breathe life into your dreams. As soon as you begin to see the manifestation of your desires come to pass, you will want to do it again, and again, and again.



As human beings, we are created to be innovators. Realizing a dream or accomplishing a goal should not be a one-time occurrence in life. Achieving your goals should become so addictive that you cannot and will not rest until you have achieved one goal, then the next, and then the next, finally accomplishing all of your goals, one by one.



Become inspired by life. Take time to live in the moment and enjoy the beauty of a sunrise or sunset. Express appreciation for a memorable conversation with an old friend or regain strength and motivation that you are indeed on the right track by sharing your innermost dreams and desires with your family. Your life experiences breed inspiration. Inspiration encourages you to dream. Dreams inspire action. Action produces accomplished goals.



What is currently inspiring you? Open yourself up to receive the message from the inspiration. That message or lesson could be exactly what you have been searching for to unlock the inspiration for your dreams. Dream big! Respect the process and enjoy the journey of pursuing your goals and aspirations. Remember it is never enough to only dream -- you must actively commit to make those dreams a reality.



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The Long Way Home: Grief Deferred and Acceptance Found

It's 6:30 on a Saturday morning, and I'm wide awake. I'd give anything to be asleep right now, but my brain won't allow it. My eyelids are filled with tears and my heart is filled with a heavy sorrow. My brain is still in denial about the facts of what happened last night... I accidentally flushed my grandmother's ring down the toilet, and now it's gone forever. And even though she died 16 years ago, suddenly I feel like I'm back at day one, laying at her bedside, watching her take her last breaths. The despair feels overwhelming and unbearable.



2014-03-28-Nonna.JPG



But I'm actually glad it's here. It's time. For the last 16 years I've been living in a state of perpetual denial about the loss of one of the most important people in my life. She was like my mother, my rock, an endless source of unconditional love and support, and incredible friend. I spent weekdays after school and most weekends at her house, a place that felt like home. Selflessly, she dedicated herself fully to me whenever I was in her presence. She showed genuine interest in everything I was doing, playing with, or wanted to talk about. I never felt like a nuisance and certainly never felt ignored. We would hold hands walking down the street, sing and dance together, do homework together, and at night when it was time to go to sleep I would snuggle up into bed between her and my grandfather feeling so safe and cared for. In the morning a grand breakfast always awaited, a tradition she continued until she was too weak from the cancer eating away at her body to cook. She was truly special woman and I feel so grateful to have been able to call her my "nonna."



But since she died, that day in May 1998, just two weeks before my high school graduation, I've never allowed myself to fully mourn her loss. Maybe I was too young, or maybe I just didn't know how, but when it came to letting myself feel the pain of her passing I was completely shut down. I didn't want to feel. I didn't want it to be real. And in some way I thought that if I never let myself feel the sadness about her death, perhaps it wouldn't be true. That maybe, just maybe, it would all be a bad dream and I would wake up one day to find that she was still there, quietly singing opera to me.



And then in a fluke accident I watched in slow motion as her ring slipped off my finger and into the toilet bowl. And before I even had a chance to think about it, "swoosh," the automatic flusher went off and it was gone. Completely lost forever. I started crying and I couldn't stop. I howled from deep down in my belly while gasping for air and collapsing to the floor. I felt like I'd just been hit by a truck. And it went on like this for hours. I soaked my pillow in tears as I retold stories of her love and brilliance to my fiance. My body was fatigued and my heart was aching but I finally managed to fall asleep.



When I woke up this morning, unable to sleep because of the knot in my stomach, I realized this unfortunate event happened for a reason. When that ring, which I had never taken off once for 16 years, slipped off my finger her death finally became real. I finally was able to feel everything I'd been pushing aside, avoiding, and storing up for years. I'm not going to lie, it's not pleasant. I feel tremendous grief. Feels like I'm moving through the world carrying a 100-pound weight on my back and my eyes feel like faucets with no stop function.



They say you move through five stages of grief when you experience loss. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Even though I am a therapist, who knows exceptionally well the necessity of allowing ourselves to feel sadness and process our losses, I've spent pretty much every day since she died stuck in denial. I can feel the anger now rumbling inside of me like a drum... how unfair it seems that she was taken from me so early, how upset I am that she won't be there on my wedding day. Next will come the bargaining about how we could have somehow caught the cancer sooner or found a way to extend her life. And then the deep deep sadness and longing for this person who changed my life forever. And finally acceptance about the reality that she is really gone and there is nothing left to do about it.



So while I really wish that my ring had never fallen down the toilet to be lost in sewage-y oblivion, I'm grateful that I'll finally, once and for all, be able to properly say goodbye to my beloved Nonna.



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Lifting Young Adult Cancer Survivor Baggage

Press play on "workout" playlist: energetic pop hits, hard rock and rap, songs from cancer treatment that trigger flashbulb memories. Grab handles on this plate-loaded incline press machine. Take a deep, slow breath. Now, explode.



You're too short for her. No amount of ambition, personality or strength will change her mind. One repetition down.



She thinks you're weak and sick because of your limp. She needs a guy who will beat her in a 5k and you can't run ever again. You even use crutches to walk a few blocks. Two repetitions down.



She thinks you're too open and narcissistic -- writing books and blogs about yourself, displaying your shirtless torso online, discussing improper topics like chemo's humiliating effects. Yeah, she's probably right. Three repetitions down.



She thinks you're too healthy for her -- eating too few fries and too many greens, counting too many calories and body fat millimeters. Yeah, she's definitely right. Four repetitions down.



She thinks you've had too much cancer and you're abnormal and maybe you're even contagious and you would get sick again and wouldn't produce healthy children and wouldn't be around when they grow up. Five repetitions down.



Eminem and Rihanna on "The Monster": "'Cause I need an interventionist / To intervene between me and this monster." This weight stack certainly won't intervene. Must reach six repetitions, one more than two days ago.



Halfway through repetition six and can't push further. Disregard it -- must reach six. Slouch deep into the seat and push until the blood fills your capillaries red as fire and drowns nonacceptance. Six repetitions down.



Begin three-minute countdown for the next of five sets. Record weight training -- 30 pounds more than one month ago. Thanks to unwavering dedication; Koss PortaPro Headphones; egg protein; maltodextrin and branched chain amino acids drink consumed immediately after training; and motivation.



Staind's 2003-ballad "So Far Away" hits playlist. With three minutes until phone vibrates commencing the next set, there's no stopping this flashbulb memory...



Will these sweatpants and five top layers be enough to prevent shivering? Look at bro, JD, driving me towards the National Institutes of Health. He better not change this pop radio station because "So Far Away" just started. Will I ever return to the University of Virginia, be able to eat more than three bites of food without vomiting, get back over 100 pounds?



If back to health, will I ever see the small beauties of the world again like I do right now? For instance, recent college grad JD is rocking his black soft top Jeep en route to my frequent doctor appointments instead of a job. Or, JD watching television with me at night instead of partying with friends or going on dates.



Other small beauties: time's purpose is to simply reach health instead of productivity, like, writing a new article for The Huffington Post. Autumn brings newness instead of an end. All these people in all these different kinds of cars are all going in the same direction for all different reasons, and it's so more than just 'traffic.'



If I could eat a sandwich, walk up a flight of stairs and wash my car then that would be a good day. That would be a hell of a day.




You're so far away from that passenger seat in JD's soft top Jeep Wrangler 11 years ago. Look at you now.



A man more than twice your weight who lifts less than half your stack just left the plate-loaded front lat pulldown machine. Your turn. Stack the 45-pound plates: one, two, three, four, five, six. Add 15 more pounds to each side to reach 300.



You're a monster.



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Surrounded by Angels

Today I have realized that I am surrounded by angels. They have appeared over the past year in many different guises, but nevertheless I feel that the universe has delivered these people to me to support and walk me through this huge change and transition in my life. All I had to do was open my heart to them and allow them to help me. I have never in my life felt so truly loved, nurtured and cared for.



All of my life I have felt like I didn't fit in, didn't belong. I have been running and numbing myself from a great pain that I have held within me. In order to numb myself in one way or another I have had my finger on the permanent self-destruct button and found all manner of ways to press it, until now. At the 11th hour, the gift of this cancer is to teach me that I can't keep running away from myself, I can't keep turning all of my pain, anger and grief inwards because I am literally killing myself. I can't keep living in denial about the destruction that I have caused myself. Sitting with my own mortality and accepting that I may have to say goodbye to this world much earlier than I wanted to has brought a sense of peace. I have not given up, not for a second, and I truly believe in my heart that I will heal from this, but the healing will come from within and not from the orthodox medicine way of just treating the symptom.



I start chemo tomorrow, and I feel very calm about it. I remember the night before I started chemo last time and how I felt on the morning of my first cycle. I was terrified. I felt lonely, isolated and like no one really cared. I was in such a dark place. At that time, I was having chemo as my "insurance policy" to ensure the cancer didn't come back, as I had already had the tumor removed via a lumpectomy. I had been told that I was already cured of the cancer because it had been removed from my body. How crazy that sounds now. This time around, I am having chemo to save my life, and yet I feel calm about it. I have done everything within my power to prepare my body for this. I have pumped my body full of raw, organic, plant-based food and high-quality plant-based supplements. I have cut through all of the noise of all the many different approaches and suggestions that have been fired at me over the past week and instinctively found the team of special healing people who will work with me to heal me from within.



I start the real work on Friday with a very special doctor, Kim Jobst, who is both medically trained in the orthodox sense, a physician in integrated medicine, a medical homeopath, trained in Chinese acupuncture, Jungian training analysis and a DeMartini facilitator. After a deeply profound conversation with him, I knew instinctively that he, along with Danielle Marchant and Carlyle Jenkins, would be my team. These are the people who will truly heal me, not the poison that is to be administered into my body tomorrow.



Of course, once you leave the orthodox NHS approach of cut it, poison it or fry it, you are on your own financially, and it is only through the huge generosity of those who have supported me that I am able to follow this path. It is not cheap at all, but you can't put a price on living.



I took a visit to Planet Organic today and have stocked my cupboard with healthy raw, vegan food as well as plant-based supplements to boost my health and reset my immune system. It's going to need all the help it can get over the coming months while the chemo attacks it. Rebooting my immune system and function is one of the keys to reversing the cancer. It is only with the help of the money that I have raised so far that I am able to afford to go and buy all of this stuff. I made myself a power-packed superfood smoothie this evening with all of the wonderful supplements and powders, and I was literally buzzing with health as I drank it and afterwards. I will need to drink these every day to bring my body back to health and equilibrium.



So now it's time to rest and give my body the best chance to cope with the really tough part of the journey.



I am posting a selection of my blogs here but you can find my daily blogs on my website

www.hannahfoxley.com



Until next time...



Love Hannah x



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How Should You Choose Between a Hospital and a Home Birth?

The decisions associated with having a child can be some of the most important ones you will make in your entire life. From dealing with nine months of ups and downs during pregnancy to shelling out big bucks for diapers, groceries and, later, tuition -- there is a lot that goes into becoming a parent. One of the first decisions that come with passing on your genes is where to have your baby. Parents-to-be will spend countless hours researching doctors and baby names and planning appointments and baby showers -- but what is the right choice when it comes to a home birth versus a hospital delivery?



You may be astonished at the question, thinking home births are a thing of the past. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, births outside of a hospital setting increased 29 percent between 2004 and 2009 -- that's almost 30,000 births. The CDC also reports that 1 in every 90 births for Caucasian women occurs at home, whereas home births for other racial and ethnic groups are less common. While the number of home births is climbing, most women make the decision to visit the hospital on their due date: just 0.72 percent of births took place outside of the hospital in 2009. Consider the following to determine which option is right for you and your wallet.



What kind of experience do you want?



Consider your options based on the type of birth experience you are looking for. Many mothers choose an at-home delivery because of the comfort and personalization that comes with the more familiar environment. Women opting for home births may also have the opportunity to switch positions during birth, eat, drink or move freely throughout the experience. Those who want to avoid medical interventions such as a Cesarean section may lean toward a home birth, but they should have a plan to go to a nearby hospital should the need arise at any time during delivery.



On the other hand, women may choose a traditional hospital birth for safety reasons and the peace of mind that comes with a team of doctors and nurses armed with medical equipment. Stress can complicate the birth, and some women may find the presence of experienced medical professionals in a delivery room to be calming.



Complications of home birth are a major reason for choosing to deliver in a hospital. According to a recent study, the mortality rate for babies delivered by a midwife at home is four times higher than for those delivered by a midwife in a hospital. The study cited stillbirth as the most common issue with home births, with approximately 18 to 19 deaths each year that could have been avoided in a hospital setting. Proponents of home birth, however, maintain that low-risk pregnant women who chose to have their baby at home can reap a multitude of benefits, from less stress to better health.



What will it cost?



For many, cost is an important factor in considering birthing options. A survey by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality determined that the average cost for a vaginal birth with no complications in a hospital rose from $9,617 in 2009 to $10,657 in 2011. Prices were higher for births involving C-sections or complications, with totals falling anywhere from $12,532 to $23,923. The cost of having a baby can vary from hospital to hospital, but having insurance will help to reduce your costs -- especially seeing as pregnancy is one of many women's health services now covered under the Affordable Care Act.



According to the American Pregnancy Association, an average, uncomplicated vaginal home birth costs approximately 60 percent less than a hospital birth. As in hospitals, prices can range depending on the midwife or home birth practitioner selected. Before settling on a home birth, check to see what your insurance company will cover for a home birth versus a hospital birth.



What to expect?



For families opting for a hospital delivery, keep in mind that being in a hospital doesn't necessarily ensure safety -- but it does put you in a better position to receive treatment should the need arise. Be prepared for complications (e.g., C-sections, medicines, longer stays) and the unexpected costs that may come along with them. Seek out a trusted medical consultant, whether an OB/GYN or a midwife, to be your guide, and ask the right questions about the hospitals you are considering for giving birth. Finally, keeping in contact with your health insurance provider -- even before tests and procedures are performed -- is another important step in financing your delivery.



Women considering a home birth should carefully evaluate their health status. Home births are more frequent in low-risk pregnancies, according to the CDC. Women with diabetes, teenagers and multiple-birth mothers often require hospital care for delivery. If you decide on a home birth, seek out a certified nurse-midwife or other experienced birthing professional who suits your needs and comforts. Advance preparation is key to a successful home birth, from securing insurance coverage to coming up with an emergency plan should complications arise.



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California 'Glove Law' Gets Unanimous Vote To Repeal

In a move that’s sure to please California bartenders and sushi chefs, the state’s Assembly Health Committee voted unanimously to overturn the infamous “glove law” that provoked the ire of the food industry and inspired a petition gathering 11,000 signatures.



On Tuesday, the committee voted in Assembly Bill 2130, which seeks to repeal a section of the Health and Safety code introduced this year that forbids food preparers and bartenders from touching ready-to-eat ingredients with their bare hands and requires them to use disposable gloves or utensils in effort to combat food contamination. Under the new legislation, food preparers will be asked to “minimize bare hand and arm contact with nonprepackaged food that is in a ready-to-eat form.”



The bill must be voted on by the entire Assembly before the repeal is finalized, but this first vote is a positive step forward for the food industry workers who felt the bare-hands ban was counterintuitive, wasteful and inhibitive of their work.



Bartenders, who are constantly handling both money and cocktail ingredients, say that the practice of regular hand-washing is cleaner and allows for better drinks.



"They are trying to get expressive oil into the flavor and smell of the cocktail, and you are lacing that with the smell of latex and powder," Aaron Smith, executive director of the U.S. Bartenders' Guild, told the Associated Press.



Assemblyman and Health Committee chair Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), who introduced the new bill, told KPCC that the original law “was not turning out the way that those of us who helped work on the legislation thought."



If the new bill passes in the senate, the revised health code will likely go into effect before July 1.





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Top Seven Crazy Myths About Drug Overdose Antidote, Naloxone

With fatalities from heroin and prescription drugs still on the rise, naloxone, an opiate reversal medication, has become an increasingly popular method to prevent overdose death. Paramedics have used naloxone since the 1960s to block the effect of opiate drugs and restore normal breathing patterns to someone experiencing an overdose, but since 1996, community groups have also trained active drug users and their loved ones on how to respond to opiate overdose with naloxone. Today, naloxone's popularity has spread to parent groups who encourage other parents to keep naloxone on hand if their child is using drugs, law enforcement departments who see a chance to administer the antidote before paramedics arrive, and medical providers who are co-prescribing naloxone to their patients who use opioid medications. But despite more widespread use of naloxone, many myths still exist about its use and implications.



Myth #1: If you give an overdose antidote to drug users, they will abuse more drugs.



Fact: Studies report that naloxone does not encourage drug use, and in fact, has been shown to decrease it in some circumstances. By blocking the effects of opiates, naloxone can produce unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, which nobody wants, especially not an active drug user.



Myth #2: We can't trust a person who is high to respond appropriately in a life-threatening situation.



Fact: Since 1996, over 10,000 overdose reversals have taken place using naloxone. The vast majority of these were done by active drug users. Many of them were probably high.



Myth #3: Naloxone will keep drug users from seeking treatment.



Fact: Death keeps people from seeking treatment. Naloxone gives people another chance to get help if they choose, and often, the near-death experience of drug overdose and being saved with naloxone acts as a catalyst to encourage people to get into treatment.



Myth #4: Naloxone makes people violent.



Fact: There is some truth to this - but not much. While naloxone can cause confusion and "fight or flight" response when administered at high doses, in smaller amounts, naloxone rarely causes overdose victims to become combative.



Myth #5: Naloxone Can Give People Heart Attacks



Fact: According to research in the American Journal of Public Health, "Complications such as seizures and arrhythmia have been reported after naloxone administration on very rare occasions. However, their links to naloxone have been questioned in the medical literature, and, even if there is a connection, it constitutes a risk only for patients with pre-existing heart disease... Similarly, in a study of 1192 episodes in Norway in which paramedics administered naloxone out of hospital, just 3 adverse events-- or 0.25% of cases--were considered serious enough to require hospitalization." Pulmonary edema has also occurred in overdose patients, but that is a result of respiratory depression, not naloxone administration.



Myth #6: Intramuscular naloxone isn't safe.



Fact: While some people may prefer to administer naloxone via intranasal spray because it doesn't involve a syringe, intramuscular naloxone is actually slower-acting and therefore less likely to cause withdrawal symptoms or induce combativeness. Both intranasal and intramuscular naloxone are equally effective.





Myth #7: Naloxone Loses Effectiveness Under High Temperatures



Fact: Even after exposure to extreme temperature change, naloxone still works. In clinical studies, naloxone maintained a concentration 89.62 +- 1.33% even when subjected to ~21 and ~129 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures every twelve hours for 28 days. Nevertheless, it is recommended that naloxone be kept at room temperature and/or stored in UV ray resistant materials.



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Accept vs. Settle

settle_accept



by guest blogger Renee James, essayist and blogger



Despite my relentless pragmatism, I am, inexplicably, a big believer in signs. For the past several months, and very specifically for the past few weeks, I feel like the universe is trying to get me to pay attention and learn a lesson. So let's start with this one, shall we?



Here are two words that seem to keep me up at night: accept and settle. Do they mean the same thing? Are there nuances that make a difference? Let's start with the basics--entries on dictionary.com read as follows:



Accept 1. to take or receive (something offered); receive with approval or favor...



2. to agree or consent to; accede to...



Settle 1. to appoint, fix, or resolve definitely and conclusively; agree upon....



So, what have we learned? Both indicate agreement of some kind; both of them seem to indicate a shared thought/experience/consequence that all parties favor. Still, they feel different to me. Why does "accept" feel so positive and "settle" feel so underwhelming and sad? Moving on...



Following the onset of my accept/settle conundrum, I read an interview with playwright/actor Tracy Letts. He talked about not marrying until he reached his late 40s, and explained it this way: "I think there comes a point in your life where you own your damage. You don't necessarily get over it, you don't necessarily have it all figured out, you just say this is mine, these are things I have to be aware of, take care of, work around."



This was one of those moments when reading something stopped me cold. Maybe now was the time in my life when I should finally own--or accept--my damage. Maybe now was the time to try to stop "fixing" everything I found "less than" about myself.



As I go about the days that make up the second half of my life, it's about time I stop battling the damage, blaming the damage, and denying the damage, and instead, co-exist with it as productively as I can.



Or is that settling for less than I can (or should) be? Then again, "should" is a horrible word itself--so filled with remorse and disappointment. Moving on...



For no discernible reason, I plucked Philip Simmons' wonderful book, Learning to Fall , off our bookshelf last week. In the forward, I read the following: "As I see it, we know we're truly grown up when we stop trying to fix people. About all we can really do for people is love them and treat them with kindness. That goes for ourselves, too. That goes for ourselves especially... Accepting ourselves means accepting the whole package, the whole sour and sweet, lovely and larcenous mess that we are."



There's that acceptance idea, again. The notion that not every bit of us is pristine and pure, but every bit of us is worth accepting. It's Tracy's philosophy expressed a bit more poetically, about owning your flaws and realizing they are an integral part of you, not stray puzzle pieces that don't fit. And that all sounds delightful, but really, how many of us love our flaws? And what does this say about self-improvement? Do we stop trying to learn how to hit a slider, knit a sweater, or speak conversational French? Moving on...



Back to my original question, the difference between "accept" and "settle." When I asked members of my Facebook community, the idea of control and choice emerged as very big themes. We accept (with grace if we're so blessed) those things or events we can't change. We settle, one could say compromise, on those things or events that are beyond our control. Alternatively, we settle when we choose not to pursue change, sometimes for very good reasons. One feels more confident; one feels less so.



The signs of the universe seem to be telling me to pay attention to my life. What do I accept, and what do I settle for? Sometimes the "greater good" may be best served by settling, whether that means keeping a job, a relationship, or a belief intact. My conundrum is figuring out whether or not to accept that kind of settling.



At this point in my life, I'm not reluctant to own my damage. I'm not entirely over it (never will be), but I'll manage. As long as I keep asking myself that question--Are you accepting or are you settling?--I think I'll be okay.



Renee-JamesRenee A. James works at Rodale Inc. and also wrote an award-winning op-ed column for The Morning Call, the Allentown, PA, newspaper, for almost 10 years. Her essays were included in the humor anthology, 101 Damnations: A Humorists' Tour of Personal Hells (Thomas Dunne Books, 2002), and are also found online at Jewish World Review and The Daily Caller. She invites you to Like her Facebook page , where she celebrates--and broods about--life on a regular basis, mostly as a voice in the crowd that shouts, "Really? You're kidding me, right?" (Or wants to, anyway), and welcomes your suggestions, comments, and feedback to the mix.



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Knowing Which Medical Products Are Best for Each Person -- It Just Makes Sense

Turn on your television at any point during the day or night and you will likely run across an ad for a prescription drug, along with a disclaimer about possible side effects. It seems only logical that those side effects are a possibility for anyone who takes the medicine, regardless of gender, race or age.



Unfortunately, that logic is wrong.



Studies of drugs and medical devices do not always report what effects these treatments may have on women, minorities or the elderly. Worse yet, those effects are not always investigated, as members of those populations are often underrepresented in trials -- despite the fact gender, race and age makes people more prone to certain diseases.



The American Heart Association and other groups helped bring this to Congress' attention. We worked closely with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., to include language in the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012 requiring the agency to examine medical product applications for evidence on how they affected those groups, and how the information was evaluated and made public.



The report came out last summer and found some glaring problems. Like this one: While applications for new drugs generally reported research trial results by age, gender and race, sometimes applications were credited with including the information even when few women, minorities or elderly participated in the product's trials. Furthermore, the evidence -- or the lack of it -- never was considered by the agency during the drug approval process.



Congress required a second step, too. Once those disparities were identified, lawmakers required the FDA to come up with an "Action Plan." And that's where we are in the process now; on Tuesday, a public hearing will be held in Washington, D.C., to help guide those next steps.



2014-03-28-RoseMarieRobertson.png I'm proud to say that the Chief Science Officer of the American Heart Association, Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, will be among those testifying. Dr. Robertson will stress one very important message: All patients (regardless of gender, race or age), deserve to know how safe and effective each medical product might be for them specifically - and so do healthcare professionals, whose job it is to match the right product with the right patient.



That kind of alignment just makes sense. There's also scientific evidence of drugs and devices that worked well for one population group yet badly in another.



The drug digoxin is a great example. Male heart-failure patients had no problem with it. In female heart-failure patients, it caused an increased rate of stroke. A "VAD" -- which stands for ventricular assist device, a piece of equipment used in the treatment of heart failure -- also is more likely to cause a stroke in women than men.



In a bit of a twist, detailed research may show that a drug is more helpful than initially thought. That's what happened with BiDil, a heart-failure medication initially intended for the general population. Studies didn't show convincing evidence that it improved patients' survival chances, but a later trial found it to be very effective among African-Americans. It became the first drug approved by the FDA for a single racial or ethnic group.



Statistics also frame what an obvious problem these discrepancies are.



Gender


  • While heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States -- claiming, in fact, more lives than all forms of cancer combined, and killing more women than men every year since 1984 -- only 35 percent of participants in cardiovascular research trials are women.



  • Just 31 percent of these studies report their outcomes by gender.






Race


  • Among major cardiovascular clinical trials published between 1997 and 2010, minorities were frequently underrepresented. Only half of the trials even reported any racial information.



  • While African-Americans account for 11 percent of all patients with coronary artery disease, they comprised only 3 percent of the research participants.






Age


  • More than 50 percent of all trials for coronary artery disease in the past decade did not enroll a single patient over 75 years of age.



  • The geriatric population represented just 9 percent of all patients included in such trials.






Greater diversity in research is not just essential for women, minorities and seniors. It has an impact on everyone. Without it, we miss out on opportunities to gain a better understanding of disease.





There are still many unanswered questions about how and why cardiovascular diseases affect Americans differently. Learning the answers to these questions is necessary if we are to someday fulfill the promise of personalized medicine.



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Brain's 'Sleep Switch' Found

Scientists have identified a protein molecule in the brains of fruit flies that they believe is the "switch" that controls the flies' internal drive to sleep -- and that a similar mechanism likely exists for human sleep as well.



Researchers at the UK's Oxford University Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour examined a small cluster of neurons in fruit flies that help to induce sleep. These neurons become active when flies are sleep deprived, and their increased activity stimulates an anesthetic response in the brain that sends the flies to sleep. A similar group of neurons with a similar pattern of activity exist in the human brain. These human neurons fire up when our bodies need sleep, and trigger a sedating response that helps usher us to sleep.



To pinpoint the molecular sleep switch in fruit flies' brains, researchers manipulated genes associated with these sleep-inducing neurons. They found that when genes connected to a particular brain molecule were suppressed, these sleep-triggering neurons did not fire. Instead, the neurons remained quiet and flies were unable to sleep despite being significantly sleep deprived.



This discovery provides some important information that adds to our understanding of the body's regulation of sleep. Sleep is driven by two different systems that function concurrently, one that takes its cues from our external environment, and the other that responds to the body's internal sleep needs. The body's circadian clock works in accordance with the 24-hour solar day and night. As night and darkness approach, circadian rhythms shift and initiate physiological changes -- including the release of the sleep hormone melatonin -- that prepare the body for rest and increase the inclination for sleep. Beginning in the early morning and continuing through much of the daylight hours, circadian rhythms promote alertness, diminishing the drive for sleep in order to promote a sustained period of wakefulness and activity during the day.



Our drive for sleep is also regulated by the body's own sense of its need for rest. This internally-driven sleep system is known as sleep homeostasis. This system works much like a thermostat that regulates heat by sensing when temperatures dip too low or rise too high. The body's homeostatic sleep mechanisms continually monitor how much sleep the body receives. When we go without sleep for a period of time, this system increases the drive for sleep. The longer we go without sleep, the more pressing our need for sleep becomes. Sleep homeostasis is influenced by both quantity and quality of sleep. Feeling tired and inclined to nod off after an abbreviated or restless night of sleep, or feeling uncontrollably drowsy after an unusually long day -- these are signs of your homeostatic sleep drive cuing your brain and body to rest, in order to avoid a too-significant sleep deficit.



The circadian and homeostatic sleep systems work in concert to regulate our sleep and waking lives. When these two sleep systems are functioning normally and in sync with one another, we find ourselves with the energy and alertness we need during the day -- and readiness to sleep at bedtime. Too often, however, our two sleep drives don't work together as they should, and can find each other at odds. Circadian rhythms are highly sensitive and can easily be disrupted, leading to difficult and disrupted sleep -- and stimulation of the internal drive to sleep at the "wrong" times. Nighttime exposure to artificial light is a significant and common hazard to healthy sleep function. In today's endlessly lit-up and digital world, the very devices we rely on so heavily during our waking lives -- smartphones, tablets, computers -- can be detrimental to sleep and circadian function, in large part because of the particularly stimulating light they emit. People who perform shift work -- irregular, rotating, and nighttime shifts that stray from the standard daytime work schedule -- are at particularly high risk for disruptions to circadian rhythms, and the health problems associated with circadian dysfunction. So too are people who travel frequently and contend with jet lag.



Alterations to circadian function can interfere with the body's homeostatic sleep system, making regular and restorative sleep patterns more difficult to achieve, and inhibiting daytime alertness and performance. The internal homeostatic sleep drive is a powerful one. Sleep deprivation -- whether by disruptions to circadian function or other factors -- elicits a strong corrective response in the body, as it seeks to restore balance to its sleep-wake equilibrium. Excessive daytime sleepiness, sleeping during the day, diminished focus, alertness and cognitive function are common symptoms of disordered and insufficient sleep -- are signs that the body's sleep homeostasis is out of balance.



It may sound surprising that we're just discovering the mechanism that controls the body's internal -- homeostatic -- drive to sleep. In fact, there's a great deal about the fundamental function and mechanisms of sleep that we don't yet understand. This discovery of the brain's homeostatic "sleep switch" is a significant step toward a more thorough understanding of how the human body's drive for sleep really works. Deepening this understanding may improve existing sleep therapies and open important new avenues for treatment of sleep disorders. Researchers intend to further explore the behavior of these sleep-promoting neurons and the molecular switch that controls them, examining how the neurons behave during waking hours and what prompts the activation of the switch itself. Their discoveries may bring us closer to unlocking an essential and persistent mystery: the very purpose of sleep.



Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor®

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The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep



Everything you do, you do better with a good night's sleep™

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Get Up Swinging: More Than a Pet

In the months prior to my breast cancer diagnosis, the boyfriend and I had been discussing when it would be a good time to get a dog. One of the many reasons we had bought the house earlier that year was its double lot -- perfect for a dog. For about five months after moving into the house, we devoted most of our time and energy into clearing up the backyard, which the previous owners apparently forgot was a part of their home. Weeds, years of un-raked leaves, literally a pile of garbage behind the detached garage, and so many seed trees and a fence falling apart because of those trees.



Once we got that all cleaned up, the next step was a dog. However, that fall, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.



Two months into my treatment -- including the initial shock, lumpectomy and beginning chemotherapy, I had come to the conclusion: it's not a good time to get a dog. I could not see managing a dog, working full time and undergoing treatment for cancer. Even though I was working from home, I still thought it would be a terrible idea to get a dog.



When the boyfriend called me from the local animal shelter in mid-December because he couldn't think of a Christmas gift for me and somehow found himself at this shelter, I didn't protest at all. In fact, I forgot about all the reasons why I shouldn't get a dog, and all I could think was:



omgpuppiesomgpuppiesomgpuppiesomgpuppies





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The shelter named her Brandy Butter, but we named her Boomer, after a character on Battlestar Galactica. (Back story: when he and I first started dating, one of our favorite things to do when we hung out was watch this show together.)



Two days after we adopted Boomer, or she adopted us, my hair fell out. I vividly remember going into my bathroom, taking a pair of scissors, cutting off my shoulder-length hair because my scalp hurt like a mutha. I stared at my reflection (and a crazy-looking woman looked back) for a couple of moments, and then I said aloud, "Fuck it. Go downstairs and cuddle your puppy."





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During chemotherapy, Boomer wasn't just a pet to me, she was a welcome distraction. Before we adopted the dog, my brain was pretty much all cancer, all the time. What if it's really not Stage 1? What if I can't withstand chemo? What if I go into anaphylaxis? What if this is just the beginning and will never end? When Boomer came into my life, I had to worry about her. Did she need to go outside? Is she hungry? Wait, it's way too quiet -- what shit is she chewing up?



Boomer was a positive light in a very dark time. Sometimes she tested the very little patience I had, but at the end of the day, she was a cuddle monster. She followed me around (like a puppy, har de har har) and when I was crying because I was positive I just couldn't take any more treatment, Boomer would just stare at me, head tilted in worry.



Why so sad, Mom? You can just pet me, Mom? I'll make it better.





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Boomer was also something positive I could talk to friends and family about during treatment. I would tell them about my most recent treatment or surgery, but then I would tell them about the newest cutest thing the Boomer dog just did. My Facebook status updates were half cancer, half puppy shenanigans.



When I was recovering from chemo, Boomer was my reason to get outside and start walking. If it wasn't for her, I would have stayed inside much more than I did. I'd get out of the house 45 minutes a day, or I'd take her to the dog park on the weekends. She kept me from becoming a complete shut-in during chemo and radiation.





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After my double mastectomy, I was on FMLA leave for six weeks. Boomer kept me company while I slowly shuffled up and down my stairs and slept off my pain medication. We posed for selfies, we slept on the couch and we went to the dog park when I had to get out of the house.





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I don't know if I'll ever have children and sometimes, I don't know if I want to have any children. This might be the part where you think, "Oh great, she's going to compare her dogs to children." Nope, not in the slightest. Boomer and Mal are my beloved pets, my amazing mutts, and I adore them with everything I have. I'm going to take as good care of them as I can until death do us part. I love Mal, but Boomer is definitely special to me. Boomer is more than just a pet -- she's the creature that got me through two of the roughest years of my life. She was my lifeline during treatment.



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Sorry, My Boobs Don't Want To Hang Out With You

What's Your Magic Number?

Your magic number . We all have one, right?



No, its NOT your age, ideal weight, or the number on your favorite athlete's jersey. It's not that one lottery number you play each week nor the winning number on the craps or roulette table in Vegas!



Your magic number refers to the number of heartbeats you have until you leave this physical world... until you pass away.



As a huge health and wellness passionista, I used to believe (barring any uncontrollable circumstances, accidents or uncertainties) that I could increase MY odds of living longer... that if I ate a nourishing, healthy diet and exercised often, that I could beat the odds of actuarial science and live beyond 100 years. Is that possible? Maybe? But who is to say? Will my diet and lifestyle choices really increase my number of years here on earth?



Well, if you believe in fate or destiny, the answer is NO! Your magic number IS your number! Your heart only has so many beats God/universe has predetermined for you.



The magic number concept intrigues me. While I look at life in the most positive way, I have to share an event that greatly affected my life and made me really think about our number of years (and heartbeats) here on earth. A few years back, while I studied on the Teacher's Path at the Chopra Center in San Diego, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend many lectures and workshops led by Deepak Chopra (himself) along with several other intelligent and inspiring members of his staff. One of those was the late Dr. David Simon.



Dr. David Simon was a Chicago native and graduate of the University of Chicago Medical School. He was a board-certified neurologist and an expert in the use of holistic healing practices. He co-founded the Chopra Center with Deepak. Dr. Simon taught many of the workshops I attended. He was an extremely healthy eater, very spiritual, practiced yoga and meditation often. He devoted a great deal of his life to inspiring others to be healthier and spiritual. He authored and co-authored many fantastic books about health and wellness. He knew and professed that LOVE was all healing. He inspired me! Then, in 2010, he was (self) diagnosed with a brain tumor (to the surprise of many people) and passed away 20 months later at the young age of 60.



I was in shock! How did HE get a brain tumor? How could HE die? Suddenly, my health and wellness bubble burst! I didn't understand how someone who seemed so healthy, so giving and "practicing his passion" could have a brain tumor and die. His magic number arrived! His heart beat its last beat. And his body left our world.



At the moment I learned of his death, I was sad and disheartened. I only knew him as a wonderfully spiritual teacher, but I was especially upset about losing him. I couldn't make sense of his death. It made me really wonder if all of the things we profess and do to increase our health and longevity are simply in vain.



For several months I tried to come up with reasons for his passing. Finally, my perspective began to shift. We all have a finite number of heartbeats. And even if you believe in free will (which I do, as I navigate through my own life journey), you will only live to the moment of that last rush of oxygenated blood to your heart... that last heartbeat.



So the question becomes, "How do YOU want to live out those beats?" Healthily, comfortably, kindly, compassionately, love filled, blissfully? That choice IS yours. That IS your free will navigating your path of life toward that finite heartbeat. So make great choices about avoiding extremely risky behavior, eating nourishing foods, exercising, embracing each day, each moment, loving those around you and beyond you. The "real" world consists of more than your "bubble."



Make each day count. Explore your desires, your dreams, and your passions. Practice those passions which not only help YOU, but can help others. Forgive those who have wronged or hurt you. Find humor in most circumstances. Don't take yourself too seriously... you were put here on earth to be happy. Live in happiness. Live in optimal health. Learn. Explore. Learn more. Give to others for the sake of the joy it brings to both them and you.



You will never really know what your magic number is, but others who live beyond you will. So wake up to the life in front of you! Appreciate all of the wonderful things it offers you and make time to share all of your unique gifts with this world. LIVE up to that last heartbeat with great reverence for your beautiful life!



How will you spend your remaining heartbeats?



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Embracing Boredom

When I do assembly programs for kids, I tell them that I'm really a kid at heart. (This serves to level the playing field so they want to listen to me.) To prove it I recite a poem I wrote when I was 11 years old:



A Boring Day



On a dreary, gray, cloudy day

There's nothing for me to do or play.

"Why don't you dance?" my mother says,

"Or cook a meal or make the beds

Or read a book, or play with Elly.

And if you're hungry eat bread and jelly

Play the piano or fuss with your hair.

Don't just sit around and stare.

I can name hundreds of things you can do."

"I know that," I say "But I don't want to."





Then I poll the group, "How many of you have ever felt like that?" Most hands go up and I make sure that the teachers also participate. One might think that today's kids, who are constantly connected to electronic devices, may not experience boredom, but apparently that is not so. (Boredom is defined as an unpleasant state with no engaging activity or interest in surroundings.) I then proceed to tell them how I hate to be bored and that the library is anti-boredom insurance, trusting that this will be a nice segue into a discussion involving books. This has worked for me for a long time.



Scientists, who study boredom, seem to find that boredom is not a good thing. In fact, they've recently discovered a fifth type of boredom -- "apathetic boredom" -- that is particularly troubling, especially in teenagers, because it can lead to drug use. However, there is another side to this.



The recent reading I've been doing about the impact of technology on behavior, particularly on the behavior of children, has got me wondering. What happens when we're bored is that we're suddenly thrust back on our own resources. It is an uncomfortable feeling. We have to do something to escape its pall. (The entertainment industry is really selling escape from boredom. Solitary confinement in prison is the punishment of forcing one to live with oneself without distraction.) We look for diversions outside ourselves with varying degrees of success for snapping out of it. I have discovered that I always experience a period of boredom prior to a period of intense creative activity. Hmm... Is there a connection here or is it a superstition?



I'm not a neuroscientist but I have learned how to make my brain come up with stuff. I treat it just like the computer it is. I feed it information in small and large chunks including reading and experiencing and interacting with others. In the last few years I've been on a very steep learning curve. I've started a new business. I've become a videographer. Currently, I'm researching a new book about flooding, interviewing experts from New Orleans to the Netherlands. I read Kevin Kelly's book What Technology Wants after reading The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. I'm interacting with lots of new people after leading a pretty solitary existence for years as a writer. So there's a lot being put into my head that I haven't yet sorted out.



If I have an assignment (and lately with all my blogging I always have an assignment) I give my brain instructions. I tell it to think about the assignment and the information I've put into it. I tell it to make connections. I also give it a deadline to sort out the information and come up with the big idea. Since I don't like working at the last minute, I always give my brain plenty of lead time. Then I wait. Occasionally, something I come across triggers a connection. Sometimes nothing happens for a long time -- days, even weeks. I get bored and depressed. I find other activities to do. Then suddenly, when I'm just waking up, or I'm in the shower, or I'm taking a walk ideas start popping into my head. The pressure builds and I can't stay away from my keyboard. Blat! It comes out of me, fingers flying feverishly. I perseverate and read it over and over, tweaking at words here and there. I sleep on it and review it the next day and always see ways to make it stronger. This can go on for a while until I see no more changes to make. Then I let it go. (Now, whenever I get an inspiration, I rush to write it down, stockpiling ideas, so I have something to turn in when I'm too busy to think.)



Time and boredom appear to be integral parts of the creative process that has limits on the speed of turn-around, which is highly individual. Young Isaac Newton was a student in Cambridge when the Black Death broke out. He retired to the boring countryside to wait out the siege and entered the most creative period of his life (1665-1666 "the prime of my age for invention") possibly because he had no distractions. Poet Laureate Billy Collins said:



What I need to write is boredom. I need stretches of inactivity, of doing nothing in order for the poem to get generated. I think boredom is like the mother of creativity.





Although I hate to be bored, I'm rethinking it. Boredom, for me, is now a harbinger that something good is about to happen. As an educator, I worry that kids have no time to process what they input and no periods of boredom for it to gestate into something new. I'm worried that their brains will be permanently numbed by overstimulation without time to recover. I'm worried that if they're never bored there will be a hefty price to be paid both personally and by society.



I hope I've given you something interesting to think about. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this way.



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Young Women and ACL Injuries: How Proper Training Is Vital to Minimize Risk

Experienced weight trainers know that the benefits of strength development carry far beyond simply lifting more weight, from improving sports performance to enhancing the dynamic stability of joints, which can help reduce the risk of injury.



Recognizing this, colleges around the world employ strength and conditioning coaches to work with their athletic teams. Yet one area of strength training has fallen short with female athletes, in which tears of the ACL -- or anterior cruciate ligament -- have actually increased dramatically over the years. Such injuries are now, in fact, common in female volleyball, softball, basketball and soccer players. The culprit may lie in failing to establish proper neuromuscular control (motor skills) during strength training.



Sean Flanagan, Ph.D., ATC, CSCS, associate professor at California State University Northridge and author of the textbook Biomechanics: A Case-Based Approach, had the following to add to this problem/solution:



Any time you slow down or lower your body towards the ground, the body has to absorb energy. Ideally, most of that energy should be absorbed by the muscles of the lower extremity. Improper technique or weakness can decrease the amount of energy absorbed by the muscles. Energy not absorbed by the muscles will be absorbed by other structures, such as the ACL. Excessive energy absorbed by structures ill-equipped to handle that energy will lead to injury.





One improper technique implicated in ACL tears is the motion of bowing inward at the knees during a squat or lunge position. We have all seen beginners learning to squat, with some of them allowing their knees to collapse towards each other instead of remaining straight in line during the squat. The caving in, or inward collapse of the knees, is technically known as a valgus stress, or load, on the knees.



One reason this occurs is because some of the gluteal muscles are not working well enough. The outer gluteal muscle is the gluteus medius. It abducts, or moves the thigh outwards. This action helps prevent the thigh from moving inward, thus allowing the knees to stay in line and not collapse inward. Poor control or weakness of the gluteals will lead to the valgus collapse, and thus increase the energy absorbed by the ACL.



Another cause of ACL injury is when the leg is stiff, or straight, when landing from a jump or changing position quickly. The inability to bend the knees and hips to a deeper position can be due to weakness of the gluteus maximus, hamstrings and quadriceps ("quads"). They simply don't have enough strength to bend the knees and hips to so that the muscles absorb energy. As a result, the knee can't bend enough because the muscles are too weak. The control of the muscles is insufficient. Energy not absorbed by the muscles is then transferred to passive structures such as the ACL.



The best way to help an athlete reduce the risk of this type of injury is to add a couple of exercises to the strength program and pay very close attention to the form or technique. The traditional squat should be used to develop strength in the gluteus maximus, hamstring and quadriceps. This technique should not allow the inward collapse or caving in of the knees towards each other, so keep the knees in line with each squat. It is better to squat with lighter weight in perfect form rather than heavier weight with bad form. You may add weight as long as the technique remains correct.



A single-leg exercise, such as the traditional lunge or the walking lunge, is a great learning tool and helps strengthen as well. Again, as the athlete lunges, the knee must stay in line with the foot and hip and not collapse inward in a valgus stress. This is critical. The depth of the lunge can be shallow initially and become deeper as the athlete becomes stronger. Once this exercise is easy, it can be made even better by having the athlete hold dumbbells while lunge walking. Other single-leg exercises, such as split squats, step-ups and single-leg squats, can also be incorporated.



Raising one leg to the side (abduction) while standing with a cable and cuff attached to the ankle is helpful. The muscles that pull the leg to the side (gluteus medius) are working on the weight bearing leg also as you raise the other leg with the cable and cuff attached.



These few exercises can go a long way to help reduce ACL tear injuries in not only young female athletes, but others as well.



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To Reporters on the Eve of Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month, when the words "Somebody get me an autism story" can be heard in newsrooms across the country. Some reporters will answer the call with accurate, nuanced, informative pieces that add value to the public's store of knowledge. Others will just phone in their reports, literally and figuratively. And a few will embarrass themselves.



In the six years that I've been monitoring media coverage at Autism-News-Beat.com, there's been a sea change in how news and entertainment media have given voice to anti-vaccine advocates. There was a time when credulous reporters and editors could be hoodwinked into balancing scientific fact with unconfirmed anecdote. By 2004, nearly every major news media outlet in the U.S. had fallen for the ruse, reporting, for example, that the MMR vaccine "might cause autism." The lure of angry parents, defensive doctors, and tongue-tied CDC officials was just too tempting.



The idea never made much sense to vaccine researchers, but editors were too busy following the controversy to notice. They met Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, whose 1998 Lancet article jump-started the moribund U.S. anti-vaccine movement. In 2000, 60 Minutes broadcast a parent's impassioned speech against the MMR vaccine, followed by Wakefield's opinion that the vaccine was not safe. In 2004, a more serious journalist, Brian Deer, uncovered Wakefield's real story: Crooked trial lawyers in the UK had paid him hundreds of thousands of pounds to fabricate a connection between the MMR and autism. The Lancet has since retracted Wakefield's article, and England's medical board revoked his license.



So news media have, for the most part, wised up, thanks to Wakefield's perfidy and downfall. His article loaded the anti-vaccine movement's Beretta, but reporters gleefully squeezed the trigger, over and over, then moved on.



Occasionally a major news outlet, or a media luminary, suffers a relapse. We saw that last fall when Katie Couric let her guests make up their own facts about the HPV vaccine, which saves lives and has an excellent safety record. And Fox News can always be counted on to misrepresent speculative research, recently reporting, for instance, that "autism disorders are greatly linked with environmental factors."



Bob Woodward, whose reporting rightfully drove a crooked politician from the White House, once outlined three things that a responsible journalist does when covering a story. They are worth reviewing.








First, check your sources. Is the man telling you that vaccines cause autism a bona fide researcher with relevant training and experience, or a disgraced gastroenterologist driven from his native country? Hollywood celebrities can reliably tell you how much fun George Clooney's pool house is, but they aren't reliable when it comes to matters of toxicology, immunology, pediatric neurology and other words ending with -ology.



Don't assume that just because somebody has an MD or PhD after her name, she's an expert on autism. A PhD chemist from Kentucky once tried to sell an industrial chelating agent as a diet supplement for autistic children, until the FDA shut him down. Apparently, diet supplements must be edible. The autism cure industry is rife with MDs who claim they are treating and "recovering" children with chemical castration drugs, stem cell transplants, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, anti-fungals and, I kid you not, bleach enemas. Jenny McCarthy's annual trade fair and revival meeting, AutismOne, promotes all these "treatments" and more.



Checking sources "means checking everything, talking to half a dozen or even a dozen people for a day story. If it's something longer, you want to totally surround and saturate the subject," says Woodward. That's good advice whether you're covering the Pentagon, the FDA, or autism.



Second, you need documentation. "I have not really ever seen a story in a newspaper or on television or even on radio," says Woodward, "that couldn't be enhanced with some sort of documentation that would support or add more detail to what the story is about."



On the autism news beat, the best documentation are peer-reviewed studies. This means the study has been published in a respectable scientific journal with a "high impact factor." Look it up. Be aware of "pay-to-play" journals that will publish just about anything for a price. Despite its respectable name, The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is one such pay-to-play journal. The ironically named Medical Veritas is another. Disgraced British gastroenterologist Mr. Andrew Wakefield started his own journal, Autism Insights , to publish articles that might exonerate his fraud. It didn't work.



If somebody tells you parents have recovered their autistic children with restrictive diets and fecal transplants (I'm not making that up), ask for documentation. Are there clinical trials? Where were the case studies published? If your source tells you the drug companies are blocking the studies because they can't make money from poop, then you've hooked yourself a conspiracy theorist with possible mommy issues.



Third, check information firsthand. Or as Woodward puts it: "Get your ass out of your chair and get over there." If your source is legitimate, you should be able to verify what she's telling you. A staple of Autism Awareness Month reporting is the "Somebody is helping people with autism" story. It could be a school district that just snagged a grant to help educate children with developmental delay. Or maybe a helper dog is making life better for a child with autism. These stories give us hope and are a welcome relief from the doom-and-gloom crowd who characterize autism, and thus some children and adults, as train wrecks and lost souls.



But there is a more troubling side to the "Somebody is helping" narrative. That's when a source tells you she is "recovering children" with restrictive diets, off-label drug use, and worse. Health care fraud is a $100-billion-a-year racket, and the bad guys know about autism. The illegitimate autism cure industry is a target-rich environment, but the only way you'll learn about it is to check your information firsthand.



Keep your stories simple and focused. Unless you are familiar with the autism news beat, the more you venture into the weeds, the more likely you are to leave your readers with the wrong impression. Keep these facts in mind:




  • There is no evidence for an autism epidemic. It's tempting to write about autism rates "skyrocketing," "mushrooming" and "exploding," or about the coming "tsunami" of young autistic adults. But words like "rate" and "epidemic" have specific meanings. If you want to compare, say, the change in the number of children receiving autism diagnoses over the last 20 years, then talk to an epidemiologist about the difference between prevalence and incidence. Don't just assume.





  • Autism covers a spectrum of disability. What connects these individuals is the need for support and accommodation. That's your story. What is the school, workplace, family, etc. doing to help these individuals become productive members of society? And how are families adjusting and coping with the disorder? Autism is not a death sentence. It's developmental delay, not stasis. These individuals continue to grow and learn and adapt, albeit at their own pace.






Above all, beware of your source's agenda. There is no credible evidence that autism is a medical condition. "We cannot cure what is not a sickness," says former Miss America contestant Alexis Wineman, who has autism. "But we can begin to understand autism, and help those with the condition to unlock the potential that lies within all of us." That's your story, too. If somebody tells you autism causes brain inflammation, is caused by a leaky gut, or can be fixed by a chiropractor, ask for proof. And don't hold your breath while you wait.



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Choose to Be Brave!

We all face challenges. Some of us actually face such monumental challenges, they could be our very demise. For me, the loss of my youngest daughter, Cait Chivonne, has been the challenge of my lifetime. It is perhaps within the depths of facing such unimaginable and overwhelming challenges that we find our true saving grace. For in the very center of our devastation, we just might find our courage. We just might have the opportunity to choose to be brave. At least that is my prayer...



"I am a survivor. I stand tall to represent my loved ones, both passed and present. You might not see the pieces cruelly blown apart from me. You might think I appear whole and remain unscathed. But, make no mistake, I am mortally wounded; however, I have made a conscious decision to survive.



I have suffered and have dived to the very center of myself. I have eaten my guts and spat them out. I have questioned every move and decision I have ever made. And yet, I choose to survive.



Yes, I choose to survive: to accept that I am not perfect and neither have all my choices been. But in the whole scheme of things, I have loved well, made the tough choices, dedicated and honored well, and in the final analysis... lived well!



I have been blessed, mightily, and will not ever take that for granted. No, rather, I shall be thankful for all that I have, and I choose to survive so that I may continue to honor my Caity, my whole family, friends and community.



I choose to survive and to live, to empower myself with the richness life offers. Never to simply exist, but to embrace each opportunity provided to me, so that I may represent -- represent myself -- represent my family -- always with respect, pride and deep gratitude for this thing... called life!"



At one point during my journey, I was further inspired by a music program that was being developed for children's hospitals. It made me think about the choices we have before us in life... the choices we make when faced with life's most difficult challenges. I wrote the following song, Choose to be Brave, in celebration of the depth and breadth of the human spirit, as per my own experience.



Choose To Be Brave



There are times in life, when we face a choice

In those times of strife, I hear my inner voice

Something deep inside bubbles up and out of me

I stand tall and proud, I shout out loud



I will not fall down, I'll be courageous

I will face the things that seem outrageous

I will stand by you, never, ever cave

I will choose...

I will choose to be brave!



In those times of fear, when I wanna run away

I will hold you near, forever and a day

I will call upon something deep inside of me

I'll stand tall and proud, you know I'll shout out loud



I will not fall down, I'll be courageous

I will face the things that seem outrageous

I will stand by you, never, ever cave

I will choose...

I will choose to be brave!



So when we're afraid, and things seem so scary

We won't run away, no -- on the contrary

We will call upon something deep inside of us

We'll stand tall and proud, we're gonna shout out loud



We will not fall down, we'll be courageous

We can face the things that seem so outrageous

We will stand together, never ever cave

We will choo-oooo-se...

We will choose to be brave! We will choose to be brave!

We will choose to be brave!





From: Love Honor Celebrate: A Mother's Journey of Transition, copyright 2013 Deb Carlin Polhill.



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Mindful Dating

"Man's greatest labor so far has been to reach agreement about very many things and to submit to a law of agreement - regardless of whether these things are true or false."



Nietzsche, "The Gay Science," section 76





In our "crazybusy" adult lives, dating has become extremely speedy and contrived with people "pencilling in" business-like Starbucks rendezvouses that are not dissimilar from job interviews or writer-directors auditioning actors to play the leading roles in their screenplays entitled, "This Is What I Think My Life Should Look Like."



After college - take note, young people - organically getting to know fellow humans outside of work, bars, and a few social activities is becoming increasingly difficult. I recently watched the politically scintillating first season of "The Newsroom" and was appalled to find that most of the (egregiously dysfunctional) romantic relationships portrayed on the show are between people who work closely together. I am quite certain that America's equivalent to Shakespeare, Aaron Sorkin, is familiar with the phrase "Don't crap where you eat," so I am wondering if this is really a phenomenon in contemporary offices or if it is added for dramatic effect? In either case, the couples and trebles involved appear to work better together than stand a snowball's chance in hell of growing old together.



Some people feel as if technology is helping them connect but it can also be argued that Facebook and Twitter delude people into believing they are interacting when they actually are not receiving the tactile affection they crave, that people construct flagrantly inauthentic facades when social networking and dating online, and that 95% of communications are non-verbal - thus 95% of communications are lost through text messaging and emailing.



"What about Tinder?" I hear you query. Right. There is probably no better tool to find a sugary sweet piece of arm-candy or eye-candy, but swiping left or right contingent upon someone's photoshopped headshot is probably as accurate prediction of compatibility as the SATs are to college performance.



Similarly, as Cindy Gallop posits: "Google has ruined alot of first dates!"



At the risk of offending all, I shall not even mention Lori Gottlieb's provocative New York Times Magazine article "Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?" wherein she argues that gender equality can be detrimental to a couple's sex life; specifically, Ms. Gottlieb cites a study claiming that wives reported greater sexual satisfaction when their husbands stuck to doing "masculine" chores around the house. I hope that someone conducts a parallel study regarding single people: women obviously want gender equality and equal pay (and rightfully so), but when the man doesn't buy dinner I wonder if that adversely affects the perceived sexual "chemistry" between them... hmmmm...?



Correspondingly, you may be familiar with the concept of the myth of romantic love as explicated by Robert A. Johnson in "We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love" wherein damsels in distress seek to be saved by knights in shining armor, and/or "soulmates" believe that the apple of their eyes are the missing parts of them (cf. "Jerry Maguire" - "You complete me"). Such myths would constitute matrices of assumptions that we all agree upon regarding the etiquette of courtship. In our post-post modern information age, all of these assumptions regarding gender roles have been cast aside. Thus, it is unwise and often unprofitable to make assumptions regarding which partner leads when dancing, who is supposed to call whom (does anyone even use the telephone anymore???), who pays for dinner, and who makes sexual advances.



In my mindfulness workshops and on my DVDs I discuss what Mary Ainsworth called "ambivalent-insecure attachment" and "avoidant-insecure attachment" observing that some of my patients have a difficult time trusting that others will not abandon or betray them; thus, they sabotage their relationships before the other person can leave them, which would re-open their primal abandonment/betrayal wounds; or they don't/can't fully ever commit; or they learn how to create hardened facades (false selves) so that they can shrug their shoulders and say "Whatever..." as they continue to blame others and abnegate responsibility for their inauthentic ways of showing up as relationship after relationship implodes or conveniently FADES OUT.



The problem is as follows: the most propitious tools for making relationships succeed - authenticity and authentic communications - may not be the most alluring traits when dating. For it is highly probable that your authentic self is not as glorious, glossy, and glamourous as the facade or false self you created in order to survive your childhood, which is the face you mostly like choose to meet the faces that you meet on Facebook and Match.com. Also, it takes time for people to grow to trust each other and allow themselves to be open, authentic and vulnerable; another paradox when unveiling yourself in front of yet another potential mirror - especially in our crazybusy society where instant gratification takes too long for many people.



Thus, when we date we must be mindful of our own expectations and assumptions, our own projections, our own ways of communicating, our own psychological baggage, and our own attachment dynamics, so that we can show up authentically, make honest commitments, communicate with the utmost possible compassion and integrity, and learn how to grow intimately with another human being over a period of time.



And we also must know how to have fun. :-)



This is mindful dating.



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5 Ways to Nurture Your Spirit

The body, mind and spirit thrive if you nurture them. Since they are all connected into one being--you, optimum health can only be achieved when all three areas are balanced. The body needs healthy food and regular exercise. The mind needs stimulation and challenge. And the spirit (your true essence) needs regular nourishment, although it's the area that's often neglected.



In previous generations, Sunday was the day set aside to nurture the spirit, whether that was attending a religious service or spending quiet time at home with family. For many people, Sunday is now occupied with a myriad of tasks and activities, none of which bring you closer to your spirit. In order to create true balance and peace in your life, it's important to get to know your spirit and renew it regularly.



Here are five ways to nurture your spirit:



1. Feed a hobby or passion

Spending time -- even if it's just an hour a week -- doing something you love excites the spirit. A good place to start is remembering what you loved to do as a child or what brings you joy as an adult.



2. Be still

Whether it's meditation, prayer or yoga, anything that stops the constant chatter in your mind will help you to relax and open your spirit to new possibilities and ideas in your life. For more information on the benefits of meditation, check out my previous article on this topic.



3. Take a vacation

Time off can be a day trip, a long weekend or a two-week excursion. Any time you remove yourself from your daily routine, you are renewing your spirit. And never work during a vacation! Really, what's the point?



4. Spend quality time with friends and family

Whether it's a meal out, a hike or a family reunion, nurturing relationships in your life will also nurture your spirit. Life is too short to put chores and work above friends and family. Just remember to choose friends and family you want to be around.



5. Make someone else happy

Volunteer for a non-profit. Give someone a gift for no reason. Compliment another person. Mark Twain said, "The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." Doing good for others make you feel good from the inside out. And what's on the inside is your spirit.



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What Can American Idol Teach Us About Confidence?

"Let me listen to me, not to them." - Gertrude Stein





Are you watching American Idol this season? I noticed something interesting about the "confidence arc" of this season's contestants.



On the initial shows, many of them displayed raw talent. They got up in front of the judges and sang their heart out. They were in their element. They just let loose and gave it their all.



Look at that language. They let loose of their doubts, let go of their fears and gave it their all. It was impressive because we got to see who they really are.



If they're really good, they got a golden ticket and made it to Hollywood. If they're really, really good, they got through the elimination rounds and made it to the live TV shows.



Then it all went awry.



Why? They got over-coached. They started getting advice from all sides. Do this. Don't do that. Change it up.



They started second-guessing themselves. Doubts crept in. They became anxious and afraid.



See, anxiety can be defined in two words: not knowing. They weren't sure what to do anymore because they're receiving conflicting advice. They're so confused they no longer know what they know.



It was painful to watch because these young singers were out of their wheelhouse. They were tentative, hesitant, uncomfortable, visibly worried about doing it ... wrong.



The good news is that a wonderful evolution took place during last week's show.



Several of the contestants said in their pre-performance interview, "I'm just going to go out there and sing. I'm going to forget about the millions of people watching, imagine I'm in the classroom with my students, and just have fun."



Good for them! They went back to what they knew. They went back to trusting their talent.



In my book, What's Holding You Back? 30 Days to Having the Courage and Confidence to Do What You Want, Meet Whom You Want, and Go Where You Want, I call this ... coming into our own.



Coming into our own is a key to creating a calm confidence we carry with us wherever we go.



Trusting our voice, vision and values is the secret to a sustainable sense of self-esteem that is not situational. A centered self-assurance that does not depend on where we are or whom we're with.



Are you in a situation right now where you have you been taken out of your wheelhouse?



Have you been listening to everyone's advice but your own? Are you second-guessing yourself and don't know what to do anymore? Are you focusing on your fears instead of trusting your talent?



There are times it's smart to seek objective input from experts who know what they're talking about. It's valuable to get outside perspectives that open our eyes to a variety of options to make sure we're considering things from all angles.



After receiving that input though, it's important to run it by your voice, vision and values. If what they're saying resonates with you, run with it. If not, thank them, and then go with what your gut is telling you.



Want more ways to reflect on what's helping your confidence and what's hurting it?



It's as simple as asking yourself a few questions and internalizing your answers.



1. How do you define confidence and what does it mean to you?



2. Are you a confident person? Do you feel that way most of the time, or is it situational?



3. When was a time where you really felt confident? What was contributing to that? When was a time you had little or no confidence? In retrospect, what was causing that?



4. What is one specific action or activity that you are currently doing that makes you like yourself and your life? Playing tennis? Singing in a choir? Giving a fantastic presentation? If you are having trouble thinking of one, are you too busy to do things that give you confidence?



5. Who gives you confidence? What have they done or said that increased your self-worth and self-esteem?



6. What about the opposite? Who is someone that causes you to doubt yourself or second-guess yourself? What steps have you taken to limit the impact this person has on your confidence?



7. What advice would you give to someone looking to increase their own confidence? What's the best advice you've ever received about being confident? Put yourself into the scene, and put yourself in the situation where you were given such great advice.



8. What changes are you going to make to keep more of the things that give you confidence in your life, while removing those that do not?



You might want to print this out, invite a friend to lunch and take the time to answer these questions. It will make for a fascinating conversation that could lead to some keen insights on why you sometimes feel confident, why sometimes you don't, and what to do about it.



Want additional ways to boost your confidence? Check out my book, What's Holding You Back? -- which Jack Canfield says "is a must-read for anyone who would like to be more polished, poised and powerful at work, at home, in social settings, at school and in sports."



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