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	<title>Health &#38; Family &#187; John Cloud &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>A healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit</description>
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		<title>Health &#38; Family &#187; John Cloud &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com</link>
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		<title>Our Personalities Are Constantly Changing, Even if We Think They&#8217;re Not</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/04/our-personalities-are-constantly-changing-even-if-we-think-theyre-not/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/04/our-personalities-are-constantly-changing-even-if-we-think-theyre-not/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue and John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Body & Mind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personality]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=77127</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s rare that scientific journals explicitly engage philosophical conundrums, but a paper in this week&#8217;s Science magazine begins with the question: &#8220;Why do people so often make decisions that their future selves regret?&#8221; At age 18, that skull-and-crossbones tattoo seems like an unimpeachably cool idea; at 28, it&#8217;s mortifying. You meet the man of your dreams at 25 — except that your dreams have become so different by 35 that you end up divorced. &#8220;Even at 68, people think, Ugh, I’m not the person I was at 58, but I’m sure I’ll be this way at 78,&#8221; says one of the Science study authors, Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of the book Stumbling on Happiness. An obvious answer to the question is that people mature — that &#8220;change is inevitable,&#8221; as British politician Benjamin Disraeli said, that &#8220;change is constant.&#8221; But after examining the responses of more than 19,000 people gathered over four months in 2011 and 2012, the researchers— Gilbert, Jordi Quoidbach, of the National Fund for Scientific Research in Belgium, and University of Virginia psychologist Timothy Wilson — discovered that even though most people acknowledge that their lives have changed over the past decade, they don&#8217;t believe change is constant. Against all evidence, most people seem to believe that who they are now is pretty much who they will be forever. (MORE: How Overconfidence and Paranoia Become Self-Fulfilling Prophecies) For example, the average 33-year-old surveyed expected less change over the next decade than the average 43-year-old reported actually had occurred over the past decade. As the paper says, &#8220;People, it seems, regard the present as a watershed moment at which they have finally become the person[s] they will be for the rest of their lives.&#8221; Although personality and values do tend to become more stable with age, people generally underestimate the extent of future personality shifts. The researchers call this phenomenon &#8220;the end of history illusion.&#8221; Proving an illusion is a giant epistemological problem, which is one reason the authors recruited so many participants for their study — although<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=77127&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Personality</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/personality/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/970_hl_personalities_0104.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Personalities</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>Redefining Crazy: Changes to the Bible of Psychiatric Disorders</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/03/redefining-crazy-the-bible-of-psychiatry-changes/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/03/redefining-crazy-the-bible-of-psychiatry-changes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Illness]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=75175</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Saturday, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) finalized a 13-year process of revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly known as the DSM, the most important book in the field of mental illness. The DSM attempts to designate and code all the ways our minds can go awry. It defines depression, anxiety, schizophrenia — as well as more than 300 other problems from obsessive-compulsive disorder to stuttering to fetishism. Insurance companies require DSM codes for reimbursement, and the National Institutes of Health require them for research grants. It&#8217;s no exaggeration to say that the new DSM — the fifth full edition, one that more than 1,500 mental-health experts help write — will change the world of mental health. Here are some of the biggest changes: 1. Autistic disorder will become autism-spectrum disorder. That spectrum will incorporate Asperger&#8217;s syndrome, which generally involves milder forms of autism&#8217;s social impairments and previously had its own code number (299.80). To guide clinicians, the DSM will include specific examples of patients meeting criteria for the different disorders making up the spectrum, from autistic disorder to Asperger&#8217;s, childhood-disintegrative disorder and pervasive developmental disorder (not otherwise specified). Combining autism and Asperger&#8217;s is especially controversial partly because autism can be so much more serious than Asperger&#8217;s. Although some autistic people function extremely well (the livestock expert Temple Grandin has helped change her field), others affected by the disorder need lifelong care for basic needs. The change will likely cause considerable debate, however, since the diagnosis is a requirement for access to some of the educational and social services that make up this care, and it&#8217;s not clear yet how the change in definition will affect such eligibility in the future. (MORE: DSM-5 Debate: Committee Backs Off Some Changes, Reopens Comments) 2. Binge-eating disorder will be moved from DSM&#8216;s Appendix B — a category of proposed conditions that require &#8220;further study&#8221; — to a full-blown illness in the main part of the book. The shift will create a significant new market for mental-health professionals who will now be able to apply for insurance<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=75175&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/03/redefining-crazy-the-bible-of-psychiatry-changes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mental Illness</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/mental-illness-mental-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/top2000010c0001_121.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Changes to the Bible of Psychiatric Disorders</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>Can Love Handles Kill? Having a Paunch May Be Worse than Being Obese</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/30/can-love-handles-kill-why-having-a-paunch-may-be-worse-than-being-obese/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/30/can-love-handles-kill-why-having-a-paunch-may-be-worse-than-being-obese/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belly fat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cardiovascular disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obesity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=67643</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have a paunch, but I hide it pretty well. Like lots of men, I collect calories in my belly—what scientists call the visceral region, my gut. It’s easy to conceal: many ordinary men’s shirts are pyramid-shaped, so they fit neatly at the shoulders and then billow a bit as they go south. But they can also hide a health problem: even if you&#8217;re not overweight, having excess belly fat can lead to serious cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. In fact, as new research shows, those who have normal weight but concentrated &#8220;central&#8221; fat are more than 50% more likely to die earlier from all causes than those who are obese. A team of eight scientists presented the research in Munich on Aug. 27 at a European Society of Cardiology meeting. Led by Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, the scientists examined data for 12,785 Americans who had been tracked for approximately 14 years for a major CDC study. Lopez-Jimenez and his team reviewed information on both body-mass index (BMI)—a measure of how fat you are in proportion to your height—and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), the circumference of your belly in relation to the circumference of your hips. (You can calculate your BMI here and your WHR here.) The researchers divided the survey participants into three categories of BMI—normal, overweight, and obese. They also divided them into two categories of waist-to-hip ratio—normal and high. (They defined normal as less than .85 for women and less than .90 for men and high as .85 or higher for women and .90 or higher for men.) That left them with six subgroups: normal BMI/normal central fat; normal BMI/high central fat; and so on. This all gets confusing, but the chart here shows all six groups. MORE: To Lose the Beer Gut, Try the Treadmill, Not the Dumbbells At the end of the 14-year follow-up period in the CDC survey, 2,562 people in the sample had died. When Lopez-Jimenez and his colleagues analyzed the deaths, they found that those with a normal BMI but excessive belly fat<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=67643&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Diet</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/diet-diet-fitness/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/82370075bellyfatcrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Belly fat</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>The Psychology of Heroism: Why Some People Leap in Front of Bullets</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/09/the-psychology-of-heroism-why-some-leap-in-front-of-bullets/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/09/the-psychology-of-heroism-why-some-leap-in-front-of-bullets/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:00:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Behavior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aurora]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hero]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oak creek]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shooting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=65937</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Aug. 5, when a gunman drove to a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee and started shooting his 9-mm handgun, some ran and some leapt to stop him. One of the six who died was temple president Santwat Singh Kaleka, who has been hailed as a hero by witnesses who say he tried to disarm the shooter. The first cop on the scene, Brian Murphy, took nine bullets as he also tried to help. Miraculously, Murphy wasn’t killed. Why do some people confront danger while most scamper for the exits? Altruism emerges in many disasters. A few weeks ago, three women came forward to say they survived the cinema shooting in Aurora, Colo., because their boyfriends shielded them. All three men are dead. In January, when the colossal cruiser Costa Concordia foundered on the western coast of Italy, a 57-year-old crewmember stayed aboard and helped others even as his captain — and thousands of passengers — abandoned ship. Thirty-two people died. (PHOTOS: Sikh Temple Shooting: Wisconsin Community Reacts to Shocking Attack) The difficult thing about studying those who are altruistic during calamities is that most of them die. Also, we like to create heroes. As researchers Selwyn Becker and Alice Eagly pointed out in the journal American Psychologist in 2004, the idea of heroism exists in virtually every human culture ever recorded — from cave paintings and folklore to the dawn of literature and right up to, say, The Dark Knight Rises. Because heroism is so deeply valued, Becker and Eagly define it as not only noble risk taking but also something selfish, a way to ensure status. Earlier this year, the journal Evolutionary Psychology published a study by two psychologists who found that participants who willing to endure pain — having to put their hands into a tub of ice for 40 sec., or being dunked into a tank of water — were not only judged to be more likable but also given significantly more money from an $1,170 pot that could be divvied up any way the other student volunteers<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=65937&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Behavior</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/behavior/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/600_id_hero_0809.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">600_id_hero_0809</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0636c98a3a542c6a2fd6478aae0786c5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">600_id_hero_2_0809</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>A Nightmare Quiz: Just How Bad Are Your Dreams?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/28/a-nightmare-quiz-just-how-bad-are-your-dreams/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/28/a-nightmare-quiz-just-how-bad-are-your-dreams/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:48:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sleep]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=62995</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[See TIME&#8217;s article on sleep, &#8220;Nightmare Scenario.&#8221;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=62995&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Sleep</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/sleep/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/140002204.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/140002204.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Sleep Quiz</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0636c98a3a542c6a2fd6478aae0786c5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>A Simpler Way to Slow the Obesity Crisis</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/a-weight-loss-solution-dont-eat-less-just-dont-eat-more/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/a-weight-loss-solution-dont-eat-less-just-dont-eat-more/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:45:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obesity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dieting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=55093</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The anti-obesity messages are becoming mind-numbingly familiar: smaller portions. Less fried food. Fewer sodas. It&#8217;s all true, but it has become mere background noise. Yes, fast-food companies have spectacular ad budgets (even as I write this article about horrifying obesity trends, I want that $10 Pizza Hut dinner box, the one that comes with a medium pizza and no fewer than 16 bread sticks). We live in a nation that can turn a lint-roller into an infomercial juggernaut. So why can&#8217;t we sell healthy eating? A study appearing this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests a new idea. Maybe we should stop asking people to change — or even limit — their diets. Let&#8217;s admit that no one really wants edamame more than Pizza Hut, and that when the Pizza Hut guy gets to the door, no one wants to see him carrying anything smaller than a Dinner Box. Instead, let&#8217;s start with a simpler suggestion: just don&#8217;t eat more than you do now. This strategy won&#8217;t solve the obesity problem, but it could help us to keep from getting any bigger. For two years, Gary Bennett of Duke University&#8217;s Psychology &#38; Neuroscience department and eight colleagues followed 365 obese patients who had already developed hypertension. The researchers chose not only a physically unhealthy population but one that was also struggling socioeconomically. Bennett says no participant in his study was earning more than $25,000 a year. The Duke team wanted to work with the poor because those with money can already afford to pick halibut and asparagus over hamburger and fries. For the poor, getting fresh fish and vegetables can mean a long bus ride and a week&#8217;s pay — making health not only psychologically but also financially difficult. (MORE: U.S. Obesity Rates Remain Stubbornly High) The 365 patients were recruited from community-health centers and then randomly divided into two groups. The first group received whatever usual weight-loss care was provided at the center: typically a combination of one-on-one advice and then some take-home material that might include steps<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=55093&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Diet</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/diet-diet-fitness/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/food.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">food</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0636c98a3a542c6a2fd6478aae0786c5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>How a Far-Right Icon Came to Embrace Marijuana Legalization</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/09/how-a-far-right-icon-came-to-embrace-marijuana-legalization/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/09/how-a-far-right-icon-came-to-embrace-marijuana-legalization/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:45:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marijuana]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=54935</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The other day, we got solid proof that the media is biased toward the left. On a cable-news show seen by millions, a white-haired host declared that although the U.S. has 5% of the world&#8217;s population, it detains a quarter of the world&#8217;s prisoners. &#8220;I just think it’s shocking to see how many of these young people wind up in prison,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And then they get turned into hard-core criminals because they have possession of a small amount of a controlled substance. The whole thing is crazy.&#8221; It&#8217;s a sensible position. Strikingly, it came from the host of the Christian Broadcasting Network&#8217;s &#8220;700 Club&#8221; — right-wing icon Pat Robertson. He went on to say that mere possession of pot should be decriminalized. (VIDEO: Weed Be Gone: Will Amsterdam Ban Pot for Tourists?) The 40-year-old &#8220;700 Club&#8221; isn&#8217;t known for advancing liberal causes. In fact, four days after Robertson, 81, called for the legalization of marijuana, he said on his show that &#8220;if enough people were praying,&#8221; Jesus Christ might have &#8220;stilled&#8221; the recent tornadoes that destroyed lives and homes in the Midwest and South. MORE: Congress O.K.&#8217;s Drug-Testing the Unemployed. Will It Fight Addiction? Robertson has crept slowly into his pro-legalization position on marijuana. In 2010, he said on the &#8220;700 Club&#8221; that people shouldn&#8217;t get long prison terms for taking &#8220;a couple puffs of marijuana.&#8221; Shortly afterward, his New York City-based spokesman, Chris Roslan, issued a statement saying Robertson &#8220;unequivocally&#8221; opposes the use of any drugs. And yet when I spoke with Roslan on Thursday, he told me that Robertson now favors decriminalization of pot smoking. &#8220;If people can go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of alcohol and drink at home legally, then why do we say that the use of this other substance is somehow criminal?&#8221; Robertson asked a New York Times reporter recently. He went on to say that imprisoning people made it more it more difficult to reach their hearts with a Christian message. (VIDEO: An L.A. Medical Marijuana Odyssey) His comments raise at<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=54935&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/09/how-a-far-right-icon-came-to-embrace-marijuana-legalization/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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	<primary_category>Drugs</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/drugs/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/86071243a.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Marijuana Leaf</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>Why You Shouldn&#8217;t Buy Stocking Stuffers</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/22/why-you-shouldnt-buy-stocking-stuffers/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/22/why-you-shouldnt-buy-stocking-stuffers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:45:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer behavior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gifts]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=49766</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The problem with stockings is that they can&#8217;t stuff themselves. All those candy canes and chocolate oranges at the checkout line — why not pick one up as a sign of your exceptional generosity? Here&#8217;s the snag: Those extra little gifts can actually diminish the value of the main present you bought. It&#8217;s Christmas morning, and you open a box to find a cashmere sweater. The sweater feels plush and expensive, and you feel grateful. But then, underneath the sweater, you find a packet of Hershey&#8217;s kisses. Technically, you have been given more, but now the sweater may seem a little less exciting. Why? An academic team based at Virginia Tech has dubbed this phenomenon The Presenter&#8217;s Paradox. The team of three psychologists — led by marketing professor Kimberlee Weaver — demonstrated the paradox recently in several studies set to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research. In the first one, a group of 54 consumers was given a choice between an iPod Touch or an iPod Touch with one free song download. On average, the consumers were willing to pay $108.41 for the iPod Touch but just $86.16 for the iPod Touch and the download. In another experiment, the researchers asked a group of students whether they would rather receive a $1,750 tuition credit or the same credit plus $15 to use for textbooks. The 102 students who evaluated the options were significantly less likely to choose the second one. What&#8217;s happening here? Weaver and her colleagues theorize that we average our choices. &#8220;Mildly favorable information dilutes the impact of highly favorable information,&#8221; they write. When you receive multiple gifts, you engage in what the researchers call &#8220;piecemeal processing&#8221;: you evaluate each gift separately. And so anything chintzy brings down the perceived value of even the nicest present. In short, buy something nice and let it stand for itself.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=49766&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/22/why-you-shouldnt-buy-stocking-stuffers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Psychology</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/psychology/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/christmas-gift.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">christmas gift</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>Would You Kill One Person to Save Five? New Research on a Classic Debate</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/05/would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-five-new-research-on-a-classic-debate/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/05/would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-five-new-research-on-a-classic-debate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emotion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[moral decision-making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morality]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=48317</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Imagine you are a train-yard operator who sees an out-of-control boxcar running down a track that five workers are repairing. The workers won&#8217;t have time to get out of the way unless you flip a switch to change the car to another track. But another worker is on the second track. You have just seconds to make a decision: let the five workers die — or kill the one. What do you do? This dilemma is a famous philosophical conundrum that was originally called the &#8220;trolley problem.&#8221; Now a team from Michigan State University&#8217;s psychology department has used virtual-reality technology to test how we respond psychologically and physiologically when faced with this problem. The two opposing philosophical approaches to the trolley problem are the utilitarian one (kill one guy in order save the others) and the do-no-harm approach (let God or nature take its course, but don&#8217;t make an active choice to kill another person). In many years of surveys, the vast majority of people — usually about 90% — have chosen to kill the one and save the five. But until now, there&#8217;s never been a study examining how people would react in a lifelike setting with real-looking potential victims. In the Michigan State study, led by psychologist David Navarette, the 147 participants made their choice while wearing a head-mounted virtual-reality device that projected avatars of those who could die. (Watch a simulation here.) One chilling factor of the test: the potential victims were screaming as the boxcar approached. The 147 subjects also had electrodes attached to their skin in order to measure their autonomic responses, the involuntary nervous-system responses that can spike when we are faced with stress. Navarette and his team found that, once again, 90% of us would kill the one to save the five. Among the 147 participants, 133 pulled the switch. Interestingly, those who were more emotionally aroused during the simulation — based on measurements of electrical conductivity along the skin — were less likely to kill the one. Those who were colder and more<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=48317&#038;subd=timewellness&#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://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/psychology/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/trx.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">trx</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>A Brief History of OD&#8217;ing in America</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/10/the-conrad-murray-verdict-and-the-history-of-oding-in-america/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/10/the-conrad-murray-verdict-and-the-history-of-oding-in-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Addiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cocaine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drug abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drug laws]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oxycontin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prescription drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prescription painkillers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=46830</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The conviction of Dr. Conrad Murray in Michael Jackson&#8217;s death highlighted a worrying drug trend in the U.S. Less than a week before a jury found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter for improperly using an anesthetic to help Jackson sleep, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of overdose deaths from opioid pain relievers had tripled between 1999 and 2008, the most recent year for which data were available. Today more people are dying from painkillers than from cocaine and heroin combined. Which raises a question: why are narcotics the drug of the moment? Why are so many of us anesthetizing ourselves to death? The answer surely has something to do with deep anxiety about a global economic decline that, by most accounts, isn&#8217;t expected to turn around for years. I&#8217;m not saying Michael Jackson died because of the great recession — although he was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt when he was allegedly begging Murray for more and more propofol so he could sleep enough to plan his comeback. What I am arguing is that each cultural moment seems to choose its particular intoxicant. Consider this timeline: 1955 to the mid-&#8217;60s. The drug of the moment is a sedative called meprobamate that is first marketed in 1955 under the name Miltown. These years are marked by extreme social anxiety — Soviet spies, McCarthyism, the Kennedy assassination — not to mention the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. Who doesn&#8217;t want to be sedated? Colloquially known as &#8220;Mother&#8217;s Little Helpers,&#8221; drugs such as Miltown are also widely used by pre-feminist women who are expected to keep tidy houses and unlined pantyhose even as the world tilts toward obliteration. According to the New York Times, Miltown becomes the best-selling drug ever marketed in the U.S. By the 1960s, reports of Miltown dependence and overdose lead to declining demand. But it remains such a potent drug that as recently as 1997, the journal Forensic Science International reports that meprobamate was involved in more than 15% of all overdose deaths. The mid-&#8217;60s<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=46830&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Addiction</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/addiction/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/prescriptiondrugs.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>House Watch: The Return to Princeton Plainsboro</title>
		<link>http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/11/house-watch-the-return-to-princeton-plainsboro/</link>
		<comments>http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/11/house-watch-the-return-to-princeton-plainsboro/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:15:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Clinical Practice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[allergy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[House M.D.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lead poisoning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lungs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lupus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transplant]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=44678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A football game pushed House M.D. out of its time slot last night, so my DVR missed it. I watched this morning on iTunes, so sorry for the delay. And a serious spoiler alert this week: if your DVR also had Terra Nova where House should have been, you should fire up iTunes before reading on. We knew House had to get back to PPTH, but it was a somber homecoming. Cuddy is gone — she quit the day after House drove his car into her living room — and Foreman is the new dean of medicine. He has redecorated the hospital in darker hues, which House mocks. He also mocks Foreman even though it was Foreman who got him out of the joint six months early. (We discover that House had eight months added to his sentence after last week&#8217;s shenanigans.) The Patient is just a set of lungs. &#8220;No pulse, no body,&#8221; says Foreman. &#8220;No ability to answer questions. It&#8217;s your perfect patient.&#8221; The lungs had been harvested from an 18-year-old who died in a motorcycle accident, but they have elevated airway resistance. House has to figure out why in order to make the lungs viable for transplant to a cancer patient (whose doctor is, of course, Wilson). House has lost his office to the orthopedics department, and Chase, Taub and 13 have all &#8220;moved on,&#8221; Foreman says cryptically (I suppose the writers didn&#8217;t want to take up time explaining their whereabouts, but it was a rather abrupt way of avoiding the issue). Foreman adds that he doesn&#8217;t have the money to give House a new team. House jokes that the money must have all gone to redecorating. House does have Dr. Chi Park, and at first she seems an odd match; she&#8217;s shy and still lives with her parents. But it turns out she slugged her boss in neurology after he grabbed her ass, so she and House have at least some personality traits in common. At the first DDX, Dr. Simpson says the leading diagnostic theory is acute<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=44678&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Clinical Practice</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/clinical-practice/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/house_episode2.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">house_episode2</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>House Watch: The Return of TV&#8217;s Most Important Medical Drama</title>
		<link>http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/04/house-watch-the-return-of-tvs-most-important-medical-drama/</link>
		<comments>http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/04/house-watch-the-return-of-tvs-most-important-medical-drama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:45:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Clinical Practice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diagnostics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[House M.D.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prison]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=44122</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With its eighth-season premiere on Monday night, House M.D. graduated into an elite status of TV dramas that survive beyond seven years. Among the others are Law &#38; Order, E.R. and C.S.I. — all of them procedurals. Technically, House M.D. is also a procedural: each week Dr. Gregory House has to solve a complex case that only he can diagnose. But over the years the show has explored, at great depth, House&#8217;s addictions, vanities, and ultimate helplessness. And Hugh Laurie has played House with such range — the character can be evil, funny, kind, and caught short all in one episode — that the show still offers something you don&#8217;t find elsewhere on network TV: a mad, sad scientist who almost certainly does not have a heart of gold. In last year’s finale, House drove a car into his boss’ home, finally severing his long, complicated relationship with that boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, and also preventing the eighth season from beginning at the hospital where they work, Princeton Plainsboro. Instead, we find House in prison, where he has apparently been for a year. The opening scene has him in a parole hearing. “Are you sorry about what you did?” House is asked. “Yes,” he answers — but, of course, he doesn’t mean it. He then spins his assault on Cuddy&#8217;s house: he says he knew her toddler would be away and that the adult guests would be out of the car&#8217;s path. The parole board is frustrated, but House gets an out: the prison is overcrowded. If House can keep out of trouble for just five days, he will be let free. We then see House with a fellow-inmate who has joint pain. House — thinking he’s leaving soon — tells the Patient, who&#8217;s name is Nick, just to go to the prison clinic. But they run into each other there (House is a prison janitor). At the clinic, House also meets a new 13, the pretty young Dr. Adams, who wants to put the inmate on ceftriaxone for what she<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=44122&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Clinical Practice</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/clinical-practice/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/house_episode1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">house_episode1</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>The Healthland Podcast: Cervical Cancer, Blood-Donation Rules, and Testosterone</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/16/the-healthland-podcast-cervical-cancer-blood-donation-rules-and-testosterone/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/16/the-healthland-podcast-cervical-cancer-blood-donation-rules-and-testosterone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Multimedia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[antidepressants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cervical cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cholesterol lowering drug]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[erectile dysfunction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fatherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HPV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michele bachmann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rick perry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[testosterone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaccinations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=42891</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This week we discuss cervical cancer, IUDs and the politicized debate over HPV vaccination. We also talk about whether gay men should be allowed to donate blood and why fathering a child depletes testosterone. Listen to this podcast immediately by clicking the play button below, or subscribe for free and listen on iTunes. This week Sora (@sora_song) talked about new data on how using an IUD may help prevent cervical cancer. We then discussed the roiling debate over HPV vaccination and why the Republican candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry went head-to-head over it. And in her Field Note, Sora mentioned this story by Maia Szalavitz on how quitting smoking can help your erections — and another story by Alice Park on how taking care of your heart can do the same. John (@JohnAshleyCloud) talked about how the U.K. lifted its lifetime ban on accepting blood donations from men who have had sex with men; read Megan Gibson story on Healthland here. In his Field Note, he referred to data on on the top-20 prescription medications in the U.S., which you can find here. Bonnie (@brochman) discussed her story on how fatherhood may decrease men&#8217;s testosterone levels; the authors of a new study are suggesting that lower testosterone levels may help men be sensitive caregivers. For her Field Note, Bonnie noted that a Florida law barring pediatricians to counsel patients on gun safety was just overturned. Belinda (@youseless) will be back next week. In the meantime, feel free to comment below on any of these stories. We check these comments daily. And you can e-mail me directly at john_cloud@timemagazine.com. See you next week!<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=42891&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/16/the-healthland-podcast-cervical-cancer-blood-donation-rules-and-testosterone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<title>Why Most Dietary Supplements Aren&#8217;t Worth the Money</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/01/why-dietary-supplements-arent-usually-worth-the-money/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/01/why-dietary-supplements-arent-usually-worth-the-money/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:25:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Supplements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. Oz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish oil supplements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[minerals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nutrition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nutritional supplements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vitamins]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=41932</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In this week&#8217;s print version of TIME, I write about the dietary-supplement industry and my own Lab Rat experience with taking more than 3,000 supplement pills over five months. My conclusion is that you probably don&#8217;t need to take even a multivitamin. You can get the full story—&#8221;Nutrition in a Pill?&#8221;—by clicking here (subscription required). Also, you might check out the diet piece that Dr. Mehmet Oz wrote for us. It&#8217;s his take on the right way to eat. I&#8217;ll be hosting the Healthland podcast again tomorrow — all the biggest health news of the week in a 20-min. show. You can subscribe to the podcast for free here.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=41932&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>The Healthland Podcast: We Debate Avastin, Marriage and Spanking</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/01/the-healthland-podcast-we-debate-avastin-marriage-and-spanking/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/01/the-healthland-podcast-we-debate-avastin-marriage-and-spanking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Avastin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain-computer interface]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[breast cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cohabitation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[computers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[divorce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phobias]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spanking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=37421</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Join us for a lively discussion of the biggest health and science news this week. First, the bitter fight over whether breast-cancer patients should have access to the controversial drug Avastin. Also: should you live together before marrying? And I report on a new biofeedback device that allows you to control a computer only with your mind. Click below to listen. Joining me today are Sora Song, the editor of Healthland, and Belinda Luscombe, editor-at-large of TIME magazine and a regular Healthland contributor. On the podcast, Belinda and Sora try to talk me down from utter rage over the FDA decision to reject Avastin as a breast-cancer treatment. And we discuss Belinda&#8217;s story about cohabitation, marriage, and the economics of coupledom in general. In our Field Notes section, we talk about new research on spanking and diet sodas, and I discuss my phobia about crossing bridges. We had some trouble during the podcast identifying the name of that phobia. According to phobialist.com, it is gephyrophobia, gephydrophobia or gephysrophobia. Whatever it is, I have it. Some links for today&#8217;s discussion: Here is Melinda Henneberger&#8217;s excellent Healthland story on the Avastin hearings. And here is a link to the new biofeedback device that I discussed. You can follow us on Twitter @JohnAshleyCloud, @sora_song, and @youseless (once again, please invite Belinda to change her Twitter handle — all suggestions are welcome to john_cloud@timemagazine.com). The podcast is a work in progress. Please e-mail any suggestions, comments, complaints or rants to john_cloud@timemagazine.com.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=37421&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>The Healthland Podcast: Diets, Divorce and Cigarettes</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/24/the-healthland-podcast-diets-divorce-and-cigarettes/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/24/the-healthland-podcast-diets-divorce-and-cigarettes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:15:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bad divorce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cigarettes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dieting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[divorce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food labels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harvard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[junk food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marriage after divorce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nutrition labels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[potato chips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=36893</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the podcast this week: results from a major Harvard study on how to eat right. Also, a controversial new trend in how some divorced parents are raising their children. And finally, the war over government labeling of cigarettes and junk food. Click below to listen. As usual, our panel includes Belinda Luscombe, editor-at-large of TIME magazine and a regular Healthland contributor; Sora Song, the editor of Healthland; and host John Cloud, a senior writer at TIME and Healthland. You can follow us on Twitter @JohnAshleyCloud, @sora_song, and @youseless. (Listeners are invited to nominate new Twitter handles for Ms. Luscbome!) Some links for today’s segments: Sora&#8217;s piece on the new diet recommendations, plus the New England Journal of Medicine paper. A gallery of the new tobacco warning labels. And a piece from NPR&#8217;s Shots blog on junk-food labeling. Field Notes: —Stress and the city: how urban life changes your brain —Does ovulation improve gaydar? —The wolf hunt in Idaho The podcast is a work in progress, so please e-mail any suggestions and comments to john_cloud@timemagazine.com<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=36893&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/24/the-healthland-podcast-diets-divorce-and-cigarettes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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	<primary_category>Diet</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/diet-diet-fitness/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/podcastlogo.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>Introducing the Healthland Podcast</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/21/introducing-the-healthland-podcast/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/21/introducing-the-healthland-podcast/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Casey Anthony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fatherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FDA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[skin cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sunscreen]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=36544</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Healthland Podcast! Click this little arrow for a lively, off-the-cuff discussion of the week&#8217;s health/science news. Host John Cloud, senior writer at TIME and Healthland, leads the conversation with Sora Song, the editor of Healthland, and Belinda Luscombe, editor-at-large of TIME magazine and a Healthland contributor. This week we discuss: *The psychology of the Casey Anthony trial: why so many people can&#8217;t turn away. *New studies of fatherhood that suggest the proportion of fatherless (and under-fathered) children is growing. *The new FDA regulations on sunscreen labeling. Do you need SPF 100? Finally, we have brief &#8220;Field Notes&#8221;: bits of health and science reporting from our notebooks. Below you will find links for the topics we discussed. The Healthland Podcast is still a work in progress, and we welcome any comments and suggestions. Please send them to john_cloud@timemagazine.com. Also, you can follow us on Twitter @JohnAshleyCloud, @sora_song, and @youseless. MORE: The psychology behind the Casey Anthony obsession The forensic science of the Casey Anthony trial &#8220;The Fathering Gap&#8221;: The pitfalls of modern fatherhood At long last, the FDA makes sunscreen labeling less confusing FIELD NOTES: The flavored-milk ban The power of magic mushrooms How dead men become parents<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=36544&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/21/introducing-the-healthland-podcast/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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	<primary_category>Social Media</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/love-relationships/social-media/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/podcastlogo.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>Health Equality: Portland Embraces Transgender Rights</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/09/health-equality-portland-embraces-transgender-rights/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/09/health-equality-portland-embraces-transgender-rights/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Policy & Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chaz bono]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gender Identity Disorder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mayor sam adams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[portland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex reassignment surgery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sexual health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transgender]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transsexual]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=35541</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Portland, Ore., city council voted on Wednesday to cover the cost of sex-reassignment surgery for municipal workers in its health-care plan. Portland is only the second major city, after San Francisco, to offer surgical benefits to its transgender employees. But the move comes at a time when surgery has become less relevant to many, if not most, of those who define themselves as transgender. Portland Mayor Sam Adams filed the new ordinance, which the city council passed unanimously. (Adams, 47, may be best known for surviving an Anthony Weiner-like scandal in 2009, when he admitted lying about a sexual relationship with a teenager.) The new law will cover “services to alter … physical characteristics to that of the opposite sex” up to $50,000. (More on TIME.com: The &#8216;Sissy Boy&#8217; Experiment: Why Gender-Related Cases Call for Scientists&#8217; Humility) Most physicians who diagnose Gender Identity Disorder (GID) in patients agree that surgery can be a medical necessity for many of them. The American Medical Association has said since at least 2008 that it supports insurance coverage for treatment of GID “as recommended by the patient’s physician.” But many clinicians and transgender activists have long disputed the validity of the GID diagnosis. One reason is that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the compendium of psychiatric illnesses, defines a person with GID as one who has “persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.” For many trans activists (here’s an example), the main problem isn’t discomfort with sex organs but discomfort with the fact that those organs are used to define gender in legal terms. One’s sense of gender, they note, is informed not only by sex organs but by powerful psychological impulses as well as cultural and social stimuli. Female-to-male activist Chaz Bono summarized this idea recently when he noted — in a turn of phrase familiar to many trans activists — that gender lies “between the ears,” not between the legs. The transgender community is responding with restraint to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=35541&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Policy &amp; Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/policy-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/samadamscropped.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>The Lab Rat: Can the Right Shirt Improve Your Posture?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/08/the-lab-rat-can-the-right-shirt-improve-your-posture/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/08/the-lab-rat-can-the-right-shirt-improve-your-posture/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:30:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clothes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evidence based apparel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exercise gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muscle tone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[posture shirt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[workout clothes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=35256</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Clothes can be fashionable or embarrassing, ill-fitting or flattering. But can they be medicinal? A California-based company called Alignmed has developed a line of garments being used by professional athletes, MS patients, back-pain sufferers and others to treat and prevent injuries and aches. Are you ready for therapeutic couture? Alignmed markets its form-fitting clothes as “Evidence Based Apparel.” Until recently, the company mainly sold products in the specialty orthopedic marketplace; its S3 brace ($345) is popular among athletes. But now Alignmed is launching a $95 T-shirt — it&#8217;s called the Posture Shirt — designed not only for athletes but also for office workers uncomfortable from hunching over keyboards. (More on TIME.com: Health Special: Chronic Pain) The shirt has some enthusiastic backers, including Dr. Craig Morgan, an orthopedic surgeon and consultant to the Kansas City Royals. Morgan, who was an early investor in Alignmed, says virtually all the Royals have been wearing the shirts during spring training. Morgan says the Posture Shirt helps prevent injuries and boosts performance. The shirt has also been used by Vail, Colo., ski instructors in an effort to minimize movement injuries. How the shirt works isn’t obvious at first glance. It seems like any other sports top — sheer and tight; spandex and chemical-smelling. But sewn into the Posture Shirt are elastic bands that start at the shoulders and stretch toward the center of the back. The bands have the effect of rolling your shoulders down and rearward, helping give you that sit-up-straight posture. Such posture is important in preventing back pain and sports injuries. Although she may not have known about the biomechanics, your mom was right: you shouldn’t slouch. Routine misalignment of the spine and shoulder blades can pinch nerves and lead to serious injury, especially if you try to lift weights with your shoulders hunched. The Posture Shirt works by helping you pull your shoulder blades and chest muscles into a proud position — think of the Superman pose. That position keeps you from arching and overstretching the muscles at the back of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=35256&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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			<media:title type="html">Workout gear from Alignmed</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">thejohncloud</media:title>
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		<title>The Psychology of Real Estate: Why North Is Better Than South</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/31/the-psychology-of-real-estate-why-north-is-better-than-south/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/31/the-psychology-of-real-estate-why-north-is-better-than-south/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2011 15:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Cloud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Behavior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[real estate]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=34500</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So you&#8217;re searching online for a new place to live. You stumble across an affordable house in a nearby city that you&#8217;ve never visited. The house is in a neighborhood called North Town. A few minutes later, you find a similar house in the city&#8217;s South Town. Which one do you pick to visit first? According to a new study, even if potential buyers have no other information about a city — in fact, especially if they have no other information — most will automatically prefer its northern neighborhoods. Why? The new paper, which was published recently in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, begins by noting previous research finding that if you show people a word like &#8220;hero&#8221; in the top half of a screen, they will identify its positive meaning more quickly than if the word appears in the lower portion of the screen. (More on TIME.com: How Things You Touch Influence the Way You Think) That makes sense: we feel &#8220;up&#8221; when we are happy and &#8220;down&#8221; when we are sad. (The moral associations of these words is ancient, even primal — heaven is always above hell. Another prehistoric example: Billy Joel wants an uptown girl.) But how would that up-down preference translate into real-world decisions about where to buy a house? The new study was written by a team of psychologists led by Brian Meier of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. They began their research by showing in a simple pencil-and-paper test of 99 individuals that respondents are more likely to rate the word &#8220;north&#8221; as more positive than the word &#8220;south.&#8221; Then the authors asked another group of participants to pick a preferred living location on a map that was blank except for north, south, east and west borders. The most common choice was in the northern half. With a third group, the authors presented a map in which &#8220;north&#8221; had been flipped to the bottom of the map and &#8220;south&#8221; to the top. In that case, the respondents didn&#8217;t have a real preference either way: the preference<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=34500&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Behavior</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/behavior/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/northsouthcropped.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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