This is a must-see!

For more information, see http://www.pbs.org/unnaturalcauses/

Unnatural Causes…is inequality making us sick?
Premiering Tuesday, May 20, at 10 PM
Part one of a four-part series examining the root causes of health and illness to help reframe the debate about health in America. In this premiere episode, the program explores how we get sick in the first place, and why patterns of health and illness reflect underlying patterns of class and racial inequities. In the second episode on Tuesday, May 27, at 10 PM, producers investigate how race affects pregnancy risks and infant mortality. The series returns in June to explore the causes and effects of diabetes within two Native American communities and Place Matters connects health, wealth and zip codes. The concluding episode traces health challenges of Marshall Islanders from the South Pacific to Springdale, AR, and explores the toll taken by layoffs and job insecurity.

There’s a new online community called Health Power, on which members can start discussions, upload videos and photos, make new friends and share information. Sign up today at www.HealthPower.org.

Health Blogs.org was created for you to use to share experiences with others, to vent and to document your health challenges, whatever they may be. Blogs, or Weblogs, provide an outlet for expression. Think of a blog as your online journal. You can upload photos, configure your blog to allow comments from your readers, set up an RSS feed and choose from a variety of attractive templates. You don’t have to know html to create a blog. The setup is fast, easy, and it’s free! HealthBlogs is available for use by patients, caregivers, healthcare providers and practitioners and anyone with an interest in matters concerning health. You’ll find this the perfect place for documenting anything from diet and exercise to sharing your strategies for coping with any illness or condition:

Exercise Quitting smoking Diet Illness or disease Diabetes Chronic pain High blood pressure Caregiver issues Fitness

These are just a few of the challenges our users are blogging about. Dozens of themes and plugins are available!

If you’d prefer to just view and comment on others’ blogs at first, that’s fine too. Either search for a term you are interested in or click on one of the bloggers in the Blog Directory. When you have questions about health blogging on healthblogs.org please click here.

Note to new users: Healthblogs is operated by a non-profit agency and is not for use for commercial purposes or for “Business Builders.” Blogs created for reasons such as this will be deleted.

How do you find time to exercise and stay healthy? As the health blogs editors, we are interested in what techniques you have found to fit exercise into your busy workday. Maybe you are a working parent trying to find time for exercise. Maybe you are a workaholic who just knows that exercise is key to good health but you don’t seem to find time to squeeze into your busy schedule. What are your tips to share with others? Realistic tips that people can really use in everyday life would be great to share!
Here is a fun clip to share when you are able to get together with family to swim and play. It’s great exercise![youtube]jKruJ79cSuI[/youtube]

SWAT -Smart Working Available Time Moms - is a fairly new term for flexible work for stay at home moms. It is good for the mental health of mothers who were previously employed as professionals to stay active in their areas of expertise. When a woman’s mental health is balanced between the love of children and the love of work, physical health more easily remains in balance. This is the general consensus and an interesting theory to google about.

You may have already read some reasons to start your own health blog. Please use the calendar to locate health events in your area. If you know of a health fair, health seminar or other informative health gathering and it’s not listed on Health Blogs, please let us know by contacting us and we will post it to share with all!http://healthblogs.org/2008/05/09/health-events/
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Please tell us the name of the event, type of event, location (address, city, state) and contact information. The event can be for a particular health awareness for a condition such as diabetes or cancer, or just a health and wellness event. If it’s a health fair for children or adults, we don’t care. We want to share with everyone as part of our mission to empower individuals using the Internet. Please click below to add your events in the comments. First please login to the right or by going to http://healthblogs.org/wp-signup.php and either setup a site or just create a user so you can post comments.

Thank you in advance!
Beth and Monica

CaringBridge or other web sites with free web site creation for health aware consumers may be good for documenting. The difference between Health Blogs.Org and sites such as that, is that the information can be chosen to be viewed publicly or not. This allows for you to search through blogs of others to find what they’ve experienced and learn from them. It also allows your entries to help others who are going through the same life events. Some have chosen to setup a health blog to share uplifting stories as well. Please use this wonderful tool to share your life stories, whether for cancer help, resource location, hospital information, or more. It is free to you. We offer this as a non profit organization to allow people across the world to feel more empowered with their well being, fitness, health.

According to a study conducted at Georgetown University by Nancy P. Morgan and associates, “a single 20-minute writing session positively impacts a patient’s quality of life.” Many of our bloggers have found the following to be true:

“The post-survey indicated that 49 percent of participants who completed the writing exercise reported that writing changed their thoughts about their illness, while 35 percent reported writing changed they way they felt about their illness. At the three week follow-up, 54 percent of those completing all parts of the study reported writing changed their thoughts and 38 percent reported writing changed their feelings about their illness. Two factors — younger age, and less time since diagnosis, were associated with more change in thoughts and feelings.”

Read more about the study here.

We’ve installed several new themes for your health blog. Why not try out a new look for your blog now? If you would like to share stories or concerns about health, stories about fitness, or stories about just well being in general please consider signing up. It is free for you and you can choose a look and feel (theme) to fit your style.

From BlogCatalog

I applaud your “Health Blog”. As a practicing physician for 50 years, I am greatly concerned not only about the quality of health care that we have in the U.S., but also how many people are abusing their bodies.
I had dinner with friends last night at a popular restaurant and was amazed at the size of the food portions and the size of many of the people eating there. High blood pressure, diabetes, hip, back and knee problems are going to increase with the amount of obesity we are seeing the the U.S. As a pediatrician, I am particularly concerned about the eating habits our children are developing. We are going to have an epidemic of kids with diabetes and increased blood pressure, unless as parents, grandparents, and doctors, we do a better job.

http://drthompsonsbooks.typepad.com/my_weblog/