‘Tis the season for overindulging.

From office parties to family get-togethers, we are surrounded by temptations that threaten to throw us off our healthy eating wagon. But it’s not just the mashed potatoes and pecan pies that do us in. It’s often the holiday beverages that pack a hidden caloric punch.

The BBC has a great tool that has changed how I think about the impact of those holiday beverages. You might think nothing of drinking a few of glasses of wine at a holiday party, but you’d probably think twice before loading up your plate with Krispy Kremes.

Sometimes helping people change their behavior is as simple as changing the way information is presented.

Take the quiz.

I promise it will surprise you.

I guess we should not be surprised by this, but iPhone addiction is a real disorder, according to a couple of psychiatrists in Taiwan (full article). iPhone addition disorder (IAD) was diagnosed in two case examples. One was a high school adolescent male who was staring at his iPhone screen 24 hours a day. His disorder was causing him to stay up all night to surf the Internet, and he was missing school frequently. He was eventually hospitalized in a psychiatric ward because he could not part with the device. The other case was a 31 year old female whose driving was significantly impaired because she was constantly using her iPhone while driving.

IAD is not that farfetched as there is already a disorder called computer addiction disorder (CAD). CAD is the excessive or compulsive use of computers that interferes with daily life and was “discovered” way back in the late 80s to early 90s. Dr. Maressa Orzack wrote a very good article for Psychiatric Times in 1998 about the subject.

Stanford University administered a study earlier this year that provides evidence of IAD. Two-hundred students were asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five – five being addicted and one being not at all addicted. The results: 10 percent of considered themselves addicted to the device (a five on the scale); 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale; and only 6 percent indicated no addiction. Nearly one-third of the students who did not consider themselves addicted expressed worry that they would become addicted someday. Respondents also indicated that they anthropomorphize their iPhones and treat it differently than their other electronics. For example, 3 percent said they do not let anyone touch their iPhone; 3 percent have named their iPhone; 9 percent have patted their iPhone; and 8 percent admitted that they have at some time thought “My iPod is jealous of my iPhone.”

I suppose iPad addiction disorder is just around the corner. I was going to buy one for the holidays, but after writing this, I am having second thoughts because I am afraid that my iPhone might get mad.

Of course there is always hope that somebody will write an iPhone app to help us manage our IAD.

I read this post a few months ago and it has haunted me ever since.  In it, C.J. Baker vividly articulates the feelings of frustration and anger that many patients with diabetes often feel:

“My problem is this– I know the end results. I know the risks. I know what dialysis and amputation and everything entails. I know. I’ve seen. I’ve treated…I work in medicine and will start school this May to pursue the dream of being a physician. But I’m the worst patient…

“The problem is I JUST CAN’T BRING MYSELF TO TEST, BOLUS, AND DO WHAT IS RIGHT!! I don’t test, and have a long history of doing so. I hate being consumed by it 24/7. I hate needing to plan everything and manage everything on my own. There are very few ailments (chronic, even) that require the patient to do ALL THE WORK.

“I sadly find relief in a visit to the ED with admission. Why? Because I get a break from it all. I might feel a little crappy. But I get a break….

“I don’t want to tick anyone off, but mild to moderate cancer seems a better bet. Why??  … You know what’s going on… the doctor manages the problem at hand… remission exists and even if it returns, the patient still got a break… cancer pt’s are given some sort of “credit” by the public… diabetics are just “fat” … diabetics can “control” and “cope” with the problem… cancer patient’s don’t have some magical blood count number that they have to check every few hours and make sure it’s perfect… cancer pt’s have support by the medical community…   the list goes on and on… yeah, cancer kills… but in my opinion, in a far less cruel and mysterious “maybe gonna happen but it’s ALL UP TO YOU” kind of way…

“I’ve tried to do well. But amid it all, bad blood sugars still creep in and tick me off… I hate to test. I hardly bolus until I get thirsty. To do better just makes me feel worse in general. I need to take care of others and my job requires me to be physical at times (lifting patients). I can’t afford to “deal with the pseudo low until my body re-adjusts” type of feeling. That, and I hate that feeling.

“I’ve tried everything I know. I’ve tried keeping meds in weekly pill boxes to help me remember. I’ve tried a pink glucometer to make me excited and/or happy about testing. I’ve tried gold stars, log books, “kudos calendars” … you name it. But it only lasts a week or so. Then I’m back to my depressed opinion again. I’d rather ignore it.”

In no other chronic disease is so much of the burden of success directly related to patient actions. In other words, the doctor can do everything right, but unless the patient steps up to care for herself, the outcomes are not good.

As this patient illustrates, knowledge alone is not enough. She knows what she should do, but is understandably overwhelmed with all that good self-care entails.

She’s not alone. There are approximately 21 million people in the US with metabolic diseases that are similarly Overwhelmed.  For suggestions on how to reach them, read this.

Two news items regarding search arrived relatively at the same time. One is a search technology being developed by the Yahoo’s Barcelona research lab called Time Explorer (check out the research paper). The other is about how search may start to be designed with the search-as-entertainment paradigm (check out the slides and the research paper). Both of these search ideas were recently presented at the Human Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR) workshop in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

First, Time Explorer is a search engine that returns results in a timeline that stretches into the future as well as the past. The results appear on the timeline, which shows when articles were published. However, if the user moves the timeline into the future, results are positioned at any point in time to when the text might have referred. For example you could check the predictions of an article that was published last year.

Second, researchers believe that the entertainment value of search is an untapped user experience. The research was conducted at the Swansea University in Wales and the University of Erlangen in Germany. Researchers found that users, while searching casually, were less interested in getting away from search results. This may explain why people like StumbleUpon.

What gets me excited is that by bringing these technologies together there is the possibility that I may never have to write another blog and I would be entertained while not writing it. I would simply search for my next (future) blog, copy and paste it today and be done.

Maybe I should blog about it and see if I my prediction comes true.

How cool is that!

Picture this:  You’re getting your yearly physical and the doctor says, “So, I see you need to get a few booster shots.” Next thing you know you’re looking at what seems to be the longest needle on the face of the earth with a nurse saying, “This won’t hurt”.

For many people, the ordeal of getting a shot and fear of that “long” needle is a barrier to getting recommended health services, including vaccinations.  Vaccinations are part of our lives beginning at infancy with the vast array of immunizations that protect us from childhood diseases and continue through adulthood to help maintain protection against countless diseases.

Help may be on the way.  Researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a vaccine-delivery patch that that uses hundreds of microscopic needles that dissolves into the skin.  The patch can be self-administered and is smaller than a penny

I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Well, actually jam, but you get the picture. Even now that I am old enough to be making them for my own child, I still eat a PB&J at least once a week.

So when I saw the Candwich I thought it was a joke.  Really, what could be easier to make than a PB&J?

And do you really want a sandwich that’s shelf stable for a year?

It got me thinking,  how much is the popularity of processed foods related to our burgeoning obesity epidemic?

Convenient and cheap, processed foods are a godsend to the time starved and budget conscious, but a dirty little secret lies within.

Turns out, all calories are not created equal. Take a cheddar cheese sandwich on whole grain bread and compare it to Velveeta on Wonder bread.  Same number of calories, but the processed option has about a 10% additional caloric burden because it doesn’t require as much energy to digest.  So processed foods actually help you put on more weight than whole foods with the same calories.

It’s easy to recommend eating whole foods over processed ones, but the fact remains that eating whole foods is much easier when you aren’t trying to make ends meet.  To change that behavior, you’ve got some serious cultural, behavioral and economic hurdles to overcome.

As Elaine Livas, who runs the Project SHARE food pantry, explains, “A gallon of milk is $3-something. A bottle of orange soda is 89 cents,” she says. “Do the math.”

I don’t exercise regularly. I have lots of friends who don’t exercise regularly. I used to, but I don’t anymore. I’ve noticed that on those rare occasions that I do go for a run, I don’t have as much energy as I used to. I’m 30 years old though, not 22! I can’t run a half marathon like I used to and I don’t expect myself to be able to.

Who am I kidding? Probably not you. I know I should be able to run at least a 5K with no problem, but the fact of the matter is that I can’t, and I’ve rationalized my inabilities to the point where I consider it normal for a busy, career-driven woman to fit in workouts once every seven days. I know I’m normalizing when I shouldn’t be.

Normalizing physical health is nothing new. People do it all the time. I just read an article about women who experience heavier than expected bleeding during menstruation, but don’t mention it to their doctors because they just figure it’s normal. They’ve concluded that this is how it will be every month, and they just deal with it. They figure that it’s something that all women go through. Hormones go up and down.

People with symptoms of overactive bladder do the same thing. They learn to accommodate their symptoms for fear of embarrassment or just attribute it to age. They eventually convince themselves that poor bladder control is a normal part of life. Nobody should have to get to the point where they’re thinking that. 

The question is, how do we get patients to stop normalizing their conditions? How do we get them to step forward and declare that they have a problem that they want to address? How do we get them to want to make changes?

Normalizing behavior is often a defense mechanism so that the experience can be pushed aside. So that we don’t have to talk about it. So that we don’t have to admit we have a problem. Providing a support network to those suffering will help them realize they aren’t alone, that they aren’t experiencing something uncommon, and that they don’t have to live with it this way.

Let’s face it. We’ve all normalized something at some point in our lives. Whether it’s an inability to run long distances or it’s experiencing extreme menstrual symptoms, we don’t have to hide behind excuses, fears and embarrassment. The bottom line is, nobody knows your body better than you do. Sometimes we just need some help realizing that there’s a way to live even better with the body we have.

Parents around the country have shared their disappointment and dissatisfaction with Johnson & Johnson on the handling of their latest recall.     In the past, Johnson & Johnson has been the poster child for how a company should handle crisis communications, but they seem to have dropped the ball on this one.  Parents are threatening to go generic or ban J&J products from their house all together.   Several parents went directly to the source and posted their concerns on JnJBTW, a blog managed by Marc Monseau, one of J&J’s senior media relations executives. One parent created a Facebook group of concerned parents regarding the McNeil Consumer Healthcare recall, and has drafted a letter that can be downloaded and appended so that parents can contact their US House of Representatives and State Senators.

The problem isn’t as much how they handled the recall announcement; it’s how and when they disseminated the information.  J&J did the expected blocking and tackling.  They issued a press release to the media and posted it on their website – at 9:15 PM – on a Friday.  I think it’s safe to say most people tune out the world as they go into a weekend, especially parents.  The weekend is their time to relax and be with their kids.

In this day and age, companies have to approach this type of thing differently.  They have to get the word out quickly and more directly to the right people.  There is Johnson & Johnson Facebook page.  Why didn’t they send a notice to all of the followers or make a post? I think it’s safe to assume they have a robust database.  Why didn’t they send out an e-mail blast? 

In the scheme of things, this will be just a blip on their image.  Johnson & Johnson is the most reputable company in the US  according to a study conducted by the Reputation Institute and has enough brand equity to fill the Grand Canyon.   according to a study conducted by the Reputation Institute and has enough brand equity to fill the Grand Canyon.   J&J and other companies watching this should consider this a learning experience and realize that the people do have a voice, and it’s louder than ever.