Oct 30

The Fight Against Breast Cancer: It's Time to Make Sure Women's Voices Are Heard

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As a country, we collectively put forth great effort to raise awareness for breast cancer. Survivors and supporters walk and run for the cause. Corporations and retailers donate proceeds to research. And, breast cancer is a hot topic on television, on social media, and in newspapers and magazines.

Which is why it’s stunning that there still remains so much confusion around the disease — especially when it comes to patient literacy about breast cancer screening guidelines. Debates in the medical community about the value of an annual mammogram contribute to an environment where women are unsure of what’s best for their health.

And, frankly, that’s inexcusable.

Women’s voices need to be heard in this debate. Too often, what women want, expect and experience from their annual screenings receive little-to-no attention.

For this very reason, the Society of Women’s Health Research (SWHR) set out to better understand women’s habits, perceptions and barriers around breast cancer screening and mammograms. We conducted a survey of 3,500 women, conducted focus groups and interviews, and featured studies by expert researchers in the Journal of Women’s Health to gather real insights.

All of the research findings pointed to the same core set of tensions: Real barriers to mammography exist and women want improved access to better screening technology.

The first indication that barriers exist comes from the survey’s finding that women know screenings are important, but don’t always act in their own best interest. More than three-quarters of women report having breast exams or mammograms routinely, yet more than 40 percent fail to make it an annual occurrence, despite the fact that guidelines from the American Cancer Society and major medical societies consistently recommend routine screenings.

According to the survey, high cost and lack of insurance are the most significant barriers to mammography. Women also report that they must factor non-medical costs, such as those for travel or childcare, into the time and effort it takes to get a mammogram.

Taken together with the fact that nearly two-thirds of women are unaware that the Affordable Care Act requires that Medicare and commercial health insurance cover preventative services like mammography at no cost sharing to the patient, these findings suggest that more frequent and effective communications are needed to help break down barriers. It’s critical that we make more women aware of how they can help themselves.

Perhaps the high incidence of false positives is also a deterrent. Nearly half of the women surveyed report that they have been called back for further testing at some point in their lifetime after receiving abnormal mammogram results. These women experience feelings of fear, stress and sadness.

I’m one of these women, and I can say with absolute certainty that I felt each one of these emotions. It burdens not only women, but their families, too.

So, the status quo isn’t working — particularly not for women’s mental well-being. Many might argue it isn’t good for women’s physical well-being, as well. Four in five women agree that access to mammograms that offer better detection and lower their chances of being called back for more testing is important.

What’s more, women overwhelmingly believe that 3D mammograms, which are proven to be more accurate in finding invasive cancers earlier and decreasing call backs due to false alarms, should be covered by insurance. Two-thirds of these women say that they would consider switching insurance companies for superior technology like 3D mammograms.

This data makes it clear to me that the conversation needs to shift and policies need to change. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must develop clear, concise breast cancer screening guidelines. Education about the Affordable Care Act needs to improve and Medicare and private payers must provide adequate payment for advanced breast cancer screening. Medicare and private payers must provide adequate payment for technology that improves accuracy. We know that when reimbursement for mammography does not cover the cost of a procedure, patient access suffers.

When real patients’ needs — real women’s needs — are adequately and effectively addressed is when we will stand strongest in the fight against breast cancer.

References:

What Women Want: Expectations and Experiences in Breast Cancer Screening: Survey from the Society for Women’s Health Research, September 2014

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Oct 30

My Wife Told Me She Wants to Cheat, Here's How I Feel

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When Elloa Atkinson confessed to the Internet that she wanted to cheat on her husband, the Internet went crazy. Here is her husband Nige’s side of the story.

Elloa and Nige:

We had reservations about republishing this, originally shared on The Good Men Project, here. Therefore we’d like to say at the outset that there is no prescription here, no recommendation or suggestion about how other people “should” conduct themselves. We do our best to live by the principle of emotional responsibility which states that I am 100 percent responsible for my experience, as you are for yours. The concept of honesty is one part of this, and while it feels risky, it is, as our teachers Duane and Catherine O’Kane write, “far less risky than acting out.” We share this story for the people who want to believe that vulnerability, as scary as it feels, is ultimately worth the risk.

Elloa:

I wrote a post about wanting to cheat on my husband, and it went viral. The response was mixed, the opinions passionate. The only voice that was noticeably absent was that of my husband, Nige.

This didn’t seem right, but it did feel significant, symbolic of the collective vow of silence that today’s men are living under.

While some people expressed their outrage that I would hurt my husband in this way, others shared either publicly or privately that they too have had these kind of thoughts, fantasies and yes, even obsessions. Still others protested that if a man were to speak about being attracted to women whilst in a relationship, he would be lambasted.

This conversation, sparked by my article, appears to be one we are ready to have. The next step was clear. It was time for Nige to speak.

***

Nige:

A few weeks ago, when Elloa disclosed her secret attraction, I felt like my stomach had been clamped in a vice. Then, as her confession came, an inward surge of Hulk-like anger, all too familiar. My thoughts were no different than some of the judgmental comments that appeared in reaction to her article on The Huffington Post. Let’s face it: the ego always speaks first, and often cruelly.

The difference was, I know enough about this part of my mind not to voice my thoughts at this point. The first thing I have to do in these moments is take a breath, then another one, then another one. If I react now, it’s game on for the ego, but game over for the relationship — and I won’t let the ego win, because it viciously guards a set of mistaken beliefs that drive me further and further away from the one thing I truly want the most: love.

Therefore, Elloa and I have a contract about disclosing our secrets and dark thoughts to each other. We both understand that secrets kill relationships, and see so many couples playing a long-term game of hide and seek with each other. In our marriage, we are determined to fully know and be known by the other, and that means having the kind of raw, honest conversation that Elloa’s article described. The purpose of this is to go beyond the secret thought to the fear of who we are underneath, the fear that is driving that secret thought, desire or behavior.

Having this depth of honesty in our communication is not easy. It is scary, vulnerable and unpredictable.

Fortunately, we have enough tools in our relationship kitbag to be able to work through any form of upset in a safe and contained way, without using the other person as a dumping ground. The critical element in the whole process is the intention that we both set at the beginning.

We did what we always do in this situation, utilizing a therapeutic process (adapted from Clearmind International) that forms a core part of our relationship. The process gives permission to the reactive, raging part of my mind to unleash its fury for three solid minutes without any kind of reaction whatsoever from Ell. Crucial to the process is that she remains neutral, and that no physical boundaries are crossed whatsoever.

When the other person refuses to fight back but also stays the course and remains in a place of neutrality (not always easy to do), something amazing happens: the brutal, vicious attacking part of our mind gives way and we literally “drop” into our feelings. This is the place no man wants to go — a pit of despair, self-loathing, shame and loneliness.

My anger, directed initially towards Elloa for her “disgusting” behavior, was really masking a deep wound that I have carried since I was a boy — the belief that I in fact am completely inadequate and unloveable.

***

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The root of this belief lies in my childhood, during which I lost a testicle after being kicked by another boy and the subsequent taunting, which dogged me for most of my schooldays. I grew up believing I was a freak. I called myself the odd man out.

Fast forward 39 years and there I am with my wife, feeling 6 years old again: raw, exposed and vulnerable, with my head in my hands. I am terrified to look up, afraid she will reject me. In that moment, I feel deeply ashamed of who I am.

I know there there is only one way through this shame — I have to make contact. I have to let her see me, otherwise I’ll just be an empty shell. If I don’t let her into my world, then I’m doomed to walk this planet as a zombie, a man with a plastic smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. And yet there is so much I want to say. Somehow, I have to take a risk and open up.

As a man, I haven’t been taught by our society how to express my feelings. It’s as taboo as wanting to cheat, forbidden in daily life and permissible only in the direst of circumstances. Even then, only a few tears are allowed before the words “man up” come into play.

Even now, after nearly three decades of inner work, speaking about how I feel often feels clumsy and awkward for me. However, experience has taught me not to listen to the shaming voice that tells me that I’m weak if I cry.

So on the day Ell told me about her crush, I let her hold me while my body shook and the tears poured out of me. I told her everything I fear I am and she just listened, just held me and let me let it all out.

Eventually, I came to a quieter place. The dam, once burst, doesn’t gush water uncontrollably forever. The wave subsides. I am left with my beliefs.

***

After the outrage and attack, after the shame and the guilt, after the tears, there is a moment of true choice. This is the state from which I can change my mind, because here, I am open. Here, I am willing to accept help. I ask my wife, this woman who just a few minutes ago I thought was the cause of all my pain, to help me remember who I am.

And the truth comes back to me. I am not the odd man out. I never was. I am strong. I am worth loving. I am good. And nothing can be taken from me because I have everything I need within.

This is not a theoretical or intellectual knowing, it is an experience I inhabit when I work through, rather than dance around or avoid, my deepest fears. The function of my relationship isn’t to avoid experiencing pain or the realization of my fears — it is to give each other a soft place to land when one of us needs to show up, knowing that the healing is always twofold.

Elloa revealing her attraction therefore became a catalyst for me to expose a war wound that I carry on a daily basis and to do the work of changing my perception of myself. I do not do this work alone. I do it from a mindset of making conscious contact with my wife and with myself.

I’m a normal guy; I have thoughts of sexual attraction towards other women almost every day. Some are fleeting while others linger. It’s the ones that linger that trouble me the most. But I know that with each attraction there is an opportunity — often not as dramatic as this one — to take a step closer to my wife, to myself and to being the type of man I want the world to know exists.

And that is why, in our household, my wife Elloa is always welcome to tell the truth, and why I tell mine in return.

Find out more from Nige Atkinson about breaking the vow of male silence.

Join Elloa Atkinson and develop a miracle mindset to see things differently.

Watch and learn Clearmind International’s approach to emotional responsibility in From Crisis to Celebration.

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Oct 30

Support Soda Taxes: Avoid Premature Aging

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I was summoned to the emergency room stat. We tried unsuccessfully for more than 40 minutes to resuscitate the patient. Death by heroin overdose. The young man was 43. I had just started my work for Kaiser Medical Center in Richmond. The year was 1981.

“Forty-three, so young,” I remarked to the seasoned ER nurse I was working with. She had vastly more experience than I. Her reply: “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”

And so it is with our health. Our circumstances cause us to experience the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” as well as the more mundane stresses of everyday life differently. It is the social environment and our relative position within it that most determines the course our life will take, what options are open to us, and how long we will live. We human beings are exquisitely sensitive to social position, even if much of that awareness is unconscious.

ZIP Codes Trump Genetic Codes

It turns out that the average income of one’s ZIP code is a more powerful predictor of life expectancy than one’s genetic code. For every step up the social ladder, there is a corresponding increase in average life expectancy.

When asked to explain why social position determines health outcome in such a step wise fashion, Sir Michael Marmot, perhaps the world’s leading authority in this field, put it this way:

The lower individuals are in the social hierarchy, the less likely it is that their fundamental human needs for autonomy and to be integrated into society will be met. Failure to meet these needs leads to metabolic and endocrine changes that in turn lead to increased risk of disease.

When our fundamental human needs for autonomy and belonging are not met, our physiology rebels. Stress hormones can increase and stay elevated. Eventually, this hypervigilant state can wear us down, and premature illness and death can result.

But there is more. There is our behavior. Heroin is a potent pain killer. For some, day-to-day life is terribly painful, and heroin makes it tolerable. In a lesser way, the same can be said for cigarettes. Nicotine is a powerful drug. Our bodies have receptors for it. Nicotine can pep us up when we are down, lessen our hunger, and relax us when we are tense. No wonder it’s easier to give up the habit if we are less stressed out and have greater resources at our disposal.

We know that these harmful behaviors come with a price. In the case of the heroin addict, it cost him his life. It can do the same to cigarette smokers.

We are also learning that dietary choices are influenced by our social position. Coke and Pepsi target minority youth in their advertising campaigns in order to increase sales. Their ads equating soda consumption with happiness, success, popularity, sex appeal and athletic prowess are effective despite the mounting scientific evidence linking sodas and other sugary drinks to an astonishing list of chronic illnesses including Type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, dementia, fatty liver disease, and some cancers.

Soda is not heroin, and soda is not tobacco. There are obvious and important differences. But consider this: Sodas are arguably a greater risk to the health of our children than either tobacco or heroin — more than one-third of our kids will get Type 2 diabetes, and soda is a major culprit.

Sodas, Like Cigarettes, Can Make Us Old Before Our Time

If that doesn’t get your attention, scientists have uncovered even more worrisome news about soda: It can age our cells prematurely just like cigarettes do.

There is something at each end of our chromosomes called a telomere. It is a DNA-protein cap which protects the DNA, our genetic material, from damage. Each time our cells divide to form new cells, telomeres shorten. Eventually the telomeres become too short for the cells to function normally and these cells die or malfunction. Measuring telomere length is one way scientists study cell aging. They not only shorten as part of normal biologic aging, but also from behavioral stresses like cigarette smoking or caring for a chronically-ill child. In other words, telomere length is a way of looking at, as the ER nurse put it, “the mileage.”

It turns out that the more soda you drink, the shorter your telomeres. Over time, drinking a 20-ounce serving of soda a day ages cells about the same amount as tobacco smoking.

Our Chance to Make a Real Difference

Enter the Soda Tax Wars. Full disclosure. I’m a veteran. I ran the Richmond, California Soda Tax Campaign. I flew to Mexico to help lobby for the successful passage of the Mexican Soda Tax. I am working to help pass the Yes on D (Berkeley) and Yes on E (San Francisco) Soda tax efforts.

If you needed another reason to vote for these local soda taxes, remember that: Soda could age us prematurely, just like cigarettes. If we want to promote a healthy community we need to decrease soda consumption just like we have done with cigarettes.

Yes on D in Berkeley
Yes on E in San Francisco

Let’s help our kids live long and healthy lives!

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Oct 30

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 review: a pretty one-way path

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Kindle2-XLWith the mid-size tablet genre being redefined, Amazon has stepped in with their latest, an 8.9-inch HDX version of the Kindle Fire. Taking square aim at the iPad mini and Air, as well as the Nexus 9, this tablet brings a familiar set of specs and viewing experience. Depending on what you want from your tablet, though, the Kindle Fire … Continue reading

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Oct 30

Tim Cook isn’t gay for you

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tim-cook-appleLet’s talk about Tim Cook being gay. Or, actually, let’s not talk about it at all. The Apple CEO’s unexpected open letter today, discussing his reasons for suddenly talking about his sexuality and the feelings of responsibility to use his platform to further the understanding of LGBTQ issues, confirmed what many had believed for years. It also met with its … Continue reading

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Oct 30

Ford has a new surveillance system to monitor police cars

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FordMethods to monitor law enforcement are in demand, and we’ve been seeing different related technologies that meet this need appear increasingly. One example is the Yardarm sensor that monitors firearm usage, shuttling the data off to a cloud platform where it can be accessed by dispatchers and investigators if needed. Ford is working on its own surveillance system, this one … Continue reading

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Oct 30

The Dad Rock Version of The War of the Worlds

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The Dad Rock Version of The War of the Worlds

On this very night in 1938, a radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds may or may not have caused mass hysteria for American listeners. But there’s another War of the Worlds that scared me much more as a kid. For me, there’s the HG Wells version, the Orson Wells version, and the rock opera version by composer Jeff Wayne, released in 1978.

Read more…



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Oct 30

Warblr can identify that bird just by hearing its song

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Technology can be pretty wonderful sometimes. Case in point: Warblr, an app that uses sound recognition tech and your phone’s GPS signal to identify birdsongs. The application first pinpoints where you are (it’ll debut in the United Kingdom), and…

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Oct 30

'Mindy Project' Actress Beth Grant Shares Her Story Of Awkwardly Kissing Mindy Kaling

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You may not know Beth Grant’s name, but you’ll definitely recognize the hilarious character actress who has been in literally everything. These days she’s making us laugh as batty nurse-turned-receptionist Beverly on ‘The Mindy Project,” and just like the rest of us, she’s obsessed with Mindy Kaling.

Grant expressed just how much she loves Mindy with this adorable story she told HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski on Thursday:

[Mindy] is gracious and lovely and kind, and always supportive and affectionate. A lot of times I’ll be sitting in my makeup trailer and she comes by and gives me a little few fingers [on my shoulder to say hello], which is so thrilling to me. In fact, one day — I’m sort of embarrassed to tell you this story — but I actually kissed her hand one day. I went home and said, ‘Well, Michael’ — that’s my husband — I said, ‘I kissed her hand today. This is the end.’ … She reached over to kind of touch me a little bit and I just went [smooch], and I thought, ‘I just kissed her hand!’ But so what? I’m a fangirl, I’m a geek for Mindy, what can I tell you?

Watch Grant gush about Kaling in the video above, and catch the full HuffPost Live conversation here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

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Oct 30

Man Indicted For Allegedly Impersonating Winklevoss Twins

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A San Francisco man allegedly infiltrated the rarified world of Wall Street banking by impersonating a pair of famous tech entrepreneurs, according to an indictment announced in Manhattan’s district court this week.

Arun Ganguly, 37, allegedly sent investors hundreds of emails in which he pretended to be Travis and Cameron Winklevoss, the twin brothers and Olympic rowers whose famous feud with Mark Zuckerberg over ownership of Facebook was depicted in the film “The Social Network.”

Ganguly also impersonated the twins’ father, Howard Winklevoss, and other tech heavyweights, according to the indictment.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement that “the masquerade has come to an end.”

“The lengths to which the defendant is alleged to have gone to represent himself as a well-connected power player are truly astounding,” he said.

Ganguly wasn’t just curious about what life is like for the 1 percent. He adopted the phony personas to make money, according to the indictment.

The alleged deceptions began in 2012, after Ganguly’s contract as a consultant to a New York investment firm expired. In an attempt to convince the firm to rehire him, Ganguly at first allegedly claimed to be close friends with the Winklevoss brothers and with Divya Narenda, another Harvard graduate associated with the founding of Facebook. He told the managing director of the firm, identified by Reuters as Carl Kleidman, then of Vision Capital, that he could get the brothers to invest millions in Kleidman’s private equity fund.

Eventually he began sending emails and signing documents as the Winklevoss twins themselves, according to the indictment. The firm paid him more than $25,000 in fees.

Ganguly has pleaded not guilty to 52 counts of identify theft, among other charges. His lawyer, Vinoo Varghese, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tyler Meade, a lawyer representing Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, told HuffPost that the twins first discovered evidence of a scam six months ago. “They immediately brought in an investigative team, turned over their findings to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and have worked closely with them ever since,” he said.

In “The Social Network,” actor Armie Hammer received acclaim for his portrayal of both Winklevoss brothers. He may not have been the last to attempt the feat.

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