Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

The health of our environment affects the health of humans and human actions affect the environment. Measuring your carbon footprint is a useful way to measure your impact on the environment.

Scientists at The Nature Conservancy developed a calculator for individuals and households to measure their carbon footprint.

To learn more about carbon footprints and to calculate your impact on the environment, visit the Carbon Footprint Calculator web page here.

Click the image below to see a map of per capita greenhouse gas emissions--

Men and Sleep

Sleep is essential and we need sleep to function. According to the National Institutes of Health, inadequate sleep can cause slower reaction times, weaker concentration, mood fluctuations, behavior problems, memory lapses, and accidents and injuries. Sleep is critically important, and best of all, free. So why do so many people have problems with sleeping?

There are a variety of answers to that question, but one researcher looked at how sleeping attitudes might affect sleep, specifically in men. Robert Meadows researched the type of attitudes men have about sleeping and found that men's masculine roles can lead to poor sleeping habits. Meadows interviewed men to investigate their sleep behaviors and attitudes. Many of the men bragged about how little sleep they're able to get to function. Others talked about sleep as a "bodily need", saying that their body needs sleep rather than 'I want' sleep. Some talked about sleep only as a necessity to function for a job. Many said that sleep "is a waste of time" and that sleep should never get in the way of "having a life." A lot of the men talked about sleep as if it were a "wimpy" activity that conflicted with more important necessities, whether it be work or social activities.

The author argues that there are social meanings attached to sleep which could conflict with social gender roles men have as being "hard-working," self-sufficient individuals. The author states, "men are demonstrating dominant norms of masculinity when they refuse to take sick leave from work, when they insist they need little sleep..." There seems to be a balancing act where sleep is important for some activities but not as important for others.

Overall, it seems that men's attitudes regarding sleep are based, in some part, on masculine attitudes found in our culture.

Psychology and Health

Psychology and medicine seem to be two separate fields -- one concerning the study of human behavior and the other on medical science. However, there has been an increase in health research by psychologists. One psychological study focused on ways for doctors to improve communication with patients. Good doctor-patient communication can lead to better health outcomes, less stress on a patient, more medical disclosure from a patient, and a greater chance that the patient will follow their treatment and return to the doctor’s office for any additional medical issues.

The article found that there are two different types of doctor-patient communication. The first type is doctor-centered consultation. This style of communication is where the doctor controls the conversation by asking questions and then forming a treatment plan. On the other side of the communication spectrum there is patient-centered consultations. This type of communication is where the patient says all they need to say regarding their medical issue and then discusses possible treatment choices with the doctor.

The study went on to investigate which type of consultation do patients (and their friends and relatives) prefer. All were most satisfied with the patient-centered consultation. Patients feel more engaged and involved with the medical process, and as a result, are more satisfied with their visit and treatment plan.

Since patients prefer patient-centered consultations and there are evident benefits for this style of communication, doctors should consider using the patient-centered consultation model for their practice.

Research Article-
Boyer, M.J. (2000). Communication styles in the cancer consultation: preferences for a patient-centered approach. Psycho-oncology, 9, 2, 147.

20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day

Progress and challenges mark World AIDS Day--

"One of the most important initiatives of my administration has been the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR. It's the largest international health initiative dedicated to a single disease. When we launched PEPFAR, our goal was to support treatment for two million people in five years. Today, I'm pleased to announce that we have exceeded that goal -- early." President Bush discusses AIDS relief program on World AIDS Day (Click here for more information on PEPFAR)

"On this twentieth anniversary of World AIDS Day, I think it's appropriate to look back for a moment to when this day was first observed. In 1988, when ministers of health from around the world first had the notion to set aside a day to highlight the threat of HIV/AIDS, they faced widespread ignorance and fear. Back then, many refused to even acknowledge the existence of this disease, let alone the devastating impact it was having on families and communities around the world.

"Today, because of the work of people like you, women in Kenya who were widowed by the disease, and once shunned by society, have banded together to support and empower each other. Scientists around the world are discovering and engineering new medicines to give people with HIV/AIDS another chance at life. NGOs and faith-based institutions are marshaling the best of the human spirit to help those affected. And world governments are coming together to address the humanitarian crisis the pandemic has left in its wake. I salute President Bush for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa and backing it up with funding dedicated to saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease. And my administration will continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world." Excerpt from President-elect Barack Obama's video remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health to honor World AIDS Day.

"The leaders of government across the globe have pledged to strengthen efforts to combat and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day Monday." World AIDS Day Focuses on Prevention

"The international commemoration has perennially been accompanied by new, bleak reports, and bureaucratic hand-wringing over the invariable failure of supply – in the form of drugs, management and financing – to keep up with the needs of the desperately ill around the world. However, there’s actually some rather interesting news on this World AIDS Day...for the first time since the advent of anti-retroviral therapy and vaccine trials, hope for a cure has emerged. Through a bone marrow transplant, a German scientist has perhaps cleared the first AIDS patient of the virus – quite possibly the first time in human history that a person with AIDS has been effectively freed of the virus." Health expert, Josh Ruxin, at the NY Times

"Much has been accomplished in the fight against HIV/AIDS from scientific, medical and public health standpoints. However, now is no time to rest on our accomplishments or our laurels. The statistics of the HIV/AIDS pandemic tell us that much more needs to be done." Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, CNN

"The number of people living with HIV is continuing to rise in every part of the world...There are now 33 million people living with HIV worldwide..." HIV Facts

The Hidden Challenges of Dieting

Bad eating habits and poor diets are major health concerns in our society. Some of the most common diseases in our culture relate to how and what we eat -- coronary heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. As a result, many people try, often times unsuccessfully, to change their diet. There are a variety of diet guides to help people make the transition from an unhealthy diet to a healthy one. The themes are pretty consistent in these guides--the major goal to successfully dieting is willpower. A Google search on "how to diet successfully" will yield results for a popular web site that suggests boredom "is one of the main reasons that people give up their diets." Many people state self-control and willpower are the keys to a successful diet.

However, recent research has found that there are external factors that influence eating behavior which people are unaware of. The research, conducted by health psychologists, found that environmental factors can influence people's food intake. For instance, there is a strong relationship between the "presence and behavior" of other people and an individual's eating habits. A person is more likely to increase their food intake when there are more people eating with them, especially if those people are also eating large portions of their meal. Additionally, the portion of food people get influences how much they eat. If a person is served a smaller amount of food on a smaller plate, they are just as likely to feel full and satisfied as someone served with a larger plate with more food. This studied verified these claims, but went further by giving participants a survey to assess how much they were aware of the external influences of their eating habits. Nearly every participant said they ate how much they ate because they were hungry or that the food tasted good, even though the external factors had a significant influence on their eating habits. Overall, people were unaware of these external factors, even as it clearly led to certain eating habits.

Another study assessed the perception of eaters who ate from larger soup bowls. Participants were given large soup bowls that measured how much a person ate in comparison with participants with smaller soup bowls. The participants with larger soup bowls ate substantially more soup, 73% more, which was equivalent to 113 additional calories. However, those participants, on average, stated that they ate only around 4 calories more than the participants with smaller bowls. Obviously, the portions of food people get will influence how much they eat without them noticing exactly how much they are eating.

People will overeat without realizing they are doing it. Most importantly, they are unaware of the factors influencing higher food intake. "Willpower" cannot overcome factors that people are completely unaware of while they are eating. The researchers concluded "if external environmental factors influence people's food intake without their awareness or acknowledgement, then maintaing a healthy diet can be a challenge." There are hidden challenges to dieting that go beyond internal food desires.

Tom Daschle's Health Care Views

Former Senator Tom Daschle will be President-Elect Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Wall Street Journal looked through Daschle's book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis, and reported on Daschle's health care views.



Tom Daschle's book can be found here.

Manasota World AIDS Day

Manatee and Sarasota counties participated in World AIDS Day 2008 today. The goal of this world-wide campaign is to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic. In keeping with the spirit of the event, I would like to bring up some important information regarding the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

In 2001, a United Nations and World Health Organization survey found that 40 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 60 million people have been infected with the virus since the start of the epidemic. The researchers wrote, "Twenty years after the first clinical evidence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome was reported, AIDS has become the most devastating disease humankind has ever faced."

Advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS have not been matched with "enough progress on the prevention front," according to the UN and WHO survey. The survey calls for prompt, focused prevention efforts, especially in developing countries where over 50 percent of young people (those between the ages of 15-24) "have never heard of AIDS or harbor serious misconceptions about how HIV is transmitted." These countries include the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

In the year 2000, approximately 3 million people died from HIV/AIDS. An estimated twenty thousand lived in North America.


According to the CDC, in 2003, an estimated 1,185,000 people in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS. Most shockingly, 24-27% of those living with HIV were undiagnosed and unaware of their infection.

In 2006, the most amount of AIDS cases were found in adults between the ages of 40 and 44 in the United States, with an estimated 7,298 cases. Adults between the ages of 35 and 39 had the second most number of cases, followed by adults between the ages of 45 and 49.

New York had the highest number of AIDS cases in 2006, with 5,495 being reported. Florida had the second highest reported number of AIDS cases in 2006, with 4,932 cases being reported.

It is estimated that 448,871 people are living with AIDS in the United States.

A reported 59,139 people have died from AIDS in the state of Florida.

For more information, please visit worldaidscampaign.org or any of the links found above.

To get more involved with the AIDS campaign, visit this web site.