Friday Foolery #13: Hats vs. pants - Don't let your kids read this

(A 'real' post is coming later today mentioning pants as well!)

We've all grown up with it, and many of us say this to the youngest generation now as most of the United States has been encountering an Arctic blast of cold wintry weather:

Don't go outside without your hat on, you'll lose most of your heat!

The response of recent researchers claiming this is a myth?

Humans would be just as cold if they went without trousers as if they went without a hat.

Oh dear. I have visions of defiant mini streakers in the snow with hats on...

Additional features of the Six Homespun Medical Myths Debunked include

• Holiday sweets don't make the kids more hyperactive.
• Suicides don't go up over the holidays.
• Poinsettias aren't poisonous.
• Avoiding eating at night won't keep the pounds off.
• The only way to cure a hangover is not to get one in the first place.

(via KevinMD)

President-elect Obama & healthcare: Stand and deliver

What worries you the most about the healthcare system in our country?

Want to bend the future administration's ear about this topic?

...and you don't have to be a doctor like my friend Dora here to participate in our online discussion.

Please, go for it!

Reading the Obama-Biden Health Care agenda would probably be a good idea too, especially noting that things may change from what's currently at the bottom of the page:

A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility: Barack Obama will pay for his $50 - $65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.

Here is what the media stated on Nov. 23rd:

In the presidential campaign, Obama focused largely on tax cuts for low-wage and middle-class workers and tax breaks for small businesses. But as part of a stimulus package, his advisers have discussed letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire after 2010 as scheduled.

That, in effect, would delay the tax increases that rich taxpayers would have faced had Obama repealed the Bush tax cuts a year or two early, as he had suggested in his campaign.

Another thing that I hope is that whatever video program is embedded on the Change.gov website is accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing so they receive the message that all are welcome to participate. They'd better be more aware of Section 508 than I am!

In remembrance: Talk about health over the holidays

Dorothy Irene 4/26/24 - 11/24/98

(yours truly as the culturally misappropriated one)

It has been ten years since I disembarked from a plane in my homeland with my "new boyfriend who sounds so nice" (now incredible husband & father of our son) to learn that, instead of having a joyous Thanksgiving with my grandma, we would be making arrangements for her at the funeral home and beginning the awful process of settling her estate. Thanksgiving has never been truly happy for me since. Spending time with her was every Thanksgiving my entire life up until that year.

I could drive myself crazy with the 'what ifs.' Both she and her neighbors did not know that the symptoms of a heart attack for women do not always include pain. She spent the morning resting as the neighbors changed the oil in her car before an afternoon doctor's appointment to check what she thought was pneumonia... just mild chest tightness, feeling winded and fatigue after a cold. No emergency at all, of course. By the time she was seen then immediately sent by ambulance to the emergency room it was too late. She died at the same time I left work for the airport. My grandma didn't call to tell me she was feeling ill in the first place since she didn't want me to worry about her.

In 2004, the American Heart Association launched the Go Red for Women campaign to increase awareness of the fact that heart disease is the #1 killer of women & promote preventative measures for cardiovascular health.

My grandma's hypertension was under control with medication, she ate well, and she either swam laps (she & her high school team often won competitive Pacific Ocean & other swim meets and I have all the pictures & articles about them in the papers) or walked for an hour daily depending on the weather though. It concerns me that Go Red doesn't include well-marked links to information about the actual symptoms of heart disease in women, so here's one from the Mayo Clinic

Women are more likely than men to have signs and symptoms unrelated to chest pain, such as:

• Neck, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Nausea or vomiting
• Sweating
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• Unusual fatigue

As a mom, I understand not wanting to worry other members of the family... plus there's always so much to do. We work hard, both in and out of the home. We juggle countless after-school clubs, activities and events in our kids', family's and maybe even our own personal time schedules. We try to pull off picture-perfect Rockwellian holidays for everyone to enjoy, without the deranged look of the 1950s cigarette ad. I admit I forget about my own health sometimes in the rush to keep up with life. I suspect with our current economic climate even more moms will choose health care for their children first and postpone their own due to the expense.

As you're getting together with your family this week for the holidays, take the time to talk with those you love to make sure they're getting the health care they need. I'm taking my own advice too: Take care of yourself first.

I only wish I had a chance to have that talk with my grandma a decade ago. In retrospect, this is probably part of why I'm so passionate about consumer health education now.