Take CARE of yourself

I pass this along without much editorial comment.
The article speaks for itself.

The headline reads, "A hurdle for health reform: patients and their doctors."

Selected quotes read:

"...we will have to accept that 'best' doesn't always mean the newest drug or the latest treatment.'

"...'If everybody...believes that prescriptions and procedures are the things we need to make us healthy and well, then it doesn't matter what kind of policy you draft or what kind of system you build. It's never going to get better.'

"The list goes on. Whether it's invasive back surgery, medical scans or expensive drugs, patients and doctors alike often refuse to believe that costly treatments aren't worth it.

"...patients routinely demand[ed] unnecessary prescriptions.

"'Doctors believe the industry propaganda that new drugs are better than old ones, and that for every ailment there is a drug.'

"'In American culture, prescriptions and procedures have become surrogates for real health care and real dialogue,..."

Have we not spoken about this before?

Don't Worry, Be Happy !!

OK, this will be relatively quick.
The headline reads, "Like the show? Maybe it was the commercials,"
and the point was that interrupted pleasure seems to be more pleasurable.

It's kind of amazing all the different things that scientists study, isn't it?

Anyway, they are finding that the human being is so adaptable that (s)he gets used to anything -- good or bad -- pretty quickly.
The quote they use is, "The first kiss is magic. The second is intimate. The third is routine."

So of course, the question they pose is, 'If you adapt so quickly to pleasurable activities, and the pleasure decreases, how do you sustain a level of happiness or ever move up on the scale?' And their answer is, "One way people do this, research suggests, is to favor novel experiences over material goodies." In other words, STUFF isn't nearly as satisfying as trying new things or having new experiences.