Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Monday, February 01, 2010

News you can use?

I get a lot of e-mail from various organizations, authors and businesses touting health advice and resources for the average schmo to learn how to glow with the incandescence of well being and all that. Since I really don't intend this to be Ask Dr. Wiseguy (I'm not a real doctor anyway, I'm a doctor of philosophy), I usually just delete it, but what the heck, as long as we're here:

The Clinton Foundation has joined with the Heart Association to help parents and children combat the epidemic of childhood obesity and inactivity. I don't know how much good it will do for me to link to their web site but if you have kids, know any kids, or know anybody who has kids it probably can't hurt to take a look and get some ideas. They're calling the whole thing the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

WebMD has been begging me for a link forever, it seems like. I keep fighting them off with my policy of not linking to commercial sites, but after thoroughly checking them out I think they're okay. They are supported by advertising but they really do have a firewall between advertising and editing, with additional beneficial restrictions on the content and presentation of ads. Their information generally seems fair and balanced, and basically they're just using the classic business model of advertiser-supported magazine publishing on the web instead of on paper, so what the heck? They've been particularly pushing the heart section on me.

Do, however, ignore the advertising. You will see disease mongering for fibromyalgia, which is something people really do experience but is not curable by drugs; and ads for antidepressants which are pretty much a fraud. If you can trust yourself to put black tape over the ads, you might find it useful.

No comments: