I need something to turn to other than food

I am 100% an emotional eater. I gained 20 pounds in two months after I experienced a tough transition. Since then, I have been battling to lose the weight, but I can't seem to rid myself of my habits to turn to food.. no matter what I'm feeling - happy, sad, lonely, excited, bored. My question is - what has worked for you guys (who are similar to me) besides turning to food? Right now I feel hopeless :(

View the original article here

Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers Tied to Risk for Other Cancers

TUESDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- White people with skin cancer that is not melanoma may be at greater risk for developing other forms of cancer, according to a new study.

Patients with basal cell carcinoma had a 15 percent greater risk than other people of eventually having another type of cancer, researchers found. Meanwhile, patients with squamous cell carcinoma had a 26 percent increased risk.

Although melanoma is more deadly, it is much less common than other types of skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

In conducting the new study, researchers led by Dr. Jiali Han, an associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, examined two large U.S. studies involving more than 51,000 male health professionals and nearly 122,000 female nurses. Among white participants, researchers identified more than 36,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer and more than 29,000 new cases of other forms of cancer.

When considering only non-melanoma skin cancers, the researchers found men with skin cancer had an 11 percent greater risk for other types of cancer. Women had a 20 percent higher risk.

More specifically, the study revealed women with non-melanoma skin cancer were at greater risk for melanoma, as well as breast and lung cancers. Men were at increased risk for melanoma.

Although the study found an association between having non-melanoma skin cancer and future risk for other cancers, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

"This prospective study found a modestly increased risk of subsequent [cancers] among individuals with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer, specifically breast and lung cancer in women and melanoma in both men and women," the study authors wrote. "Because our study was observational, these results should be interpreted cautiously and are insufficient evidence to alter current clinical recommendations."

The researchers concluded that more research is needed to investigate the link between skin cancer and other forms of cancer.

The study appeared April 23 in the journal PLoS Medicine.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: PLoS Medicine, news release, April 23, 2013

View the original article here

3 Million Lbs of Frozen Pizza, Other Snacks Recalled

Possible E. coli contamination has prompted Rich Products Corp. of Buffalo to expand a recall to include about 3 million pounds of frozen pizza, mozzarella bites, Philly cheese steaks and other snack products.

The recall involves all products made at the company's plant in Waycross, Ga. The products have best buy dates from Jan. 1, 2013 through Sept. 29, 2014, NBCNews.com reported.

The foods may be contaminated with E. coli O121, a strain that can be just as dangerous as the better-known E. coli O157:H7, which is frequently involved in outbreaks caused by hamburger.

This latest recall expands on a March 28 recall of about 196,000 pounds of Farm Rich brand frozen chicken quesadillas and other frozen mini meals and snack items that may have been contaminated with E. coli O121, NBCNews.com reported.

So far, 24 people in 15 states have become ill after eating those products, including 7 who have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

View the original article here

3 Million Lbs of Frozen Pizza, Other Snacks Recalled

Possible E. coli contamination has prompted Rich Products Corp. of Buffalo to expand a recall to include about 3 million pounds of frozen pizza, mozzarella bites, Philly cheese steaks and other snack products.

The recall involves all products made at the company's plant in Waycross, Ga. The products have best buy dates from Jan. 1, 2013 through Sept. 29, 2014, NBCNews.com reported.

The foods may be contaminated with E. coli O121, a strain that can be just as dangerous as the better-known E. coli O157:H7, which is frequently involved in outbreaks caused by hamburger.

This latest recall expands on a March 28 recall of about 196,000 pounds of Farm Rich brand frozen chicken quesadillas and other frozen mini meals and snack items that may have been contaminated with E. coli O121, NBCNews.com reported.

So far, 24 people in 15 states have become ill after eating those products, including 7 who have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

View the original article here

Mammograms Every Other Year OK for Women Over 50: Study

Title: Mammograms Every Other Year OK for Women Over 50: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 3/18/2013 4:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 3/19/2013 12:00:00 AM

View the original article here

Mammograms Every Other Year OK for Women Over 50: Study

Researchers found similar risk for advanced disease as with yearly screening, but some experts disagree

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- Some women 50 and older may be able to have a mammogram every other year without increasing their risk of developing an advanced breast cancer, according to a large new study on nearly 1 million women.

The findings are published online March 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study conclusions drew mixed reactions, including criticism for its methods, from other experts. Debate about who should get screened with mammography, and how often, has been ongoing.

In the new research, women aged 50 to 74 who got a screening mammogram every other year had a risk of developing advanced-stage breast cancer that was similar to that of women in the same age range who got the test every year.

The researchers evaluated nearly 12,000 women with breast cancer and more than 922,000 without, said researcher Dr. Karla Kerlikowske, a professor of medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

The investigators considered whether the women had high breast density and whether they were taking combination hormone therapy with estrogen and progestin, both considered risk factors for breast cancer. Dense breasts have more glandular tissue and less fatty tissue.

"If you undergo [mammography every two years], you are not any more likely to end up with some advanced breast cancer than if you have annual screenings," Kerlikowske said of this group of women.

Screening every two years -- or biennially -- was also associated with a lower risk of having a false-positive result, the researchers found. False-positives -- suspicions of cancer that turn out not to be after more testing -- can cause more expense and distress, experts note.

However, for women aged 40 to 49 who have extremely dense breasts, the researchers found biennial mammograms were linked with nearly a twofold increased risk of advanced-stage cancers and large tumors, and also a high risk of false-positive results.

In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts, issued its guidelines that women 50 to 74 at average risk should get a mammogram every two years. Women 40 to 49, the task force said, should talk with their doctor about the risks and benefits of screening.

The task force guidelines are at odds with those of many other organizations, including the American Cancer Society, which recommends annual screening beginning at age 40.

The task force guidelines consider only a woman's age, according to Kerlikowske. Her team decided to study the benefits and harms of screening based not just on age but also on breast density and hormone therapy use.

Women in the study were 40 to 74. Most diagnosed with breast cancer during the years studied, 1994 to 2008, were 50 or older. They typically had dense or very dense breasts.

View the original article here

Hate Other People's Cellphone Calls? You're Not Alone

Study found working people were more distracted by one-sided versus two-sided conversations

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 13 (HealthDay News) -- Adding to the list of "really annoying things," new research is pointing the finger at a technology that can turn public spaces into private misery for many: cellphones.

The study suggests that cellphone calls, and the half-conversations listeners are forced to overhear, are a much more distracting form of background noise than an in-person exchange between two people.

"I find cell phones annoying, frankly, and there's lots of research suggesting that many people agree -- so I wanted to study this," said study lead author Veronica Galvan, an assistant professor in the department of psychological sciences with the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego.

"What we found," Galvan said, "was that there does seem to be something unique about a one-sided cell conversation that makes it more distracting for people to overhear than a two-way conversation."

Galvan and her colleagues published their findings in the March 13 issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

According to the authors, in 2012 wireless device users worldwide devoted more than 2.3 trillion minutes to cellphone calls, texting, listening to music and Web surfing. Many of the calls are being placed in public spaces such as restaurants, elevators or on public transport.

Last year, a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University asked college students to try to ignore sound recordings while trying to complete a task. Their conclusion: Recordings of one-sided cell phone conversations were actually more distracting, irritating and taxing to the brain than two-sided in-person conversations.

The newer study builds on that work, using a real-world study design. This time, Galvan's team had nearly 150 undergraduate students complete a word-play reading exercise.

There was a hitch, though: Participants were exposed to one of two types of live conversations, either an in-person exchange between two people or a one-sided cellphone call.

In both cases, the exchange was scripted to focus on the same range of topics, including shopping for furniture, details concerning a birthday party for Dad, or meeting up with a date in a shopping mall.

Conversations were similar in length and were overheard by the participants just once, as they struggled to compete the word task. When the conversations ceased, the students were asked to complete memory recall tests, as well as distraction questionnaires.

While all the participants fared comparably well on the tasks, one-sided cellphone conversations were deemed to be "significantly" more distracting than two-sided conversations. Attention seemed to stray more to the one-sided calls, since people who had overheard a one-sided cellphone conversation were more able to recall what had been said versus those who had overheard a two-party exchange.

According to the researchers, people appear to be less able to tune out cellphone conversations compared to two-person exchanges. This supports notions that overheard cellphone jabber might negatively affect a person's ability to concentrate and focus, they said.

View the original article here

Americans Sicker Compared to Other Wealthy Nations

Jan. 9, 2013 -- Americans die younger and have higher rates of many types of diseases and injuries than people in other high-income countries, a new report shows.

“The health of Americans is far worse than the health of people in other countries despite the fact that we spend more money on health care,” says report author Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, during a news conference. He is a professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “This has been going on since 1980 and getting progressively worse. I am struck by the gravity of our findings.”

This health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and in all socioeconomic groups. “Even those who are insured and college educated and have high incomes seem to be in worse health than people in other nations,” he says.

The report, put out by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, looked at multiple diseases, injuries, and behaviors across the entire life-span among 17 nations, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, and Western European countries.

Overall, American men live four years less than men in certain other high-income countries, and women live five years less than women in certain other countries, the report shows.

According to the report, the U.S. is at or near the bottom in nine key health areas, including:

Infant death and low birth weightInjuries and murdersTeenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infectionsPrevalence of HIV and AIDSDrug-related deathsObesity and diabetesHeart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability 

Specifically, children born in the U.S. are less likely to reach their fifth birthday than kids from certain other countries. The U.S. also has the highest infant death rate of any high-income country.

What’s more, U.S. teens have higher rates of death from traffic accidents and murders, the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, and are more likely to catch sexually transmitted infections. “I was stunned by how pervasive the disadvantage was across so many different topic areas,” Woolf says.

The playing field changes after age 75, the report shows. If an American lives to 75, they have a higher life expectancy than people in the other high-income countries.

So why are we faring so poorly up until 75? There are many possibilities, Woolf says.

Americans are more likely to take part in certain unhealthy behaviors, such as eating high-fat, high-caloric diets and not wearing seatbelts.

When looking for causes and solutions, we have to think outside of the box, says panel member Ana V. Diez-Roux, MD, PhD, MPH. She is a professor and chair of epidemiology, and director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

View the original article here

Thank Yous and Other Random Thoughts

So this post is going to be a bunch of random thoughts together. You are warned.

Thank You

Thank you all so much for the kind words and support for my mom. She is very important to me and I love her dearly so it’s nice to have the support from all you guys through this rough time. It’s kinda scary especially in the early stage where there isn’t a full diagnosis or treatment plan yet. Once we have more information it will be easier to deal with I think.

Thanks to everyone who offered well wishes and good thoughts and prayers. And for those of you who have been on this journey yourself or with a loved one and beat it? Thanks for telling me and sharing your story. It helps to know others who’ve already conquered this.

It really does mean a lot to have you guys in my corner (and my mom’s). I’ll stop now before I get all sappy about my love for you people.

New Dress

I’m wearing a cute dress today. It was my gift to myself when I got to the US this time. I don’t really buy clothes in NZ because they cost too much so I got this dress at Target for $18.

It’s perfect for work and super comfortable (I’ll take a better picture later). I love the stripes, and personally I think you can wear horizontal strips at any size. Whatevs!

Awesome Lunch

My boss mentioned he was headed to the Apple store and then to Deli Mexicana today. I didn’t need to go to the Apple store but I LOVE Deli Mexicana so a coworker and I headed out there to meet up for lunch.

I love the fish tacos there. LOVE. It’s one of my favorite things to eat in Memphis.

The $100 Startup

Just a heads up, but they are having another one of the Only 72 Hour Sales. It started yesterday but I figured I should still share since it’s going on for another 2 days. Basically these sales are a great chance to get some awesome business training courses at majorly discounted prices. This time you pay $100 for $1,000 worth of business training courses. Plus this time they are including the new book from Chris Guillebeau, The $100 Startup. He is a great writer and very inspiring just like the rest of the contributors. If you are interested in starting a small side business or a blog or in growing a blog then this package is a good idea. It’s nice to have a blog/business that brings in a little bit of income every month especially now when I need to help my mom out. Check out the $100 Startup sale now (disclosure: affiliate link because I usually buy the packages they offer).

Have a great day!

Related posts:

Random Thoughts From The WeekendRandom Thoughts & Plans25 Random Things About MeRandom UpdatesRandom Video Friday

View the original article here