Insights

Fitness journalism could use a little transformation. Rather than "selling miracle cures" -- huge lifestyle changes daunting to most people, and extremely rare cases of success that few will achieve -- how about focusing on the small changes we can manage collectively, and telling stories about the champions of those changes?

<p>In tandem, both ambulance, and fire truck, red lights strobed across the narrow cave-like doorway to the Tom Waddell clinic. The images flashed in the dark, like red-tinted, stop-motion animation. Inside the narrow space the six of us from needle exchange creaked zombie-like to our feet from wher

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>Radiation Worries:</strong> As if you didn’t have enough to worry about with all the controversy over whole-body airport security scanners, the New York Times’ Walt Bogdanich and Jo Craven McGinty examine possible <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/us/23scan.html?ref=health">radiation risks for children and teens</a> in the wake of lucrative dental diagnostic technologies both old and new.</p>

<p>New York City has launched an advertising campaign against soft drinks and sugar, which brings to mind a time when the <a href="http://www.healthaliciousness.com/blog/Senate-Considers-New-Nationwide-… was considering a nationwide tax on all sugared drinks</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62JMfv0tf3Q">Here</a&gt; is their first video from the campaign of a man eating sugar packets.</p>

<p>I went to needle exchange to hang out. You may be asking yourself what a soccer mom from the burbs is doing perched on a folding chair in the parking garage of 101 Grove on a dark November night, surrounded by syringes. I was there as a guest observer because I’m working on a series of articles a

<p>At 18 years old, my mother took me to play bingo at a local American Indian reservation. It was a bare hall, lined with long rows of tables and filled with mostly middle aged women. My mother bought eight cards - 4 for her and 4 for me. The woman next to me had 32 cards enclosed in a perimeter of lucky trinkets. I remember thinking, "she's got a problem". The woman listened intently, then marked her cards quickly and with conviction. At several points, I lagged behind in marking my cards. My mom was no better. We were novices. The woman next to us looked annoyed.

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>Hospital Charges</strong>: BNET’s Ken Terry <a href="http://www.bnet.com/blog/healthcare-business/why-some-hospitals-make-th… the complexities</a> behind a new study showing “why some hospitals make the big bucks.” (Hint: It’s market power, not excellent care.)</p>

<p><img src="/files/u47/Medical_Transcription.jpg" width="230" height="225" style="float: left; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />Medical boards all across the country let doctors get away with fakery on their resumes.</p> <p>But not South Dakota.</p>

<p>An <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cnf/2009/00000005/00000004/ar…; title="Nutrient Content of Lettuce and its Improvement">article</a> in Current Nutrition &amp; Food Science has pointed out that "open leaf" type <a href="http://www.healthaliciousness.com/vegetables/lettuce.php&quot; title="Information on Lettuce">lettuces</a> such as romaine are much richer in nutrients than crisp head types, like ice-berg. The main reason for this difference is the ability of the leaves to absorb light, and thereby synthesize more vitamins.

Here’s what we’re checking out today:

<strong>Painkillers:</strong> Popular (and highly addictive) painkillers Darvon and Darvocet – prescribed to an estimated 10 million Americans in 2009 – <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-1120-fda-darvon-we… be pulled from the market</a> because they have been linked to potentially fatal heart rhythm problems, reports Andrew Zajac for the Los Angeles Times.