Bike Helmets Save Lives, Here are 5 Helmets for Women We Love

Guys, not-so-newsy newsflash: Bike helmets save lives. (More specifically: Bike helmet laws save lives.) This really should be obvious, but given the number of people I see on a daily basis who clearly haven't gotten the memo, it's something we need to talk about. According to brand-new research out of Boston Children's Hospital, states with bicycle helmet requirements have significantly lower rates of deaths and "incapacitating injuries" after bicycle-motor vehicle collisions.

The study, presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, has led its authors to recommend that all cyclists -- regardless of age -- wear helmets; they also support more laws to make them mandatory for all. Currently only 21 states and the District of Columbia require bike helmets, and even then, only for children. So while the study could only examine the impact of these youth helmet laws, it's safe to assume that helmets protect adult cyclists, as well.

About 900 people die each year in bicycle crashes, three-quarters of them from head injuries. And yes, it's important to ride cautiously and to know the rules of the road; but there are some things -- like, um, cars -- that you simply can't control. So be safe and wear a helmet, every time you get on your bike. Need a new one? Here are five of our faves.

Liv/giant Women's Orion Helmet: Not sure if you're a S, M or L? This model is one size fits most, with a removable visor to shade your eyes from the sun. $55, giant-bicycles.com

Specialized Andorra Mountain Biking Helmet: Most of Specialized's 2013 women's helmets have a "hairport" -- that's a larger-than-normal space in the back designed for your ponytail to fit through. Brilliant! This one offers extended coverage that's great for mountain bikers. $75, specialized.com

Bern Lenox Helmet: We wrote about this one back during snowboarding season, but the smart all-weather design deserves another mention. Just swap out the liners for summer or winter activities! $64.99 bernunlimited.com

Giro Air Attack Shield: At a higher price point, this new model is for ladies who are striving for a new PR, whether in a time trial race or a triathlon. Its aerodynamic design slices through the air (without looking totally ridiculous like those super pointy helmets) and has a magnetic attachment to protect your eyes. $240, giro.com

Lazer Kiss Helmet: This women's design, from the world's oldest helmet manufacturer still in business, uses a dial on top of the helmet to adjust the fit -- that means no band across the back of the head to cut off your ponytail. $60, lazersport.com

What helmet will you rock this summer? Tweet us at @amandaemac and @SELFmagazine.

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Activity level

Hi everyone! I was wondering if any of you trying to gain weight do any physical activity in the day. If you could give an example of what you eat and the activities you do in the day that would be great! Just so I can get an idea of how much people are eating and how much exercise they are getting at the same time. 

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Omega-3s No Help Against Age-Linked Eye Trouble: Study

Adding nutrient to standard antioxidant supplement didn't help ward off macular degeneration

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

SUNDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- Adding omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients to standard antioxidant vitamins doesn't give older people any added protection against a leading cause of blindness, a new study finds.

The study looked at age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which afflicts millions of older people in the United States, according to background information outlined by the researchers.

The condition is "the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, [and] accounts for more than 50 percent of all blindness in United States," the study authors said.

"Without more effective ways of slowing progression, the number of persons with advanced AMD is expected to double over the next 20 years, resulting in increasing socioeconomic burden," wrote Dr. Emily Chew, of the U.S. National Eye Institute, and colleagues.

Prior research has shown that a blend of the antioxidant vitamins C, E, and beta carotene and zinc could reduce the risk of progression to advanced AMD.

Could adding in more antioxidants boost that protection even higher? To find out, this five-year study of more than 4,000 patients, aged 50 to 85, examined whether adding the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, and the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA to the antioxidant vitamin mixture would further reduce the risk.

It did not, according to the findings published online Sunday in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented simultaneously at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, in Seattle.

The researchers caution that the findings may be due to a true lack of effectiveness, or they might also be the result of insufficient doses, too short a treatment time, or both.

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Hospitals Enact Policies to Curb Early Childbirth

Goal is to reduce elective C-sections, inductions before 39 weeks, study says

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- Hoping to curb elective Cesarean births and labor inductions, two-thirds of U.S. hospitals have implemented policies to eliminate medically unnecessary pre-term births, a new study reports.

Pre-term deliveries (before 39 weeks' gestation) carry an increased risk of neonatal respiratory distress and admission to neonatal intensive care units (NICU), researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine said.

For the study, the researchers questioned nearly 2,400 hospitals about their policies on early deliveries that weren't necessary for medical reasons.

They found that 66.5 percent of the hospitals had a formal policy against the practice, and more than two-thirds of these hospitals had a "hard-stop" policy, or a strictly enforced rule, against elective deliveries before 39 weeks of gestation.

"There is reason to be encouraged that hospital policies are decreasing the frequency of this practice, and we expect that fewer elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks means fewer term babies going to the NICU," study leader Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola said in a news release from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Another one-third of hospitals had no policy on such deliveries, but 53 percent of those hospitals said medically unnecessary deliveries before 39 weeks were against their standard of care.

State initiatives to help inform the public about the risks associated with elective early deliveries have been effective in encouraging hospitals to adopt formal policies against these pre-term deliveries, the study authors added.

"We had a number of hospitals volunteer that they were following the state initiative," DeNicola said.

The findings are scheduled for presentation Monday at the annual clinical meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in New Orleans.

A separate study conducted by researchers from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., showed that by restricting elective deliveries, hospitals can reduce the number of Cesarean births. These policies also can cut the amount of time between when a woman is admitted to the hospital and when she delivers her baby.

"What we used to see here were some providers performing elective inductions in patients, many of whom were fewer than 39 weeks of gestation, with unfavorable cervices," said study leader Dr. Andrew Healy. These inductions could take two or three days, and often ended in a Cesarean delivery, he said.

"We don't see that anymore since implementing a policy restricting elective labor induction, which is terrific," he said. "The mothers are more likely to be able to take their baby home with them and, having had a vaginal birth, are less uncomfortable and better able to care for their child."

For this study, which also will be presented at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists meeting, Healy's team analyzed records of more than 9,500 single births at Baystate before it implemented a policy that set restrictions on labor inductions. The researchers also examined more than 2,600 single births that occurred after the policy was established.

Specifically, the researchers considered time from admission to delivery, Cesarean rates, NICU admission rates and stillbirths.

Average time from hospital admission to delivery for elective inductions decreased by six hours -- from 17 hours to 11 -- after the policy was implemented, the study found. The Cesarean delivery rate for women who underwent elective inductions dropped from 16 percent to 7 percent after the policy was put into place, and the policy resulted in a 33 percent reduction in the admission of term babies to the NICU.

Data and conclusions presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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can I maintain on 1500 calories?

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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A Few Thoughts on Content Creation, Monetization, and Strategy

(Photo credit: Shewatchedthesky)

This is short post on content creation and monetization.

Below is an e-mail I received from a friend of a friend. My answers to him are inline after “TIM”, and I’ve elaborated on a few.

The e-mail itself is also a great example of a thoughtful approach to a busy person (me). I bolded one key phrase.

For those who want to explore further, here are two related posts:

How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself
Tim Ferriss Scam! Practical Tactics for Dealing with Haters

Now, let’s read that e-mail…

Tim -

I realize you are a very busy man and you mentioned in your last reply that you are taking a couple of months off from doing interviews. I respect your request and, having read your work, understand the motivation behind it. I certainly don’t mean to intrude, but I’m working on a project for my work as a Content Strategist and would greatly appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind taking two minutes to answer two questions. I promise they are short and to the point and that I will not follow up your answers with more questions, unless you specifically allow me to. I thank you for your time in advance.

TIM: No problem

The questions are as follows:

When working with brands, specifically big multinational brands, I often run into the mindset that volume and velocity are the most important aspect of content marketing. Yet, it seems to me that agility and ensuring the content is found, consumed, shared and acted upon – meaning that content leads to conversions of direct business value – are more important than simple speed. What is your rule of thumb as it relates to content that keeps you from being in the news business and so focused on specificity while allowing for flexibility in topics and responsiveness?

TIM: You can’t out Fox News Fox News. Timely news-based content turns life (or business) into a keeping up with the Joneses nightmare. I focus on evergreen/useful content that is as valuable 6 months from now as it is the day it’s published. It might mean less immediate traffic, but it means sticky traffic and also Google traffic that will add up to monstrous traffic later. This all factors into conversion and sales, if that’s your priority.

My approach allows great flexibility and offers the option to hit STOP without losing it all. If I stopped writing blog posts tomorrow, I’d still make tons of income from my traffic (via books, start-up intros, speaking gigs, etc.). That was never the primary intent of my writing, but it’s a nice side-effect!

People prefer to trust other people, not brands (e.g. Steve Jobs versus Apple), so I have the advantage of being a single-person-based media provider. Brands can do this by singling out killer personalities to drive their brands (e.g. Bobby Flay for Food Network in the early days).

People want to follow humans, not trademarks. Plan accordingly.

How much of your content is planned vs. responsive?

TIM: 90% planned, at least. I write about the things that capture my attention and imagination, first and foremost. Guessing what other people want is exactly that — guessing. The remaining <10% is experimental and based on reader leads.

As a content marketer, the value of my work is often calculated in the same terms that media ROI is determined by. Yet, working in the digital space, it seems we can be so much more precise as it relates to causation. TV and media metrics often fall into the old logical fallacy of “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” (“After this therefore because of this”) Knowing that you are devotee of Drucker’s axiom “that which gets measured gets managed” I wonder what model you use to calculate the ROI of your content. Can you make a recommendation?

TIM: I don’t quantify the profitability of each piece of content, as it would affect my editorial purity and stymie my curiosity to explore things on the edges… yet that’s precisely what’s built my reputation, if I have one!

I write about what most excites me and assume that will hold true for 10,000+ people… if I write about it well. If I get 100 die-hard fans per post like that, I can build an army that will not only consider buying anything I sell later (assuming high quality — most critical!), but they’ll also promote my work as trustworthy to other people. This compounds quickly. The product — here writing — needs to stand on its own two feet.

Furthermore, it’s much more interesting to me to sell something like a small-scale, $10,000-per-seat seminar every 2-3 years, instead of obsessing over monthly, weekly, or even daily Amazon commissions, for instance.

Many high-traffic blogs and publishers are coming to similar conclusions and doing much the same. Optimizing a bad business (or marginally profitable one) is not as elegant as creating a parallel, higher-margin revenue stream. Think TED videos and TED attendance. If TED charged for their videos from the beginning, where would they be now? Near obscurity.

As Warren Buffett once said, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

That said, if you’re operating in a CPM-ruled world, you might have other near-term pressures, but I’m building a snowball the size of continents. The catch: it sometimes moves at a glacial pace. Big things take time, but that’s OK — almost nothing can stop a glacier from moving once it reaches critical mass.

Thank you again for your time and consideration in this matter. I certainly appreciate it, as I do all of your work.

TIM: Thank you and my pleasure!

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AFTERWORD TO READERS: What are your most burning questions about content, whether as craft or business? Please let me know in the commments, and I’d love to hear your own best practices.

Posted on May 2nd, 2013

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coconut oil?

Since adding meat and coconut oil back into my diet, dropping fruit and simple carbs and grains, I've become anxious about weight gain. My hormones got messed up on vegan diet so I'm back to paleo...thoughts?

Edited Jun 23 2013 21:23 by coach_k
Reason: Moved to the Foods Forum as more appropriate

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