There is no better gift than the gift of good health for any occasion. With Father’s Day coming up, however, it is even more pertinent that we give the special Dad’s in our lives something that most of them take for granted, and that is their own health. They worry about us, take care of us, make sure that we have everything we need, but when it comes to the most important thing in their life, their health, they tend to put that in the back burner.
“Did you know that new research has found that men are 31 percent less likely than women to have visited a doctor within the past year? In fact, men report making fewer routine health care appointments compared with women (56.5 percent vs. 73.8 percent).”
National Men’s Health Week is on June 14 - 20 and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Ad Council are launching a new movement on behalf of their national public service advertising campaign designed to encourage middle-age men to learn which preventive medical tests they need to get and when to get them.
Make sure that when you show your appreciation to dad this year, include a gentle nudge to get him to go to the doctor. It may be the greatest gift you can give him and may keep him around longer.
Here are a few things you can do to give that nudge:
Send this new e-card for Father’s Day from: http://www.dadtothedoc.org to remind the men you love about the importance of protecting his health this Father’s Day
Encourage the men you know to visit ahrq.gov/healthymen, which provides recommended ages for preventive medical tests, a health care quiz designed to test knowledge of preventive health care, tips for talking with doctors, a glossary of consumer health terms, and links to online resources to find more medical information. Also, keep an eye out for the new PSA’s encouraging dad’s to take care of their health.
Did you know that when MP3 players are purchased as gifts, the majority of purchasers are moms? That finding emerged at the Mommy Tech summit at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show.
But do you know about the potential risks? Kids often don’t know how to use audio technology safely and they can harm their hearing as a result. In fact, hearing loss among young people is reported to be on the rise and there are strong concerns that a generation of young people could end up with prevalent hearing loss.
“For some time, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has warned that hearing loss in the United States could rise significantly due to the misuse of personal audio technology,” ASHA President Tommie L. Robinson, Jr. explains. “Unfortunately, a report released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation cites some alarming trends about excessive entertainment media consumption among our nation’s children, indirectly supporting ASHA’s concerns. This should be a warning to parents that they must regulate children’s exposure and fully understand the potential health threats associated with misuse and over exposure to such technologies.”
“ASHA will continue to bring these issues to the forefront and appreciates the Kaiser Family Foundation’s contributions to the national dialogue,” Robinson adds.
If you hadn’t noticed all the pink products on the shelf and if you didn’t already know, October is The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Celebrating it’s 25th year, The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month Organization continues its mission “to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to screening services.”
This is a good time to remember to schedule your annual mammogram especially if you’re a woman over 40 just like me. If you have a high risk for breast cancer, as in having immediate family who have been diagnosed with it, it is recommended that you be start screening earlier. While the prognosis has gotten better, it’s no longer a death sentence to have breast cancer, there are still thousands of women who die every year from this disease. Through education and awareness maybe the number of deaths will keep going down and the number of survivals will keep going up.
One of the pink products you may have seen on the shelves is Orbit Gum. I received some sample Bubblemint Orbit Big-E-Paks featuring the Bright Pink packaging as well the Bright Pink “Little Bright Book,” a guide to breast and ovarian cancer risk and how to be proactive with your health, via The Buzz Cooperative and Dig Communication. They are spreading the word that Orbit White gum has partnered with the charity Bright Pink during September and October to support Breast Cancer Awareness month. Bright Pink is a national nonprofit with an exclusive focus on breast and ovarian cancer prevention and early detection in high risk young women. Ten percent of the sales generated by the purchase of each Bubblemint Orbit White gum pack during September and October will be donated to support Bright Pink’s mission to help women proactively take control of their health via education, support and community development for those at risk. You can check out this cause at BeBrightPink.org.
So while you’re out and about doing your daily errands and shopping, keep an eye out for the pink products. It is the support from companies and all the support from concerned people like you and me that has enabled the research and ground breaking treatments for breast cancer to develop. Until there is not one woman dying from breast cancer, the fight will not be over so keep up the good fight!
Senator Edward M. Kennedy died yesterday, as most of you have probably heard already. Like most people, famous or not, rich or poor, there people who didn’t like him or didn’t think much of his accomplishments. However, there are more who see his accomplishments as being worthy of recognition and admiration.
I, for one, have always admired his advocacy of ‘regular people’s’ causes like health care, gay rights and environmental protection. You will see various tributes to the senator online today and let me share this one because health care is something that holds great interest and concern for me. In this video, he talks about his personal experience with the health care system in this country and how important it is that everyone should have the right to to quality health care.
This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, “that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege.” For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it’s always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.
One of the pink products you may have seen on the shelves is Orbit Gum. I received some sample Bubblemint Orbit Big-E-Paks featuring the Bright Pink packaging as well the Bright Pink “Little Bright Book,” a guide to breast and ovarian cancer risk and how to be proactive with your health, via The Buzz Cooperative and Dig Communication. They are spreading the word that 
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