It’s Healthbolt Carnival time again so grab a coffee, sit back, and start clicking..

Woman Tribune tells us to get in the Valentine’s Day spirit and Help Fight Ovarian Cancer with Cupcakes!, virtual cupcakes, that is.

Suzanne from Without Dash discusses electromagnetic exposure in Join the world’s largest biological experiment..

Tara Barnes from Health Care Today looks at whether Are Doctors and Drug Companies Getting too Cozy?.

Heather Johnson from U.S. PharmD provides 101 Easy Ways to Cut Your Cancer Risk.

Brittney from Adult Dyslexia looks at What Causes Dyslexia..

c.camino from Suicide rate up writes looks at suicide rates in Baby Boomers.

C. Myers from Mind Mart presents Tips For An Effective Addiction Recovery.

Andy from Personal Hack looks at The Inner Game of Weight Loss.

Relax from The Wise Curve provides a list of Things to do when we get sick, saying “what we can do to speed up the healing process and optimize recovery.”

Brain Blogger gives us a A Primer on Acupuncture.

Joel Gray from Health Tips 101 discusses Colon Cancer: Risk Factors, Symptoms, and Prevention.

Will Edwards from Health and Wellness writes about The Best Ideas to Cure Asthma.

Dental Heroes discusses the question Does Mouthwash Cause Oral Cancer?.

run4change from My Angle says I’m not the only food addict.

Gin from Sense Scribe discusses Allergic Reactions.

Robert Hazlewood from Ways to Survive Life looks at Having A Positive Mental Attitude., saying, “Some great tips to get you in the right frame of mind”

Aparna from Beauty and Personality Grooming shows us some Fashionable Flu masks.

Cary Anderson from Simplicity for Weight Loss Success asks How Overweight Are You? | Losing Weight Feels Great, saying, “Before you can start to lose weight, it’s a good idea to have a concept of how overweight you are.”

Dan Abshear from Informaproject provides an introspective exploration of a mid-life crisis in The Old Age Of Youth.

Natalie Foxfrom Sleep:Disorders,Insomnia,Apnea,Pills,Baby Sleep,Bedding,Nightmare,Sleeping lists Seven tips for sleep and exercise.

Dnepropetrovsk Intim from Днепропетровск-Интим-Днепропетровск (или где искать интим услуги в Днепропетровске) reports on Skin Diseases: Basic Principles Of Balneotherapy by “Intim Dnepropetrovsk”.

And that’s it for this edition of the Healthbolt Carnival.

Don’t forget to submit your health blog article to the next edition of Healthbolt Carnival using the carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: a healthbolt carnival, blog carnival.

Watching what’s happening on Wall Street and following the politicians as they try to bailout what they are calling a crisis that could have catastrophic results for all Americans and the world, I am starting to have a recurrent dream of living out my ‘golden years’ as a bag lady sleeping under an apple tree.

Retirement might just become a thing of the past. But for some, retirement has never been an option.

Why?

Because they love their jobs too much to give them up.

Case in point - Mildred Heath. She’s 100 years old and still working in a career that she started in 1923 at the age of 15.

And she has no intention of retiring. Working as a journalist what she does and who she is. Commuting the one block from her apartment to the office on an electric scooter, she takes classified ads, files photographs, and seeks out local news. Even at a big gathering to celebrate her 100th birthday, Mrs. Heath kept a notepad and pen handy to gather news for that week’s paper.

An inspiration for people of all ages, Mildred was recently named by Experience Works, the nation’s largest provider of training and employment services for older workers, as America’s Oldest Worker for 2008.

Here’s Mildred in her own words…

I wonder how many more Mildred’s are out there…

(source)

Sure hope you’ve got a little time on your hands this coming weekend because I found some fun brain tests that you don’t want to miss.

As part of the BBC Human Mind TV Series aired in 2003, the BBC website has a series of interesting and informative brain tests that you can do.

Get a brain sex profile and find out if you think like a man or a woman with the Sex ID Test

Find out if you can spot a fake smile with the Smile Test.

You can discover if you’re a Big Thinker, an Idealist or one of the 14 other personality types with the ‘What am I like?’ personality test

Stretch your memory with fun challenges designed by experts in the Explore Your Memory test.

But wait, there’s many, many more tests for you to choose from.

WARNING: Do not click on the above links unless you really do have time to waste…

Image details: Messy desk served by picapp.com

Some of the best news I’ve heard since drinking beer, wine, and hot cocoa, eating steak, and getting more sleep became practically medically necessary: Messy desks are da bomb! And yes, I just said “da bomb” in public. That’s how excited I am.

Though my desk borders on “catastrophic” rather than “messy”, I am encouraged by new research from Professor Eric Abrahamson, Ph. D., from the Columbia University Business School, which claims that most people work faster (and more efficiently!) when there is a bit of mess around. I wonder what he means by “bit of mess”? A teensy stack of receipts or perhaps a gargantuan pile of magazines which threatens to take out any innocent passer-by who so much as breathes a little too hard in its direction? Hmmmm.

No matter, Abrahamson also said that the Tidy Two-Shoes (my phrase, not his) of the world tend to take 30% longer to find important papers than messy folk. So yes, dear anal organizers, there definitely comes a point when one becomes too organized - and finding certain papers becomes both complicated and time-consuming.

So the next time I get the hairy eyeball from my spouse (or you get it from your boss), we shall proclaim the superiority of being a Messy Marvin or Sloppy Sallie, agreed? It’s about time we catch a break, right?

Are you a slob or a neat-nik? Will you make a change one way or the other? Let us know…

“I find myself regarding existence as though from beyond the tomb, from another world; all is strange to me; I am, as it were, outside my own body and individuality; I am depersonalized, detached, cut adrift. Is this madness?”
(Henri Frédéric Amiel, Swiss Philosopher, July 8, 1880)

It hit a few film festivals, pretty much bypassed the mainstream theaters, and is now being released on DVD, but if you get a chance, check out Matthew Perry’s latest movie, Numb.

It’s a semi-autobiographical  dark comedy about mental health and romance by writer-director Harris Goldberg, a Hollywood screenwriter suffering from acute Depersonalisation Disorder (DPD).

DPD is a psychological condition that causes sufferers to feel detached from reality which turns them into an outside observer of their own mental processes and body functions. In other words, they feel numb.

Here’s a reading list for anyone who wants to know more about depersonalisaiton disorder (DPD).

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
Youll see the sun come shining through for you

Smile by Nat King Cole

A beautiful song but prehaps not the best thing for your health according to German professor Professor Dieter Zapf. He conducted a two year study with 4,000 volunteers who were subjected to daily abuse in a fake call centre. Half of them were allowed to answer back and the other half had to ‘grin and bear it.’

Turns out that those who could answer back experienced a short sharp surge in their heart rate while those who had to ‘grin and bear it’ experienced prolonged high heart rates and other stress like symptoms. Prof Zapf says that “Every time a person is forced to repress his true feelings there are negative consequences. We are all able to rein in our emotions, but it becomes difficult to do this over a protracted period.”

Professor Zapf is not, by the way, the first person to look at the health risks of ‘professional smilers’, those people (flight attendents, shop workers) who are required to constantly smile, regardless of the situation. 

Makoto Natsume, a leading psychiatrist at Osaka University, has also been studying the effects of the perpetual smile that thousands of Japanese women are required to practice as part of their job description. He found that “Real emotions are being dangerously suppressed by the “smile masks” that women wear all day at work and the psychological effects he sees among patients are devastating. Depression, mental illness and other disorders are spreading fast, he cautions, and smile-mask syndrome could soon become a serious national health issue.”

So what are these smiley faced people meant to do ?

Professor Zapf suggests that they need to take regular smile breaks during which time they can be as glum as they like.

Personally, as someone who often has to put on a professional smiley face, I’d suggest that laughter would be a better answer….

In case you missed it, the other day, we at Healthbolt heard from Tris Hussey, a b5 pal and long-time depression sufferer. Tris’s interview was surely enlightening and hopefully encouraging, but in addition to his story, there are many, many other ways to explore depression and mental health in general.

Thus, in honor of Mental Health Awareness month, the entire b5media Health & Wellness channel rallied together to bring you the best explorations of mental health we could. The awesome Alicia at Mental Health Notes was our gracious host for this month’s theme day, and compiled all of our post links together in a one-stop-shop sort of manner for you.

Take a look through the links to learn what our amazing and insightful bloggers have to say and leave your own comments and ideas as well. Thanks so much for joining us in this special recognition. We hope you find the information very beneficial.

Here is an April roundup from the Health and Wellness channel. Enjoy!

There is something for everyone (breastfeeding or not) in the mix of the Breastfeeding 1-2-3 highlights from April 2008:
Free Pattern for Sewing Your Own Crew Neck Over-the-Head Baby Bibs
Judge Denies FLDS Request to Keep Mothers with Nursing Babies
World Health Day 2008: Protecting Health from Climate Change
Breastfeeding Basics Checklist for a Good Breastfeeding Latch
Gentian Violet and Grapefruit Seed Extract as Thrush Remedies
Breastfeeding and International Travel
Top Five Breastfeeding Interviews

And from Kristen at Lively Women…
April is STD awareness month
Resources for organizing your office and your life
Tap water vs bottled water whats safer and healthier
Guest post aromatherapy 101
Lunchtime lipo investigated by 2020
Gas station condom dispenser preaches abstinence and monogamy
Womens health giveaway nalgene bottle and brita faucet filtration system
History of abortion genocide of african american babies by planned parenthood hotly debated

Hope at Weighting Line also had a roundup pots for you on weight loss and all that goes with it.

Alicia at Mental health Notes had so much to offer…
The more serious stuff:
Wentworth Miller fan pull together for UNICEF
Austrian family presents psychiatrists with bizarre case
Meet famous poets who lived with mental illness
Nurture mental health during the fight against cancer
Mental health repercussions for flds religious sect children
University of virginia higher education meets lower health privacy
Postpartum depression legislation beneficial or conspiratorial

And the fluffier stuff:
They dont make condoms for your brain you know
Harry Potter saved Rowlings sanity
Giving freud the finger just got a whole lot easier
Goodbye American Idol Michael Johns the 5 stages of loss
Brain break oh hai lolcats
Of disloyal house elves and guilt stricken humans
2 sure fire ways to deal with phobias

Here we have Marijke’s top posts at Help My Hurt
Company’s calling - Olympic cyclist Kristin Armstrong talks about her osteoarthritis
Physical activity may help reduce arthritis pain
Help My Hurt lost one of its own today - RIP Tricia
Living with Cancer: Help My Hurt hosts this month’s Theme Day
Friday funnies - April fool’s jokes

Angelique at Breaking the Mirror offers up..
Please tell me weve all been punkd
Her fathers daughter 1st installment
Her fathers daughter 2nd installment
Her fathers daughter 3rd last installment
Anosexya some pro anas think so
In mauritania anorexics looking for love would be out of luck
Just dont tell me okay

Gab at Fertitlity Notes and Daily Tomorrow has some great posts for her roundup…
for Fertility Notes:
Oh wait are we sure we want to do this
The mistress daughter by am homes
The girl with two birthdays
Smokin drinkin sniffin glue
Appreciating the present
The greening of me part 2
The greening of me part 1

And Daily Tomorrow:
Allow me to introduce myself
Make your office a little more eco friendly
Where in the world is the green in that
Kid friendly fridays happy arbor day
Happy birthday John Muir
Another reason to love mushrooms bioremediation
Its national volunteer week

Liberty and Liz at Healthbolt are always a great read….
Testing the vitality compass
Movie theater cuisine so good but so bad
How dandy the anti stress benefits of a dandelion
Is it a computer is it a treadmill
Warning blogging could be bad for your health
Milk the drink of rock stars

What does Grace at Kids Health Notes have to say? Check her out here…
What your poo may be telling you
More students misusing stimulants during stress
Gymnastics cause 27,000 injuries per year, research shows
Skin contact with mom soothes preemies’ pain
Recycle with your kids Tip # 4: bottled water
Recycle with kids Tip #5: Reusing beats recycling

Scott at Health and Men has his roundup here…
Aprils top seven posts for health and men

And Karen at Pink Ribbon Review gave you this…
Seven of my favorite breast cancer blog posts