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Archives
A Sense About Science
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, January 29, 2009.
Whish through your local pharmacy or health food store, and you'll find stacks of drinks, herbal supplements and cosmetics promising to detoxify and give you More Energy.
But do these mysterious liquids, capsules and foaming scrubs really work? A multi-million dollar industry has sprung up around consumer demand for these purging and renewing productions, but physicians will tell you that the word "detox" has no meaning outside the clinical treatment of drug addiction or poisoning. Scientific terms get misappropriated by companies, consumers, the media and even scientists. How do we make sure the information we get is accurate?
Ellen Raphael is the director of Sense About Science, a London-based charitable trust promoting the accurate representation of science and scientific evidence, and she joins us from London to tell us about the organization.
(Photo by pfala via Flickr/CC)
Hospital Charity Care: Is it Meeting the Need?
By Elaine Grant on Wednesday, January 28, 2009.Rising health care costs are saddling more and more people with medical debt. In December, LRG Healthcare, which owns Lakes Region General Hospital and Franklin Hospital, took the unusual step of loosening its eligibility requirements to allow more patients to receive financial assistance. But most New Hampshire residents still have a tough time getting much financial aid at the state’s hospitals.
NHPR’s health reporter Elaine Grant has more.
Celebrating Yoga Day
By Sean Hurley on Tuesday, January 27, 2009.
While gym memberships are down, yoga classes are picking up in the sinking economy. Last weekend, instructors and studios around the country offered free yoga as part of the practice of karma yoga, or giving service to others. Concord area studios joined together to invite devotees and newbies to practice and to donate to a worthy cause.
Producer Sean Hurley joined Virginia and about 35 others at the New Hampshire Audubon Society in Concord for Yoga Day USA.
More photos of Yoga Day on Flickr
(Photo by Sean Hurley)
Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas
By Laura Knoy on Tuesday, January 27, 2009.Nick Toumpas heads the Granite State’s largest agency - and he’s also faced the greatest budget cuts so far, from a proposed cancer prevention program to Medicare and Medicaid dollars. And there's more trouble ahead for the department as state finances diminish and more budget cuts loom. We’ll talk with Commissioner Toumpas about how he hopes to steer his department through tough economic times.
Guest
- Nick Toumpas, commissioner of Health and Human Services
Comfortably Numb with Lidocaine
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, January 26, 2009.
Blinding lights and trays of sterilized metal instruments, the lingering scent of mouthwash: just tip back and open wide. Most of us rank visiting the dentist somewhere near the top of our “least favorite activities” list.
Drugs in the Drinking Water
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, January 26, 2009.
The U.S. has one of the safest drinking water supplies in the world, so most of us don’t think twice before turning on the tap. But recent technological advances have enabled scientists to take a closer look at that water. And they’re finding traces of pharmaceuticals in it - common drugs like Ibuprofrin and birth control pills. It turns out we’re drinking tiny doses every time we fill up at the tap.
Here's What's Awesome: Yarnbombing, Songsmith Goes Classic Rock
By Brady Carlson on Sunday, January 25, 2009.This is a momentous edition of Here's What's Awesome - not simply because it's the first edition under a new president, not simply because it's the first post-Andrew edition, but because this week's awesome links are reaching a higher level of awesome than even I knew possible! And that's why sharing them with you is going to be awesome too.
A mitten pattern on the underground wall
Seacoast Mental Health Center
By Deborah Schachter on Saturday, January 24, 2009.Among its many services and partnerships, the Seacoast Mental Health Center works with several organizations to run the Adolescent Substance Abuse program. Charles Rosa helps facilitate the program by sharing his personal experience of loss.
All Aboard the Molar Express
By Chris Jensen on Thursday, January 22, 2009.In many rural areas, such as the North Country, finding and affording dental can be a serious health challenge.
But the North Country Health Consortium has a partial answer.
It called the Molar Express and it takes the dentist to the patients.
NHPR Correspondent Chris Jensen has the story.
Here's What's Awesome: Useless Superpowers, Useful Seeing Machine
By Brady Carlson on Sunday, January 18, 2009.
In weather this cold, lesser columns might freeze up, unable to withstand the harsh climate. But we're lucky - Here's What's Awesome is powered by awesome links, and as such is comfort-rated even in extreme temperatures.
Does "super blogging" fit?
