Wellness & Healthy Living – Simple Guide to Balanced Life

  How is it that the United States spends the most money on healthcare, and yet still has the one of the lowest life expectancies of all developed nations? (To be specific: $9,400 per capita, 79 years, and 31st.) Maybe those of us in healthcare have been looking at it all wrong, for too long. Healthy lifestyle and longevity Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health  conducted a massive study  of the impact of health habits on life expectancy, using data from the well-known Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). This means that they had data on a huge number of people over a very long period of time. The NHS included over 78,000 women and followed them from 1980 to 2014. The HPFS included over 40,000 men and followed them from 1986 to 2014. This is over 120,000 participants, 34 years of data for women, and 28 years of data. The researchers looked at NHS and HPFS data on diet, physical activity, body weight, smok...

Under HIPAA, your medical records must be delivered within a specific timeframe. Requests can also be made to change incorrect information. 1 Healthcare providers, in turn, have the right to request payment for making and delivering copies, to withhold certain pieces of information, and to share your records with other providers in specific situations. This article explains how to request and obtain your medical records. It also describes your right to privacy—and exceptions to those rights—and what you can do to resolve disputes with a healthcare provider. Medioimages / Photodisc / Getty Images May I See My Chart at My Doctor’s Office? HIPAA provides patients with a legal, enforceable right to see and receive copies of their medical information and other health records upon request from their healthcare providers. 1  This includes seeing the “original chart review” instead of a photocopy or a summary page. If you are in the provider’s office and are reviewing lab test results, a...

  Having a baby is an exciting and life-changing event. Yet it takes a lot of time and energy to care for infants, especially if you're juggling both family and work. So even the happiest and proudest parents might like to wait awhile after the birth of one child before welcoming another. You may have heard that if you're breastfeeding, you won't get pregnant. However, that's not the full story. How well breastfeeding works as a form of birth control depends on several factors. What to consider if you choose breastfeeding for birth control Experts recommend  waiting 18 months or more between pregnancies . This allows the uterus time to heal, and is safer for the birthing parent and infant. There are  many options for birth control . Some change the hormone cycles that rule periods and pregnancies. Nonhormonal options most often block or slow sperm, or prevent sperm and egg from meeting. Breastfeeding is a natural birth control option that appeals to many people. Researc...