Personal Finance News

A recent study of the effect alcohol consumption has on female weight gain has led to some surprising results: it seems that women who were moderate drinkers gained less weight over time than those who drank heavily or not at all. This was especially true of women who drank red wine, as compared to those who drank beer or other spirits.

Dr. Lu Wang, of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital's division of preventive medicine had this to say about the findings: "Our study results showed that middle-aged and older women who have normal body weight initially and consume light-to-moderate amount of alcohol could maintain their drinking habits without gaining more weight compared with similar women who did not drink any alcohol."

The study spent more than a decade following women aged 30 and higher, all of whom were of normal weight when the study began. Over the course of the study, many of the women gained weight -- including those who were moderate drinkers.

In the wake of the recent incident on a Northwest/Delta flight over the holidays, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been working to develop more comprehensive security scanners.

The hope is that these enhanced screenings will be able to detect explosives smuggled on the bodies of passengers.

To date, the TSA has deployed two types of scanning systems:

Millimeter wave technology, which uses low-level radio waves in the millimeter wave spectrum. Two rotating antennae cover the passenger from head to toe with low-level RF energy. The scan takes about 40 seconds, and produces a fuzzy negative-like image that will reveal anything that could be stashed under the passenger's clothes.

It is advice that has been touted by doctors for years -- breastfeeding for the first six months is good for both baby's health and mom's -- so why are so many new mothers opting for formula or other baby food before this benchmark?

A study by California researchers, "Juggling Work and Life During Pregnancy," seems to have found some answers to this question.

According to the study, which was funded by the U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau and published last year in Pediatrics, the worst culprit behind this early abandonment of breastfeeding is a return to the workforce.

The researchers discovered that while a growing number of women begin breastfeeding when their child is born (up from 71% in 2000 to 74% in 2006), the percentage of mothers still nursing shows a decrease (to 43%) by the time baby is six months old, and decreases significantly again by twelve months (to 23%). To determine the cause of this decline, they examined data from 770 California mothers, all full-time workers.

With the recent economic downturn, people have looked to the past -- specifically the Great Depression -- for clues as to how things may go from bad to worse and back again. One thing many expected to find was a decline in overall health and climbing mortality rate during those years. As it turns out, the opposite was true. A look back at the Great Depression shows that during times of economic turmoil, the mortality rate has actually decreased. What does this tell us about health and wellness? For starters, it shows the importance of lifestyle in maintaining health and increasing longevity.

The study of Depression Era health reveals that although the nation's unemployment rate rose to over 22%, and despite economic activity dropping by 14%, the average life expectancy increased by 8.8 years. The nation saw a decrease in death caused by cardiovascular and renal diseases, cancer, influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and motor vehicle accidents - all comprising the list of most common causes of death during the era. In fact, the only cause of death that increased during The Depression was suicide.

I have practiced medicine on the front-lines for more than 20 years. This is after my initial 12 years of training at major university medical centers. I have seen the best and worst of my profession in the hospital, doctors' offices and research labs. I have witnessed tragedies and miracles at 3 a.m., holding back my own tears to provide comfort to a grieving friend or family member.

There is nothing I would rather do than help my patients improve their health and comfort the ill. However, for the first time in my career, I am concerned about the future of our health care system.

Make no mistake, we do need reform. Quality care is expensive. We need to get better value and cut costs. However, we do not need to wreck the best health care system in the world. If you are sick you will do best in our present system.

We need to cut costs and make care available and affordable. Transferring the responsibility to the government is not the solution. Government does well at protecting us, and oversight. Government is not able to provide good service at the best price. This is where the private sector excels.

Lately, it seems like you can't open the newspaper (or click through the paper online) without coming across a headline about health care reform. Who should run the programs, who should pay for them, who should be covered and to what extent?

But what if you could take control of the costs yourself? What if you could pay in to a health care plan, tax-free, and accumulate your own health insurance funds over time? The truth is you already can, but these resources may be threatened as the government and health care industries try to deal with a looming crisis. I have discussed this many times on my radio program, and I'll repeat it here: This would be a major mistake!