How to Find Combortable Shoes

How to Find Comfortable Shoes - Real Simple
Relief at last! Foolproof tips on picking comfortable pumps, flats, and sandals
Rick Lew
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Tips for Finding a Comfortable Pump
Hold the shoe at the heel and the toe area. The sole should be flexible and bend at the front of the arch but have a stiff bottom through the arch.
Choose a pump with a high heel that is directly underneath the center of your heel. If it is too far forward or at the back of the shoe, you'll have balance problems.
Look for false fronts. "A pointy-toe shoe with an area that is much longer than your toes has a false front. It keeps your toes from being squished," says Suzanne Levine, a podiatric surgeon in New York City.
Make sure the toe area is wide enough through the ball of your foot. Note that a wedge shoe distributes your weight more evenly and offers support all the way through the foot. Be aware, however, that the limited sole flexibility of a wedge increases the risk of rolling your ankle over the side. Test a shoe for cushioning by pressing a finger into the ball area. It should have a little give or a slightly padded feel.
Avoid synthetics. Wear shoes with leather, suede, or fabric uppers. These materials breathe, which lessens the chance of blistering...............................More

Looking for the perfect stranger

Looking for the perfect stranger How a single, successful New York writer ended up pursuing an arranged marriage in India.
By Anita Jain
Aug. 12, 2008 It was after three years of living in New York that I began thinking something was wrong -- deeply, heart-wrenchingly wrong -- with the Western dating system. I would come home after an evening of swapping New York "war stories" with girlfriends, in which we regaled each other with horrific dates or detailed every phone call and e-mail exchange from a short-lived fling in order to decipher why our intended had unceremoniously disappeared. Most of these evenings ended up with one or another of us whining about our loneliness and wondering when it would end, to be comforted by yet another in our gaggle that we should just get on with our own lives and not worry about men, and that soon enough, when we were least expecting it, love would walk in through the front door or sit next to us on a flight.
The next week we would switch roles and the whiner would offer warm words of advice and hand-holding to the comforter. I heartily participated in all of these discussions, more often than not as the one plunged in despair when I first arrived in New York, and later, hardened and somewhat resigned, as the one extending succor.
After months of these cocktail-drenched evenings, two fleeting thoughts slipped across my mind, which later would take on shape and bulk and eventually morph into full-blown arguments. The first of these took hold when a friend was complaining how a man she'd met at a party two weeks ago had seemed very interested and had taken her number but had not called since. And today she'd discovered that a colleague she had a crush on had a girlfriend. Two leads that had seemed promising just last week had fallen through, which in New York is enough to induce a midmonth slump. ...........(more)

Doctors are finding ways to help Mental health problems among Asian-Americans.

East Mind, West Mind
Mental health problems among Asian-Americans are often stigmatized and untreated. But doctors are finding ways to help.
Tina Peng
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 4:07 PM ET Aug 12, 2008

A few years ago, Dr. Lin Fang saw a patient at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in New York City's Chinatown. The man, a recent Chinese immigrant in his 30s, had come to see a physician and complained of five years of insomnia. The physician directed him to Fang, a clinician in the center's mental-health clinic, who quickly diagnosed the man with depression--something he hadn't even considered. A year and a half later, after taking medication and making regular appointments with the Wang Center's clinicians, the man was fine again, Fang says.
Fang can't count the number of patients like this man that she's seen over the years. There are indications that mental illness in the Asian-American community may be undiagnosed and undertreated, thanks in part to cultural stigmas against personal weakness, as well as some recent immigrants' ignorance of the Western concept of mental health. A 2003 study partly funded by the National Institute of Mental Health showed that while the rate of mental illness among Asian-Americans is lower than among whites, the former group is less likely to seek help than the latter. Now, though, community health centers across the country are finding that taking a holistic approach to mental health--combining primary and mental-health care, and integrating Western and Eastern philosophies--is often the most effective way to reach an underserved population.
And some of the national data point to a need for increased vigilance and treatment: Asian-American females, for instance, have the highest suicide rates among American females in the 15-24 age group, and Asian-American women who are 65 or older are 10 times more likely to commit suicide than are their white counterparts, according to numbers compiled by the Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS). Forty percent of Southeast Asian refugees suffer from depression, and anxiety plagues significant parts of that population as well, according to the ACRS statistics. And because of language and insurance barriers, many Asian-Americans aren't particularly likely to seek professional help.
Unless there's an Asian-American in charge of a mental-health services organization, there tends to be little outreach to that population, says Dr. Marty Wong, a practicing psychologist in Boulder, Colo., and a fellow with the American Psychological Association. "In general, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and Asian people tend not to squeak very loudly," he says.
In many cases, their problems are directly related to the immigrant experience: some Asian immigrants are depressed that they held highly respected positions in their home countries but can't translate their skills or their peers' esteem in America. Fang's patient had worked a high-powered bank job in China but could only find work at a restaurant in America. Others, especially older Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees, have posttraumatic stress syndrome.
Often, Asian immigrants who suffer from mental illness will assume it's a physical ailment and consult a physician instead of a mental-health professional; in some cases, they may even request or seek out treatment that doesn't address the mental roots of their symptoms. Ten years ago, a recent Korean immigrant was sent to Asian Counseling and Referral Services in Seattle. She'd complained of excruciating, unending backaches for years and had undergone several experimental surgeries, to no avail. But when Yoon Joo Han, now the center's behavioral-health program director, started speaking to the woman, Han found she was deeply depressed from an abusive marriage and culture shock. "She'd blocked her emotional senses completely and directed everything into the physical," Han says. In Seattle, "as many as half of Asian-Americans' visits to primary care physicians are due to conditions caused or exacerbated by mental or emotional problems," according to ACRS.
Collectively, Asian cultures tend to stigmatize mental illness by valuing silence, modesty and face-saving, according to ACRS. Physical symptoms of different mental illnesses tend to be explained as manifestations of spiritual or moral weakness, and some Asian languages don't even have a word for "depression," Han says. "In some cultures, they'll say, 'My liver is bad,' and that is translated into, 'I'm depressed and sad'," she says. "The perspective on mental illness as something that can be treated is a pretty new, Western concept for many of our clients, so it becomes a family secret and people don't seek help until it gets out of control or really, really bad."
Terry Gock, director of Pacific Clinics' Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead, Calif., explains that the Chinese are more likely to say that they're tired or that their "chi is low," than to admit to feeling blue. "And so if we don't integrate the understandings, physicians will sometimes look at it as just a physical problem and miss the psychological, mental-health implications of what people are saying," she says.
Because treating Asian-American patients sometimes requires a holistic approach, doctors at ACRS will try to fuse Western and Eastern sensibilities as they introduce their patients to the concept of mental illness. Often, Han says, doctors will tell patients stories about other patients who've had similar experiences, or explain treatment options in terms of physical symptoms instead of getting too deep into mental-health theory.
They also are sensitive to cultural nuances: some clients believe medications are poison, and doctors have to make sure not to force treatments onto patients, she says. "The most important thing is respecting where they are at and not discounting their beliefs, but bringing the best package of services we can offer to that individual," Han says. In many cases, as with Han's Korean patient, the physicians will refer their patients to a local community center, where doctors and therapists can try to straddle Western and Eastern understandings to address the patients' illnesses.
Potential patients who don't seek out mental-health help, and even some who do, may turn to alternative remedies. They go to fortune-tellers like the ones who sit outside a park a few blocks away from the Wang Center, hawking guidance and insight with Chinese written boldly on the faded red drop cloths behind them. Others turn to activities like tai chi or traditional medications for help. Not all of these options are harmful; in fact, treatments like acupuncture and yoga are often beneficial, Fang says.
In some cases, though, these alternative remedies can worsen mental conditions. Two years ago, Fang saw a pregnant schizophrenic woman whose relatives were adamant that her symptoms came from bad spirits and wanted her to perform rituals at a temple to get rid of the spirits. But performing the rituals made the woman's symptoms worse--she began to hallucinate about the spirits--and when she eventually came to the Wang Center, "it was even hard for us to say, 'Take medications,' because the spirits in her hallucinations were telling her, 'You shouldn't eat those things'," Fang recalls. Eventually, the woman's husband was able to persuade her to go on medication, and the woman improved significantly through the course of her pregnancy.
But while there may be an initial reluctance to recognize these types of illnesses or seek treatment, mental-health centers in Asian neighborhoods are constantly busy: the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center saw 7,800 mental health patients in 2007, and the Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead, Calif., has seen its staff grow to more than 100 but still has to keep a waiting list. "It's really hard to say what the prevalence rate for these kinds of mental-health conditions is," Chen says. "But when we start providing services, we have no problem finding patients."
For more information: National Asian-American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association Charles B. Wang Community Health Center Asian Counseling & Referral Service Asian Pacific Family Center
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URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/152315
© 2008

Aged Tires: A Driving Hazard?

Aged Tires: A Driving Hazard?
ABC News went undercover and found retailers selling aged tires as brand new.
TIRE VIDEO - MUST VIEW. RECOMMEND WIDEST = DISSEMINATION.
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

You Can Survive Cancer (I Did)

By Dr. Mark Liponis Published: June 15, 2008
Read Dr. Liponis' keys to cancer prevention.

As a hard-driving young doctor, I was focused on building a secure future for my family. My parents, the children of Greek immigrants, had taught me that hard work and a strong will created the path to success, and I was intent on getting there soon. At 36, I wasn’t prepared for the detour life was about to throw at me—cancer.

Suddenly, my identity as protector and provider for my family was seriously shaken. For the first time, I experienced what it was like to feel vulnerable and anxious about the future. In light of my new diagnosis, the world seemed to turn more slowly. I cherished each breath, each moment with my wife and three young children.

Today, after 13 years and successful treatment, I can talk more easily about that period in my life. I learned a lot about cancer from being a patient. I learned that I had misconceptions about the illness, and I learned what I had to do to overcome it.

Misconception No. 1: Doctors are special
In a strange way, I thought that becoming a doctor was somehow like finding the immunity idol on Survivor—you couldn’t get the diseases you study. I was wrong, of course. Doctors can get sick just like everybody else.

In my case, I was diagnosed with an apple-sized tumor in my left kidney. Surgery to remove the kidney and the growth was advised.

Survival instincts are powerful. My first reaction was more a visceral gut feeling than a thought: “I will be OK. This will not kill me.” Maybe I was optimistic because I felt perfectly fine. I didn’t feel sick in any way.

Misconception No. 2: People with cancer always feel sick
The only ominous symptom I had was a single episode of painless, bloody urine during a late shift in the ER one night. Of course, after my diagnosis, I thought every little twitch or twinge I felt must be the cancer. But in fact my biggest new symptom was that I couldn’t sleep. Too many questions, worries, and fears about the future swam through my mind. I couldn’t wait for my doctors’ appointments to have my questions answered. I wanted to know the best way to cure my cancer. I also wanted to know how long it had been growing in my kidney.

Misconception No. 3: Cancer grows and spreads rapidly
I was quickly scheduled for surgery to remove my kidney and surrounding lymph nodes. I resigned myself to the need to try to cut out this deadly tumor. I thought about my family and job, how important my role as provider was to my identity, and I decided not to tell anyone but my wife.

I was shocked when my second question was answered: The tumor had been growing for about 15 years! Of course I did the math and was distressed to think that I could have contracted this cancer when I was only 21 years old.

Misconception No. 4: Cancer is uncommon in young people
I learned that I was not the exception but, rather, the rule. Like other diseases, cancer has its roots in youth. In fact, essentially we all are “cancer survivors.” Mutations in the DNA of any of our 100 trillion cells occur constantly in all of us, and new cancer cells are a common occurrence even in young adults.

However, these microscopic cancers almost never become lethal tumors. The primary reason is that our immune system detects them early on and snuffs them out before they have a chance to grow. In some cases, the tumors kill themselves through mutations they develop or because they lack a blood supply to sustain their growth. Only cancer cells that develop a “cloaking mechanism” to evade the immune system, or tumors that develop their own blood supply, can successfully grow into potentially lethal tumors.

Misconception No. 5: You can cure cancer only with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation
This was perhaps my most important lesson. Standard medical treatment is just one part of overcoming cancer. Surviving is a four-part process that includes treatment, healing, prevention, and life extension. But the steps many of us associate with cancer prevention (a healthy diet, exercise, proper sleep, stress management, smoking cessation, and moderation of habits) are also critical during the stages of treatment, healing, and the years that follow. I learned that these are the most effective ways of keeping microscopic cancer cells from growing into serious tumors. T

hey say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’m not sure I believe that. But perhaps what doesn’t kill you makes you smarter. I hope you can learn from my experience without having to go through a health crisis of your own.

Read Dr. Liponis' keys to cancer prevention.

Dr. Mark Liponis is the author of “Ultra-longevity” and medical director of Canyon Ranch spas.
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