| Decoding your strange medical symptoms
You're showering after a workout at the gym when you notice something strange. There's a weird rash on your leg, a bump on your navel or maybe just a couple of indentations on your nail. It definitely isn't normal. But is it a sign of something serious? Knowing what your body is trying to tell you isn't easy, especially when it comes to more unusual symptoms like these. In some instances, such as a proclivity for sneezing when exposed to sunlight, there's nothing to worry about. It's simply a reflex. A diagonal crease on your earlobe, however, could be a signal that you're at an increased risk for coronary heart disease or diabetes. .
Slacker Guys and Striver Girls (81)
The nightmare seemed so real that Amy began sobbing in her sleep. In it, she learned she was pregnant with her then-boyfriend's baby. Only there was no nine months of pregnancy, no long-drawn-out labor. "It was just all of a sudden I'm pregnant and then, boom, there's the baby!" says Amy, a stunning blonde whose green-hazel eyes still widen with terror when she describes the dream. The shock of having an insta-baby only grew when she realized the new arrival was about to spit up. So she asked her boyfriend, an avid snowboarder who also worked as a massage therapist, to get her a towel. He didn't say a word. Instead, he simply wandered off to his friend's house to get stoned. For a year and a half, Amy had accepted her beau's constant pot smoking. But she remembers that nightmare, which she had about four years ago, as the moment she realized it wasn't a good idea to be with him any longer.
Billie Holiday, Live: A Biography in Music
"Billie must have come from another world," said Roy Eldridge, often heard accompanying her on trumpet, "because nobody had the effect on people she had. I've seen her make them cry and make them happy." Lady Day, as tenor saxophonist Lester Young named Billie Holiday, still has that effect through the many reissues of her recordings, including the recently released "Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles" of the 1933-44 sessions (Columbia/Legacy, available on Amazon) that established her in the jazz pantheon. I grew up listening to those sides, which infectiously demonstrated -- as pianist Bobby Tucker, her longtime pianist, noted -- that "she could swing the hardest in any tempo, even if it was like a dirge . . . wherever it was, she could float on top of it." But none of the previous reissues, as imperishable as they are, have as intense a presence of Lady as in the truly historic new five-disc set "Billie Holiday: Rare Live Recordings 1934-1959" on Bernard Stollman's ESP-Disk label (on Amazon, in stores, or at espdisk.com).
Massachusetts Group Launches Campaign To Regulate Drug Maker Marketing
The newly formed Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition on Thursday announced an effort to curb pharmaceutical industry marketing in an attempt to bring down drug costs and health spending, the Boston Globe reports. The group contends that rapid drug spending growth is putting Massachusetts' health care law in jeopardy and hindering other initiatives to expand health insurance in the state.
The coalition has three objectives:
Prohibit gifts from drug makers to health care professionals who prescribe drugs;
Ban data-mining; and
Create a drug education program to provide unbiased information to physicians.The coalition was created by Health Care for All, and its members include AARP, the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Neighborhood Health Plan.
R. Kelly
I'm telling you these are extraordinary matters to have this break given to yourself, and then nobody shows up except your attorneys." Kelly is due back in court on Friday when Judge Gaughan will set a start date for his trial and determine whether to revoke his bail. The R&B superstar is expected to stand trial on 14 child pornography charges next year. .
Miss Manners sez: You're under arrest
And, hold your hat, fines for beeping cell phones in movies and shows. I bet our readers could suggest some other incivilities worthy of small fines. (It's not necessarily bad manners to talk on the phone while driving, but it sure isn't safe, to mention one of our own pet behavior-related legal ideas.) Didn't Louisiana try to outlaw displays of underwear? Richard Allin would undoubtedly mention over-aggressive toothpick use in public. Other ideas? Ban Hog-calling in church, other than Razorback Cathedral in Fayetteville? .
Workouts that cut gym time in half
Maintaining one's health and beauty is a real time consuming process. Sure, we'd all love to cram in 10 hours of cardio, strength training and yoga a week, but to do so is daunting when you're also trying to hold down a full time job.
"With our busy schedules, it's hard to find the time to consistently stick to a workout routine," acknowledges Crunch trainer Felix Deleon. To make our lives a little easier, Deleon has designed a workout that combines exercises, one that he believes, "will cut your workout time in half."
1. Lunge with lateral raise
.
Iowa halal turkeys grace tables abroad
Muslims around the world celebrate Thanksgiving with turkeys processed and shipped from Cedar Rapids.
Thousands of turkeys are sent overseas this time of year by Midamar Corp. of Cedar Rapids.
Midamar is the largest North American purveyor of halal turkeys, or turkeys that are slaughtered and processed in keeping with Muslim dietary laws, according to the company's Web site.
Midamar co-owner Bill Aossey attributes the growth of the international turkey trade to Iowans' hospitality. .
Family of 'fatties' loses 500 pounds
A Nebraska family of self-described “fatties" lost a combined 500 pounds in one year, proving that the family that loses together wins together. “It never felt so good to be called ‘losers,' " Tony Dean of Omaha told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Monday in New York, where he assembled with six other family members who joined him in a collective quest for fitness. Tony Dean, who lost 36 pounds, not only came up with the idea to make losing weight a family affair, he is the principal author of the book the Deans wrote about their experience: “The F.A.S.T. Diet: Families Always Succeed Together." .
|
