Now that New Year’s is a little more than two weeks gone, so are many of the resolutions we’ve made. One of the most common resolutions is to lose weight and, unfortunately, not all of us – men or women – do this in a healthy manner. Another unfortunate situation is that not everyone needs to lose weight and they are at a perfectly healthy weight for their height and body build.
According to the Healthy Weight website,
Healthy Weight Week promotes healthy nondiet lifestyles for children and adults of every size. It helps them move ahead to healthy habits they can …read more

Yup, you read it here. January is California Dried Plum Digestive Health Month. I bet you didn’t know that before, did you?

A press release issued for the 2009 month said,
“Dried plums are a great source of vital nutrients and contribute to a healthy digestive system,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Additionally, dried plums are important to our state’s agricultural process. Ninety-nine percent of dried plums from the United States are grown in California, and we produce over half of the world’s supply.”
According to the California Dried Plum organization, the nutritious aspect of dried plums cannot be overlooked. On their associated website, TummyWise.com, …read more

We all have events in our lives that seem really embarrassing or frustrating and while some of the memories don’t change, many of them do become things we laugh about later down the line.
Embarrassing events could be having your slip fall down around your ankles as you walk across a subway platform (yup, had that happen) or trying to walk through a glass door (yup, had that happen too). Frustrating could be falling and badly separating  your shoulder on the day that you’re moving from your big house to a small condo (yup, guess who did that three weeks ago?). …read more

Can drowsy driving be equated to drunk driving? If you look at the statistics of crashes and deaths caused by sleepy drivers and compare them with those of drunk drivers, it won’t take you long to see the similarity.
The National Sleep Foundation notes that a study in Australia compared various levels of sleepiness with blood alcohol levels and what they found may be surprising. Being awake for:

So, have you hugged a medical librarian lately? Do you even know a medical librarian? Believe it or not, medical librarians are one of the unsung heroes of health and medical care.
Medical librarians work in different areas in medicine and not only do they help healthcare professionals, they also help the general public in many ways. For example, the Medical Library Association has published this Deciphering Medspeak, where you can look up words and terms that may have you puzzled.
Medical libraries are a great source of information but they can be intimidating too. This is where the librarian can be …read more

October 2 is World Smile Day. If you need something to smile about, how about knowing that smiling is contagious, smiling can help lower your blood pressure, make your body relax and it’s really not that hard to do.
Of course, I’m talking about real smiling. Few things bother me more than a total stranger telling me to smile because “things can’t be that bad.” I had that happen to me the day after my younger brother died. Someone in a store told me to cheer up and smile. But, barring any major disasters or bad news in your life, why …read more