Here are some stories that I've written on health:
A New Bead on Birth Control. The Washington Post. July 13, 2004. It looks like an uncommonly ugly necklace, made up of 32 oblong plastic beads. Slightly more than half are a translucent amber brown, a dozen are white, like piña colada jelly beans. One bead in the center is throat-lozenge red, and next to it is a small black plastic cylinder, which bears the necklace's brand name: CycleBeads. [...] CycleBeads are the latest variation on one of the oldest methods of birth control: periodic abstinence, commonly known as the rhythm method. Of course, the old joke about people who use the rhythm method is that they're called parents. But experts say gains in knowledge about women's fertility make "natural family planning" methods far more dependable than they were decades ago. To read, click image at left.
RAPE & PRIVACY: The Startling New Defense Rapists Are Using. Glamour, November 2003. It was April 5, 2002, and a beautiful night in Bozeman, Montana. Erin J. Bullock, 26, was four months pregnant and sacked out on the couch when someone knocked on her door. Despite the fact that she was a single woman who lived alone, she didn't hesitate to answer. Bullock lived a few blocks from Montana State University, and students often knocked on the wrong door.
Bullock didn't recognize the man standing there, but he seemed normal enough. "Is Joe here?" he asked. "Nope, no Joe here," she said cheerily. He pointed over her shoulder at the couch. `Are you sure? I swear that's Joe's couch."
Bullock says that when she turned to look at the couch, the man punched her in the back of the head, wrapped his arm around her throat and dragged her into the kitchen, then to the bedroom. As she lapsed in and out of consciousness, he raped her, she alleges. After he left, Bullock's face was covered in blood-the barrette she'd been wearing had lacerated her scalp when he punched her in the head. She was panicked about miscarrying. But at that moment and in the weeks that followed, Bullock did exactly what experts advise: She called the police immediately, cooperated with the district attorney and arranged for trauma counseling sessions.
Thirteen months later, as her case worked its way through the legal system, Bullock realized that by seeking counseling, she may have made it harder to convict her attacker. Download GlamourRapeRecordsPDFClip.pdf
Bored? Impatient? Jealous? Weight Watchers. May/June 2005. When losing
weight, what's going on inside your head can be as important as what
you put in your mouth. Identify and conquer the emotions that stand
between you and your weight-loss success.Download WWMoods.pdf
Is Your Town Making You Fat? Arthritis Today, 2004. If you have ever lived in the suburbs, you know all about suburban sprawl - streets that don't connect to one another, few sidewalks and minimal public transportation options. What you might not know is that if you live in the suburbs, you are more likely to suffer symptoms of ill health, including high blood pressure and obesity, according to a study by the National Center for Smart Growth, Washington, D.C. To read, click image at left.
3 Surprising Stress Busters Ladies' Home Journal, February 2004. You know that stressful feeling: the tightening of your neck muscles that brings your shoulders a little closer to your ears, the churning feeling in the pit of your stomach...short term stress is no fun, long term stress can damage your health. Try these steps to get on the road to relaxation.Download LHJSayAhhPDF.pdf
Happy Days. Psychology Today. Five year old Nikki, overcome by wet mushy earth, began throwing weeds in the air, dancing, laughing and shrieking, while her father, Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D, former president of the Amercian Psychological Association, was trying to garden...it turned out to be a defining moment in American psychology, which is shifting its focus from what's wrong, to what's right. How can positive psychology improve your life, starting today? Download PTPositivePsychPDFclip.pdf
There are lots of neutral ways that we encounter people's
hands--handshakes, attaboy back pats, even brushing a stranger's hand
on the subway isn't the most horrific thing. But leaving aside foot
fetishes and footsie fantasies, we don't tend to have such positive
associations with being touched by stranger's feet. Think about getting
kicked, trampled, stepped on. And feet look sort of weird, and they
smell, and they're prone to horribleness, fungi, and warts, and corns
and other protrudences that are best hidden behind a pair of thick
socks and a good layer of shoe leather, certainly not rubbed on our own
bare skin.
