WELLynx at Lesley University

Lesley's health and wellness initiative supporting staff, faculty, and students.

[npr]

Count the number of hours you sit each day. Be honest.

“If you commute an hour in the morning and hour after work — that’s two hours, and if you sit at an eight-hour-a-day desk job that’s 10,” says epidemiologist Loretta DiPietro of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

“Then you come home at, say, 6 p.m., eat dinner and crash into your recliner for another three to four hours,” says DiPietro. “That’s 13 to 14 hours of sitting.”

Being immobile like that for many hours each day does more than raise the risk of a host of diseases. DiPietro and her colleagues have good evidence that, as the years wear on, it actually reduces the ability of older people to get around on foot at all.

In a study of sitting and walking ability that surveyed people ages 50 to 71 across eight to 10 years, those who tended to sit the most and move the least had more than three times the risk of difficulty walking by the end of the study, when compared to their more active counterparts.

Home For The Holidays? Get Off The Couch!

Illustration: Lily Padula for NPR

[designinbiology]

The polluted brain

Some of the health risks of inhaling fine and ultrafine pollutant particles are well-established, such as asthma, lung cancer, and, most recently, heart disease. But a growing body of evidence suggests that such exposure can also harm the brain, accelerating cognitive aging, and may even increase risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

by Emily Underwood

for Science

brought to you by Graphic Services for Science and Graphic Biology

[politico]

When pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris opened her clinic in San Francisco’s largely African American neighborhood of Bayview-Hunter’s Point, she began to see many patients with behavioral problems like poor impulse control or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Seeking to unravel the underlying cause, she stumbled on scientific research into something called “toxic stress”—a phenomenon that helps explain how race and socioeconomic status affect our long-term health.

It turns out that adverse experiences in childhood, like being exposed to violence or having a parent incarcerated, can change the biology of children in ways that set them up for a life of poor health. Burke Harris is now working on a pilot project to figure out how to undo the damage of toxic stress—lessons that have applications far beyond the inner city, to children anywhere who grow up in adversity. Full video here

[infographicjournal]

ADHD in Children

Full size infographic - http://infographicjournal.com/adhd-in-children/

[micdotcom]

21 things you can do now to organize in your own community, brought to you by some of our generation’s leading activists and organizers.

1. Get familiar with your elected officials. Take a couple of minutes to double check your elected officials, their voting records and public stances. Whether you agree with them politically or not, learning a bit more about elected officials can be an effective way to understand and humanize them. Find your elected representatives here. — Mallika Madhusudan

2. Call and meet with your representatives. Politics is local, so contact your elected representatives on issues that matter to you. Whether it’s a member of your local school board or your senator, here’s how to do that effectively. Document your meetings on social media, on a podcast, in video or in writing. What did you discuss? What did you learn? How did it change your opinion or make you see things in a new way? Elected officials regularly review phone calls from constituents to get a sense of how they should vote. So this absolutely matters. Make your voice heard. Literally. — Mark Kogan

3. Lead a protest at your representative’s local office. Hashtag protests might get us likes, but they rarely change policy. Remember, most elected officials are not savvy on social media. So if you really want to make your voice heard, gather a group of friends and lead a protest outside your elected official’s local office. Call your local television station before you do so and make sure they bring their cameras. Alert reporters at local media companies and make sure they write about it. Even a group as small as 20 people can make a big difference if they are vocal and get attention. This kind of pressure becomes impossible for elected officials to ignore. — Mark Kogan

4. Run for office. There are over a half million elected officials in our country, and elections happen every year! Check out the new site RunforOffice.org or RunforAmerica.us to get started. Maybe it’s for your school board, town council, neighborhood commission or something else. Running for office is the highest expression of citizenship and one of the most important contributions to our system of self-government. — Nick Troiano

5. Take action every day. Sign up at www.FightTrump.co to receive a single action you can take every day. For example, this week you can call members of Congress and read them excerpts from Breitbart stories to protest Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon to the White House. #FightTrump will send you actions you can do every week, every month and after Jan. 20, when Trump actually takes power. Get involved. Act. — Mark Kogan

6. Understand your local and state voting processes. Registering to vote is not as easy as it sounds — particularly for certain demographics, those without access to driver’s licenses or those without easy access to online or mobile registration. Investigate how people different from you experience voting. Learn about the challenges they face, such as voter suppression and disenfranchising regulations. — Shreya Ganeshan

7. Construct local monuments. When the Berlin Wall fell and so many countries were freed from Soviet-style communism, some of the first actions they took were to bury the dead, lay flowers at important public spaces and consecrate the public spaces that were now sacred sites for new democracies. Communities in profound political transition need to mourn. What are the sacred spaces in our communities right now — those that remind us what democracy means and why we will fight to keep it alive? How do we consecrate them and make them into places where we can all continue to meet and remember why we care about this country so much? — Szelena Gray

8. Fight to reform our political system. The operating system of our democracy needs an upgrade. Many of the structural incentives work to push us apart rather than bring us together. Support groups that are working to reform our political process. For example, FairVote is working on redistricting reform, Electoral College reform and voting reform. Some of these reforms can start at a local level. — Nick Troiano

9. Meet your fellow Americans. Try to meet and hold discussions with people unlike you. Get to know your fellow Americans. Strike up pen-pal connections or organize Skype and FaceTime chats with folks in different communities from your own. Focus on discussing tough issues and getting to know what is important to one another. — Mark Kogan

10. Move your money. Donating to worthy causes is an important way to make change. But if you don’t have a bunch of money to spare, commit to changing the way you spend the money you do have. Support black-owned businesses. Or consider moving your bank account from a large bank to a community bank or credit union. I recommend Amalgamated Bank. — Joelle Gamble

11. Commit to national service. Serve your community and the country by participating in public service. Participate in projects that emphasize community building and recovery. You don’t have to join the military or AmeriCorps: Find a local community project or state effort, meet people and help improve the lives of the people around you. — Mark Kogan

12. Make a plan for civic purpose. Check out Pathways, a nonpartisan civic leadership program. It’s a unique approach that provides a space where people can identify, plan and make moves toward their civic purpose. The idea is that people have to identify and own their decisions themselves, not be persuaded what to do. It’s intentionally nonpartisan and uses methodologies from several fields to design a program structure that is as empowering as possible. — Alex Torpey, Pathways program director

13. Disrupt the two-party duopoly. Both parties are over 150 years old! They no longer represent most Americans. We’re the generation that has revolutionized virtually every other industry, and it’s time we did the same for politics. A majority of millennials are political independents who consider themselves “fiscally conservative and socially liberal.” The Centrist Project is organizing this movement. Get involved and help shape it. — Nick Troiano, Centrist Project executive director

14. Exit your bubble. Diversify your news sources. Use an aggregator like RealClearPolitics for daily opinion pieces across the political spectrum. If you’re conservative-leaning, get a subscription to the New York Times. If you’re progressive-leaning, get a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Recognize that your social media feed is likely an echo chamber and proactively work to challenge your thinking. — Nick Troiano

15. Learn from work being done globally. There is incredible work being done overseas, which provides valuable insights that can be applied to doing better community empowerment in the United States. So much “development” at home and abroad ignores the agency of a particular community. Organizations like Spark MicroGrants do really amazing jobs at being authentically community driven. — Alex Torpey

16. “Bring us together.” Richard Nixon adopted this slogan during his campaign after his aides saw a teenager carrying a sign with those words during a rally in Ohio. This should be the message we bring to every elected official after 2016. Bring us together, please. Make this the next political sign on your lawn, the next branded message on your social media profile — just make it the next thing you ask your elected official to do. Because it is the single most important thing for any of our leaders to do now. — Szelena Gray

17. Rebuild the Democratic Party. Go join that Democratic town committee you once joked about being a retirement home, and get your friends to come. Find your state offices and ask them for a calendar of events. Recruit the bravest, smartest people you know to run for local office. Or maybe you should run. Challenge elected officials in both parties to do better. Swamp their offices, jam their phone lines, list your demands. — Frank Chi

18. Go home more often. This Thanksgiving, remember that even one’s own family members and friends might be outside your political-thinking bubble. Acceptance and change can be hard without any exposure but might be easier coming from a loved one. Are you a transplant to a city from a small town or rural area? Do you work on this every day but your family in the suburbs doesn’t think about it much? Visit your family, visit other people’s families, share what’s important to you and organize within them. We need to show our representatives that we value compromise and coming together. —  Adrienne Scott and Brenna Conway

19. Stay woke. Rhetoric can persuade and mislead. As a new administration takes hold, there will be a flood of talk about what will and will not come out of Washington. Our job is to pay attention now, not a few weeks before the next election. Politicians can make promises and change stances. But actions speak louder than words. Learn who is being put in charge of government, research their background and see if what actions they talk about actually align with the change you hope to see. Sign up for listservs and updates from organizations who care about government accountability. Follow organizations who have a mission of fighting for the communities you care about. — Joelle Gamble

20. Challenge others to keep caring. A lot of people are really upset right now — far beyond individuals who are generally politically engaged and even beyond those who generally vote. Keep bugging your friends, family and neighbors to stay engaged. When you do something political or issue-driven, bring someone along. — Dominic Russel

21. Activate your skill set and leverage your expertise. Are you a creative in advertising? Design the resistance. Are you a developer in tech? Create technology for organizers. Are you in entertainment and work with celebrities who are outraged? Make sure they amplify the voices of those on the front lines. We shouldn’t all be doing just one thing. We should all be doing what we are best at. Moments like this require us to ask what we are experts on and how we can maximize our skill sets and our networks to make the most impact. — Frank Chi

(full article)

[pagingmedicine]

Tough conversations.

“I love you mom, I’ll miss you when I’m at camp!” Scrawled on the poster hanging in her room. 

 A wife and mother, obviously dearly loved and only 45.  The previous night I promised to give the cytology results as soon as we knew. “At least for now no news is good news, and I have one less night to worry,” she revealed. Her perspective was completely the opposite of most patients or my own. 

Mid morning I heard from my attending,  the cytology was positive for malignancy. The team - myself (the intern), my senior, the attending and the medical students - apprehensively crossed the threshold of her room. Privately the team was devastated. Graciously my senior agreed to run the meeting. Revealing a devastating diagnosis is anxiety inducing for anyone. It’s still hard for me to contain my emotion as a provider with these conversations, I am getting better - and experience is helping. Her eyes were red with fresh tears and heartbreak. She knew. 

By chance, or not, our grand rounds earlier that morning was on conversations in serious illness. It seems like in medicine as soon as I learn something, or a grand rounds/noon conference etc is presented, I can apply it.  We discussed the tool that I’ve included in this post which was published  in this article Communication About Serious Illness Care Goals: A Review and Synthesis of Best Practices in JAMA 2014. 

As I listened to my senior gently walk through these questions, my heart broke for her.  She was strong and wanted to fight with another round of chemo - we discussed her goals, wishes and tradeoffs. 

I’ve now used this tool several times and to be honest each time I have this conversation, the responses intrigue me and almost surprise me at times. Most of what I would’ve assumed, would have been wrong. It’s humbling and reassuring that the patients have made their decisions prior to ever needing them. 

I recently finished Being Mortal by Atul Gawande where he discussed Dr. Susan Block using this tool with her father. (I highly suggest this book to everyone in medicine or not.) She was surprised, and relieved that she had this conversation with her father. It made her decisions easier, because they weren’t her decisions they were her fathers. 

As we are starting a new year,I encourage you to try this tool as a conversation guide. The guide was meant to use with clinic patients or during post hospital visits, but some of the language is helpful for family meetings, especially the opening. It’s certainly helped me, I used to loathe these conversations. But as the year moved on and I became more comfortable with end of life, these conversations became more tolerable and important to me. 

[cranquis]

End-of-life/serious illness discussions are a learned skill, and a vital one that so many healthcare professionals still don’t know how to do well.

[wellynx]

this tool is primarily for medical practitioners, but can be adapted to conversations with family members confronting serious illness

[wellynx]

Lesley University announces the Michael Brown Stay-on-Track Fund

an excerpt from the campus announcement:

We are very pleased to announce the creation of a modest grant fund to support low-income undergraduate students who need a one-time cash grant to help them remain enrolled and on-track toward degree completion here at Lesley.

This fund will provide emergency grants of up to $100 to first- and second-year students with demonstrated financial need and a GPA of at least 2.5. These grants can help cover the costs of public transportation, textbooks, basic living expenses or some other short-term financial challenge that might jeopardize a student’s continuing enrollment.

We are naming this the Michael Brown Stay-on-Track Fund in memory of Michael Brown, a young African-American man from Ferguson, Mo., who was fatally shot by a police officer. This incident highlighted a national epidemic of similar fatalities visited upon many other young people of color.

Low-income young people have limited opportunities for a good education, including college.  We want to recruit qualified low-income students to Lesley, and we want them to succeed and earn their degrees.  As Lesley continues to enroll a racially and economically diverse student body, we understand the financial obstacles our students sometimes face – not just paying tuition and fees, but also encountering an occasional cash flow challenge.

These small grants will be financed by contributions to the fund from all of us – administrators, faculty, staff and alumni.  Even a small gift can make a large difference for a student struggling financially. You can help students in need immediately by clicking here.

[wellynx]

This Website Will Sell Stuff From Your Failed Relationship — Design News

Life changes often bring on the need to purge, and that's especially true after a breakup. Never Liked It Anyway is like eBay for the jilted—now you can get rid of the stuff that reminds you of your old lover, vent, and make some cash in the process.

this is awesome...

[wellynx]

All the Hardest Things About Adult Friendships (And How to Deal with Them)

Among the list of myriad things that get more difficult as you get older–like sitting up from a low chair or touching your toes–is making and maintaining friendships. I know my own relationship dynamics have gotten a bit more difficult than just sharing a juice box at recess.

[wellynx]

3 Weird Consequences Of Not Getting Enough Sleep

You probably already know that being sleep-deprived will make you cranky. But as this new Happify infographic explains, going without a good night's sleep can change your personality in some more unexpected ways, too. 1. You're less optimistic. It's tough to think positively about a new day when

we’ve shared this info before, but we’re sharing it again - psychological and emotional effects of lack of sleep

[girlsforgenderequity-blog]

Sign the Letter #EveryBlackGirlMatters

Dear Shakara and Niya,

We love you. Dearly. Fiercely. Passionately. Without apologies or compromise. You are beautiful young women with bright futures, and we are here to affirm your right to live in peace and dignity. You are descendants of Black women and girls who, for centuries, survived in a world designed to cause harm and pain whenever and wherever possible. Despite the mounting obstacles they have faced, they overcame with fearless resiliency. This is your legacy and their Black magic runs through your veins. You are part of an enduring cultural fabric of Black Womanhood – an embodiment that thrives on everlasting bonds between our ancestors, our friends and family, and those who will soon come. You are a precious gem and you deserve to be cared for with love and compassion. You deserve safety at home, on the streets, and in school. You have the right to learn and grow in environments that will support you; in schools with teachers and administrators that will protect and nurture you physically, mentally, and emotionally.

We are sorry that violence and brutal force are often used against you. We do not condone any form of violence, and particularly condemn adults who harm children. Such violence is the product of centuries of generational violence carried out against Black women and girls. Unfortunately, this violence is common and Black youth are particularly at risk. Black girls in schools like yours all over the country are criminalized, suspended unfairly, and are introduced to the criminal justice system for the most minor of infractions. This is unacceptable!

              But we’re here for you. We’re here to tell you that you matter.

That’s why we fight, protest, petition, and demand that school administrators, faith leaders, politicians, and other people in positions of power ensure the protection of Every Black Girl. When we say #BLACKLIVESMATTER, you are included in this affirmation.

We love you. We are here to fight for you. This stops now and we’re coming. This current movement is for you.

Niya, please continue to speak up and out! Continue to stand when others don’t. You did what others were too afraid to do. The great poet Audre Lorde wrote: “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” Thank you for speaking - we need to hear your voice. You are the difference! Remember that anytime someone tries to silence you.

To every black girl in America - we may not know each of you by name, but we see you and we love you too. You are beautiful and magical. May you always feel safe wherever you go.

Love, Your Community

To sign onto this letter, please click here: http://bit.ly/everyblackgirl

[blacklivesmatter-blog]

Spread the word and Support bit.ly/EveryBlackGirl #EveryBlackGirl #WhyWeCantWait #SayHerName #BlackLivesMatter

[disabilityhorizons]

Ultimate Hacking Keyboard on Crowdsupply

Crowdfunder aimed at programmers but this could help many disabled people. It has completely reprogrammable keys for gaming, coding and using hot keys.  Being able to mount the keyboard in halves so they’re beside your hips instead of needing to lift your arms might also make it a lot easier to type for some people.

More from their page:

“The keyboard for professionals.

Increase your productivity by never leaving the home row.

Improve your posture by typing on two, separate keyboard halves.

Remap your keys in any way you want.

Experience how a keyboard can be different, yet familiar.

The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard is a split mechanical keyboard which utilizes Cherry MX-style switches. It’s also a fully programmable keyboard which can be vastly customized for your needs. If you need a compact, ergonomic keyboard or are looking for the perfect programming keyboard, look no further!

Increased Ergonomics

Two keyboard halves result in a more natural typing posture - rather than forcing your wrists to adapt to a straight keyboard, you can adjust your keyboard so that your wrists are straight. The halves are connected by a bridge cable which expands and shrinks as needed, occupying minimal desk space.

The halves connect together securely as one piece, which is useful for transportation purposes or if you happen to prefer a one-piece keyboard.

When connected, you can unplug the bridge cable since there are connectors right between the halves that firmly mate upon connection.

Improved Productivity

For maximum touch-typing productivity, you should never leave the home row. Most keyboards have their keys arranged into various blocks, forcing you to leave the home row quite often to access navigation and function keys. The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, as you will see below, solves this problem with layers.

Thanks to the compact design, reaching the mouse is also faster, as your hands only need to travel the minimum distance required.

Built to Last

High-end mechanical key-switches are used for a flawless typing experience. Unlike the switches of regular keyboards, these provide a satisfying tactile feel. They endure not 5 but 50 million keystrokes, do not degrade over their lifetime, and are replaceable.

The halves are connected by precision-machined, hardened-steel guides mounted to the stainless steel plates that form the endoskeleton of the keyboard. These guides, combined with a pair of neodymium magnets, not only result in a smooth connect/split experience but also create supreme durability.”

Check out the main page for videos and tech details.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/ugl/ultimate-hacking-keyboard

[disabilityhorizons]

Resource pdf. Downloadable guide to help parents of children with severe intellectual and/or communication difficulties understand how pain may affect their child. 

It does so by explaining possible causes of pain in children with intellectual disability, presenting information about how pain may be shown by children who cannot tell us they are in pain and discussing the effects of untreated pain.

http://w3.cerebra.org.uk/help-and-information/guides-for-parents/pain-in-children-with-severe-intellectual-disability-a-guide-for-parents/

[wellynx]

What To Do When You Catch A Liar

It’s a hard fact to accept, but your friends and coworkers lie to you regularly. The real challenge lies in how you respond once you catch someone in

[wellynx]

Are Good Habits The Secret To Success?

At this point, most of us can agree that work-life balance is a total lie. It's nearly impossible to get it all done — but that doesn't mean we're not going to put in some Leslie Knope-level effort. Ahead, we interviewed eight successful women who shared the good habits that have made their work

this a great post - give it a look-see

[wellynx]

These 25 Jobs Have The Best Work-Life Balance

The dream: A job you love, that also allows you to have plenty of time to spend with your friends and family. That’s not always easy to find, especially in today’s hyper-connected work force, where many employees walk a tightrope between their professional and personal lives. Unless you’re a

[wellynx]

Bond over this 15-minute partner workout with The Fhitting Room and SLT

Grab your significant other or BFF. The final workout in our fitness mash-up series—to celebrate our upcoming Fitness Biathlon—has you toning in tandem.