Month: March 2011
Where this week
Natural balance
New perspectives
Weekend’s here
Breast best
Mitigating radiation’s harm
With news headlines dominated by problems at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, it may be an opportunity to better understand how radiation exposure can be mitigated. While there are many effects on the body from radioactive particles, a key form of fatal exposure involves contracting thyroid cancer. This can occur because the thyroid gland naturally absorbs harmful radioactive iodine, an important byproduct of nuclear materials, when exposure occurs. Absorption can be limited, however, by avoiding contaminated foods and immediately flooding the thyroid with iodine, via low-cost potassium iodide tablets. Learn more about this technique at Radiation Precautions.
Informed work choices
Researchers at the The Australian National University in Canberra have concluded that having no job may be healthier than being stuck in a bad one. While this news may be initially unwelcome by people struggling to find work and meet financial commitments, it turns out to be important to understanding how employment decisions can affect our health and quality of life. The findings underscore the importance of informed choice in work-related decisions and call into question common ideas about finding work at all costs. The researchers conclude that work conditions with low control, insecurity, and poor pay are more likely to reduce well-being, compared with not working. Learn more about the study and its implications for you at Work Choices.
Veggie berrie
Healthy humility
There is good reason to believe that humans are naturally biased toward optimism and confidence – and their close cousins, pride and grandiosity. While this trait may have provided survival advantages during our long life on the plains of Africa, it can be an important barrier to optimal choices and progressive well-being in advanced society. It also suggests why increasing self-awareness is so closely associated with both increasing humility and improved quality of life. A short but interesting piece that touches on research into this natural eccentricity of ours is at The Modesty Manifesto.