1) Assess: Labor Day is a great annual reminder of the value of work, and also a chance to evaluate the impact your work is having on your health. If you’re the classic office-drone, here are some things to evaluate and adjust, before they can cause some miserable health problems - is your space ergonomic? Do you take a break and move around every hour? Is your job so sedentary that you’ve started to add on some pounds - and can you change your lunch or breaks to include more activity in your day?

Dr. Ramsey's Book:

Women can attest to the positive effects of chocolate upon our mood. According to an MIT study,

"snacking on readily digested carbohydrates, such as those in a cookie or bagel, can raise the brain's level of the chemical serotonin, the very same target of modern antidepressant medication."

Including protein with every meal, and small snacks in between, can help lift your mood by increasing your serotonin levels.

Read the article

It's time for me to get a physical.

Where I live, it's now common practice to get a pap every two years (as opposed to an annual pap) if your last 5 have all been normal. I normally get a general physical annually. Everything from blood pressure, blood (or other) tests if warranted, breast exam, flu shot if needed and a quick general chat about weight, exercise, lifestyle etc.

Do you?

I have been hearing a lot about "free radicals". Is this "hype" or a real danger? They almost make is sound like free radicals are as dangerous in your body "traveling around" as a cancer tumor, that's why I'm wondering about the "hype" and "scariness factor"---are they as bad as they sound?

If so, what exactly are free radicals, and why are they so dangerous?

I just read the EmpowHer News article that says ice tea is the worst thing that someone is who is prone to kidney stones can drink (which is my husband), due to the oxalates in the iced tea.

Why is it specifically ice tea and not hot tea? Aren't they made from the same thing? Is it actually more about the quantity of tea? (it is easier to drink a large quantity of iced tea than hot tea). Is there any such thing as tea without oxalates? As the article says, we drink tea because we thought it was healthier than soda, and we get tired of drinking water.

I've been thinking about all of us who post messages, and blog, on this site (as well as on our individual health-related sites), and I started wondering: how does blogging make you healthier?

THURSDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- Community-based health programs aimed at diet, exercise, smoking prevention and other known risk factors for chronic diseases could cut health-care costs in the United States by $16 billion a year, a new report says.

"We worked with economists at the Urban Institute who looked at health-care costs associated with these chronic diseases," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Washington-based Trust for America's Health, which issued the report. "They estimated a 5 percent reduction in these chronic diseases to derive these savings."

The sunshine vitamin seems to do more than help build strong bones. A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that men with low vitamin D were at a higher risk for heart attacks.

Apparently, other studies also show that low vitamin d is linked with cancers of the breast, ovary, prostate, stomach, bladder, esophagus, kidney and lung. If you don’t get enough vitamin D, you may also be at risk for high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, periodontal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, macular degeneration, mental illness and chronic pain. (Source: WSJ)

This past weekend, while on a long run in the countryside with my running group, I had a close encounter with a wild cactus that was reaching out through a guard rail to touch someone, and that someone was me. It just goes to show I can't read (the directions printed out by our run coordinator) and run at the same time! I didn't even see the cactus.

Fortunately, it was a fairly light brush with the plant, but I don't think I got all the really fine needles out and am concerned about possible infection. A friend of mine suggested getting a tetanus shot.

For cactus?