Wednesday, December 31, 2008

BACK TO BLOGGING/HAPPY NEW YEAR

I have a calendar that has a page making fun of blogs. It says, "Blogging: Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few." It's pretty funny, and sadly true.
There have never been a ton of readers of this blog, but I'm sure there were more (i.e. 2 or 3) back when I was updating the blog daily. That became a drag, and as a result the blog suffered.
So for 2009, I'm going to get Dr. Tofuhead going again, and set some reasonable goals. If the blog completely sucks please let me know, and I'll revamp the whole thing or shut it down.

NEW FEATURES FOR 2009:
1. The blog will be updated once a week.
2. As usual, there will be a new topic and also reader questions will be addressed as they come in. 3. If I'm lucky, my brother Randy will put up some photos.
4. There will be more of a focus on preventive health, i.e. keeping yourself healthy...and happy. I'm going to be combing the Mental Health literature for useful new tidbits.

TODAY'S TOPIC: USEFUL RESOURCES FOR YOU!
I get a lot of useful health information from sources that are not written for doctors; they are written for "lay people" like YOU. There really are some exceptional sources of health information out there, mixed in with a whole lot of crap. The Internet in particular has a wealth of useless and erroneous health information, and I am dismayed every time I do a general search about a disease using Google. So here are a few sources that are in print, that are readily accessible, and that are LOADED with useful health topics:
1. Harvard Health Letter: this is a monthly newsletter that is relatively inexpensive and loaded with good information from the folks at Harvard Medical School. It covers everything from exercise and nutrition to detailed reviews of new tests doctors use. For example, a recent issue covered cholesterol blood tests, how much sleep you need, what kinds of fish to eat, a review of topical pain creams, cardiac stress tests, and everything you need to know about ear wax. It's available online as well, though you need a subscription to access the current month, which I highly recommend. Check it out at: http://www.health.harvard.edu/.
2. The University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter: similar to the Harvard Health Letter, this was the health newsletter that started health newsletters. I can't overemphasize how awesome this newsletter is. I can't think of a single health or nutrition-related topic they haven't covered in depth over the last 3 years. The issue on my desk covers generic vs. name-brand drugs, berries, motorcycle riding, organic vs. commercial produce, preventing and treating mosquito bites, exercise, and all the skin cancers you need to know about, plus more. If you have to spend a bit of money on just one source of health information, this is the one I recommend. Check it out at: http://www.wellnessletter.com/. Better yet, try it for a year- it's only 20 bucks.
3. Live Longer, Live Healthier, free online book: the website associated with this newly-published health book sucks. But check it out: the authors, 2 highly respected academic professors in Internal Medicine, want you to have their book, FREE. They are not publishing it for sale; rather, they put the entire book online and they invite you to download the whole thing, with no strings attached. That's a lot of paper, but the book is just over 200 pages and has gotten great reviews from some very tough reviewers, notably the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The web site is new and I suspect you'll be able to search for individual topics at some point. For now, you can open the book in Adobe Acrobat and print just what you want, or you can print the whole thing. Check it out at: www.healthierlongerlife.org.