Anybody on GBB have any personal experience (or a relative/friend) who has gotten any LASIK eye surgery? What did they think of it? Any downsides, etc?

I use contacts and glasses and am perfectly happy as is, but I noticed this was one of the perks from my health insurance and always wondered whether I should bite the bullet and get it.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

DD, both a good friend and my niece have gotten it. The results were instantaneous and excellent. I wanted to get it done, but as I now have progressive lenses, the doctor said I would still need reading glasses, so it didn't pay to have the surgery.

No downside/side effects? That's my main concern.

They didn't have any at all. As a matter of fact, my friend was impressed with how instantaneous the results were. His only regret? That he waited so long to have it.

Thanks for sharing.

NEW YORK (AP) - An environmental group said Wednesday that the caramel coloring used in Pepsi still contains a worrisome level of a carcinogen, even after the drink maker said it would change its formula.

In March, PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. both said they would adjust their formulas nationally after California passed a law mandating drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens come with a cancer warning label. The changes were made for drinks sold in California when the law passed.

The chemical is 4-methylimidazole, or 4-Mel, which can form during the cooking process and, as a result, may be found in trace amounts in many foods.

Watchdog group The Center for Environmental Health found via testing that while Coke products no longer test positive for the chemical, Pepsi products sold outside of California still do.

^^Not surprised. I stopped drinking soda years ago.

Of course, now there are about three studies that state that taking too many omega 3 fatty acid supplements may enhance one's chance of getting prostate cancer.

I eat alot of tuna each week and I am cutting back on it. I used to take fish oil supplements, but haven't over the past few months. My prostate antigen is only 1.4.

I also saw that. WTF. I used to take two omega 3 fish oil capsules daily but am cutting back (started today) to just one.

Why do women live longer than men? This site provides some interesting clues:

http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/men/11-reasons-men-die-sooner-than-women#1

You mean it's not because we are harder workers, more intelligent, more beautiful, wiser, agreeable, helpful, and able to do more than one thing at time??? Hmmm




TIS

Well, this article may not answer your question, but I thought you'd probably applaud it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinio...amp;src=me&

Ha ha ha! Good article Oli. I'm guessing your wife would be in total agreement with me no?

Have a great weekend!!!!



TIS

If we talk for both health and science, these are very closely interrelated with each other. As new inventions affect positively on health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does the survey each year, and recently released 2012 results.

At least 30 percent of adults were obese in 13 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. In 2011, a dozen states reached that threshold.

Not only heart attacks. My buddy after having a lunch hour meet had to leave very rapidly and went out the window and onto the steel fire escape where he slipped and fractured his leg. He didn't make it back to work and would have to explain the short paycheck to his wife in addition to the leg. He told her he went to a bar for a sandwich and a beer. She bought that and then talked to an attorney about starting a lawsuit and he had a hard time stopping that

MONDAY, Sept. 9 (HealthDay News) -- While the rate of obesity among U.S. children seems to have leveled off, the number who are "severely obese" continues to rise, according to the American Heart Association.

Some 5 percent of children and teens now fall into this category, putting them at high risk for premature heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the researchers report in an American Heart Association scientific statement published in the Sept. 9 online edition of Circulation.

"We are defining a new class of pediatric obesity called 'severe' obesity," said lead researcher Aaron Kelly, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis.

"This type of obesity is different than traditional obesity and overweight in children," he said. "It is an extreme form of obesity."

Children are considered severely obese if they have a body mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile for their sex and age, or a BMI of 35 or higher. BMI is a measure of weight in relation to height, and a child in the 95th percentile weighs more than 95 percent of other children the same sex and age.

Study of mice suggests people with lung cancer or at risk for the disease should avoid these supplements.
By Serena Gordon HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay News) -- Smokers and other people at high risk for lung cancer could make matters worse if they take antioxidant supplements, a new study of rodents suggests.

Antioxidants appear to accelerate cancer progression by short-circuiting one of the body's key immune responses to malignant cells, researchers from Sweden report.

Normal doses of vitamin E and smaller doses of the antioxidant supplement acetylcysteine increased the growth of tumors in mice with early lung cancer, the researchers reported in the Jan. 29 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

"We found that antioxidants caused a threefold increase in the number of tumors, and caused tumors to become more aggressive," senior author Dr. Martin Bergo said during a Tuesday news conference. "Antioxidants caused the mice to die twice as fast, and the effect was dose-dependent. If we gave a small dose, tumors grew a little. If we gave a high dose, tumors grew a lot."

Apparently, size does matter:

http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=4&...65-06d1fc846ec9

From MSN:

(HealthDay News) -- It's said you can never be too rich or too thin, but new research suggests otherwise. People who are clinically underweight face an even higher risk for dying than obese individuals, the study shows.

Compared to normal-weight folks, the excessively thin have nearly twice the risk of death, researchers concluded after reviewing more than 50 prior

(Reuters) - Illinois children and adults with epilepsy will soon be allowed to use marijuana to ease their symptoms under a law signed on Sunday by Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, the latest in a series of measures loosening restrictions on cannabis by U.S. states.

The move to add epilepsy and other seizure disorders to the list of conditions legal to treat with marijuana or its extracts comes as numerous states have made medical use of the drug legal. Two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized its recreational use.

“This new law will help alleviate the suffering of many adults and children across the state,” Quinn said in statement. “Epilepsy is a debilitating condition, and this much-needed relief will help to reduce some of its symptoms for those who endure seizures."

Diabetes drug could increase lifespan: Study©AFP/Relaxnews // ©AFP/Relaxnews

A new study sheds new light on a diabetes drug that controls glucose, suggesting it could have preventative capabilities and even increase lifespan. A large-scale study conducted by researchers at Cardiff University says that type 2 diabetes patients live longer than people without the disease thanks to surprising benefits of their medication, metformin, which could be expanded for use in non-diabetics.

Murmurs of metformin's attributes had been circulating within the scientific community, and the findings of the Cardiff study not only build on its benefits but are of particular interest due to the massive sample size of 180,000 participants.

Researchers compared survival rates of type 2 diabetes patients taking metformin, a first-line therapy, with those of patients on a less-prescribed diabetes drug called sulphonylurea, known for undesirable side effects such as weight gain and hypoglycemia.

By Sean D. Hamill / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A team of Pittsburgh researchers has discovered a genetic mutation that aided the spread of breast cancer in a patient, an exciting discovery that may provide guidance for how to treat women with the disease in the future, according to a study announced today at a breast cancer symposium in San Antonio.

The team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and the Magee-Womens Research Institute used tumor tissue samples collected at UPMC hospitals over the last two decades that allowed researchers to track the spread of the disease in six patients.

All six patients had surgery to remove the initial tumor, and were determined to be disease free, only to have the cancer recur and ultimately kill them. Recurrence of breast cancer after surgery occurs in about 30 percent of patients.