The CDC estimates that there are 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses each year, and of that number more than 300,000 will be hospitalized and 5,000 will die.  Those are high numbers, especially considering these types of illnesses are very preventable. On Thursday we will all be sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner, and some of us will even contract one of these food-borne illnesses.  But there are things we can do to reduce our risk of of food-borne illness. 

In honor of Word Diabetes Day I've decided to do a blog roundup of women blogging diabetes.  Most are blogs by women who are living with diabetes, and others are women blogging about parenting a child with diabetes.  I've also included several informative links and resources at the end of this post. If you blog about living with diabetes or World Diabetes Day, please leave your link in comments. World Diabetes Day...

November is Epilepsy Awareness Month.  I hope this post will provide information and facts about epilepsy, while also showcasing women blogging about life with seizures. Here are some epilepsy facts from CURE Epilepsy...

For the past four years, the World Economic Forum has studied the gender gap - that is, the amount of resources dedicated to boys and girls and women's opportunities to fully participate in society - in over 100 countries, then ranked them. (In 2009, the Index included data from 134 nations. At least 12 of 14 indicators used for the Index must be available in order for a country to be included.) The goal, according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, is:

A sign posted at the Aspen OB/GYN Women's Center in Provo, Utah has many women up in arms. What's so offensive? Read for yourself. The sign reads as follows:

Last week, I wrote about a mother losing her unborn child to swine flu. This week, I'm going to write about the death of a thirteen year old boy. Am I trying to scare you? Hell, yeah.I wrote yesterday at Their Bad Mother about Evan Frustaglio, the thirteen year old Toronto boy who died suddenly from H1N1 this week:

You have to look out for the flu, do you hear me? You, and everyone you know. That may or may not mean getting a flu shot - more on that below - but either way, watch for it, cover your mouth, wash your hands, see the doctor... do whatever it takes to contain it. Especially if you are pregnant, or know someone pregnant, or might possibly one of these days sneeze on someone who is pregnant. Because those someones? Their lives - and the lives of their babies - depend on it.

October is National Chiropractic Month, and the American Chiropractic Association is encouraging families to consider trying chiropractic care as a treatment for several types of headaches. How do you feel about chiropractic health care?  Is it something you would consider for yourself and family?  Did you realize that seeing a chiropractor could be helpful for people who suffer with migraines and other types of headaches?

 It’s 10:00 p.m. and I am racing to bed. This is what I’ve always done since childhood—race to bed. I value sleep like currency. I love nothing more than to climb into tightly drawn covers; feel the smooth coolness of the sheets and let my head sink into a plump down pillow. The truth is—I am racing all day. I am starting a business and teaching and speaking and writing. I am cleaning and doing laundry and carpooling. Like most women, my days are one long race. But at the end of the day –around 6:00 p.m.--a kind of alarm goes off in my head and I become hyper-focused on the finish line that is blessed sleep! So I fumble through those last few matters that stand between me and dreamland---dinner, homework, dishes…10:30 is already late for me. But now my head has hit the pillow and I’m happy…and then, I am out. I am not out for long, however, before I am awakened by a familiar sound--- Ping-- Ping—Pinggg.

When my daughter was an infant, I was terrified to leave her alone to sleep. I'd heard the stories, seen the warnings, read all the statistics: young babies sometimes die. In their sleep. Inexplicably. And no known means of prevention.

Nothing, it seems, is safe any more. First it was lead paint on toys, then toxins in baby bottles, and then toxins in everything, and so, really, what's an anxious mother to do but PANIC, like, ALL THE TIME?And then panic some more when she sees headlines like this: Is Your Playground Toxic?

The swine flu vaccine will be available very soon, but there is still skepticism surrounding its safety. Generally, I have a strong opinion about these types of things, but my feelings about this vaccine are still uncertain.