Sep 30, 2013
Sep 26, 2013
Statistics, one photo vs. a movie
You use statistical data in your argument; you give the number of
specific incidents and assume that it’s done! You have completely won the
argument with scientific facts!
Think again.. Did you really use science in a scientific way? Let’s say
I told you I have posted 3000 blog entries, would you say wow, or: over what
period of time? Would you be as impressed if I said in 10 years as if I said 10
months?
Won’t you be asking me how long the average blog entry is? Or if I
searched the scientific contents in each entry or just posted cute animal photos?
Science is tricky, my point today is to discuss if we used all the
possible information at one specific time, would that be enough to draw a
conclusion? Or do we need more?
Let me start with an example: if I told you that between Monday and
Friday last week I posted 3 blog entries about 500 words in length and that I
needed an average of 30 – 90 minutes materials search for references and scientific
resources. Would that be enough?
I would say: Nope. That’s a small picture of a long movie that involves
posting statistics from many weeks in the past.
The same is exactly true for health statistics; some numbers are not
enough, all the numbers for one time period is not enough: it does not give us
the trend, the ability to see if these numbers are the norm, or if they
represent decrease or increase in the overall estimate.
Statistics are multiple small sets of photos; they can be better
understood- just like animated movies - when seen in order and over a period of
time.
Sep 20, 2013
FIT
Snapshot from Fit Kids page
I have
recently come across a very nice website that was developed by WebMD and Sanford Health.
It aims to” Empower children
and parents to make healthy lifestyles choices that help prevent childhood
obesity.”
It has sections for juniors (2 – 7), kids
(8 – 12) and teens (13 – 19) as well as parents. There were four main areas the
website has in each section:
- FOOD: Nutritional Fitness
- MOVE: Physical Fitness
- MOOD: Emotional Fitness
- RECHARGE: Behavioral Fitness
The
site is well designed and it is fun to navigate through its interactive
features, and has lots of fun activities and healthy food suggestions. In this
time where children are experts at navigating the web, such a site might prove
useful at teaching them some healthy behaviors and at the same time have fun
with songs and stories and exercise advices.
Pay it a visit and check if you like it as
I did, maybe your children will like it too!
Sep 19, 2013
Cancer prevention: Is it really that hard?
Cancer is
one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and many of cancer survivors
continue suffering its consequences. Although there are advances in cancer
treatment leading to better survival, prevention is the best option since
cancer treatment is not without complications.
Cancer
prevention is relatively easy, it involves changes in lifestyle and screening
for early lesions where treatment would be easier and could stop cancer from developing
and progressing.
Different methods
of cancer prevention include:
Change in
lifestyle: Obesity and physical inactivity contributes to many types of cancer,
by changing your diet, practicing more and being active you reduce your risk of
cancer. Smoking is a risk factor for many cancers, quitting smoking reduces
your risk of cancer, still the risk in never-smokers in some types of cancer
still lower than those who quit smoking.
Healthy
diet: Enjoy a healthy diet; your body needs all the nourishments that it could
get. Fruits and vegetables are essential in the prevention of cancer and a
balanced diet should contain all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
Cancer screening:
many tests are available to assess the presence of pre-cancerous lesions, these
tests are easy and any insurance companies cover them. Check with your health
insurance company and your physician about what test you need to do and when to
do it.
These links could be of help to you to rad more about cancer prevention & screening:
Sep 5, 2013
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