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You know you should, you say you want to, but still you don't. So you creatively circumvent what you need to accomplish by focusing on all those little things that add up to a full, but unproductive day. What is it you are avoiding? Preparing your taxes, dealing with credit card debt, calling a business associate, writing a presentation? Many of us spend so much energy putting off those Read more...

Tis the season-open enrollment season, that is. Each year Medicare enrollees have a window of opportunity when they can change their coverage plans. So if you or someone you love wants to add, drop or change prescription coverage (Medicare Part D) or switch from Original Medicare to Medicare Advantage (or vice versa), now is the time (open enrollment runs through December 31). There is an Read more...

Choosing the right Medicare plan, whether for yourself or someone you love, can be a lot like going back to school. Your reading comprehension skills will be tested ("The transfer enrollment period begins the month after the month you leave the plan or the plan coverage ends," huh?). You'll have to theorize (in 2010, I will make 4 visits to my physician, spend 2 days in the hospital, Read more...

If you are hoping to make the world a better place, you might want to stock up on citrus-scented Windex. Apparently, the fresh smell brings out the best in people. In fact, researchers have found a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior when people spend time in a room freshly spritzed with the citrus-scented cleaner. The study, titled, "The Smell of Virtue," was unusually Read more...

We live in a youth-obsessed society, where knowing that Miley Cyrus has achieved international stardom and success -- and she was born in 1992 -- can make us feel like our most precious years are slipping away. But growing old is not something to fear. Recently, The New York Times published a piece called "6 Reasons To Grow Old," based on advice from Joshua O. Haberman, a Read more...

Almost inevitably, you’ve all but deserted your New Year’s resolutions -- more sex, less bickering, more patience. But your marriage is still on the rocks. According to married co-authors of Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage, one of these seven deadly habits may be to blame. 1. Criticizing You're wearing that to dinner? You lost another client? Do your love handles really need Read more...

Here's a good news bad news story. In the past two decades heart attacks have become more common in middle-aged women (bad news), but since 1994, the risk of women dying from heart attacks has decreased (good news). These findings, from two studies, were just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. To track heart attack rates, researchers, led by Amytis Towfighi, M.D, of the Read more...

Our daily lives are often a series of habits played out through the day, a trammeled existence fettered by the slow accretion of our previous actions. But habits can be changed, as difficult as that may seem sometimes. I’m a living example: in tiny, almost infinitesimal steps, I’ve changed a laundry list of habits. Quit smoking, stopped impulse spending, got out of debt, began Read more...

In the past 20 years, since screening for breast and prostate cancer has become routine, detection and treatment has skyrocketed. That's a good thing, right? Not necessarily, say the authors of an opinion piece published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). After two decades of screening, the overall rates for both cancers has almost doubled, many more Read more...

If you want to stay healthy after retirement, keep working. Researchers have found that people who transition from full-time employment to full-time retirement with part-time work, experience fewer major diseases and are able to function better day-to-day then those who quit the workforce cold turkey.  The findings, published in the October issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Read more...