Energy Drinks

Why they are bad news for your healthHad a so-called “energy drink” lately? If so, you are like millions of Americans, who make these liquids a part of their weekly diet. In terms of product growth, the story of energy drinks is quite amazing. They are a $3.4 billion a year industry that grew by […]

Incontinence in Women

A surprisingly common problem Incontinence– the loss of bladder control – affects about 25 million Americans, but you don’t hear much about it. While 55% of women in their 80s have the problem, nearly 30% of women in their 30s experience some loss of bladder control at least once a month. Believe it or not, […]

Ozone and the Outdoors

Air quality concerns continue to rise Here’s an interesting news item (within the quotation marks) that was recently brought to my attention: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Even breathing in a little ozone at levels found in many areas is likely to kill some people prematurely, the National Research Council reported. The report recommends that the U.S. […]

Smoke-Free

On July 1, Iowa went smoke-free — no more smoking in public Just this month, on July 1st, Iowa went "smoke-free." That means no smoking in many public places, including restaurants, bars and even in one’s own car in the parking lot of a school, as the Des Moines Register put it. In some Iowa […]

Salt and Your Health

Are you getting too much of it?The average American consumes two to three times as much salt as she or he should on a daily basis, and only 15% of that comes from the salt shaker. About 10% occurs naturally in foods, and a whopping 75% is put there by the food industry. So what’s […]

Healthy Behavior

Blending economics and psychology on behalf of healthDespite the great strides that we have made in health care over the last 50 years, we find ourselves in 2008 with an interesting problem: There is growing acknowledgement that human behavior has been unable to maintain pace with scientific understanding. When it first became obvious that we […]

Surgical Burden of Disease

Thinking strategically about health in a connected world Two weeks ago I participated in a conference in Norfolk, Virginia in a session with Dr. Selwyn Rogers, Chief of the Trauma Division at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health for Partners Health Care. Selwyn’s research interest is […]

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