Blog Posts by Subject: Health and Medicine

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive degenerative disease. Actually it can be viewed as a group of disorders that results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior and affects approximately 4 million Americans and as many as 15 million through out the world. Medical care, education and a support strategy can make the difference and help family and loved ones cope.

Every year, spring sparks my desire to get out of my stuffy apartment, stretch my legs, and enjoy what the city has to offer. I want to enjoy a little time outside or find an event that requires some movement.

In the film The Truth About Cats & Dogs there is a scene where Janeane Garafalo’s character Abby is at a cosmetics counter in a department store. Abby has been dragged there by her new friend and total opposite Noelle, played by Uma Thurman. The salesperson warns Abby of the dire condition her skin is in and how she can take action to counter her “huge pore” situation. Abby quips that it sounds more like the salesperson is planning to stage a military coup rather than advise her on her skin.

A woman came into the Library's Center for Reading and Writing, where she was enrolled in a basic literacy class. Visibly shaken, she pulled a staff member aside and confided that she wasn’t sure if she would be able to continue in the class. She had felt some pain in her breast, and her doctor had recommended that she have a mammogram. Not having any idea what a mammogram was, she understood it to mean that she had cancer. The staff member showed her how to find information about mammograms in library books and online. After consulting these resources, she went to her next doctor's appointment knowing what to expect and what questions to ask.

To commemorate National Family Caregivers Month, I asked bioethicist, educator and author Viki Kind to submit a blog post. She chose an excerpt on the topic of "care-grieving" from her book, The Caregiver's Path to Compassionate Decision Making: Making Choices for Those Who Can't. Also see Viki's website, Kind Ethics.

Now that the ING New York City Marathon has wrapped up, here are some titles to inspire you to take on next year’s marathon, or to participate vicariously through them. Some runners like to listen to long audiobooks to while away the hours spent training. Of course, you can always read them and just consider it sports nutrition for your mind.

As the holidays are slowly creeping in the corner, starting this week, we are often reminded of this unwelcoming annual maelstrom of booking trips, planning family gatherings and get-togethers with friends and loved ones at a time of maximum anxiety.  We find ourselves dangerously flirting with "stress" and "tension" as another year has come and gone. 

Readers of my prior blog posts will already be well versed in the fact that exercise and a healthy diet are not really my forte. Oh, I do perform what I like to regard as "modified calisthenics" when shelving books on the lower and upper shelves of my local library (although I am sure Richard Simmons would likely disagree with my characterization of that duty as officially "exercise"). And I like to think of my escorting a patron to a particular section of the library as "quasi power walking."

In 1933 — the same year he was first contacted by Franz Boas about funding for scientific studies to subvert anti-Semitic claims spreading through Europe and America — banker and New York Foundation Trustee Felix Warburg also began receiving letters requesting his assistance from the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Physicians and Medical Scientists. At that time, the German National Socialist party had begun to push "non-Aryan" doctors out of practice, and in October 1938 all Jewish physicians' licenses were revoked. While many of these ostracized doctors remained in Germany, living in poverty, others were able to leave and sought employment 

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.