By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical News senior producer

The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off this afternoon, on a mission to deliver spare parts to the International Space Station. I feel an extra connection, because in the past few weeks I’ve been talking to and emailing with Dr. Robert Satcher, an astronaut and orthopedic surgeon who specializes in treating cancer cases. He’s going into space for the first time, and as a preview, he and two of the NASA trainers showed off versions of his spacesuit and the treadmill that astronauts can use to stay fit while spending long months on the space station. (Watch Video)

One twist you don’t see at the gym: Astronauts have to strap themselves to the treadmill with a heavy cable, to keep from floating away when they try to run.

The thrust of the Atlantis mission is maintenance, not medical, but crew members spent a chunk of their pre-mission training, practicing what to do in case of a medical emergency. Satcher also points out that he’s part of “this ongoing tradition of experimentation, human experimentation, what happens to the body when you go into outer space.”

One thing I thought was interesting: On a space mission, you get taller - anywhere from half an inch to an inch and a half. Satcher explains that in zero gravity, fluid is redistributed in the body and the spine gets longer. You also lose bone and muscle mass as the body adapts to the lesser demands of zero gravity. It’s sort of the opposite of what happens when you lift weights at the gym, where your body responds by growing muscle. Astronauts are also prone to sleep disturbances; many crew members take the hormone melatonin as a sleep aid, to try to keep their body clocks adjusted.

In between maintenance work, the Atlantis crew will take measurements to help track musculoskeletal changes, and samples of blood and saliva to try to identify possible changes to the immune system.

Satcher, who likes to be called Bobby, says he’s thrilled to be flying into space for the first time. I hope he can find time to tell us about it, while he’s in orbit.

What would you like to hear about, from a doctor in outer space?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Yesterday I gave a short talk at a meeting for psychologists and others who work with people suffering from psychological trauma. Our panel was about how the media handles stories about mental illness. It’s a topic that felt especially poignant a few hours later, when a gunman shot and killed at least a dozen soldiers at Ft. Hood, a U.S. Army post in Texas. The alleged gunman: a military psychiatrist. At this point we don’t know what led to the shooting – was it a premeditated terrorist attack? A case of workplace rage? Was the gunman unhinged by fear of his upcoming deployment? Did he suffer some kind of a breakdown after hearing too many stories from traumatized soldiers?

Those are mysteries we’ll have to unravel in the coming days. What’s clear is that many people at Ft. Hood – a virtual city of more than 30,000 people – have just been through a terrifying experience. That doesn’t mean they'll develop a pathological condition – like post-traumatic stress disorder – but especially if they witnessed the shootings or lost loved ones, they are at risk for lasting problems.

Beyond that, news coverage of a violent event can itself be deeply painful for readers and viewers, especially if they’re trying to recover from an unrelated trauma of their own. At our panel yesterday, people raised some issues that I hadn’t much thought about. Reader comments, for instance. Two clinicians pointed out that people sometimes post hurtful comments online, which can re-traumatize the people being written about – for example, a rape victim in a crime story.  A handful of news organizations, including CNN, moderate message boards and eliminate comments that are overtly offensive or full of profanity. But one very animated audience member – he described himself as a former reporter – said that’s not nearly enough. He thinks it’s a disgrace that any news organization would publish anonymous reader comments – that it only encourages damaging words.

What do you think? How should news outlets like CNN strike a balance between telling the story, getting feedback from you and not making life worse for the people we cover?

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Our special this weekend, “Another Day: Cheating Death,” includes the story of Laura Geraghty, a school bus driver in Massachusetts who survived a cardiac arrest that left her without a heartbeat for 57 minutes.  While the medical aspect is astounding, just as interesting is the story Geraghty told when she was revived.

She’d floated out of her body, and found herself in a world of incredibly bright light – heaven, she says. While there she saw her son, daughter, granddaughter and even her ex-husband – who wouldn’t take her hand when she reached out to him. Eventually she came back to the real world.

Many cultures and religions describe a vivid world on the border of life and death, but the classic modern near-death experience, or NDE, was described by Dr. Raymond Moody in his 1966 book, “Life After Life.”  While not every NDE includes the same features, among the most common – according to Moody – are bright lights, a tunnel, a sense of being out of the body and an intense feeling of peace and calm.

Most people who return from the verge of death with memories like this say it’s a life-changing experience. Many view it as direct proof of an afterlife – that the place they “visit” is the world we all will see after we die. But increasingly, near-death experience (a term coined by Moody) is being studied from the perspective of science.

Dr. Kevin Nelson, a neurologist at the University of Kentucky, believes an NDE is caused by REM activity, the same type of brain activity that’s linked to dreaming.  REM activity, says Nelson, can be triggered by intense stress or even lack of oxygen. In fact, he says many people experience an out-of-body experience during fainting episodes, or if they momentarily lose blood flow to the brain – as in a massive head rush.

Another intriguing experiment is underway at more than two dozen medical centers in the U.S. and Europe. It’s led by Dr. Sam Parnia, a critical care physician at New York Presbyterian-Cornell Hospital in New York. The setup is ingenuous. In hospital areas with critically ill patients, panels are hung from the ceiling to a height at which only someone floating near the ceiling could see what’s painted on top. If any patient reports a sense of floating - investigators can see if they accurately report what’s on the panel. Because the patients are being carefully monitored in ICUs, the experiment could also determine whether there are physical differences among people who report NDEs, and those who don’t.  

Parnia says he doesn’t know what he’ll find – but he does believe science can answer the question of what these experiences are really all about.  

What do you think? Can near-death experience be explained by what’s going on in the brain?

Watch “Another Day: Cheating Death” at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday.

Don’t miss, Dr. Gupta’s new book “Cheating Death”, available now wherever books are sold.  Be sure to follow – and tweet your medical miracle to – @sanjayguptacnn with #miracle and you could win a signed copy of the book and a Skype guest appearance from Dr. Gupta at your book club event.

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Last week I traveled with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to Levittown, Pennsylvania, to meet Chris Brooks, a recent college grad who survived an unexplained cardiac arrest that stopped his heart for more than 15 minutes. That he survived – and without brain damage – is pretty incredible, and probably a tribute to the CPR performed by his father and the fact that he was cooled by emergency physicians at the local hospital, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was transferred afterwards.

What caught my attention the other day came when we asked Brooks whether doctors had figured out what caused the cardiac arrest in the first place. It’s a life-or-death question; Brooks now has a defibrillator implanted in his chest, and in the past six months it’s been triggered to shock him twice. In other words, his heart is stopping for no obvious reason.

But he hasn’t gone for a battery of tests that might provide an answer. The reason: no health insurance. He was covered by a family policy at the time of his cardiac arrest, but no more. “What we’re dealing now is insurance,” Brooks told us. “I’m 22 years old and not in college any more, so I don’t have insurance. I can’t see [my cardiologist] now. I want to, I guess, but I can’t.” His doctors are looking for a way to make it work, but in the best-case scenario it’s delaying those tests by two to three months - a reminder that even serious illness can slip through the cracks of the current health care system.

Health care bills moving through Congress might make life easier for Brooks; they would let people under 26 still be covered on their parents’ insurance. But the bills would also place a new burden on those 26 or older, by requiring them to purchase insurance or pay a penalty. Critics say people should be free to take the risk of going insurance-free, if they like – or if they can’t afford it.

Are you under 30 without health insurance? Do you have children in that boat? What would you do if there were a serious health crisis?

Programming note: See Chris Brooks’ story as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s special, “Cheating Death,” October 17, 8 p.m.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

We're still waiting on federal guidelines for how day care centers and preschools should handle the H1N1 flu virus. They were promised last week, but the date has slipped amid behind-the-scenes debate over how far the guidance should go: Should they match the advice for K-12 schools, which say that students who are out sick can come back after just 24 hours without a fever? Or should the day care guidance be more restrictive, since young kids are more prone to complications – and tend to transmit more virus?

In the meantime, I’m watching the debate play out in miniature at the pre-school of my 3-year-old daughter and 15-month-old son. As it happens, my wife helps research flu guidance for the CDC, as do two other parents at the preschool. They helped write a preparedness plan for the school, which goes well beyond the CDC's guidance for K-12 schools – and is stronger than the basic advice the federal government is currently considering for daycares.

My wife and her colleagues recommended that students who are sick with respiratory symptoms stay away for at least seven days. One of them, a senior CDC flu scientist, told me that children with H1N1 typically shed virus – i.e., it's in their mucous and other secretions – for five to 10 days. She said that fits with published research on other flu strains, showing that young children often shed virus for seven days or even longer.

But the head of the school is pushing back. She’s OK with a seven-day restriction for toddlers, but wants it at five days for 3- to 6-year olds, and “24-hours fever-free” – the CDC’s K-12 guideline – for elementary-school-age students. More than that would be too hard on parents, she says. My wife and her friends want to include a warning that the rules are not meant to stop the spread of flu.

In the midst of all this, I talked with Dr. D.A. Henderson of the Center for Biosecurity, who oversaw the CDC's response to the global flu pandemic of 1957. He thinks the guidance to date has been too intrusive – that keeping sick students home longer than usual won't stop the spread of H1N1 and would lead to serious disruptions – including a shortage of health care workers staying home with their kids.

No easy answers, and a lot of disagreement, even among medical professionals. Just one more example: Yesterday, Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited a doctor at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, who reminded us that for most people, even young children, H1N1 is not likely to cause more than passing symptoms. Dr. Jim Fortenberry said that parents should not bring their kids to the ER unless they seem dehydrated, are younger than 12 weeks, have fever for three days or have a fever that returns after being gone for 12-24 hours. That's all well and good, but he didn’t mention CDC guidance – which says that people in high-risk groups (including children younger than 5, as well as pregnant women and people with medical conditions such as asthma) – who have flu-like symptoms (fever higher than 100 PLUS a cough or sore throat) – should take antiviral medication right away, as a precaution. If you’ve got a child with those symptoms, you don’t have to go to the ER, but do call your doctor right away.

The head of my preschool wants to finalize and send out guidelines by tomorrow. As of now, she and the parents on the health committee have to make their decision without official CDC guidance.

Are you a parent? Have you received guidance from your child's day care on what to do if your child becomes ill?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Senior Medical Producer

In the midst of covering the big story of Senator Kennedy’s death on Wednesday, I found myself frantically scrambling for childcare arrangements – the preschool teacher for my 15-month-old son had gone home sick with a 102-degree fever, and the classroom assistant was running out to pick up her own son, with similar symptoms. The head of the preschool stepped in for the afternoon, but did I really want to send my son back on Thursday? To a teacher and a bunch of toddlers who might or might not have been exposed to a nasty virus?

A year ago I might not have fretted, but I’ve got swine flu on the brain – maybe from covering the story here at CNN, or maybe it’s just that I keep seeing reports of cases here, cases there, all over the country. Last week CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said we’re in a race to make a vaccine available before the H1N1 virus hits. To my eyes, the race is over. The outbreak has started. It may not be the Black Plague, but especially for vulnerable people – like pregnant women, people with underlying illness, or 15-month-old toddlers – it can be quite serious. And anyone with children in school or daycare (we’ve also got a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old) knows that viruses spread fast.

I always teach handwashing and try to use hand sanitizer, but most years I throw up my hands and just accept that the kids will spend a lot of their school year sick. This year, that doesn’t sound so appealing. Our preschool doesn’t yet have a formal plan to deal with H1N1, and neither do a lot of schools in Atlanta – or around the country. My wife, who fortunately happens to be a physician and public health official working on this very issue, is frantically working on detailed guidance for parents at our own preschool. In the meantime, we kept our son home Thursday and Friday. He’s got a cold. No fever, nothing serious – but we’ll just let him rest and go back Monday.

Are you doing anything differently this year, to keep your kids from getting sick?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Tuesday afternoon, I was hanging out in Harlem, working on a story we’ll be running later this month. A few blocks away, the barricades were up and police were directing traffic around the Michael Jackson tribute at the Apollo Theater.

Donald Childs, a bicycle repairman, was holding court on the north side of Marcus Garvey Park. Looks like Jackson was working the system, he told me, finding doctors all too willing to give him whatever he asked: “Yes-man health care.”

People in poor neighborhoods work the system, too, Childs said. “You go to a clinic and wait for hours to be see anyone. Poor people, people around here, just expect that. It’s the norm. [But] they know what to do if you really need a doctor. You go to the emergency room and you tell ‘em it’s asthma, or a heart problem."

“My wife has pancreatic cancer,” Childs confided. “But when she goes to the emergency room, and she needs to be seen right away, she tells them it’s her heart.” It was painful to hear, but sad to say, not surprising. I’ve talked to a lot of people who struggle to find decent care for cancer.

A few yards away, I heard more about gaming the system. “There’s a dentist’s office at ____; they’re paying homeless people $10 for their Medicaid number,” Heidi Flores was saying. “There’s another one pays $15.” [With a Medicaid number, a doctor or dentist can file claims for reimbursement – in this case, presumably, for nonexistent services.] Her friend, George Cabassa, chimed in. “There’s another one where they give you a cleaning but they tell Medicaid they did everything and the kitchen sink.” He told me to check it out, handed me a phone number and strolled off.

No surprise here, the health care system we have is maddeningly complex. It’s full of rules, full of odd financial arrangements and full of loopholes.

Monday evening, I found myself relaxing in the office of the Rev. Dr. Joe Bush at Walker Memorial Church in the South Bronx, listening as he argued that we need something simpler: a government-run health system like the ones in Canada or Western Europe. The air conditioning felt good with the sidewalk still sweltering outside, but the pastor was getting agitated.

“The first thing they ask when you step up to the counter: ‘Where’s your card?’ It’s all about the almighty dollar.”

I asked about his own health coverage and learned something new: According to Bush, insurance companies consider pastoral work to be a high-risk profession – high-stress, with associated health problems. To cover himself and his wife, Bush pays $27,000 a year for a policy with a $2,000 deductible.

When I asked what he thinks of the argument that a “public option,” or government-run insurance plan, might drive private companies out of business, his answer came as no surprise: “That would be a wonderful thing,” he said, a smile lighting up his face. “It would be the best thing that could happen to America.”

That might be a dramatic point of view, but riding home on the plane I found myself wondering if a government-run system would make a cancer patient lie about a heart condition, just to get a doctor to take her condition seriously.

Did you ever lie or shade the truth, talking to a doctor, hospital or health insurer?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

I’d just gotten the kids to bed and was cleaning up the house when the news flashed on my BlackBerry – a Chinese news report that researchers in South Korea, working with a sample from Atlanta, had discovered a potential vaccine against the swine flu H1N1 virus. It was nearly 10 o’clock at night but that’s how this goes – a worldwide, round-the-clock effort for the past several weeks, what some are calling a model of international cooperation.

A few minutes later I was on the phone with Dr. Seo Sang-heui, of Chungnam National University. He told me that yes, he believes he has created a vaccine that could be used against the virus. He’s packed up eight vials of the new vaccine and was waiting for a courier to pick them up and fly them to Atlanta, for testing at the CDC. He figured the courier would arrive in about an hour.

We’re not talking about a usable vaccine, not yet, but this is an important step. Here’s how it works: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isolated the 2009 H1N1 virus in its lab, in Atlanta. It sent isolates to a number of researchers around the world – including, it appears, Dr. Seo. These researchers follow a careful regimen, genetically modifying the vaccine to make it grow well, while keeping the traits that will – we hope – induce a strong immune response. It’s a process of trial and error, but Dr. Seo told me that in the past few days he figured out a way to grow the modified virus in an agar solution. He says he’s doing what any vaccine researcher would do, sending the samples back to Atlanta at no charge, with no conditions attached.

CDC spokesman David Daigle told us that he wasn’t aware of the finding — yet. But assuming the samples do arrive, they’ll go straight to the CDC laboratory for genetic analysis. That’ll tell us, one way or the other, if this is really a potential vaccine. Dr. Gupta and I were at the lab just two weeks ago, peering through the window where scientists were tinkering with the swine flu virus under stainless steel hoods that provide special ventilation, keeping the virus from floating around the room and out the door. The hoods look a bit like big fans over a stove, except for a glass front that lets the researchers see what their hands are doing.

Assuming this finding is the real deal, samples of the candidate vaccine will be shipped to manufacturers around the world. These companies have to adapt the material to their own processes. They have to make sure the vaccine grows well in eggs. Yes, chicken eggs. They have to test various mixtures, to see how well it grows and also whether the vaccine produces a strong immune response in animals, probably mice. They’ll want to see if additives – “adjuvants” – can enable them to produce an immune response using less vaccine – an important consideration if there’s limited supply, and we want to inoculate a billion people. At least one company, GlaxoSmithKine (GSK), says it’s already received notices from several governments that they intend to purchase mass quantities of vaccine, once available. According to GSK, Great Britain has pre-ordered 60 million doses and France, 50 million.

If the vaccine works in animal testing, they’ll test it in people. If that works – and seems to be safe – it’s up to regulators – the Food and Drug Administration, in the U.S. – to give the thumbs-up. If all goes well, the first doses could reach the public in anywhere from four to six months. Of course, the U.S. and other governments might not order mass quantities of H1N1 vaccine. There’s a limited number of eggs, and depending on the final formula, buying more H1N1 vaccine might mean producing less of the seasonal flu vaccine. We’ll be following this closely over the next few months.

There’s a long way to go, from Seoul to a pharmacy near you. And keep in mind, there may be other candidate vaccines discovered. But if the finding we hear about last night is confirmed, it’s a pretty big step. A new strain of influenza can be a scary thing, and it will be a big relief if we have an effective vaccine before the next flu season hits.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Today in the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, is a report that global warming is a threat to human health. This is pretty much what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said last month – a move that opens the way to treat greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, as pollution. A lot of people scratch their heads and wonder: Even if global warming is bad, is it really a health issue?

As it happens, I was in Washington, D.C., yesterday with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as he was interviewing Lisa Perez Jackson, the head of the EPA. She was running late from another appointment and whooshed through the door, sat right down and got started. Why the link between climate change and health? Her answer: Climate change means hotter weather, changes in the cycle of rain and evaporation, and more droughts. On a very basic level, says Jackson, “All those things exacerbate air pollution that we already have. It means people who have lung problems, people who have respiratory problems, are going to have more of them.” We know that’s just a part of it – climate change threatens crops and could even lead to more infectious disease.

The thing is, we know change won’t be easy. A switch to cleaner, greener fuels and materials will carry a cost, at least in the short run. Maybe optimistically, the White House and EPA estimate the cost at approximately $100 to $150 per family, per year. In a tough economy, that’s a lot. Dr. Gupta asked: Is there any price we just can’t afford?

Jackson’s answer: You have to compare that cost with the cost of the status quo. “We don't price human health. We don't price pollution the way we should. A lot of times those costs are hidden. The hospital admissions and the sick days out and the effects on children who aren't in school and the effects on their parents who can't be with them. All of that is sometimes invisible, so we have to make sure we're counting costs and costs, right? The costs of doing nothing and the costs of doing something.”

We got into more than just climate change – we talked about the way the EPA assesses toxic chemicals and how to keep it free from political interference. A few things struck me: Administrator Jackson seems to say the buck stops here – on tough questions she’d say, “I have to make that decision.” Not “we” but “I.” She also said the president is a hands-on guy. He or his staff calls regularly, asking for details or explanations about her weekly reports. It was great to have a front-row seat to the whole conversation – we’ll be playing a lot of it over the next few days.

What, if anything, are you willing to pay to get global warming under control?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

It’s only been three weeks but it feels like a lifetime since we aired our documentary, Addiction/Life on the Edge. That’s how it goes in the news business, especially when a global swine flu outbreak grabs the headlines.

But I can’t ignore the fascinating calls and emails we got in response to “Addiction” – including doctors who watched with colleagues, and a man who said he watched in the rec room of a rehab program, with 90 percent of the other residents.

I found it especially heartbreaking to read notes from people whose children are struggling with drugs or alcohol. Linda Frisciaro wrote about her 25-year-son, who beat an addiction to crack (“I thought we conquered the world when he stopped, and there was no better feeling than that…”) but soon was battling an addiction to alcohol and prescription painkillers. (“He called me about a year ago, crying and weeping, saying ‘Mom, please help me.’ It took him about 45 minutes to get out those couple words….”)

My heart goes out to Frisciaro and anyone in her position; I can only hope their stories have happy endings and the addicts come to realize how fortunate they are to have someone who didn’t quit on them.

A number of people wrote to emphasize the link between addiction and disorders like depression and bipolar illness. We mentioned this briefly in the documentary, but it might have been worth making a stronger point.

I also got an earful from people who read my article about medications that might be used to treat addiction. A sample:

Joan: “I agree that the disease is complicated, and a pill won't solve every problem. There are many reasons and life situations for a person to drink, but if this can help, why not make it available?”

Fred: “I give this guy about a year of working in this bar and he'll be blackout drunk once again. Trust me. I know. Naltrexone is not the silver bullet.”

I’d like to re-emphasize: no one particular treatment will work for everyone. And the research on medication is clear: it works best when used in combination with therapy, not when you just take a pill and plop down in front of the TV.

One of the most interesting emails came from Dr. Howard Wetsman, a psychiatrist in New Orleans, who wrote, “I can’t agree with your theory about the medications profiled not fitting in with current treatment. In fact I know of many residential settings that use both naltrexone and topiramate in the context of stopping drug or alcohol use.” Some colleagues fear that use of medication ignores an addict’s underlying suffering, but it’s not a business consideration, says Wetsman. “Far from having a profit motive to be against medication, they would actually bring more people into their programs if they offered medication as part of the treatment. These are caring professionals that want to provide good treatment. While I disagree with their stance, I can’t find fault with their motives.”

You can read all the posted comments here and here.

We’d like to report more stories about addiction and possible treatments. What would you like to hear more about?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.