Blog Posts by Subject: Health and Medicine

This past Sunday, I spent the morning in Central Park participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I was not the only librarian there. Turns out, there's a New York Public Library team that walks every year. It was not my first time there, either. This was my third breast cancer walk since moving to New York City three years ago.

So this month, as I asked family and friends for donations, I began thinking about cancer in general. There's a few books that I've read over the last few years that have inspired me to join the fight to end cancer, so I thought I might share a few of these titles with you. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, they are books that will 

Lions International, working with other organizations that fight blindness, commemorated the first World Sight Day in 1998. Since then, it has been observed throughout the world on the second Thursday of each year; the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness are the chief coordinating agencies at present. Communities and organizations have initiated activities to support the main goal: to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of those with visual impairments. This year, the New York Public Library is working with partner agencies to join in this important work of raising awareness of 

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is a 2011 update of a 2004 research guide from the Mid-Manhattan Library. A printable version is available to download.

The library is no stranger to babies, toddlers, moms and dads. For many expecting parents, right after leaving the clinic or doctor's office the very next stop is the public library, where resources abound on studying the stages of pregnancy, the essentials of parenting, and sharing with other moms and dads the joys and anxieties of childbirth.

Would you like to learn how to knit or improve your bird watching skills? The DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Division currently holds over 100 hobbies and leisure activities magazines for hobbyists, amateurs and enthusiasts alike.  

Another year has passed and with the beginning of the New Year comes the excitement of a “fresh start” – the endless possibilities for what we can do and achieve in the 365 days that lay ahead of us.

October was designated National Breast Cancer Awareness Month back in 1985, and over the past 25 years has grown to include a huge number of organizations and individuals all working together to promote awareness and understanding of the disease and provide greater access to screening services.

I do not consider myself a vain woman, having survived a sufficient passage of decades to have arrived at the wisdom to know that a person's interior is of paramount importance to his/her exterior. My rather corpulent, weary-countenanced physical being does not interfere with my primary aspirations in life: to become a published writer (what a wonderful feeling, I imagine, to issue a school theatre ticket discount slip for one of my plays or to place a hold on a book I've written!), continue to strive to be the best besotted aunt in history and function as an indentured servant to my dog and two cats), so I have not, hitherto, placed "weight loss" nor 

After a disaster destroys the city she loves and kills her family, fifteen-year-old Green is left with nothing; the life she once had turned to ashes just like the ashes covering her once lush garden.

If you think you can’t afford, or don’t qualify for low cost or free health insurance, maybe it’s time to get the facts. 

Too many people don’t know whether they qualify or not because they’re misinformed about existing programs offered by the city, state and federal government. 

Alvaro Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of SharpBrains and co-author (with Elkhonon Goldberg) of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews to Keep your Brain Sharp will be discussing the growing field of research in this area at two NYPL locations this coming week: Wednesday, September 23, 10 A.M. at Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road; and, Friday, September 25, 1:30 P.M. at the

Are you caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease? Or perhaps you are watching a loved one who seems to be developing symptoms, and you wonder what the future holds?

HBO Documentary Films recently produced a 4-part film series entitled The Alzheimer’s Project (you can stream the videos from the link). I borrowed all the films and spent an evening watching them at home, wanting to immerse myself totally in the experience.

Wow.

Poets named for hospitals is a very short list.

In fact, Edna St. Vincent Millay is probably the only major poet who would be on such a list. Frankly, I can't think of anyone else named for a hospital, let alone a poet, and if you know of one, please let us all know in a comment.

Edna's uncle's life was saved by the staff of St. Vincent Hospital shortly before Edna's birth in Rockland, Maine -- consequently, Edna's middle name. Somehow this still seems odd. What if her uncle had been saved at Mt. Sinai? Columbia-Presbyterian?

Appropriately, Edna, or Vincent, as she liked to be called, came into her own in the Village, living in the famous narrowest house of the city 

They are all topics of programs or workshops for adults coming up at various New York Public Library locations over the next few months!

Leg warmers will be knitted at the Chatham Square Library in Chinatown. Wakefield Library in the north Bronx will host a useful series of free food preparation workshops by Cornell University Cooperative Extension Program. St. George Library Center on Staten Island will be the place to meet 6 wrestling champions, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem will present a live screening of the 2009 Inauguration Ceremony.

And there are over 400 other free programs and classes for adults listed. Flamenco, English Sword 

A few weeks ago I attended an institute in Massachusetts and heard Margie E. Lachman, a professor at Brandeis University and Chair of the Department of Psychology & Lifespan Lab there, speak about cognitive and physical changes as we grow older. She was very forthright about the bad news, while being optimistic about the good news.

Let's get the bad news over with, shall we? Yes, aging does bring declines in both physical and cognitive health. But the good news is that you can increase protective factors which will minimize or even compensate for the declines.

The factors which protect against physical declines are: getting a good education; having a high 

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is the noblest; Second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. —Confucius

The New England Lifelong Access Libraries Leadership Institute took place in Newton, Massachusetts on December 1-2, 2008. Over 40 librarians from throughout New England attended, with the goal of getting tools, resources, and ideas to help them enhance public library services for older adults in their communities. I had the opportunity to attend and have written more extensive notes which you will find on the Lifelong Access blog. You will find slides from most of the presentations 

After attending a recent staff training session offered by the library's Office of Staff Development, I decided to return to a habit of my childhood--eating sardines.

The training, entitled Use It or Lose It: The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness, was presented by Alvaro Fernandez of the company SharpBrains. He filled us in on cutting-edge research in the field of brain fitness, covering an impressive amount in less than two hours, making it fun, interesting and memorable. This last in the most literal sense, that is, making the scientific details vivid enough that we can remember them.

In discussing foods and supplements that may help the brain, 

If I could choose a time and place to get old(er), I very well might choose the present time in New York City. Why the present? There are just so many of us over 50 at this time in history that I feel I am part of a seething throng (see right). We have power, resources, panache—I could go on and on. Plus, the global Age-Friendly Cities Project, initiated by the World Health Organization, has been gaining momentum and spreading, making the world age-friendlier one city at a time.

And exactly why would I want to age in New York? Our NYC is only the second city in the U.S.—after Portland, Oregon—that has taken up the gauntlet and joined the Age-Friendly 

Disturbing news from the NY Daily News this morning: Diabetes takes grim toll on New York. "New Yorkers are dying from diabetes at an alarming rate despite city efforts to stem the disease." Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden "blamed bad habits, like overeating, not exercising and smoking as major culprits, as well as a failure to control cholesterol and blood pressure."

"Diana Berger, a Brooklyn diabetic and city expert on the subject, said one of the biggest obstacles to controlling diabetes is stress."

How, with the stress of the holiday season rapidly approaching, and the many meals involved in our celebrations, do we begin to