FitSugar

Lil Links: Three Daughters Find Their Dad a Kidney Donor

LilSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:00:00 PST

"I found my dad a kidney on Craigslist" - Health
Kate Winslet loves her body for Mia's sake - Celebrity Baby Blog
Ava and Deacon think mama Reese is too chatty - Celebrity Baby Scoop
Prenatal yoga pays off - Fit Pregnancy
Tween forced to take pregnancy test - Parentdish
Make a paper flower Valentine's bouquet with the kids - Alpha Mom
The toxins around us - Momversation
Enter your lil love in Valentine's Day photo contest - Cafe Mom

Health Headlines

FitSugar — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:00:00 PDT

There are some health headlines that are worth sharing. Often the stories behind the headlines live up to their tag lines. Check out these three stories with "double take" deserving headlines.

Nutrition: An Up Side to Hard Times – New York Times
An interesting analysis of the health benefits of Cuba's economic crisis. The average daily calories consumption per person dropped by almost 1000 calories and people started walking more. There were significant decreases in the rates of obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke.

Sales Call Leads to Kidney Donation – CNN
A door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman donated one of his kidneys to a potential client too broke to use a vacuum cleaner due to his illness.

And this just in time for Halloween...

Hair-Raising Ideas to Cure Baldness – USA Today
Could scalp transplants, donated from corpses, be the next cure for baldness? Hair restoration specialists explore the possibilities.

Source

Are You an Organ Donor?

FitSugar — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:30:33 PDT

This might not be the sunniest of topics, but after reading the stories of hope that can accompany tragic accidents recently in the New York Times, I believe organ donation is certainly a topic worthy of discussion. I am not alone - Katherine Heigl is with me on this. After her older brother died in an automobile accident, Heigl's parents opted to donate their son's organs: his heart and kidneys saved the lives of three people, and his corneas gave sight to two others. In many of these generous tales, the act of donating organs helps the surviving family members make sense of a death of a loved one. It helps life to go on, literally.

In California, you can commit to the process by checking the organ donor box when you apply for your driver license. That's what I did - it was an easy decision. My neighbors growing up were both kidney transplant specialists, and the couple taught me that organ donation was a generous act and an act of life. Simply telling your loved ones that you would like to be an organ donor is a great place to start. You can learn more at the Donate Life website.

Tell me . . .

Are You an Organ Donor?

FitSugar — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:47:00 PST

Except for my visits to the DMV, organ donation is not something I think about that often. Luckily, I've never needed an organ and neither has anyone close to me. I do have the organ donor sticker on my license though - if the possibility exists that I can give someone a second chance at life, then I'm all for it.

This month, a new law went into effect in Israel that encourages more of the county's citizens to become organ donors. If you become an organ donor, then you receive priority treatment if you ever need a transplant yourself. Israel has an alarmingly low rate of donors - about 10 percent of its adults. In America, a recent survey showed that although 95 percent of Americans support organ donation, only 40 percent are registered donors.

These numbers are only a reflection of deceased donors - people who donate their organs after they die. There is also a growing need for living organ donors - people who are willing to donate their kidney, or a portion of the liver, lung, intestine, or pancreas while living. And while we may have more organ donors than other countries, there are still over 100,000 people in the United States waiting for lifesaving organ transplants.

I'm curious . . .