Archive: April 6, 2008 - April 12, 2008
Sad Spenders
By Jennifer Huget Looking to curb your spending in these fiscally challenging times? Cheer up! Research conducted by behavioral scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Pittsburgh found that sad people spend more than their happier peers. The researchers' work, funded by the National...
By Frances Stead Sellers | April 11, 2008; 1:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
A Dangerous Web
By Jennifer Huget You can use the Internet to learn how to make a souffle. To tie flies. To play poker. Or, it turns out, to learn the how-tos of far more disturbing behaviors like eating disorders or even suicide. An alarming study in the April 12 issue of the...
By Frances Stead Sellers | April 11, 2008; 7:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Are You Secretly "Obese?"
When it comes to obesity, you probably feel like you've heard it all. Well, here's a new idea for you: "Normal weight obesity." OK, so you're thinking: "That's a contradiction in terms. How can someone be both 'normal weight' and 'obese?' " It's a term coined by Mayo Clinic...
By Rob Stein | April 10, 2008; 2:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
What Happened to the ER Since George Clooney?
We've been watching ER on TV since 1994. But since George Clooney first appeared in scrubs, a lot more has changed than just the cast of the prime-time drama. For one thing, ER's around the country have gotten a lot more crowded. Like many of you, I've found myself...
By Rob Stein | April 10, 2008; 7:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Vaccines: The Debate Continues
Do news reports and online chat about vaccination risks--and particularly the MMR's supposed link to autism--give you pause? Research published in the April issue of Pediatrics suggests that parents don't seem to be swayed by media reports of vaccination's potential risks. Michael Smith, a pediatric infectious disease specialist (at the...
By Jennifer Huget | April 9, 2008; 2:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
Autoimmune Diseases and You
Autoimmune diseases--the more than 80 chronic conditions, ranging from Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis to multiple sclerosis and psoriasis, in which the body's immune system attacks healthy tissue--affect far more women than men: About 75 percent of the estimated 23.5 million Americans who have them are female, according to...
By Jennifer Huget | April 9, 2008; 7:10 AM ET | Comments (0)
Ma's New Hip
In having her hip replaced yesterday, my mother joined a big and growing club: More than 235,000 people have hip replacement surgery in the United States each year, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and that number's expected to climb steadily higher as baby boomers reach 60 and...
By Jennifer Huget | April 8, 2008; 11:25 AM ET | Comments (0)
Does Your Family Defibrillate?
It's been almost exactly a year since I wrote about Rita and Richard Helgeson, whose 18-year-old son Andrew, an accomplished athlete at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, died in his home after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest in May 2005. The Helgesons channeled their grief by mounting a...
By Jennifer Huget | April 8, 2008; 7:00 AM ET | Comments (22)
About the Blog
Welcome to The Checkup, a blog that takes a first-person look at the latest health news. I've been writing for the Post's health section since 2000, covering everything from my own laparoscopic gall-bladder surgery to female incontinence and the health benefits of Crocs. For a time I was the...
By Jennifer Huget | April 7, 2008; 1:00 PM ET | Comments (4)
