Apparently girls take doing badly in school a little harder than their male counterparts.

Analyzing 800 people from the state of Washington, it was found that of all the people who had experienced academic failure (failed exams, drop outs) 22% of females faced depression, with 17% of males.

From Reuters-

"They said adolescent girls who are expelled, suspended or drop out of high school before they graduate are more likely to have a serious bout of depression by age 21 than boys with similar experiences.

Do you use your home to workout? There are many ways to accomplish some aerobic, resistance, strength and stretching exercises without leaving your home, whether you use Wii Fit or follow along to exercise tapes/DVDs...to just including your daily/weekly chores (gardening, vacuuming, lawn mowing, dusting, etc.) as exercise.

I recently read an article in the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter regarding a Do-It-Yourself Home Gym that I thought was great!

Here are the four items you need to create your own Home Gym:

TUESDAY, July 22 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with hepatitis C who receive a liver from a donor over age 60 aren't at an increased risk for transplant failure, death or recurrent disease within five years after transplantation, say researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis.

They analyzed data from 489 adults who had liver transplants at the school between 1997 and 2006. Of those patients, 187 (38.2 percent) had hepatitis C and 302 (61.8 percent) had other indications for liver transplant.

Removing the ovaries with a hysterectomy is common. In fact, of the 600,000 hysterectomies performed every year, half of them include the removal of the ovaries - the reason behind it being cited as cancer prevention (of the ovaries).

The fact is that our ovaries are important to our health - even when we are beyond child-bearing age. They have been linked to heart attack prevention, lessening risks of stroke and even dementia.

I have to admit, one of the reasons that I hesitate to go to the doctor, is for fear that they won't find anything wrong with me, and think that I'm a hypochondriac, or at least that I have some of those tendencies. Do you ever feel this way, too?

A rather surprising story has come out of Sweden, regarding family members (particularly spouses) who remain uninformed of their loved one's terminal illness. Many were simply not told by doctors that their spouse's illness was terminal until right before the spouse died.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer, you may want to check your surroundings, because apparently where you live has an effect on your chances of survival.

It's fairly well known that poorer people and minorities have a lower survival rate of diseases like cancer due to lack of health care and at times, a lack of awareness of a good health care regime. A late diagnosis is especially to blame. I think we all know someone who is hesitant to see a doctor due to costs and waits until his or her symptoms are serious before getting care.

We've all heard about the dangerous chemicals and fillers added to cigarettes and other tobacco products, and I just read that there is another substance that is naturally occurring in tobacco and tobacco smoke, and this substance is radioactive!

Polonium-210 is in cigarettes, and the major tobacco manufacturers have attempted (but failed) to remove this radioactive substance from their tobacco products. This substance's existence is being minimized by the sellers and manufacturers.

This law is great - I think...

At least my first reaction was that it's great. But I don't eat out often - maybe once or twice a month. So can't I just eat what I want to eat and be left alone? Sure, but most people eat out several times a week and may be unintentionally clueless as to what they are putting in their bodies. And even if I only eat out once or twice a month, I suppose knowing the calorie or fat content won't do me any harm. Information certainly can't hurt us.

I know, I know... another big old warning about how we over-eat.

But since it's Monday, let's think back to how we ate this weekend. Because even if we do ok during the week, most of us are over-eating, Friday through Sunday. And those of us who indulge on weekends are gaining a full ten pounds annually.