New Year's Resolution, to beat cancer

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This Product Will Convert Leftover Food Into Cooking Gas For Poor Communities

You’ll never be stumped with what to do with your dinner leftovers again.

HomeBioGas, a system developed by an Israeli startup, converts food waste and animal manure -- products a composter can't process -- into cooking gas and liquid fertilizer.

The company has already dispensed the systems to underserved areas in order to reduce the use of hazardous indoor cooking methods. But after recently surpassing its Indiegogo goal, it’s going to be able to make the product available to customers in developing countries.

The 88-pound system works by adding a bacteria to a combination of waste and water, which sets off a fermentation process, Reuters reported.

That, in turn, produces a combination of methane and carbon dioxide, according to the company.

The system can process up to 6 liters of food waste or 15 liters of animal manure a day. That yields about three hours worth of cooking gas -- enough to make three meals -- and about 10 liters of liquid fertilizer each day, the company noted in its Indiegogo campaign.

A HomeBioGas system eliminates 1 ton of organic waste, and reduces harmful emissions equivalent to 6 tons of carbon dioxide over the course of a year.

Launched in 2012, the company is targeting a wide range of communities.

Its goal is to help farmers and families reduce their carbon footprints and to also bring the technology to low-income areas where families often rely on dangerous and time-consuming cooking methods.

Billions of people in underserved areas still use simple stoves that require burning wood, crop waste or coal, which generates harmful byproducts. As a result, 4.3 million people die prematurely every year from illnesses related to household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of solid fuels, according to the World Health Organization. 

The company has already witnessed the benefits of the process.

The European Union and the Peres Center for Peace funded a pilot program where 40 HomeBioGas systems were installed in the Palestinian village of al-Awja in the central West Bank's Jordan Valley, according to Reuters. 

"This system will be available to everyone that needs it in the developing world,” Oshik Efrati, CEO of HomeBioGas, told Reuters. “It will eliminate waste, it makes clean gas, and there is no need to breathe in any smoke.”

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Best Healthcare Benefit Practices for a Growing Company With Multiple Locations

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Why You Are Living A Better Life If Others Are In It

It’s a fuller life when we have other people in it. It’s a healthier and longer one, too. Have you ever noticed how much better you feel when you have other people around you? Well, you do. Some studies suggest that thanks to their social nature, extroverts build stronger immune systems that are more equipped to fight off infection -- likely due to their increased exposure to others’ germs -- which means they literally feel better because of their interactions.

If it starts with a stronger immune system, in what other ways can our lives be better or healthier simply by building relationships with others? In partnership with Abbott, we are figuring out the health rewards of companionship and what we sacrifice by isolating ourselves from others.

Sources: Center for Confidence UK, New York Times Well Blog, the journal Development and Psychopathology, Computers in Human Behavior, University of Rochester, Psychology and Aging, the New York Times, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health (NIH), PLoS Medicine, The Lancet, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, The Ohio State University Family Life Month Packet





Abbott is asking a million people what a full life means to them. Join them and share your story at http://www.lifetothefullest.abbott/. Abbott makes innovative products and technologies that help people live not just longer, but better, through the power of health. For more than 125 years, Abbott has helped people keep their hearts healthy, nourish their bodies at every stage of life, see more clearly, and have access to information and medicines to manage their health.

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Travel distance is still a barrier to breast reconstruction after mastectomy

Long travel distances continue to be a significant obstacle to breast reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer, reports a new study. The researchers analyzed the relationship between travel distance and breast reconstruction in more than 1 million US women undergoing mastectomy from 1998 to 2011.

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End Of Fossil Fuels Won't Come Too Soon For Millions Breathing Toxic Air

Fossil fuels' days are numbered. That's a good thing given the toll that burning coal and oil takes on our climate and health. But especially for the people of Beijing -- and Delhi and Tehran, among other cities currently choking on dirty emissions -- that final goodbye can't come soon enough.

The images are hard to miss and harder to ignore: women, men, children and even pets enveloped in an almost tangible haze, forced to wear face masks as they go about their daily lives -- bicycling, shopping, getting married.

The statistics are equally alarming: More than 4,000 Chinese die daily from air pollution. And that figure may even be an underestimate, as pollution levels have risen since researchers crunched those numbers earlier this year.

A tragedy is indeed unfolding, and threatening to escalate.

On multiple days this December, the air in Beijing measured at least 20 times dirtier than what the World Health Organization deems safe to breathe. The concentration of PM2.5 -- the tiny air particles that pose the greatest health risks -- reportedly reached 647 micrograms per cubic meter near Tiananmen Square on Christmas morning. This Tuesday, parts of Beijing again registered counts above 500. The WHO sets their limit of exposure at no more than 25 micrograms per cubic meter over a 24-hour period.

Experts warn that the situation will likely worsen in the weeks ahead.

"We're just getting into high season," said John Groopman, an environmental health expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as he prepped for a trip to China this week to research the issue. Cold weather, he explained, can trap polluted air near the surface of the earth. Meanwhile, more pollution is generally created during winter months due to increased heating, which is mostly supplied in China by burning coal. 

The poster child for air pollution troubles, China also offers a cautionary tale for other parts of the world. 

Pollution is currently soaring in parts of Iran and Italy, for example, where schools, vehicles, football matches and even pizza ovens have shut down in efforts to clean up the toxic air. Groopman suggests that India, whose rapidly growing population is even more dependent on coal than China, may be in the worst shape of all. A study released in February found that 660 million Indians lose an average of 3.2 years of life due to air pollution exposure.

Bad air from Asia can also travel overseas, contributing to the mercury and other pollution plaguing the U.S. West Coast.

Overall, according to the WHO, bad air causes the premature deaths of more than 7 million people every year. And the list of air pollution's effects is well-known and staggering: heart disease, lung disease, cognitive problems, obesity and even increased crime rates.

"It's really quite obvious that no one should be breathing this," said Groopman.

Of course, the key culprits behind this air pollution, coal-fired power plants, are also the leading emitters of greenhouse gases. China's share of global climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions is around 29 percent. Ironically enough, Beijing's first air quality "red alert" -- declared when authorities predict PM2.5 counts will surpass 300 for three consecutive days -- came just as world delegates met in Paris for the United Nations climate change summit in early December. The coincidence garnered significant press.

(Story continues below video.) 

There, with air pollution under the spotlight, nearly 200 nations pledged to wean themselves off climate-disrupting fossil fuels.

"Making clear what's at stake for the health of people and their children is ultimately, to me, one of the most powerful arguments we can make for a call to action [on climate change],” Dr. Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician and environmental health expert at Harvard University, said during a Dec. 16 panel on climate change and health.

While climate change poses multiple threats to public health, including increased risks of infectious diseases and deadly heat waves, air pollution is among the most direct and obvious in its connections. Not only is it a consequence of burning fossil fuels, air pollution can also be exacerbated by a changing climate -- from more frequent and larger wildfires releasing smoke to warmer temperatures producing more ozone smog. 

"Because we're doing something about climate change,” added Bernstein, "we actually stand at an entry point to perhaps the greatest public health intervention ever."

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Why young non-smokers get lung cancer

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How an orgasm a day can slash a man's cancer risk: Regular sex lowers the 'chance of prostate tumors by 20%'

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5 Ways To Be A Climate-Friendly Eater In 2016

If you're one of the 25 percent of Americans who's extremely worried about the threat of climate change but not sure how to lower your own carbon footprint, consider starting with your diet this new year.

The type of food you buy and eat doesn't just affect your health; it also shapes a global food system that's responsible for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, animal products have a higher carbon footprint because of the methane some animals produce, the inefficiencies of growing livestock feed and the vast amounts of land needed to raise animals. The world's livestock industry emits more greenhouse gases than all cars, planes, trains and ships combined, according to United Nations University.

Here are five New Year's Resolutions you can make to reduce your own demand for food that has a negative impact on the environment -- thus becoming part of the solution to the Earth's rising temperatures. 

1. Become a climatarian

A climatarian is someone who eats with climate change in mind, generally by cutting out food whose cultivation contributes to global warming. Here's how The New York Times defined the term in its list of new food words from 2015:

CLIMATARIAN (n.) A diet whose primary goal is to reverse climate change. This includes eating locally produced food (to reduce energy spent in transportation), choosing pork and poultry instead of beef and lamb (to limit gas emissions), and using every part of ingredients (apple cores, cheese rinds, etc.) to limit food waste.

Climates, a climate-focused social network that's credited with bringing the term into prominence, identifies climatarians more specifically, defining them as "meat eaters who don’t eat ruminant meat - beef, sheep, goat and deer." Ruminant animals are identified by their unique four-compartment digestive tract, which through an anaerobic fermentation process emits startling amounts of methane and nitrous oxide. To put it less elegantly, these animals are farting and burping out destructive greenhouse gases.

"While we all need to eat less meat, you don’t have to give up meat entirely and you can still enjoy pig meat, poultry and fish for an easy mixed diet," Climates explains in its guide to being a climatarian. 

2. Become a reducetarian

Think of being a reducetarian as the "make-your-own-rules" version of climatarianism. The focus is on eating less meat, whether by cutting it out entirely or establishing your own limits. The term was first coined by Brian Kateman, who realized that uniting climate-minded eaters and hardcore vegetarians could inspire a bigger movement. He gave a TEDx talk on his idea last year: 

"The most effective question we can ask is not how can we increase the amount of vegetarians and vegans, but rather, how can we reduce the amount of meat consumed?" Kateman told The Huffington Post in March. "Part of the problem with the vegan and vegetarian messaging is that it resonates with many people as an all-or-nothing commitment, that the only way to contribute to the environmental, animal welfare and health movement is to completely eliminate meat from a diet." 

You can become a reducetarian by taking Kateman's 30-day pledge to eat less meat or by giving it a go on your own, whether by ordering your next pizza without meat toppings or eliminating meat from your grocery list and indulging only at restaurants.

3. Choose organic

By buying organic, you'll be supporting farms whose practices emit less carbon and actually help to absorb emissions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines organic farming as using methods that "preserve the environment and avoid most synthetic materials, such as pesticides and antibiotics." The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization endorses the practice as a way to reduce agriculture's carbon footprint. 

"Organic agriculture can be part of the solution to mitigate GHG gases through farming practices that build soil fertility, avoid use of synthetic fertilizer and improve carbon sequestration" or the soil's ability to absorb the excess carbon warming the planet, FOA reports.

The Rodale Institute, a nonprofit that funds research on organic farming, found that "more than 40% of annual emissions could potentially be captured" if all the world's cropland were managed with organic practices.

4. Participate in Veganuary

If you want to make up for other people's less eco-friendly diets by ditching animal products altogether but aren't sure if you're ready to commit, try it for a month and re-evaluate when it's over. 

Veganuary, a U.K.-based nonprofit, encourages people to try veganism for the month of January and provides them with a vegan starter kit, complete with meal plans, eating-out tips and a label-reading guide. The same concept can be applied to going vegetarian or cutting out the most climate-offending animal products for a month. 

Even if you end the challenge after a month, you're still making a noteworthy dent in your annual carbon footprint. And chances are you'll emerge with a newfound appreciation for plant-based meals.

"I learned so much about food, and more importantly, I learned a lot about myself," BuzzFeed's Javier Moreno wrote after attempting a vegan month last year. "Since then I have reverted to my meat-eating ways. I don’t think I’ll ever be fully vegan, but since the challenge I am eating more vegan food, and I don’t need meat to complete a meal."

5. Schedule your consumption of animal products

When The New York Times' Mark Bittman decided to limit his consumption of animal products, he found that setting aside vegan hours every day was much more feasible. The idea laid the foundation for his book, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health…for Good.

Bittman explained to HuffPost in 2013 how he came to the realization:

There is no science to the "before 6" part. The science is more plants; the strategy is VB6, so why dinner? The answer is: because we like to have fun at night. It’s completely pragmatic. If I say to you, I want you to eat all your protein in the morning -- all your carbs, I want you to have pasta with carbonara at 7 am, I want you to get all that stuff out of the way and then I want you to eat fruits and vegetables for the rest of the day, what happens when you go out at night with your friends? A) you’re going to have a drink, which means your willpower is already shot. And B) your friends are going to start teasing you, which means you’ll say "Ok, fine, I’ll have a hamburger."

People looking to cut back on animal products, whether for their health or for the sake of the environment, have found similar success with schedule constraints on vegan or vegetarian diets, such as weekday vegetarianism or Meatless Mondays. 

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5 Ways the Healthcare Industry Did Data Security Wrong in 2015. 5 Ways To Do it Right in 2016

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Muddy Waters sideman Luther 'Snake Boy' Johnson had his career cut short by brain cancer

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9 Things to Do Right Now to Get Ready for a Healthy Year

At the beginning of a new year, everything seems possible, doesn't it? Good health, a strong body, abundant energy, and peace of mind -- they all seem within our reach. And I believe they are, if we set goals and move forward with purpose -- before the year takes on a life of its own and sucks up all of our time and energy!



If you're like me, you've probably set healthy living goals for the year, and maybe even planned some strategies for reaching them. I've set a couple of healthy eating and exercise goals, and have taken small steps to start working on them. But I want to kick off the year with a lot of momentum -- sort of a boost of energy to get things going in the right direction. And you probably want to do that too.

So here are nine things we both can do right now to start out on a positive note and pave the way for a healthy year. Pick three or four and work on them this week to get your health goals for the year moving in the right direction:

• Take a hard look at your calendar. Every goal you or I have set for this year requires one thing that's always in short supply -- time. Eating well takes time, exercising takes time, losing weight takes time -- you get the idea. So figure out now how to make time for the things that will help you reach your goals. Take a hard look at your calendar and identify activities you need to drop or delegate in order to free up time. Then practice saying "no" to people who want you to keep doing them.

• Clean out and organize your refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Clean out foods you aren't going to use, then organize the ones you will. Store similar foods and foods that will make a meal together. And put the things you want to use frequently in places where you can find them easily. For example, if you want to use more extra virgin olive oil and whole grain pasta, put them where you can grab them without digging through the pantry.

• Get rid of foods that won't help you reach your goals. This is the perfect time to get rid of things you really don't want to eat, including snacks, sweets, candy, junk food, and soft drinks. Just get rid of them. If they're not in the house, you're much less likely to eat them.

• Make a meal plan for next week. Eating well is so much easier when you have a plan. So look at your family's calendar and think about the food you have on hand, then plan meals for the week. And get into the habit of planning meals every weekend, in order to get ready for the new week.

• Stock up on foods that will help you reach your goals. If you've set any sort of healthy eating or weight management goals, go shopping and buy only foods that will help you reach those goals. Stock up on fruits, vegetables, dairy, nuts, lean protein, and whole grains, then do some prep to make it easy to use them during the week.

• Cook double batches of two healthy meals and freeze half of each. One of the easiest strategies for eating more real food and less processed food is to cook double or triple batches whenever possible and freeze half for a busy day. So sometime this week, cook double batches of two healthy meals. Use one batch of each during the week, and freeze one batch of each for a quick meal on a busy day. My free ebook, The Busy Woman's Guide to Quick and Healthy Meals, includes more ideas for quick meals and tips for prepping healthy food quickly and easily.

• Find the things that help you exercise, and put them in a prominent place. Find your walking shoes, fitness clothes, gym membership card, workout music, hand weights, exercise DVDs -- anything and everything that allows you to get up and move! Put them where you can find them -- maybe even in a special box, bin or drawer -- to make it as easy as possible to reach your exercise goals for the year.

• Find or buy a water bottle and start using it. If drinking more water is one of your goals (which it probably should be for all of us!), get a water bottle and use it. You can use anything from the free bottle your daughter brought home from soccer camp to a pricey fruit infusion bottle, or anything in between. A bottle that's slightly nicer than the "soccer camp special" may inspire you a bit more, but do whatever works for you. Right now I'm using a stainless steel water bottle that I bought at Wal-Mart for $5.

•Get more sleep. Don't start the year tired and run down. Rather than cramming in a bunch of activities this week, take some time to rest and allow yourself to sleep 7-8 hours each night. And work on making changes to your schedule so that you can sleep at least 7 hours on most nights throughout the year.

What health goals have you set for this year? I'd love to hear your strategies for giving them a boost of energy to start the year.

Originally published at CalmHealthySexy.

Photo credit - Marek @ Fotolia

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Here's What Airport Customs REALLY Does With Your Contraband Food

Ever wonder where your avocado goes once it's confiscated at U.S. Customs? Nope, it's not some happy airport dinner party featuring the yummiest guac ever.

It's called The Grinder. And NOTHING survives it. 

via GIPHY

In this video from Great Big Story, U.S. customs officer Ellie Scaffa discusses what happens to the food she and other officers seize from passengers entering the country. Every day, her team at JFK confiscates and labels some 400 to 600 pounds of food including beef candy from China, serrano ham from Spain and LOTS of shiny, ripe avocados. 

Upon confiscation, the goods get wheeled across the airport (JFK in this case) to a room where they're inspected for insects and chopped up in a big, menacing grinding machine, never to be seen again. 

"The reason... is not because it's harmful to the human being," Scaffa explains. "It's harmful for our plants and our animals." 

via GIPHY

Indeed, U.S. Customs and Border Protection prohibits travelers from bringing many types of fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds and "almost anything containing meat products" in the country. The items are banned in the interest of protecting U.S. agriculture from harmful pests and diseases, according to the Customs and Border Protection website.

Some of these items may require permits to get through customs, and others may be prohibited entirely: Do some research with the U.S. Department of Agriculture if you're really keen on bringing food home from your international trip.   

Happy (and yummy) travels!

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Oregon Bakery That Rejected Lesbian Couple Pays Fine After All

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon bakery owners who denied service to a same-sex couple have paid $135,000 in state-ordered damages — after refusing to do so for nearly six months.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries says Aaron Klein, co-owner of the Portland-area bakery, dropped off a check Monday for $136,927.07. That includes accrued interest. Klein also paid $7,000 earlier this month.

Damages were awarded in July for emotional suffering caused by Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which two years ago refused to make a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer. The bakers said their refusal was prompted by religious beliefs.

A 2007 Oregon law protects the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations. The state ruled it also bars private businesses from discriminating against potential customers.

Klein's lawyer Anna Harmon could not be reached for comment.

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Comedian Writes About Abusive Relationship In Moving Instagram Post

On Monday afternoon, comedian Beth Stelling posted a jarring image on Instagram. In it, there are four photos: three of them show her bruised legs and arms, and in the fourth she's smiling, performing onstage. 

"Same girl in all of these photos (me)," wrote Stelling under the image. "I've had an amazing year and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue."

Stelling, who has appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and has a special on Comedy Central, went on to describe the abusive relationship she got out of last summer, and the shame and fear that surrounds opening up about the realities of such a relationship -- especially when your ex is a part of your professional community.

"It's embarrassing," she wrote. "I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple." (Read the full, powerful post below.)

Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue. You may be weirded out but do read on. I have a point. There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional. When I broke up with my ex this summer, it wasn't because I didn't love him, it was because of this. And I absolutely relapsed and contacted him with things I shouldn’t have, but there are no “best practices” with this. When friends or comics ask why we broke up it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple. After I broke up with him he said, "You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about." And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A. and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn’t understand. I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story. It's not my only story, so please don't let it be. If you live in L.A., you've already started to hear my jokes about this and I ask you to have the courage to listen and accept it because I’m trying. Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it. Men have shown their solidarity. An ex-girlfriend of this ex-boyfriend came to me and shared that she experienced the same fate. Then there was another and another (men and women) who shared other injustices at his hand that..

A photo posted by Beth Stelling (@bethstelling) on Dec 28, 2015 at 9:30am PST

Stelling also wrote about why she finally chose to speak about her abusive relationship publicly:

I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional... 

Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it. Men have shown their solidarity.

Since Stelling posted her story on Instagram, she has received an outpouring of public love and support.

.@BethStelling is a wonderful, brave woman https://t.co/Lcrk9P8krd

— Lauren Lapkus (@laurenlapkus) December 28, 2015

Mine, too. Please read this. @BethStelling rules at comedy, humanity & courage. Also GODDAMIT. https://t.co/uosgrPZ9xD

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 28, 2015

Thanks for inspiring us and being real and honest @bethstelling. As if you weren't amazing ENUFF already. https://t.co/jIUlLZvOyr

— Santa Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) December 28, 2015

Respect to @bethstelling RT: Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year and… https://t.co/ByPj74xJY2

— Questlove Gomez (@questlove) December 28, 2015

This makes me feel many things but chief among them is that @BethStelling is awesome & I'm happy we are friends. https://t.co/FJkvWxmLPm

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 28, 2015

The world is lucky to have @BethStelling in it. Please read her story which she is so brave to share. https://t.co/sUmFwyb3q0

— Allie Goertz (@AllieGoertz) December 28, 2015

Words matter. Stories matter. Thank you for sharing yours, Beth Stelling. 

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