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Page 7 of 9
Cathy Bowman,
June 7, 2007
I drink a lot of tea now that I am in tea country (a.k.a. England). Basically it's an excuse
to eat cookies, which the English call biscuits and serve with every cup of Earl
Grey. Some cookies are disguised as “digestive biscuits,” which means a
smidgen of baking soda has been added to make you feel like it's OK to eat a
few. Now Chinese scientists say that tea
can help make you thin. Right. Unless you live in England and you're
nibbling on biscuits. Prince Charles, by the way, makes the best (I know he's
not wearing a frilly apron and slaving over a hot stove, but he the guy behind Duchy
Originals. Try the organic lemon ones. Incredible.) Maybe the kids in the
Chinese study were doing something besides drinking tea – like jumping rope? I
make myself walk a lot to counteract the cookies, which go straight to the bum.
Still, I think the tea study is worth paying attention to. A cup of steaming Oolong on a cold afternoon is immensely restorative.
Take a deep breath and inhale the aroma. It's
good for the soul – and the body, too. Just don't forget the biscuit.
P.A. MacLean,
May 28, 2007
While recent
research suggests post-menopausal sex may be grand, the hot flashes that
symbolize menopause for many women are not. It is possible to enjoy one without
enduring the other using simple home-grown solutions. The changes are all linked
to a woman’s declining estrogen levels, which regulate plenty of body
functions. The hypothalamus regulation of body temperature can get out of whack
with insufficient estrogen causing sudden flashes of hot or cold. There are a
number of foods that hold estrogen-like substances and have been found to blunt
the effects of hot flashes. Soybeans and soy sprouts may be the best known, but
others include: garlic, alfalfa, green beans, sesame seeds, yams, apples,
sunflower seeds and even oats. So get out the oatmeal for breakfast and snack on
steamed edamame. In addition, some folks take vitamin E daily as well.
P.A. MacLean,
May 17, 2007
From Denver to D.C.,
from San Francisco to Los
Angeles May 17 is Bike to Work
day. With
gasoline prices heading to $4
a gallon, riding one day for many people is a good start, but riding
regularly to work takes an attitude shift.
And part of that has to involve public officials responsible for
transportation planning. For
example, on a San Francisco-bound ferry that carries nearly 300 commuters and
roughly a dozen cyclists on each trip, the captain recently announced that
cyclists must wait to let other passengers exit first.
Seems to me they got that backwards. The bicyclists are not the ones driving cars to the dock and parking.
Rather than a dozen people waiting for 300 to get off the boat, perhaps
the 300 should wait and the cyclists to go first, a reward for foregoing the
car. It is that simple attitude change that helps make the difference in
encouraging riders. Others include having traffic lights that change not just
for cars but cyclists as well and high-rise buildings that encourage, rather
than ban, bike parking in their basement garages.
That’s what will keep people riding more than a single day.
Tom Murphy,
May 10, 2007
Remember when your parents bugged you about "being at a difficult age?"
Well, if you're 43-61, you still are. The good thing about being a boomer is
that your old bellbottoms and the Stones never seem to go out of style. The bad
thing is that you're caught
in the middle between parents who need your help and
"children" who can't quite get out completely on their own. Add to
that the health concerns of dealing
with older parents and your own human frailties, and there's plenty to
worry about. What to do? Well, relax. This will all work out, somehow. (Why
wouldn't it?) But you can help by doing three things right now: take better care
of yourself, share a little of your spare time/money with someone who needs it,
and save more for your retirement. If we all did that, we could spend more time
listening to "Sticky Fingers" and less time singing the "Bell
Bottom Blues."
Tom Murphy,
May 5, 2007
For all the talk of taking flu shots and wearing
surgical masks to protect yourself against some nasty strain of the flu
that has yet to appear, there is relatively little attention paid to some
common-sense solutions to staying healthy: eat right, get plenty of rest, and
wash your hands and face with hot soapy water. Most baby boomers flunk all three
of these, and have a dozen excuses for their failures. Eating right involves a
balanced diet with at least five fresh fruits and vegetable a day and a limit on
fried foods and fat. A quick glimpse at most of the pizza and hamburger
commercials shows you what not to eat. (No wonder they have to advertise. It's not natural to eat those things.) The average person should get eight hours
of sleep a night. Study show those who get an average of an hour less die about
a decade earlier. So if you get up at 6, you should be asleep by 10. And when
was the last time you saw someone in a public restroom wait for the water to get
hot when washing their hands? Do you? You should. Do these things and you
can spend a lot less time worrying about dying from the flu. Oh, and while
you're at it, get a half-hour of vigorous daily exercise. That may help avoid a
heart attack.
Cecily O'Connor,
April 18, 2007
Does the Supreme Court's decision on late-term abortions signal a political
turning point? And is this ruling really in the best interest in women's health
and safety? Republican presidential candidates like John McCain seem to think so
and are praising the
ruling. Pro-choice advocates, on the other hand, say the Constitutional
right to abortion has been delivered a significant blow. I think California Rep.
Lynn Woolsey said it well. In a statement, she wrote: "Today's
partisan decision by the Supreme Court is a frightening and dangerous step
toward criminalizing the very Constitutional freedoms that previous courts have
upheld for generations." The ban provides "no exceptions, even when
needed to save the health and life of the mother, and flies in the face of
medical science."
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