The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in DC this summer.  Health care reform is already a hot topic, and as legislation moves through Congress, Americans across the nation have questions about how costs will be brought under control to make quality affordable health care accessible to everyone.

That’s why the White House is taking another step to connect with people outside of Washington and answer some of the most common questions you have.  In the coming days, we’re going to focus on your questions about health care, with President Obama and some of his top health care advisors providing answers.

On Wednesday, the President will hold another online town hall to answer more of your questions.  This online town hall will be a little different than the last one. This time around, we are engaging online networks outside of WhiteHouse.gov, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

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Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 25 million Americans each year, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks operate 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms. For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit www.feedingamerica.org.

For every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 10 pounds of food and grocery products to men, women and children facing hunger in our country. Please join the Kellogg Company and Causes as we take small steps towards creating BIG change. 15% of all donations made through Causes on June 18, 2009 will be matched and donated by Causes to Feeding America. Visit your Causes homepage and invite friends to take action. For more information you can visit the Facebook page or check out the website above.

The President has long noted that skyrocketing health care costs will be disastrous in terms of our long term national debt unless we pass real reform.  In this Weekly Address, the President also explains how he will cover the upfront costs of reform by eliminating over-payments from Medicaid and Medicare and driving down costs contributing to government’s health care expenditures across the board.

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If it ain’t one thing it’s another. Even at the young age of 33, I’m on a small dose of pressure medicine. It runs in my family (with both parents), but I hope to kick the pill soon. I’ve been slacking on the exercising and I could get a little more sleep, but that’s something I’m working on. I’ll do better. I have people depending on me. Check out this article published on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

source – www.chinaview.cn

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) — Middle-aged adults who sleep fewer hours appear more likely to have high blood pressure and to experience adverse changes in blood pressure over time, according to a report published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Almost one-third of Americans have hypertension or high blood pressure, a condition that contributes to seven million deaths worldwide each year, according to background information in the article.

“Identifying a novel lifestyle risk factor for high blood pressure could lead to new interventions to prevent or reduce high blood pressure,” the authors write. “Laboratory studies of short-term sleep deprivation have suggested potential mechanisms for a causal link between sleep loss and hypertension.”

Sleep deprivation is associated with increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s stress response. Over time, this activation could contribute to high blood pressure.

Kristen L. Knutson of the University of Chicago and his colleagues studied 578 adults who first had their blood pressure and other clinical, demographic and health variables measured between 2000 and 2001. In 2003 and 2005, the researchers measured sleep duration by using surveys and wrist actigraphy, in which a sensor is worn on the wrist to record periods of rest and activity. Blood pressure, demographic and self-reported sleep information were measured again in 2005 and 2006.

Participants (average age 40) slept an average of six hours per night; only seven (1 percent) averaged eight or more hours of sleep. After excluding patients taking medication for high blood pressure and controlling for age, race and sex, the researchers found that individuals who slept fewer hours were significantly more likely to have higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Sleeping less also predicted increases in blood pressure over five years, along with the onset of hypertension. Each hour of reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 37 percent increase in the odds of developing high blood pressure.

“Consistent with other studies, we observed higher blood pressure levels in men, particularly African American men,” the authors wrote. “Also, as described in a previous report from this study,

African American men slept much less than white women. These two observations suggested the intriguing possibility that the well-documented higher blood pressure in African Americans and men might be partly related to sleep duration.”

“In summary, the present study provides evidence for a link between the duration and quality of sleep and high blood pressure levels using objectively measured sleep characteristics,” they concluded. “Intervention studies are needed to determine whether optimizing sleep duration and quality can reduce the risk of increased blood pressure.”

Editor: Fang Yang

I was watching the Today Show and saw this segment about the Financial Cost of Cancer. It tugged on my heart because growing up my family faced a similar situation when my dad had a brain stem stroke. The financial recovery from dealing with this type of situation can last for years and it takes making some tough decisions to get out of it.

What happens to those who try to do the things “the right way”, only to find themselves in a situation of financial ruin? It’s all ready tough enough dealing with the fact that your loved one is sick, only to have the hospital creditors bugging you about their payment. We need some type of health care reform and we need it soon. People are suffering and no one seems to know what to do. President Obama has pledged to have some type of health care reform by the end of the year. But with trillion dollar deficits, I have a hard time seeing how it will get done. Maybe someday all Americans will have access to the same heath care benefits as those in Congress.

We shouldn’t have to choose between doing what it takes to keep a loved one alive and food for our family. But it’s a sad reality of what people are having to do every day. What’s out there to help those who’ve been placed in this situation? If you know, feel free to share with us.

The President makes clear that as Congress works through health care reform legislation, it must include fundamental changes that lower costs, ensure Americans have choices, and establish access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans. “But what we can’t welcome,” the President says, “is reform that just invests more money in the status quo – reform that throws good money after bad habits.”

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The twitter explosion has begun and more people are flocking to it as a means of communicating with a mass audience. I get a lot of follow requests via Twitter. Some are worth sharing and the account for StandUpStickOut is tied to a website called Faces Of Our Children.

Faces of Our Children is a Non Profit Organization formed to educate the general public on issues concerning Sickle Cell Anemia and other diseases. The mission of Faces of Our Children, Inc. is dedicated to raising awareness, support and funding for the fight against sickle cell disease worldwide in cooperation with the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease through the development and delivery of educational programs and materials via the internet and mass media at work sites and schools and through community-based organizations that will help effectuate progressive public policy and increase both government and corporate funding in order to significantly improve the lives of families with sickle cell disease and ultimately eliminate this deadly disease that afflicts not only people of color but people from India, Greece, Italy, the Middle East, South and Central American and the Caribbean.

For more information you can follow StandUpStickOut at twitter.com/StandUpStickOut.

Here in Texas, Fort Worth ISD is closing all schools until May 8th due to Swine Flu concerns. The first closures that I’d heard about were in Richardson, TX and there’s talk of more to come. Check out the Star Telegram to learn more about the closings.

Here are some things you can do to protect yourself and lessen the chance of you catching the virus:

• Stay informed. This website will be updated regularly as information becomes available.
• Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
• Take everyday actions to stay healthy.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
• Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
• Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.
• Develop a family emergency plan as a precaution. This should include storing a supply of food, medicines, facemasks, alcohol-based hand rubs and other essential supplies.

Call 1-800-CDC-INFO of visit the Center for Disease Control website for more information.

Here are some events in the Dallas and Houston area that I wanted to share.

source – dallassouthblog.com
What: “The Roadmap to Recovery” workshop
Date: Monday, April 20, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Location:
The Music Hall at Fair Park
909 1st Ave.
Dallas, TX 75210

The workshop is designed to bring together representatives of financial organizations and federal and state agencies, who will share information on ways for North Texans to access economic recovery funding.

Financial organizations that are sending representatives include Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas and the Dallas Small Business Development Center. John Podvin, an attorney at Haynes and Boone, LLP, will speak about the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) and newly-created Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP).

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert will also give remarks at the workshop.

To RSVP for the workshop, please call Congresswoman Johnson’s office in Dallas at (214) 922-8885 or e-mail recovery.ebjohnson@mail.house.gov. To submit a question to the panelists, e-mail recovery.ebjohnson@mail.house.gov, specifying which agency or financial organization the question is directed to.

source – noahknows.org
Autism Awareness Month Continues at Texas Southern University The Department of Human Services and Consumer Sciences
Monday, April 20, 2009
12:00 Noon

Cynthia Singleton Presents
“Top Ten Things A Parent Wants You to Know About Autism”
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
11:00 am

Officer Mark Caronna Presents HPD’s Autism/Alzheimers Emergency Response Program
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Dr. Dawn”Dee” Jackson Bradford Presents
“The Joy of Parenting A Child with Autism”

For more information contact Kim Dixon (Noah Knows!) @ 713.313.7630 or kim4child@sbcglobal.net

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! The Walgreens Take Care Clinics have started a program called the Take Care Recovery Plan which provides access to free healthcare visits for current and future patients, and their families, who have lost their jobs and are uninsured. The offer applies to any Take Care Clinic patient that loses his or her job on or after March 31 and has no health insurance. Any other individual that visits a Take Care Clinic as a patient after March 31, and then loses his or her job and is uninsured, may qualify for the offer for the remainder of 2009.

In a time where many Americans don’t have health insurance, I’m glad to see Walgreens offer this program. To learn more or see if you qualify, call 1-866-Take-Care (1-866-825-3227) and press 3 for Take Care Recovery Plan information.