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	<title>IdeasCategory: Medicine &#124; Ideas &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>IdeasCategory: Medicine &#124; Ideas &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: Stop Critiquing the DSM 5</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/21/viewpoint-stop-critiquing-the-dsm-5/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/21/viewpoint-stop-critiquing-the-dsm-5/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 10:35:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Arthur Caplan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[APA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DSM 5]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=32647</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The newly revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association—DSM 5—has just been released at the Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco.  Not since the critics uniformly declared Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill ‘the worst movie ever made’ long before it actually was shown in a theater has something not yet put out in public gotten such full-throated critical panning. Consider some of the current headlines: “DSM 5: A Manual Run Amok&#8221; and my personal favorite, “Psychiatry&#8217;s New Diagnostic Manual: &#8220;Don&#8217;t Buy It. Don&#8217;t Use It. Don&#8217;t Teach It.&#8220; It does not end there. There are also a flood of new books critical of the DSM 5, such as Gary Greenberg’s The Book of Woe: The Making of the DSM-5 and the Unmaking of Psychiatry; Saving Normal: An Insider&#8217;s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis by Allen Frances; and Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield’s All We Have to Fear: Psychiatry&#8217;s Transformation of Natural Anxieties into Mental Disorders, just to name a few. (MORE: Mental Health Researchers Reject Psychiatry&#8217;s New Diagnostic Bible) The critics are going way too far. The DSM is often described as &#8220;the bible of the mental health field&#8221;—an unfortunate misnomer that leaves it open to attack. It should really be called &#8220;The best we know so far about mental disorders&#8221; or perhaps &#8220;Our best effort to properly classify complicated human behavior.&#8221; But a bigger problem is that the editors don&#8217;t know how to defend against the attacks. They keep saying that they are attentive to critics, that the process has been transparent and that they have posted draft versions online. But noting that anyone and everyone could comment on the drafts of DSM 5—and that more than 10,000 comments were received—makes the book sound more like a popularity contest than a scientific endeavor. Perhaps out of fear that the DSM 5 will not be seen as objective, the editors have stumbled in their defense of their work. But that doesn&#8217;t mean that a rationale doesn&#8217;t exist for what they have done. The most common criticism is that the book<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=32647&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Psychology</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/psychology/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/dsm.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Psychiatric medications</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor</media:title>
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		<title>Angelina&#8217;s Mastectomy: Altered Bodies Are Already the Norm</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/15/angelinas-surgery-altered-body-parts-are-already-the-norm/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/15/angelinas-surgery-altered-body-parts-are-already-the-norm/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 20:23:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erika Christakis</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts & Entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fashion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pop Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[angelina]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Angelina Jolie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[breast reconstruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mastectomy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oscar Pistorius]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=32487</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Angelina Jolie’s disclosure of her recent preventive double mastectomy and breast reconstruction was rightly hailed as a sensible public health message to women “living under the shadow of cancer.” But the gesture may signal something else: a growing tolerance for altered bodies, and even a new standard in which beauty and disfigurement are no longer mutually exclusive. (MORE: Angelina Jolie and the Tricky Calculus of Cancer Testing) In her article, Jolie described post-operative drain tubes, tissue expanders and nipple preservation and admitted to feeling, “like a scene out of a science-fiction film.” But it’s not science fiction at all. Millions of Americans, including scores of celebrities, have undergone similarly invasive surgeries and are living successfully with all kinds of artificial and altered body parts, eroding the distinction between the real and unreal. Some are reconstructions, like the groundbreaking artificial windpipe recently created for a two year-old girl from a mix of plastic fibers and her own stem cells. Others, such as breast augmentation, are more strictly cosmetic. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimates that more than 300,000 breast augmentations were done in 2011 alone, a 45 percent increase since 2001 and the most common form of cosmetic surgery in the United States. Combined with breast lifts (100,000 per year) and reconstructions like Jolie’s (another 100,000), that’s a lot of surgically transformed breasts. This altered reality has become the ‘new normal’ to such an extent that casting directors now despair of finding actresses who look natural enough for period films. (MORE: Looking Good on Facebook: Social Media Leads to Spikes in Plastic Surgery Requests) It&#8217;s hard to remember that not long ago there was such deep aversion to body tampering that even tatoos and piercings were considered mutilations reserved for people on the margins of society, such as pirates and prostitutes. An infamous &#8220;Mad Men&#8221; episode winked at that bygone era when an ad executive was fired because he had lost a foot to a rogue lawnmower. Fortunately, we are more enlightened these days and amputations no longer have the stigma<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=32487&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Pop Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/arts-entertainment/pop-culture/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtr2wcba.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt pose for photographers as they arrive at the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 15, 2012.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">ruthdaviskonigsberg</media:title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: The Breast-Feeding Police Are Wrong About Formula</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/13/viewpoint-the-breastfeeding-police-are-wrong-about-formula/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/13/viewpoint-the-breastfeeding-police-are-wrong-about-formula/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 18:50:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Tuteur, M.D.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[breastfeeding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[formula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[supplement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=32396</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Pediatric researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have just discovered something that anthropologists (and moms around the world) have known for years. You do not have to go all or nothing on breast-feeding in the very beginning in order to breast-feed successfully long term. (MORE: How Formula Could Increase Breast-Feeding Rates) In fact, a new paper in the journal Pediatrics has found that early limited formula feeding actually increases the rate of long-term exclusive breast-feeding. The difference was quite dramatic. A total of 79% of 3-month-old infants who received early supplementation were being breast-fed exclusively, while only 42% of babies who received no supplements were still being exclusively breast-fed at 3 months old. The study involved only a small number of infants, all of whom were losing weight at a rapid rate as newborns, but the findings may have implications for all breast-feeding mothers. Breast-feeding activists have long argued that supplementation is detrimental to breast-feeding. It is a position that has been codified in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (“Give infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated&#8221;) and programs like New York City’s Latch on NYC, which goes so far as to lock up formula as if it were a dangerous drug. (MORE: Breast-Feeding Wars: Why Locking Up Baby Formula Is a Bad Idea) What&#8217;s interesting to note is the fact that many other cultures — some with much higher breast-feeding rates than ours — infants are given other liquids until a mother&#8217;s milk comes in. According to a review of 25 previously published studies of tens of thousands of mother-infants pairs in such countries as India, China, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, a significant portion of women (from 25% to 50%) delayed breast-feeding for an average of 66 hours. Many of these infants received supplemental fluids, some of which are even imputed to have ritual significance. One of the greatest barriers to breast-feeding in this country is the unreasonable expectations set by breast-feeding advocates. They are loathe to admit that many babies may benefit from<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=32396&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Public Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/public-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/109029469.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Women breastfeed their babies at the Hir</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor</media:title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: Plan B Is Very Misunderstood</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/03/viewpoint-plan-b-is-very-misunderstood/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/03/viewpoint-plan-b-is-very-misunderstood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 09:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cecile Richards</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cecile Richards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emergency contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how does plan b work]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plan B]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[planned parenthood]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=32015</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Emergency contraception — which is just one more form of birth control — is in the headlines this week, with the Obama Administration’s decision to expand access by making it available over the counter, while at the same time still requiring that you must be 15 or older to buy it. This is an important moment for women’s health, and it’s a good time to step back and get clarity about what emergency contraception actually is and why it matters so much. (MORE: Critics and Supporters React to Decision to Expand OTC Access to Plan B) Emergency contraception is not “the abortion pill.” Like other forms of birth control, it prevents pregnancy from happening in the first place. Specifically, emergency contraception postpones ovulation, so that sperm does not come into contact with an egg. Pregnancy does not occur immediately after sex. It can take up to six days for an egg and a sperm to meet after having sex — a critical window of time during which pregnancy can still be prevented. One in 10 women of reproductive age has used emergency contraception. Women use it in a variety of circumstances, including if their partner’s condom breaks, if they missed or forgot to take their regular birth control, or if they are sexually assaulted. (MORE: New Availability of Plan B Makes Philadelphia Abortion Doc an Anachronism) When a woman needs emergency contraception, time is critical. Until now, emergency contraception has been kept behind pharmacy counters because of age restrictions, which creates barriers for women of all ages because pharmacy counters usually aren’t open as long as the rest of the drugstore, lines are longer, and interactions with staff can be more complicated. Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it approved plans to move emergency contraception out from behind the pharmacy counter and make it available to people ages 15 and older, with valid identification. This is an important step forward, and it will help more women of all ages prevent unintended pregnancy. But we need to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=32015&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Sex</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/life-style/sex/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/165732620.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Plan B</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor</media:title>
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		<title>New Availability of Plan B Makes Philadelphia Abortion Doc an Anachronism</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/01/viewpoint-philadelphia-abortion-doc-kermit-gosnell-is-an-anachronism/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/01/viewpoint-philadelphia-abortion-doc-kermit-gosnell-is-an-anachronism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 09:45:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Arthur Caplan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[American Cities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kermit Gosnell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[late-term abotion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philadelphia Abortion Doctor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=31919</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kermit Gosnell — the doctor who is on trial for killing a patient, four newborn babies, and performing numerous illegal abortions in a cesspool of a clinic in West Philadelphia—is many things.  He is inept, according to many who work for him. He did monstrous things — according to eyewitnesses, he severed the spinal cords of liveborn babies because he did not know what he was doing in trying to end late-term pregnancies. He is a doctor indifferent to patient welfare as, according to witness after witness, he had inadequately trained staff use inappropriate assemblyline care for those who came to see him. And Kermit Gosnell is a pawn in the nation’s ongoing moral war over elective abortion.  Those who oppose abortion see in him all that is wrong with allowing the choice to end pregnancy.  Those who defend the right to choice see in him all that is wrong when efforts to restrict access to abortion and push the procedure out of the medical mainstream produce filthy third-world level facilities staffed by hacks and charlatans. As both pro-choice and pro-life forces attempt to put Kermit Gosnell to use to argue the moral rectitude of their position, and the jury in his trial continues to deliberate, there is a danger that we will lose sight of what Kermit Gosnell really is — an anachronism. (MORE: Abortion Doctor&#8217;s Murder Trial Sparks Media Debate) Gosnell should certainly go to jail — and in all likelihood, he will. The hardened veteran police who raided his clinic were overwhelmed with emotion and anger at what they found there. But technology is making it less and less likely that the public face of abortion in the future will bear any resemblance to Kermit Gosnell and his backroom butchershop. Gosnell was a stop of last resort for woman late in their pregnancies. They sought an abortion past the point of fetal viability — a choice illegal in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. For these women, Gosnell and his ilk are their only option. But regardless<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=31919&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Society</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/life-style/society/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ap962674139442.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Kermit Gosnell</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor</media:title>
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		<title>Do Human Genes Belong to People or Corporations?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/15/do-human-genes-belong-to-people-or-corporations/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/15/do-human-genes-belong-to-people-or-corporations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Cohen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Case Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BRCA1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BRCA2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Myriad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[patent]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=31271</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Should corporations be able to patent human genes — parts of the human body that reside in all of us? The Supreme Court is considering that question today, and while it sounds very much hypothetical, it has very real and serious implications. Consider the case of 10-year-old Abigail, who had long QT syndrome, a serious heart disease. There is a genetic test that can detect the disease, but the long QT genes were patented, and for two years the only lab that could legally perform the test was not testing. During those two years, Abigail died. The idea that corporations can patent genes is disturbing and in some cases deadly — but it is the law, at least for now. Today&#8217;s case could produce a landmark ruling that either allows corporations to go further to lock up genes with exclusive patents, or unshackles human genes, allowing doctors and researcher to work more freely in combating deadly diseases. (MORE: Study Identifies Four Genetic Markers for Childhood Obesity) People’s genes can say a great deal about their health. There are genes that reveal an increased likelihood of getting cancer, heart disease or Alzheimer’s. Today’s case focuses on two genes that have genetic mutations that can indicate a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer. When doctors know that a woman carries these genes — BRCA1 and BRCA2 — they can provide appropriate and often life-saving treatments. Unfortunately for carriers of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene, a Salt Lake City–based company called Myriad Genetics asserts that it has a patent over “isolated” forms of these two genes. That means that Myriad has exclusive control over testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2. That is a too much power to put in one company — and the stakes are high. Medical experts have told the court that Myriad’s patents have led to people being misdiagnosed. One study found that models used by Myriad significantly underestimate the presence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations among Asian-American women. (MORE: Viewpoint: We Need to Rethink Rehab) Gene patents can also<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=31271&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Do Men Really Have a Biological Clock?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/11/do-men-really-have-a-biological-clock/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/11/do-men-really-have-a-biological-clock/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Tuteur, M.D.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[autism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biological clock]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[paternal age]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[schizophrenia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=22070</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The news that autism and schizophrenia may be related to paternal age has brought mixed feeling to the legions of women who have long been warned about the dangers of trying to have children too late. Finally, it seems that the imperative to reproduce sooner rather than later will fall on prospective fathers as well as mothers. But calling this new awareness of the health risks of paternal age a &#8216;biological clock&#8217; is somewhat misleading as the issues men and women face have profoundly different implications (for more, read Jeffrey Kluger&#8217;s story in the new issue of TIME, available to subscribers here). The term originally had nothing to do with fertility. In the medical literature, it referred to the mysterious mechanism behind recurrent biological changes—daily shifts in body temperature, for example—and applied to men, women and amoebas alike. But during the 1970s, as women began flooding the work force, it began to be used—often by men—as the temporal waning of a woman&#8217;s ability to conceive, the force that ends ovulation and brings on menopause.  &#8221;The clock is ticking for the career woman,&#8221; warned Richard Cohen in the Washington Post in 1978. (MORE: Can You Afford to Start Parenting at Middle Age?) Today the biological clock refers to the drop off in female fertility after the age of 35, a decline that can begin even earlier. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), “age is a significant factor influencing women’s ability to conceive.” A classic study of artificial insemination showed that after 12 cycles, 74% of women younger than 31 became pregnant, compared to 54% of women more than 35 years old. Moreover, when older women do get pregnant, the chance of having a miscarriage rises dramatically. Although a woman&#8217;s risk of bearing a child with a disorder like Trisomy 21 (Down&#8217;s Syndrome) also rises after the age of 35, the biological clock really refers to whether she can conceive at all. (The fact that the cut-off point varies from woman to woman only brings more uncertainty and anxiety.) For men,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=22070&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Viewpoint: ADHD Isn&#8217;t A Metaphor</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/09/viewpoint-adhd-isnt-a-metaphor/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/09/viewpoint-adhd-isnt-a-metaphor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:45:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Judith Warner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medical Insider]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ADHD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CDC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicated Child]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=30570</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Let’s say that rates of ADHD diagnoses among kids in America are continually rising. Let’s say that stimulant medication use — both prescribed by doctors, and as the result of illegal trade with friends —  is on the rise, too. What do we make of that information? What do we do with it? In particular, how do we use it to improve children’s and teenagers’ lives? The answers speak volumes about where we are as a society and where we ought to be headed. The default response, every time we get news about any sort of uptick in the diagnosis and treatment of children’s mental disorders, is to issue condemnations of bad parents, bad doctors, bad teachers, and bad schools. (Not to mention big bad pharma, of course, which, it seems, will never rise from the bed of nails it has built for itself  over the years.) A more thoughtful response would be to ask what the rise means. Are more children with the disorder who previously went unnoticed — girls, African Americans, Latinos, notably — now being identified and counted? We know that’s true, and it accounts for some of the rise. Does the increased social acceptability of the ADHD diagnosis mean that it’s the “label” doctors are most likely to stick on kids who, in addition to distractibility, have a whole host of more scary-sounding problems, in the hope of getting reluctant parents to sign on for some sort of treatment? Does the decreased stigma surrounding ADHD (the commonly-heard, “everyone has it, so it’s no big deal” view) mean that parents who’ve been told their kids have “attention issues” in addition to, say, a learning disability or a mood disorder, will cling to — and report to survey-wielding researchers — just the banal-sounding ADHD label? (MORE: The Myth of the Overmedicated American Teen) And, much more troublingly, are children who don’t have the disorder now being diagnosed and treated for it? And, if so, where is this happening, how is it happening, and why? The raw, unanalyzed, not-yet-peer-reviewed numbers that the New York Times, bizarrely, led<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=30570&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Viewpoint: We Need to Rethink Rehab</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/03/we-need-to-rethink-rehab/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/03/we-need-to-rethink-rehab/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:45:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Sheff</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[addiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American Society of Addiction Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beautiful Boy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evidence-based treatment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nic Sheff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rehab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rehab programs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twelve-step]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=30243</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When my son Nic became addicted to methamphetamine and other drugs, I was panicked, overwhelmed and desperate to save his life but had no idea what to do. I’d heard about rehab, where you send people with drug problems, but I soon learned that there’s no standard definition of it; instead it’s a generic word for a wide variety of treatments, including some that are outrageous. Past-life therapy? Exorcism? Tough-love programs in which patients are made to scrub bathroom tiles with a toothbrush or cut grass with scissors? Even in more-typical rehabilitation programs, patients are not seen by licensed practitioners — no doctors or psychologists — only self-anointed “experts” with no training or credentials, unless you count their own recoveries from addiction to heroin, alcohol or other drugs. (MORE: Q&#38;A with Anne Fletcher: What Really Goes On in Drug Rehab) I chose a rehab center for Nic that was recommended by a friend who had sent her son there. The program lasted 28 days, after which he relapsed. Over the next six years, he was admitted to six residential treatment programs and four outpatient programs. He would do better for a while, but then relapse. Each relapse was crushing. I thought he might die. Every year in the U.S., 120,000 people die of addiction. That&#8217;s 350 a day. I&#8217;ve already written about my experience with Nic, but for my new book, Clean, I wanted to understand why so many suffer and die. So I undertook an investigation of the treatment system that so often fails. I learned that no one actually knows how often treatment works, but an oft-quoted number of those who abstain from using for a year after rehab is 30%. Even that figure is probably high. “The therapeutic community claims a 30% success rate, but they only count people who complete the program,” according to Joseph A. Califano Jr., founder of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and a former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. “Seventy to eighty percent drop out in three to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=30243&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Psychology</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/psychology/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pills.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Prescription pills</media:title>
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		<title>Does &#8220;Stress&#8221; Hide Deeper Social Problems?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/13/does-stress-hide-deeper-social-problems/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/13/does-stress-hide-deeper-social-problems/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dana Becker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social problems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the stress concept]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[walter cannon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=29561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Americans have been worrying about the negative health impact of our fast pace of life since the Industrial Revolution, but in the last few decades, the concept of &#8220;stress&#8221; has spread to almost every condition or situation imaginable — from obesity to terrorism to chipped nail polish. Stress is now a protean concept whose shape-shifting properties give it tremendous versatility as a vehicle for explaining human dilemmas. But the chameleon-like nature of the concept makes it possible to obscure or avoid addressing social problems by individualizing them. When Walter Cannon, Harvard physiologist and pioneer of stress research, first used the term &#8220;stress&#8221; in the 1920s, he was referring to what he called the “disturbing conditions” to which people react physiologically with a “fight or flight” response (adrenalin release; speeded-up heartbeat; elevated blood sugar). Today when we say we’re “stressed out,” what we’re typically referring to is a psychological or emotional state, and we worry that stress will compromise our immune system functioning, increasing our vulnerability to disease. (MORE: The Most Stressed Out Generation? Young Adults) Stress is now an inside job:  it’s feeling “stressed” that causes our problems, not the situations and conditions that make us feel “stressed out” in the first place. Instead of thinking about stress as something outside us, it&#8217;s now become integral to the self. So the problem of stress has become our own personal predicament to solve, and there’s no dearth of advice about how to do this:  eat more kale, get some therapy, take a yoga class. The message is:  change yourself, change your lifestyle, or learn to adapt to the stress. Consider what it means to accept this way of thinking about stress. If women believe that it’s our job to manage the stress of combining paid employment and family work, we’re more likely to “de-stress” by putting more bath oil in the bath and less likely to work toward changing family-unfriendly workplace policies or to agitate for universal daycare. If we view people who live below the poverty line the way Chief of Cardiology<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=29561&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Society</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/life-style/society/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/stress1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>Can We Drink Soda Responsibly?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/02/05/can-we-drink-soda-responsibly/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/02/05/can-we-drink-soda-responsibly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:35:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anya Sacharow</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American Beverage Association]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chinotto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coca-cola]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Bloomberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soda ban]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=28067</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The soda controversy continues to bubble up, with the American Beverage Association legally contesting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg&#8217;s ban on sales of super-sized high-sugar drinks. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola launched a recent two-minute commercial portraying itself as part of the solution to America&#8217;s obesity problem. Food writers, doctors and bloggers rolled their eyes. &#8220;Oh, please,&#8221; wrote celebrated nutritionist and author Marion Nestle. (MORE: Why Americans Need Bloomberg&#8217;s Big Gulp Ban) There really isn&#8217;t anything good to say about drinking soda. A 42-ounce super-size drink with 477 calories and 123 grams of sugar, or about 30 teaspoons, is a short cut to heart disease, obesity and diabetes. One in three Americans today is obese, compared to one in five in 1990. There’s no single cause for this increase, but one of them is almost certainly our penchant for quenching our thirst with SSBs (sugar-sweetened beverages.) Other nations drink soda more responsibly. Japan drinks 34 liters per capita, compared to 165 liters per capita in the United States, according to market research firm Euromonitor. Examples of moderation abound: Russia (30 liters per capita), South Korea (27 liters per capita) and Italy (49 liters per capita). In the United States, soda is our most consumed beverage; we drink almost twice as much as we do bottled water. (MORE: Have We Become Too Obsessed with Energy?) Soda overseas isn&#8217;t necessarily more healthy. It&#8217;s in the way that they drink it. I recently discovered the Italian soda called chinotto (San Pellegrino and Lurisa brands are available in the U.S.) As with most things food and drink, the Italians do soda better. Their bittersweet cola, made from the citrus chinotto fruit and other herbal flavors, is the Italian version of Coke. It has 23 grams of sugar in a 6.75 fluid-ounce bottle, a standard serving size. Italians drink it as an aperitif or a mid-afternoon treat in limited quantities, which is how Americans used to consume it at soda fountains. They don&#8217;t gulp it like water at every meal. The problem is not soda, the problem is us. Yes, the industry targeted children<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=28067&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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			<media:title type="html">Soda</media:title>
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		<title>Will States Lead the Way to Legalizing Marijuana Nationwide?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/28/will-states-lead-the-way-to-legalizing-marijuana-nationwide/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/28/will-states-lead-the-way-to-legalizing-marijuana-nationwide/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:45:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Cohen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Case Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DEA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[federal crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[legalizing pot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medical marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pot]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=27792</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When citizens of Colorado and Washington voted in November to legalize marijuana, they created a conflict, because pot remains illegal under federal law and anyone who lights up is committing a federal crime and could theoretically still be arrested for it. After Colorado passed its referendum, Governor John Hickenlooper said the implementation of the law in his state would be a “complicated process” and warned residents not to “break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.” While it seems unlikely that the federal government will make much of an effort to arrest pot users in Colorado or Washington — President Obama has said he has &#8220;bigger fish to fry&#8221; — the tension between federal and state laws on marijuana remains. Just last week, an appeals court rejected a suit that sought to lower the drug classification of medical marijuana under federal drug laws. That court ruling threw the issue back to Congress and the Drug Enforcement Agency, which should start a serious reconsideration of national policy toward marijuana. The federal government should start by reclassifying medical marijuana, legalizing it outright or at least dialing down the penalties. And it should begin to have the sort of serious discussion about legalizing recreational marijuana use that is now occurring in the states. (MORE: U.S. Marjuana Laws Ricochet Through Latin America) The campaign to legalize marijuana has long been viewed as a fringe cause backed by young people and old hippies. That perception has lingered even though public-opinion polls have shown that a growing percentage of the public favors legalization — as much as 68% in one recent poll. In the past two decades, supporters of marijuana have focused on legalizing medical use, and they have had impressive success. Today, 18 states and the District of Columbia have made medical use legal, and at least seven more states are considering it. Meanwhile, the DEA, under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug — a classification for drugs that have no accepted medical use. Americans for Safe Access,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=27792&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Medicine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/id-marijuana-0128.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Marijuana plants are displayed for sale at Canna Pi medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle, Nov. 27, 2012.</media:title>
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		<title>What&#8217;s Your Wheat Problem?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/23/whats-your-wheat-problem/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/23/whats-your-wheat-problem/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anya Sacharow</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gluten-free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wheat belly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wheat Belly Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[William Davis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=27561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Americans love food demons, and our newest one is wheat. The top-selling diet book of the moment is Wheat Belly, in which a Wisconsin-based cardiologist blames the humble grain for everything from dandruff to dementia. The author, Dr. William Davis, advises to never let the stuff cross your mouth; the inclusion of healthy whole grains at the top of the USDA&#8217;s food pyramid is “among the biggest health blunders ever made in the history of nutritional advice,” he writes. He also compares wheat to Muammar Gaddafi and heroin. Wheat Belly and its requisite upsell Wheat Belly Cookbook have sold some 300,000 copies. (MORE: Double Standard: Women Must Work Harder to Lose Weight) Americans have been down on carbs since the Atkins diet craze over a decade ago. More recently, there&#8217;s been a rise in animosity toward gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Some people with a severe wheat allergy or celiac disease are genuinely gluten-intolerant, but there have been questions as to whether the spike in sales of gluten-free food is more a fad than a reflection of a genuine health concern. Granted, wheat shows up in all sorts of places it shouldn’t, through additives such as malt, modified food starch and dextrin. But as with almost every other kind of food category, there is good wheat and bad wheat. A slice of 100% whole wheat or other whole-grain bread contains necessary fiber, B vitamins and protein. On the other hand, a pretzel is mostly refined flour and salt with little nutritional value. We don’t all need a gluten intolerance to understand this. (MORE: What You Need to Know About Sugar) According to Davis’ patients, following the wheat-belly diet has helped them lose weight, cure Type 2 diabetes and feel better overall. Great! However, eliminating any huge category of food from one’s diet, whether it’s sugar, meat or alcohol, will usually get similar results. But it’s not a sustainable way of eating, and most people gain back the weight. Successful diets follow the same old advice: Eat less overall and move more.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=27561&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Food</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/life-style/food/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/129940822-breadrubiks.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">129940822.BreadRubiks</media:title>
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		<title>Flu Outbreak: Why Paid Sick Days Matter</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/22/flu-outbreak-why-paid-sick-days-matter/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/22/flu-outbreak-why-paid-sick-days-matter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:50:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shamus Khan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business & Tech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[paid sick leave]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presenteeism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sick days]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=27607</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We are in the midst of one of the worst flu seasons in recent memory. By the end of it, about 60 million Americans are likely to contact influenza, over 200,000 will probably to be hospitalized and tens of thousands will have died. While we typically look to doctors and medicines in a health crisis, we should recognize that guaranteeing paid sick days to workers could do as much, if not more, to help moderate the impact of influenza and other contagious diseases. (VIDEO: TIME Explains: The Flu and How it Spreads) Every other industrialized nation in the world guarantees this right, but very few places in the U.S. do; they include a handful of cities like San Francisco, Milwaukee, Washington and Seattle — and one lone state: Connecticut. What that means is if you live anywhere else in the nation, you can be fired for missing work because of an illness or for caring for a sick family member. About 40% of workers in the U.S. do not get paid sick days — the Department of Labor classifies it as a &#8220;benefit,&#8221; not a right protected by law. This is not just inhumane but a matter of public health. The jobs with the most contact with the public are the least likely to provide sick days, such as the hospitality and food-service industries. For example, when you go to purchase a cup of coffee or eat a restaurant, know that almost all (76%) of the people serving you are likely to show up to work sick, because not doing so means not getting paid and could mean getting fired. Scholars have a name for this — presenteeism: being at work when you otherwise should not be for fear of losing your job or being viewed by your boss as lazy or unreliable. This is a real problem; over two-thirds of American workers report having gone to work even though they knew they had an infectious disease and as a result, about one-third of us have reported getting the flu from a colleague. (MORE: Working on<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=27607&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Public Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/public-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/id-flu-0121-130121.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: Luis Puentes, Director of Emergency Preparedness at Lehigh Valley Health Network&#039;s main hospital campus, applies a decal to a mobile tent set up to handle the recent influx of flu cases in Allentown, Pa., Jan. 11, 2013.</media:title>
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		<title>Flu Prevention: Why Are Adults Still Sneezing into Their Hands?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/15/flu-prevention-why-are-adults-still-sneezing-into-their-hands/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/15/flu-prevention-why-are-adults-still-sneezing-into-their-hands/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:45:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erika Christakis</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life & Style]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elbow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu vaccine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kathleen Sebelius]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sneeze into elbow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sneezing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=27414</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nothing quite gets under the skin like a young child pointing out the negative impact of your incandescent lightbulbs and idling car, but in the midst of a virulent flu season and the worst whooping-cough outbreak in 60 years, it’s worth listening to the righteous army of lilliputian surgeon generals. These tiny troopers are the advance guard against phlegm; they know how to stop germs in their tracks. Hand-sanitizer breaks are routine in elementary schools, and when there isn’t time to grab a Kleenex, children use a strategically placed elbow across the mouth instead.  (MORE: Flu Cases Raise Public-Health Concerns) Walk into any pre-K or elementary classroom in the U.S. and you’ll be surprised to see that kids don’t cough or sneeze into their hands anymore. It’s simply not done, and it’s easy to see why. Coughing or sneezing directly into a hand that subsequently touches food, money or other people is clearly a recipe for contagion. The real wonder is that people failed for so many years to spot this simple truth. A typical sneeze can travel 100 m.p.h. and spew countless germs into the air. One study found that viruses can survive much longer on objects like dollar bills than originally thought, particularly when found in high concentrations like those from a single sneeze. The nation’s health experts have been recommending for years that people not sneeze or cough into their hands but cover their mouth or nose with a tissue instead (which they are advised to quickly dispose of and follow with 20 seconds of vigorous hand washing). Four years ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called out a reporter during a briefing to rebuke him for improper sneezing etiquette, demonstrating the proper technique with her elbow. Sesame Street has taught millions of children the hygienic way to sneeze and cough. So why haven&#8217;t American adults been getting with the program? Boston is the center of medical excellence, with more physicians per capita in Massachusetts than in any other state and some of the world’s finest medical schools. Yet with a flu epidemic under way, adults can still be<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=27414&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Public Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/public-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sneez.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">The Flu</media:title>
		</media:content>

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		<title>Viewpoint: Have We Become Too Obsessed with &#8220;Energy&#8221;?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/11/have-we-become-too-obsessed-with-energ/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/11/have-we-become-too-obsessed-with-energ/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:25:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lawrence J. Cohen and Anthony T. DeBenedet, M.D.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[caffeine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coffee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy drinks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FDA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=27325</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This past year, we became aware of the dangers of energy drinks. Amid allegations linking these popular beverages to various illnesses and even death, the Food and Drug Administration has launched an investigation. However, the ongoing probe hasn’t seemed to have dampened enthusiasm for energy drinks. In fact, consumption is skyrocketing—sales topped $8 billion in 2012 in the U.S. alone, a nearly 15 % increase from a year ago. What’s more, the success of energy drinks has inspired the launch of &#8220;energy&#8221; versions of popular snacks like popcorn, potato chips, jelly beans, and even sunflower seeds. We have become obsessed with the concept of &#8220;energy&#8221; and yet display a profound misunderstanding of what energy is. On a purely biological level, it&#8217;s molecules that help cells do the work they need to do—the carbohydrate, protein and fat we get from food that feeds our muscles and brain. By contrast, the active ingredient in &#8220;energy&#8221; drinks is not energy but a chemical stimulant: caffeine. (MORE: Are Energy Drinks Fatally Caffeinated?) Most energy drinks contain at least one and a half times the amount of caffeine in a single cup of coffee—and some contain more. Caffeine works by blocking adenosine, a molecule that helps us slow down. The end result is we produce more adrenaline, which speeds us up and enhances our performance—until we crash. Eventually, we develop a caffeine tolerance, so that consuming the same amount does nothing more than prevent withdrawal symptoms. Not surprisingly, manufacturers’ of energy drinks like to claim there is more to their bottles of oomph than just caffeine. But this really isn’t true.  With the exception of some weak evidence for guarana and glucose, there is no scientific proof to support claims that flashy ingredients—like taurine, ginseng, and various herbal extracts—enhance cognitive or physical performance. Only caffeine does. Why do we turn to stimulants? Some of us consume caffeine because we have used it for years and can’t tolerate withdrawal. We may look for an additional boost when we&#8217;re stressed out or sleep-deprived. Many consumers know that what they&#8217;re<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=27325&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Society</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/life-style/society/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/156446815energydrink.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Highly Caffeinated Drinks, Five Hour Energy And Monster Energy Cited In 13 Death Reports</media:title>
		</media:content>

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		<title>Has The Fight For Abortion Rights Been Lost?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/03/has-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-been-lost/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/03/has-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-been-lost/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:44:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kate Pickert</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[State & Local Governments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abortion rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prochoice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roe v. Wade]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=27095</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Cover Photograph by Jamie Chung for TIME In January 1973, the Supreme Court made access to abortion a federally protected right. As I write in this week’s TIME cover story, that seemingly decisive victory 40 years ago kicked off a war that the pro-choice movement has been losing ever since. In many parts of the country today, obtaining an abortion is more difficult than at any point since the 1970s. There are fewer doctors willing to perform the procedure and fewer abortion clinics open for business. Pro-choice activists have been outflanked by their prolife counterparts, who have successfully lobbied for state-based regulations that limit access. Scores of states now require women to undergo counseling, waiting periods or ultrasounds prior to obtaining abortions. Minors across the country must often get permission from their parents if they want to terminate pregnancies. And pro-life state legislators are passing laws that require clinics to comply with arcane requirements—such as a hallway having to be more than five feet wide— that make it difficult for them to stay open. (Viewpoint: Pro-life and Feminism Aren&#8217;t Mutually Exclusive) The pro-life cause has been winning the abortion war, in part, because it has pursued an organized and well-executed strategy. But public opinion is also increasingly on their side. Thanks to prenatal ultrasound and advanced neonatology, Americans now understand what a fetus looks like and that babies born as early as 24 weeks can now survive. Although three-quarters of Americans believe abortion should be legal in some or all cases, most support state laws regulating the procedure and fewer and fewer are identifying themselves as “pro-choice” in public opinion surveys. The prochoice establishment has also been hampered by a generational divide within the cause. Young abortion rights activists today complain that the leaders of feminist organizations, who were in their 20s and 30s when Roe was decided, aren’t eager to pass the torch to a new generation whose activism is more nimble and Internet-based. But the most pressing challenge for prochoice activists may simply be that abortion is legal. In<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=27095&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Health &amp; Science</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/1500_prochoice.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">1500_prochoice</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/1500_cover_0114.jpg?w=180" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">TIME Magazine, Jan. 14, 2013</media:title>
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		<title>What You Need to Know About Sugar</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/27/what-you-need-to-know-about-sugar/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/27/what-you-need-to-know-about-sugar/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Dec 2012 10:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Robert H. Lustig, M.D.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[glucose]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[is sugar toxic?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sucrose]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sugar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toxic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=26613</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In 2009, an hour and a half lecture about sugar and obesity that I gave to the public was posted to YouTube. Given its scientific content, I wasn&#8217;t even sure if my family members would watch it. Three million views later, the video is still going strong, and my theories about sugar&#8217;s toxic effects on the body are gaining traction. I still believe that one particular form of sugar—fructose—is toxic in high dose. Yet there is still a lot of confusion about this dietary bogeyman. Here are five myths about sugar and some important distinctions about how our body processes its different forms. (LIST: Top 10 Diet Discoveries of 2012) Myth 1. A carbohydrate is a carbohydrate; they all have the same calories. Half true. There are three molecules that make up all the various kinds of carbohydrate: glucose, galactose, and fructose. All three molecules have the same caloric density—4.1 kcal/gm — which is why people erroneously conclude that “a calorie is a calorie.” Glucose is what’s found in starch; it’s the energy of life; all cells in all organisms on the planet burn glucose to make energy. Galactose (the molecule exclusively found in milk sugar) is rapidly converted in the liver to glucose. Fructose (the molecule that makes sugar sweet) is also metabolized in the liver, but any excess is converted into liver fat. Chronic and excess alcohol or fructose exposure both cause fatty liver disease, which drives the pathologic process of insulin resistance, and causes the same chronic diseases — obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Myth 2. Fructose is turned into glucose in the body. Maybe. If you’re energy depleted (i.e. an elite athlete), fructose can be converted to glycogen (liver starch) as a storehouse for ready energy, which can then be fished out of your liver if your body needs glucose in the future (for more exercise or if you’re starving). But most of us aren&#8217;t energy depleted, so fructose gets turned into liver fat, driving insulin resistance. This is one reason why exercise can be an antidote<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=26613&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Public Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/public-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sugar.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Sugar</media:title>
		</media:content>

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		<title>The Myth of the Ritalin-Popping American Teen</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/07/the-myth-of-the-overmedicated-american-teen/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/07/the-myth-of-the-overmedicated-american-teen/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:56:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Judith Warner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Institute of Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overmedicated]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prescription drug abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prescription drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teenagers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=26223</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here’s a bit of news that may come as a surprise: the National Institute of Mental Health, analyzing survey data from more than 10,000 13- to 18-year-olds, has found that — contrary to popular belief — American teens are not being overmedicated for mental health disorders. They’re not entering psychiatrists’ offices with problems no greater than sub-Ivy League-level grades and walking out with enough scripts to fill a private pharmacy. And they’re not being “drugged” to deal with healthy sadness, normal levels of frustration, or typical teenaged anger. (MORE: Should We Stop Telling Our Kids That They&#8217;re Special?) The researchers, led by Kathleen Merikangas, senior investigator and chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Branch in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, reviewed data that focused specifically on teen medication use and mental health history that was gathered in 2004 by the National Comorbidity Study: Adolescent Supplement, a huge, nationally representative, face-to-face survey. Eager to investigate anecdotal and media reports of American teens taking meds for trivial, even trumped-up causes, they compared rates of psychotropic medication use to the prevalence of mental illness in their sample, using criteria from the diagnostic “bible,” the DSM-IV, to assess symptoms and their severity. They then looked specifically for medication overuse (i.e., the prescribing of meds to teens who don’t actually have mental disorders) and medication misuse (the prescribing of meds to treat disorders for which they’re not indicated). According to the results, some overmedication did exist — just under 2.5% of teens without a diagnosable disorder in the past year reported having received meds nonetheless — but the authors cautioned that these teens either had neurodevelopmental disorders, lingering signs of previously diagnosed mental disorders, or “subthreshold conditions” that didn’t rise to DSM-IV standards but nonetheless caused them “psychological distress or impairment.” Yet the general picture suggested much more under-medication than excessive use. An earlier analysis of the same survey data, which drew together in-depth diagnostic interviews of teens with parent interviews to ascertain what sorts of services they’d accessed for their kids’ care,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=26223&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Medicine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://ideas.time.com/category/health-science/medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeopinions.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/medicatedteens.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Image: Medicated teens</media:title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: Are Doctors to Blame for Prescription-Drug Abuse?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/26/viewpoint-prescription-drug-abuse-is-fueled-by-doctors/</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/26/viewpoint-prescription-drug-abuse-is-fueled-by-doctors/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:45:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zachary F. Meisel, M.D., and Jeanmarie Perrone, M.D.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health & Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opioids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oxycontin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pain medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prescription drug abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prescription drugs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ideas.time.com/?p=25418</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Prescription painkillers are creating a massive public-health crisis. Since 1990, deaths in the U.S. from unintentional drug overdoses have increased by over 500%. Most of this rise can be attributed to prescription painkillers, which now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined. Where are all these pills coming from? Not Mexico. Not all from those Florida &#8220;pill mills.&#8221; Many of them are coming from prescriptions generated by doctors like us who are seeking to help our patients with real pain. It’s true: conscientious and well-trained doctors are partly to blame for the rapidly rising death rate among Americans from prescription pills. The backstory goes like this: in the 1980s and &#8217;90s, the medical community recognized that patients in pain were often undertreated. Oligoanalgesia, the scientific term for undertreatment of pain, rightly concerned a lot of people. Studies showed that doctors didn’t do a good job asking about pain or treating it properly when they did identify it. Worse, there were documented disparities in pain treatment: affluent white patients were much more likely to get their pain addressed than poor or minority patients. (MORE: Lessons from Jon Bon Jovi&#8217;s Daughter&#8217;s Overdose) In response, there was a major effort to redress this oversight. Doctors were encouraged to think about patients&#8217; pain severity on a self-reported numerical score as a “fifth vital sign” (in the same league as blood pressure and body temperature). Next, medical students and trainees were instructed that patients could never become dependent on narcotics if prescribed for legitimate pain. (We both remember being taught this myth.) Last, opioid pain medications like oxycodone (the active ingredient in Percocet) and hydrocodone (the active ingredient in Vicodin and Lortabs) were framed as safer alternatives to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen, naproxen and Vioxx that could trigger peptic ulcers or cardiac conditions. Some of this push toward opioids was driven by the drug companies that made them. And some of it was driven by patient-advocacy groups (many with opaque ties to these drug companies) and medical societies seeking to boost treatment for patients<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=ideas.time.com&#038;blog=27622548&#038;post=25418&#038;subd=timeopinions&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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			<media:title type="html">Image: Doctor handing a prescription to a patient</media:title>
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