This post discusses Anne Fadiman's award-winning book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The book talks about the medical experiences of Lia Lee, a young Hmong girl who is diagnosed early in her life as having medical seizures.
If Congress and President Barack Obama decide the responsibility for health insurance falls on the shoulders of individual Americans, all of us might want to pay more attention to what's going on now in the individual insurance market and to what's promised in the legislation. If having no insurance is considered rock-bottom, having individual insurance is the next floor up. Some call it "house insurance," thinking that by having it they won't lose their homes to pay for a catastrophic illness.
This post discusses Dave Cullen's book about the 1999 Columbine massacre. Cullen argues that Eric Harris was a psychopath and Dylan Klebold was depressed and suicidal.
This is a post I wrote about Muriel Gillick's book, The Denial of Aging, when the health care reform debate was just getting going.
Awareness of the afterschool programs and early intervention -- stories about their importance and effectiveness -- is very important to help combat prejudice, especially on television. But "for some reason, these stories don't sell," says Bennie Ford of LA's BEST, an afterschool program that offers education opportunities and programs to elementary schools in the City of Los Angeles.
Original post on KQED's Bay Area Bites blog. Spinach, alfalfa sprouts, peanut butter, beef...almost weekly, FDA and USDA alerts fill my inbox with notices about food recalls due to Salmonella or E. Coli. How does our food supply get contaminated? And what safeguards exist to ensure that the foods we eat are produced in safe and sanitary conditions?
This post is about Michael Marmot's work that looks at status as a social determinant of health outcomes.
