Diet and Nutrition. Natural Health, and Healthy Living

Perhaps because I read Gary Schwitzer's blogand quality assessment projectso avidly, I am somewhat down on the quality of much health journalism, in the West, at least. But every now and then,I read a terrific article that renewsmy faith.One such article, authored by Margaret Wente,appeared in the Globe and Mail, a Toronto-based publication. The article takes an unusually (formedia, I think) critical look at the epistemology ofthe fatness-health connections. It isquite well-written, and while I donot endorse the entire article, I absolutely appreciate the critical tone of the writing and the arguments adducedtherein. The article models, in manyways, some of the best andmost persuasive academic writings in the criticalobesityscholarship.

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Right now we havesausage-making going on in DC and lots of uninformed opinions and outright lies being strewn across the front pages and on cable from newly declared experts. I sat in an airport last night and heard 5 Wall Street pundits spewing rubbish about health reform on one cable show. It even included an aging upper-class British twit declaring that government health care was more expensive than private systems.Clearly he’d managed to misscomparing the 8% of GDP his (and my) original homeland spends on health care versus the 17% we spend here. Later on CNN had 4 random people including Christine Hefner—yes one of those Hefners—talking about it. I suspect that if you know something about health care and yourname’s not Michael Cannon you’re just not allowed on cable TV.

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Technology isn’t a quick fix. Just ask General Motors. In the 1980s, the auto giant spent $50 billion to automate and computerize its plants in an effort to compete with Toyota. Today, GM is emerging from bankruptcy while Toyota still leads in producing high quality, fuel-efficient vehicles.

What happened? “The Japanese have a great way of describing the error that General Motors made,” said Thomas Kochan, co-director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. “It’s workers who give wisdom to these machines.”

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Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, invites applications for a 3-year PhD/2-year postdoc position in the project ‘Communicative barriers between biomedical research and everyday health care in a museum context.'

The increasingly important role of biomedical knowledge and advanced medical technologies in Western health systems is a challenge to the public communication of and engagement with medicine, especially in science, technology and medical museums. This project aims to develop the understanding of the means through which esoteric biomedical and medico-technological knowledge and practices can be communicated to lay people in a museum exhibition context, with special emphasis on the use of material and visual cultural practices. The project is expected to help construct new physical and web-based exhibition and display practices for science, technology and medical museums.

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We’ve been getting lots of news these past few days leading to optimism that a bipartisan health care bill will soon emerge from discussions between the “Coalition of the Willing.” That term refers to the three Republicans and three Democrats trying to find common ground in the Senate Finance Committee.

First, let me be clear that I have the greatest respect for Senators Baucus and Grassley and their four colleagues. Theirs is the kind of bipartisan approach that all of Washington, DC should be following on any number of issues.
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To understand and effectively navigate the current healthcare debate, every U.S. CEO must now be a healthcare leader.

From the health, well being and productivity of employees and their families to the impact on a company’s bottom line, healthcare is a major business concern for everyone. Five consecutive years of double-digit health insurance premium increases have hit the business community hard.

If we don’t identify new efficiencies in the way we administer employee-based healthcare programs, the negative impact of these costs on businesses will only grow. Healthcare spending currently accounts for 18 percent of U.S. economic output. It could reach 34 percent by 2040, according to a June 2, 2009 report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, if the current rate of cost growth continues.

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Via CNN: Study: Sunbeds as harmful as cigarettes

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) had previously classified sunbeds as being a "probable" cause of cancer.

However, the agency is now recommending that tanning machines should be moved to "the highest cancer risk category" and be labeled as "carcinogenic to humans".

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President Obama made a risky wager when he decided to let Congress take the lead on crafting health care legislation, rather than presenting his own reform package. Congress is not known for taking bold, decisive leadership on tough issues. Normally, it reacts and gridlocks; it doesn’t lead.

As Congress takes its usual August recess without acting, it appears that Obama’s strategy has failed. But, has it? Is there a deeper strategy? What’s really at stake here?

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Sermo’s Daniel Palestrant got on TV with Howard Dean. It was an amusing (and short) little debate whichyou can find here.

The best moment was at the start when Dean claimed that Sermo was just apoll. Palestrant pointed out that Dean spent last week explaining how reflective online communities were about what their members thought. Given how Dean rose to national prominence I’m a little surprised that he’s trashing the Internet!

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Four months after we first reportedon a sketchy AIDS "charity" with a nationwide fundraising campaign, authorities have begun to crack down. But the move might not have much impact if other officials don't follow suit.

The Illinois attorney general alleged in a lawsuit Thursday that the Center for AIDS Prevention solicited donations illegally and falsified official documents. The group's fundraising campaign has featured ads on the Web sites of the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and others for months, drawing attention to the charity's shady practices.

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