Like Scylla and Charybdis, the twin sea monsters of Greek mythology, diabetes and obesity are the twin medical monsters confronting America's children. Diabetes and obesity have even been featured as the story line in a recent episode of Law & Order, a show well-known for focusing on issues that matter.

We all know some people who get sick all the time. They're just getting over one thing when here comes the next round of illness. We also know people who just seem to be full of energy. Those people never get sick or so it seems. What are the key differences between these North and South Poles of health?

Health care breakthroughs are big business. We know this because such news is reported in the Business Section of newspapers and magazines. Discussions relate primarily to the potential impact on the company's share price and revenues. Possible benefits to patients are a secondary concern compared to

Since mid-Fall TV commercials have been trumpeting the horrors of the "flu season". "It's never too soon to begin fighting this year's bug" they blare. Public health announcements urge us to get our "yearly flu shot", as if this is something we've got permanently scheduled in our Blackberries. All the

We're in the middle of several deadly epidemics in the United States. Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are affecting more and more people every year. Recent statistics show that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Thirty percent of American children are obese. Approximately 21 million

Most of us are procrastinators. We let things go until the last minute. Papers, magazines, and books pile up on the desk until the process of finding what we're looking for resembles an archeological dig. Our garages look like our desks. Stuff fills the garage just like stuff covers the desk. Eventually,

Is it possible that ups and downs with respect to our health and well-being are yet another reflection of the ebb and flow of all things? Aren't ups and downs part of the natural process of life? If ups and downs are natural, should you really be concerned with the downs? Isn't disease merely the normal

Trigger points are persistent, localized muscle spasms that can cause a great deal of pain. Trigger points alone may be responsible for many cases of neck pain, upper back pain, and lower back pain. This relationship is fairly common knowledge among physicians who treat pain, including chiropractors,

This is turning out to be a pretty tough century. Or at least so far. The recent earthquake-like shocks in the economy have impacted everyone, and most people's stress levels are sky-high.Jobs have been lost, retirement savings have shrunk drastically, and energy prices are rising again. Economic stress

We certainly live in stressful times. It's not easy to assess whether our era is the most stressful, but we do have plenty of daily stress. The job, the home, the kids, the relatives, and the economy - all these stresses add up and yet we wonder why we have so many aches and pains. So many ailments

Way back in the 1960s, when everything was brand-new, the Beatles introduced Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to national television audiences in American and the UK. The Maharishi came to the West with the Beatles to introduce a new thing - Transcendental Meditation.At the time most Westerners were not familiar

"The Stress of Life" is a perennial bestseller by Hans Selye, written in 1956. Selye almost single-handedly introduced the notion of stress into the worldwide consciousness. By doing so, Selye changed the way we think about ourselves, our values, and how we conduct our lives. As Selye observed, stress

We live in stressful times. The economy is tough, global conflicts rage, severe weather events are affecting people in every corner of the globe, and our numerous technological devices don't seem to be making things any easier. Of course, this is nothing new. Every generation thinks theirs is the best

America's weight problems are now so well-known they're even fair game for jokes at the Oscars. "Americans really know how to fill up a seat," jibes Ellen DeGeneres, host of the 2007 Academy Awards. The statistics are alarming. Sixty-five percent of Americans - 130 million in 2001 - are overweight.

Recent discussions in the scientific literature are focusing on monitoring and possibly improving cardiovascular health in children. There's been a lot of conversation and a lot of controversy. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association1 argued that universal screening of children

Long ago and far away, a fourth-grade teacher told a student to "stand up straight - you look like a pretzel". The unthinking adult only offered criticism. The child was left to try to unkink himself in the ways that probably caused more structural damage. Most of us think good posture involves thrusting