Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive — and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? At TEDxPennQuarter, McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.
About the Speaker
(source: TED.com)
Longtime reporter Christopher McDougall is also a longtime runner — and he brings his reporter’s passion and eye for detail to the mysteries of running in his latest book. “Born to Run” examines humanity’s inborn need to run and sweat, and it’s filled with passion, odd facts, oddly pertinent digressions and deeply engaging journeys to running subcults (and cults-of-one). The book has inspired at least one fan site.
“…federal agencies require phone manufacturers to post information about how much radiation the body might absorb for each model, called its Specific Absorption Rate or SAR. Measured in watts per kilogram of tissue, it reveals how much radiation parts of the body are exposed to during use of a mobile device.
“The simple cellphone used in Volkow’s study, a Samsung Knack phone popular in New York, has a peak SAR in the head of just under 1 watt per kilogram of tissue. The iPhone 4 has a peak SAR in the head twice as high, while the sun’s average SAR can be 5 watts per kilogram during sunbathing.”
Posted February 23, 2011 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Personal Health
A new study led by an NYU School of Medicine investigator and published in the February 15, 2011, Advance Online Publication, International Journal of Obesity, challenges the idea that calorie labeling has an effect on the purchasing behavior of teenagers or what parents purchase for their children. Teens appear to notice the calorie information at the same rate as adults, however they respond at a lower rate. The conclusions are similar to a previous study about adult eating behavior by Dr. Brian Elbel, assistant professor and colleagues, which showed that although labels did increase awareness of calories, they did not alter food choices.
People who follow a vegan lifestyle — strict vegetarians who try to eat no meat or animal products of any kind — may increase their risk of developing blood clots and atherosclerosis or “hardening of the arteries,” which are conditions that can lead to heart attacks and stroke. That’s the conclusion of a review of dozens of articles published on the biochemistry of vegetarianism during the past 30 years.
A new systematic review that pooled data from 15 trials concluded that taking zinc supplements in syrup, lozenge or tablet form within a day of symptoms starting can reduce their severity and shorten the length of illness.
A great story from the January 2011 issue of the New Yorker about how health care can be provided at lower costs, while receiving personal attention from your doctor. Thanks Miguel from Simoleon Sense for referring the article!
The story features passionate health care workers who are working with their local communities to provide quality/affordable health care for “complex high-needs patients.” It proves that there are means to lower health care costs by first identifying where the highest-cost medical patients live (The Hot Spots) via GIS-mapping; then tailoring an individual’s care to target the specific health issues (versus throwing them into the E.R).
Your medical chart: it’s hard to access, impossible to read — and full of information that could make you healthier if you just knew how to use it. At TEDMED, Thomas Goetz looks at medical data, making a bold call to redesign it and get more insight from it.
About the speaker
Thomas Goetz is the executive editor of Wired, where, he says, “My job is to help steer the ship and oversee all editorial efforts. Informally, you could say my job is to be a trend spotter or zeitgeist watcher.” After a decade as a writer and journalist, he went back to school to get a Master’s of Public Health from UC Berkeley, informing his coverage of medicine, technology and public policy. In 2010 he published The Decision Tree, a fascinating look at modern medical decisionmaking and technology. Former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler calls the book “a game changer,” and Dr. Dean Ornish says that Goetz “writes more clearly and presciently about the future of healthcare than anyone on the planet.”
“Public health is an incredibly broad field, covering everything from global health to community health to Medicare to pharmaceuticals. Generally, I use it as a tool to frame the contexts of health and medicine: how can we deliver healthcare to our citizens to create the maximum amount of health and happiness?”
Thomas Goetz on thedecisiontree.com/blog
Posted February 11, 2011 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Video Articles
Ali Al-Rajhi writes with the purpose of informing individuals in the Public Health field about pressing issues in environmental health, public health policy, epidemiology, and behavioral health. Learn more here.
