This is a follow up to the guest post from two weeks ago, which you can read here. Thanks, Don, for your work on this. When your medical bills go to collection. As a rule, you do not want you medical accounts to go to collection. However, it is my experience that even if you are an honest person who...
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AFM reader, “EZ,” sent me an email with a link to this op-ed piece that was recently published in the New York Times. The op-ed piece was about how the bankruptcy process should be easier so that “American families torn apart by the economic upheavals of the last two years…&#...
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Interesting Jason Zweig piece in last weekend’s WSJ regarding dividends: Last year, the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index reduced their dividends by $48 billion. Today, payouts are running at an annual rate of $206 billion. So far, dividends are down 9.4% from 2009&#...
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File this under “Useless but Interesting Trivia” A little over a year ago, you could have purchased 10,000 shares of Pier 1 for $.10 each (YES…that’s TEN CENTS EACH) for a total investment of $1,000. At the close yesterday, those 10,000 shares would have been worth right at $...
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Interesting tidbit from this short article today’s WSJ: Warren Buffett gave his son enough to follow his dream, but not enough to do nothing. What would you have done if someone, very early in your adult life, had given you a free ticket to explore any career you wanted—but not enough to stop...
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Note: This post uses some sarcasm. You have been warned. I was perusing YouTube today and came across Ameriprise’s YouTube Channel. I watched a couple of videos from their “Client Stories” section. They almost gave me the warm fuzzies. They talk about various clients and what their...
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I was going through our stack of mail this morning and came across my wife’s copy of Ladies’ Home Journal. I picked it up and thumbed through it because I saw something about organization on the front cover, which went along with a post I did just a couple of days ago. While looking for...
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It’s Friday and I’m going to take a break from finance on this post and share with you a couple of music videos. This first one is one of my favorites: This one I saw on Russ Thornton’s facebook page. I have never really listened to Radiohead but I really like this song: This last...
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A couple of bad years can really bring down your average annual rate of return. Check out this graphic I posted nearly two years ago: Now here’s that same graphic updated through 2009: What a difference two years can make. It is important to note that Berkshire is currently trading at 122,...
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1. Money’s not everything but it is important. A life WITH money is certainly easier than a life without money. 2. Money won’t bring you happiness but it will pay the bills. 3. The simpler your life, the better. 4. Save AS MUCH AS YOU CAN while you’re young. One thing you can...
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Results from a landmark study involving more than 9,000 people showed that the high blood pressure medicine valsartan (Diovan) delayed progression to type 2 diabetes in patients with cardiovascular disease or risk factors and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), a common pre-diabetic condition. Read more...
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I grew up around the corner from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In high school, long ago, I thought that NIH scientists were "bad guys" who mistreated animals in the name of medical research. I later moved to the West Coast and became a registered obstetrical nurse. Over the years, along with...
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According to Duke University researchers, a mutation that causes the lack of an insulin-controlling molecule may be a factor in the development of type 2 diabetes. The molecule, ankyrin B, is activated in response to the smell and taste of food and leads to the production of insulin in preparation for...
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In a study that tracked 1,402 people with pre-diabetes, researchers found that only about half of them responded to the diagnosis by trying to shed weight or increase their level of exercise. Read more...
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At a two-day meeting (March 16 and 17, 2010) to review blood glucose meters, Food and Drug Administration officials and staff pointed to a number of issues that can prevent people from getting proper treatment and sought input from medical experts and industry on ways to improve test results with the...
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Every day, dozens of confused, laid-off workers call the privately-run COBRA Help Center in Long Island, N.Y., which administers COBRA group health insurance plans. They're struggling to understand whether they're eligible for federal subsidies. It's not surprising, says George Fox, a field...
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Dear Diabetes Health, I am a 55-year-old man who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes two years ago, and I think it made me depressed. The depression eventually got so bad that I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. My doctor referred me to the psych clinic, where they put me on Paxil (paroxetine...
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A group of Swedish researchers has found that men who consume more than the recommended daily amount of calcium are less likely to die than their counterparts who consume little calcium. Their study, titled "Dietary Calcium and Magnesium Intake and Mortality: A Prospective Study of Men," appears in...
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An article by Scottish researchers, published in the British medical journal Lancet, says that although people taking statins are nine percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, that risk is outweighed by the drug's ability to lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease. Read more...
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Allen, Texas - When Pam Henry's daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2003, she never even thought she would be part of something that could revolutionize health care. "When Sarah was diagnosed, my only goal was to do all I could to keep her as healthy as possible. What I created was...
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Listen to the NLM Director's Comments on Mobile MedlinePlus. The transcript is also available. Let me introduce you to Mobile MedlinePlus, a new service from the National Library of Medicine, that eases access to health and medical information for mobile device users...
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Watch a live webcast of reverse shoulder arthroplasty on March 17 at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Also, browse through links to prerecorded webcasts of surgical procedures. These are actual procedures performed at medical centers in the United States.
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Read the latest issue of the NIH MedlinePlus Magazine. Highlights include:DiverticulitisShingles Prostate Cancer Preventing SuicideTMJPersonalized Medicine
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Watch a live webcast of surgery for esophageal atresia (a problem in infants) on March 11 at 5:00 p.m. EST. Also, browse through links to prerecorded webcasts of surgical procedures. These are actual procedures performed at medical centers in the United States.
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Vitamins are substances that your body needs to grow and develop normally. Visit the new MedlinePlus Health Topic pages on: Vitamin AB VitaminsVitamin CVitamin DVitamin EVitamin K
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Visit the new MedlinePlus Health Topic page on finger injuries and disorders.You use your fingers and thumbs to do everything from grasping objects to playing musical instruments to typing on a keyboard. When there is something wrong with them, it can make life difficult...
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Visit the new MedlinePlus Health Topic page on fatigue.You‘re tired, weak, exhausted, weary, worn out. You have a lack of energy and as a result you feel distressed. You’re not functioning as well as you should. It’s called fatigue, and everyone feels it at times...
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Listen to the NLM Director's Comments on the stabilization of obesity levels. The transcript is also available. Two studies, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), suggest the obesity rate among American adults and children stayed the same for several years. However...
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March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. Learn more by visiting the traumatic brain injury topic page on MedlinePlus.
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The March issue of NIH News in Health is now available. Featured stories cover salt, blood pressure, and your health, as well as aneurysms. Also, check out the health capsules and the featured Web site.
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