Source: The Insider The current emotional polarization around health care reform is not so much about specific issues – rising medical costs, reprehensible insurance industry practices, the number of uninsured. It reflects a deep division in American culture that began in the sixties. Forty years after Woodstock, it’s clear that a major shift happened in… Read more
Author Archives: Jan
Music: Aaron Neville and the Neville Brothers
Source: Rolling Stone Here are three songs – the first two from the group the Neville Brothers and the third from an Aaron Neville solo album. You may know Aaron Neville from the song Tell it like it is, which was a hit in 1967 (here’s a YouTube version). The Neville Brothers are a New… Read more
Real men don’t use doctors
Source: Defending the truth Too much machismo can be bad for a man’s health. A recent study finds that the John Wayne/Sylvester Stallone types are half as likely as their less “macho” counterparts to visit a doctor for preventive health care. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association on… Read more
The tactics of health care opponents may discredit their message
Source: Telegraph After all the recent media coverage of angry crowds at town hall meetings who oppose health care reform, it’s a relief to come across a reassuring piece of journalism from a neutral source. Reuters reports that the entire ruckus will probably not make any difference in the broader debate on health issues. The… Read more
Collateral circulation and the cat concerto
Like the appendix , collateral circulation is another part of our anatomy that was more useful to our ancestors. Collateral circulation refers to systems of veins and arteries that allow blood to continue flowing when the main pathway is blocked or damaged. These extra vessels sometimes develop in response to a circulation blockage. But certain… Read more
Still useful after all these years: The gall bladder
The gall bladder is another useful but expendable organ (see recent posts on the appendix and the spleen). Unlike losing your spleen, living without a gall bladder is not detrimental to your health, though it may be inconvenient at times. The gall bladder is located under the liver, on the right side of the body.… Read more
The Spleen in Chinese Medicine
Source: Institute for Traditional Medicine The philosophy that informs Chinese Medicine is very different from the science that determines Western medicine. These two cultures do not start from the same assumptions about what it means to be healthy. Those who dismiss Asian medicine as being of no value fail to take this into account. You… Read more
Still useful after all these years: The spleen
Source: danielle2 While some anatomical organs are dismissed as totally unnecessary (see Still useful after all these years: The appendix), others are considered useful but dispensable. Consider the spleen. Located on the left side of the body, under the ribs and behind the stomach, the spleen is about five to six inches long and one… Read more
Still useful after all these years: The appendix
Source: Adventures in Honduras You can live without an appendix, true, but you should no longer think of this “vestigial” organ as a useless part of your anatomy. The appendix is finally getting the respect it deserves. We have ten times as many bacteria in the body as we have cells (and we have 10,000,000,000,000… Read more
Waste, Fraud, Abuse and the Mafia
Source: Silive.com One of the arguments against health care reform is the government’s inability to run an efficient and financially sound business. Government bureaucracies are considered breeding grounds for waste, fraud, and abuse. Here’s a typical complaint I found online: “The Government Loses Over $200 Billion A year To Medicare/Medicaid Fraud!!!! Should they be taxing… Read more
How much water do we need?
The idea that drinking eight glasses of water a day is the healthy thing to do has been around since the 1940s. It’s not true, but at this point it’s a widely held myth. On a site called Optimum Health, for example, I found this statement: “The average person needs 8-10 glasses of water daily… Read more
Music: Shakira, Michelle Shocked, Sacha Nairobi
Source: Rolling Stone Three more songs I used in class this week: Shakira for the first Circle song, Michelle Shocked for larger leg movements in Circle, and Sacha Nairobi for Across the floor. The whole Michelle Shocked album (Short Sharp Shocked) is great. I use four songs from this album in classes, but When I… Read more
Music: Peggy Lee, Steve Tyrell, Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney There’s so much good music that it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ll start with something I used today. It was the last class in the summer session for Mountain View students, and I used some old standards for warm-up. If you click the “Play” button below, you can hear 30 to… Read more
Rosen Method Movement Music
Source: Smarthistory A Rosen Method Movement class takes students through a sequence of movements. The sequence prepares the body to move with ease across the dance floor. All movements are done to music, but not just any music. The songs used in a class need to have a tempo that’s not too fast and not… Read more
Rosen Method Movement teachers
Rosen Method Movement: Gentle, yet powerful movement and dance designed to lubricate all the joints in the body. Classes help you stay active and healthy, improve balance and coordination, and cope more effectively with stress. Developed by an innovative physical therapist as a way to prevent difficulties before they arise, each class follows a sequence… Read more
How much exercise do we really need?
The US government, through the Centers for Disease Control, has an official opinion on how much exercise we need. Adults should get 30 minutes a day, five days of week, of moderate activity, such as brisk walking. This doesn’t need to happen in 30-minute segments. Ten minutes at a time is enough, as long as… Read more
Is it a stroke? Diagnosing by email
Source: Down Maine Veterinary Clinic Click photo for larger view. There’s an email that makes the rounds on the Internet about three signs for identifying a stroke: Can the person smile, raise both arms, and speak a simple sentence. “The Smile Test” was originally presented at a conference hosted by the American Stroke Association (ASA)… Read more
Without the public option, it's not health care reform
Source: Psychic Medium Rare Howard Dean is not one of my favorite politicians, but he has a good point about leaving the public option out of health care reform. Dean and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, both MDs, were interviewed last night on the Charlie Rose Show. Towards the end of the interview, Rose… Read more
Get thee glass eyes
My mother was decidedly vain her whole life. She’d been exceptionally good looking in her youth, which made it especially difficult to accept the slow physical decay of aging.
Surely it must be easier in our culture to accept the wrinkles, sags and bulges that come with advancing age if one has never thought of oneself as particularly attractive. Or if one has cared little about appearances. Admittedly, this is an increasingly rare point of view in contemporary Western societies. Read more
You want salt with that Moons Over My Hammy?
Source: Sigmund, Carl and Alfred You already know Denny’s doesn’t exactly serve health food, so is it worth getting worked up over how much salt is in a typical Denny’s meal? The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) thinks so. They’ve initiated a lawsuit against Denny’s over the salt content of their meals.… Read more
Health care reform: Politics and substance
Source: The health care mess With health care reform reduced to a sporting event – or as Hendrik Hertzberg calls it in the latest New Yorker, a brawl — I sometimes find myself wishing I lived in a benevolent dictatorship. (Just kidding.) As President Obama pointed out in his press conference on health care last… Read more
My limbs are made glorious
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on joyful dancing, here’s the video Where the Hell is Matt? Thanks to a Rosen Method friend, Joanna, for sending it. The video includes dancing in 42 countries. I especially like the crabs on the beach on Christmas Island, Australia and the dog in Kuwait City. And that short… Read more
Dance for joy: Rosen Method Movement and a Minnesota wedding
When I try to explain Rosen Method Movement (RMM) to people, I like to quote Marion Rosen on the way you feel after a movement class: “Our goal is to make people feel happy and motivated to dance, rather than drag themselves around. We would like them to feel physically well when their bodies move,… Read more
Obama's press conference: Health care as a herd of rhinos
Source: Nick Brandt Click photo for larger view. My favorite conservative columnist, David Brooks, responded to Barack Obama’s press conference on health care this week with a piece that characterizes rising costs as a “stampede of big ugly rhinos. They are trampling your crops, stomping on your children’s play areas and spoiling your hunting grounds.”… Read more
Why bike when you can trikke?
The trikke (pronounced “trike”) is essentially a scooter with two wheels at the rear instead of one. You don’t push your feet against the ground to go forward, however. You lean from side to side, similar to the way you’d propel yourself on skis. It takes a little practice, but it’s not hard to learn.… Read more
Things that make you go "Oooohhhh!" Why we can’t resist babies
Mascara, eye-liner, and shadow can make the eyes stand out and look much larger than they actually are. Lipstick can make the lips look rounder and puffier. Why do we find this attractive? Properly applied, eye make-up and lipstick will emphasize facial features that make an adult look more like a baby. And we are… Read more
Want your wallet returned? Include a baby pic
If you want to increase the chances recovering a lost wallet, be sure to include baby photos. Researchers set up an experiment in which 240 wallets were left on the streets of Edinburgh. Some of the wallets had photos, either a baby, a cute puppy, a family snapshot, or an elderly couple. One group of… Read more
How cats control their humans
Never underestimate a cat. Researchers in Britain have analyzed a special “meow” many cats use when they want something right now: Food, toys, an open door. It’s called a “solicitation purr” and combines a high-frequency cry within an otherwise pleasant purr. Insistent meowing might be ignored as annoying, but by embedding the high-frequency sound in… Read more
Congress finds health insurance industry fundamentally flawed
Source: Hogue News After a year investigating practices of the health insurance industry, a Congressional committee chaired by Representative Henry Waxman concluded that the system is “fundamentally flawed.” Regulations governing insurance are a mishmash of state and federal laws. The insurance industry takes advantage of inconsistencies to engage in “controversial practices.” According to the federal… Read more
Why health insurance isn't there when you need it most
Source: National Public Radio Robin Beaton, a retired nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2008. Fortunately she had health insurance. Three days before she was scheduled for double mastectomy surgery, however, Blue Cross cancelled her insurance. The company claimed she had once seen a doctor for acne… Read more