My first reaction when I saw the photo of the Blood Pressure Dock at Brookstone was “Cool!”  After a few seconds of brain death on my part, I came to my senses.  Why would I buy a $99.99 sphygmomanometer + iPhone dock when I can buy a pretty good sphygmomanometer for about $50 and a dock for less than $20?

The Brookstone blood pressure dock would probably be more useful if it were more portable.  The point of using my phone for a lot of my everyday requirements is portability.  Since the Brookstone blood pressure dock is as big as most sphygmomanometers, I’d rather just have a dedicated sphygmomanometer.  I actually have a manual sphygmomanometer that tends to be more accurate than the electronic ones.

Would you buy the Brookstone Blood Pressure Dock?  Share your thoughts.

The geekiness in me came out and I just had to post this video.  It’s so cool.  It gives you a visual of what’s going on in our bodies on the micro level.

This video shows a neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) chasing a staphylococcus aureus bacterium. The video was recorded by biochemistry professor David Rogers of Vanderbilt University in the 1950s.

~ John Farrier of Neatorama

With the Swine Flu (H1N1) outbreak, retailers and designers joined medical supplies manufacturers by creating their own version of flu masks.  Some are humorous and some are indeed fashionable.

As we are still planning to go to Cozumel in 2 weeks, I am planning to pack some masks and a few protective items.  It would be fun to purchase one of the humorous ones.  I like “oink!” one.  But I’ll settle with the good old fashioned N95 that they provide at work.

I know first hand how hard and expensive it is not to have health insurance here in the United States.  With the unemployment rate at its highest, more people lost their health insurance.  The drugstore Walgreens has started a program that offers free healthcare to those who lost their jobs and health insurance.

Walgreens opens its 341 Take Care clinics to people who lost their jobs after March 31, 2009, including spouses and children who don’t have health insurance.  Patients can be tested and treated at the Take Care clinics for minor ailments such as respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments.  Prescriptions, however, are not free.  The clinics open Monday throuh Friday from 11am to 3pm.  The program is expected to run through the end of 2009.

Katie of La Petite Chic is giving away Wii console and Wii Fit with balance board… in time for the new year!  Click here to enter.  Hurry, contest ends December 5th.

 

This is perfect for people like me who are planning to get fit at the start of the new year.  If you’re like me who can’t drag themselves to the gym or think the gym is too boring, a Wii Fit would be a perfect tool to getting fit the fun way!

Hung Truong Blog

I know lifestyle and family health history affects life expectancy.  Well, I just found a tool that will give you a number.  Life Expectancy Calculator – isn’t that interesting?  It’s not really meant to scare you.  Though limited, I think it’s a nice tool to let you know if you need to change some things in your life.

I plotted down my info and got the following results:

Results 
Based on your answers to the above questions, your current life expectancy is 90 years. If you’re not happy with the result, consider that by adopting a healthier lifestyle and avoiding various risk factors, you can increase your life expectancy by up to 15 years.

Your “ideal” weight for maximum longevity is: 123 lbs.

The three biggest positive factors that you have going for you are:
    1. Age
    2. Gender
    3. Personality type

The two biggest negative factors that you have going for you are:
    1. Family health
    2. Diet 

I agree that I defnitely need to improve my diet.  But it’s nice to know that my current weight is close to my ‘ideal’ and I don’t need to obsess about losing weight.

I have decided that I need to lose weight. I went to Diet Blog to calculate my daily calorie needs and I was discouraged. In order to lose fat, I need to limit my calorie intake to 920-1168 calories a day. That’s just like one lunch for me! John was right, I need to start working out. It’s just so hard to do it alone. I need someone who will force me to work out and work out with me. Yup, I don’t have that much will unfortunately.

Olympic Fact:
Michael Phelps, a great US swimmer at 6’4″, 195 lbs requires 8,000 to 10,000 calories daily!

I was introduced to the Chinese birth calendar by my pregnant co-worker. She came upon the calendar and all of us in the office tried and tested it. So far, it was right. I know nothing about the science behind it, if there is one. But it’s just amazing how it has been accurate most of the time. It has been mentioned that it is 99% accurate.

According to the calendar, my co-worker is having a boy. Since she wanted a boy, she was hoping so bad that the Chinese birth calendar is right. Last week, she had an appointment with her ob-gyn and guess what she’s having… a boy! Congratulations!

While we’re in the topic of pregnancy, I found a list of tales and myths regarding pregnancy for your curiosity. Remember these are just tales and myths.

My firt MRI wasn’t a bad experience at all.  But my experience almost got humiliating.

I get cold easily so I wear tights most of the time.  I admit, some of my tights have gotten holes over the years, but they’re still useable .  I did grab one of those tights that day I had my MRI.  Until a few minutes later, it came to me that they might ask me to remove my sneakers.  Thank goodness that occurred to me.  I changed my tights and prevented public humiliation.  There were a lot of people by the window who could see me while I was in the machine.

The machine was tighter than I expected.  But there was a mirror right on top of the eyes that allowed me to see the outside.  At first I closed my eyes, but a few minutes into the scanning, I noticed that it was easier for me to open my eyes and see what was going on outside.  It took my mind off things.  So don’t hesitate on opening your eyes.  I’m not claustrophobic by the way so I don’t know if opening your eyes would help if you are.

It’s been so long since I could touch a computer and really do something with it.  I’ve been sick since February 4.  After a few days, I thought I was better, but then a new symptom surfaced and I got worse.  Today is probably my least symptomatic day since the 4th.  But I still had the splitting headache this morning and cough throughout.  The headaches were the worst.  They were so painful that I could hardly move.  I could feel my pulse on my head.

I know I’ve mentioned about my ear earlier and most of my friends thought I was sick because of my ear.  No, I wasn’t.  The ear is a different problem I have to take care of.  I had to reschedule everything from my MRI to my doctor’s appointments this past 2 weeks because of my illness.

Sigh.  It’s getting a bit frustrating… after missing out on 3, possibly 4 classes, and running way behind work.  But hopefully tomorrow will be the beginning of another healthy episode of my life.

I want to thank everybody for their prayers and well wishes.  I greatly appreciate them.