We can all be doctors now

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 00:00

The Koreans, who gave us Hyundai, Samsung and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, are on the verge of a major technological breakthrough that will let your smartphone diagnose your illnesses. It will save you a fortune in doctor bills but probably run up your cell-phone bill worse than your teenage daughter.

Scientists at Korea Advanced Institute of Science of Technology are exploring how touch-screen technology can perform medical tests, possibly even diagnosing cancer, by detecting bio-molecular matter and electronic charges in your body. I’m not clear how it works, but I suspect it’s similar to technology the IRS uses to determine whether you’ll get audited.

This is an exciting development for us hypochondriacs, who are prone to rare diseases since the invention of the Internet and WebMD.

Best way to lose weight? Eat a big, fat, bullfrog every morning

Written by Kim Bensen
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 00:00

There’s an old saying that if you wake up in the morning and eat a live frog, you can go through the day knowing that the worst thing that can possibly happen to you that day has already happened.

Popularized in Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!, the idea here is that you tackle the biggest, hardest, and least appealing task FIRST every day, so you can move through the rest of the day knowing that the worst is over with.

For those of us who have a hard time with planning out our day ahead of time, that’s our frog.

A quest to find a spark of the divine

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 00:00

During rush hour I stopped at the newsstand in Grand Central and picked up a book by the Dalai Lama about how to be compassionate. Then, I promptly sidestepped a poor man in a wheelchair who had his hand out for cash.

Does the city suck compassion out of us, or is compassion a commodity like pork bellies that you can trade on the market, by being compassionate to people who offer the greatest return on your investment. Give a little, get a lot ... in the spirit of capitalistic compassion.

Lately everyone is talking about compassion because there’s a sense we’ve lost part of our humanity in the self-obsessed quest for more.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has done a lot to stir up the debate, which leads me to wonder whether they could ever feel compassion for someone like Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase, who made $23 million last year and riled protesters when he said it’s time to stop bashing the rich and thinking “because you’re rich you’re bad.”

Caught in the healthcare web

Written by Ellen Beveridge
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 00:00

In December, I received a notice from my health care insurer, which I have in tandem with Medicare. I was informed that a blood pressure drug I’ve been taking for several years would no longer carry a co-pay of $6.

As of Jan. 1, the payment would jump to a whopping $42. An alternative drug was suggested with a co-pay of only $3.

That sounded like a good deal to me. I called my primary care physician, and the new drug was ordered with the caveat that after two weeks I should come to the office for a blood pressure check.

But it didn’t take two weeks for me to discover whether this new drug had put me on the right path or not; in fact, it took only about an hour.

The first morning I took the new drug it was just about an hour when suddenly I had this all-over body sensation that something was terribly wrong. I didn’t have any pain, and I didn’t feel dizzy or faint; in fact, I’ve never fainted in my life. It was a strange feeling that’s difficult to describe. My thoughts rushed to heart attack or stroke. It was very scary.

The five biggest lies about highway tolls

Written by Jim Cameron
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 00:00

Like it or not, get ready to pay tolls on our interstates and parkways. Transportation officials in Hartford say there’s just no other way to raise badly needed money for over-due infrastructure repairs. Tolls may not be popular, but neither are collapsing bridges.

In the last decade’s debate on highway tolling, here are the five biggest lies that opponents have used to stall the return of highway tolls:

• The federal government won’t let us: Also known as “We’ll have to return millions in federal funding.” Not true, as US DOT officials told us at a SWRPA-sponsored meeting in Westport years ago. The federal government regularly allows tolls to be used as traffic mitigation and revenue raising tools.

Dreaming of a good night’s sleep

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 00:00

All my adult life, one pleasure has eluded me — it’s not what you think, this is a PG column — and that pleasure is a good night’s sleep.

I’m part of what the government calls a “public health epidemic,” along with 70 million Americans suffering from “insufficient sleep,” a condition that can lead to depression, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and other ailments.

About 40% of adults suffer from insomnia from time to time, women twice as often as men. More than half of those over 65 have trouble sleeping, and even though they represent only 13% of the population, they consume 30% of prescription drugs and 40% of sleeping pills. At the same time, Medicare payments to test for sleep apnea went from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009.

The benefits of arguing with your teenager

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 18 January 2012 00:00

University of Virginia researchers recently made a breakthrough that could change the world of parent-child negotiations. They concluded that arguing with teenagers is good for their health.

But what does it do to your health? As the father of four daughters, who thought they were adults at 13, I’ve often believed raising teenagers is one of the hardest undertakings known to civilized man, second only to watching Jersey Shore without a bottle of Pepto Bismol handy. Looking at how that cast of nitwits turned out, I have to conclude their parents didn’t argue enough with them.

Psychologist Joseph Allen, who led the study, published in Child Development, said, “We tell parents to think of those arguments not as a nuisance but as a critical training ground” that will help a child learn how to handle disagreements in life.

Teens who argued with their parents were able to say “no” to their peers over things like drinking. The study of 157 13-year-olds found the most common disputes concerned money, friends, grades and household chores.

Congress Tells Commuters ... ‘Drop Dead’

Written by Jim Cameron
Wednesday, 18 January 2012 00:00

Back in 1975, when New York City was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, then- President Ford declined to offer help, and the NY Daily News headline screamed “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

Last month, the U.S. Congress said about the same thing to us users of mass transit.

In their quagmire of inaction, bickering and partisanship, they let expire an important tax benefit to commuters: whether you drove or took mass transit, you used to be able to spend up to $230 a month in pre-tax dollars to fund your commute.

But by not acting to extend the law, that benefit dropped to $125 a month for riders of mass transit, but increased to $240 a month for drivers’ parking expenses.

A winter’s walk on the beach

Written by Ellen Beveridge
Wednesday, 11 January 2012 00:00

Christmas Eve day dawned bright and beautiful. It was a special day for me. My daughter Mary Ellen and husband, Ron, had traveled from out of state to visit for the holiday.

After a hearty breakfast we decided an invigorating walk was just what the doctor ordered, and what better solution than a walk on the beach.

Going to the beach was like returning to my roots. Growing up in Stratford and spending many childhood vacations at beach cottages in Westbrook and Old Lyme, being in or on Long Island Sound was in my DNA, so to speak.

I brought my daughters to the beach many times when they were young. Probably because of this connection, when Mary Ellen attended the graduate program at the University of Iowa she said the one thing that seemed strange to her was being so far away from salt water.

Fending off threats from the K-mafia

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 11 January 2012 00:00

My therapist says I have to stop obsessing over the Kardashians because it’s making me an angry man.

My editor wonders, “Why do you have to mention Kim Kardashian in every column?”

My wife yells, “Put down that celebrity magazine and stop reading about the KARDASHIANS!”

Life is hard. Actually, it wasn’t a therapist. It was the priest I go to for confession, which is about the same as a therapist. And I don’t mention Kim Kardashian in every column, only every other column. And I wonder, could my wife be jealous of Kim Kardashian?

This isn’t a lust thing. Well, maybe only a little. The truth is I’ve become one of those people who love to hate the Kardashians — and I don’t even own a TV.