Health and Wellness Content Spotlight: The Week of May 29, 2006

The 19th annual World No Tobacco Day will occur on May 31, 2006. Local governments, agencies, community groups, and corporations throughout the United States and in a few other countries will be sponsoring events and distributing information to try to raise awareness about the harmful effects that tobacco use has on the health of users and on the community as a whole.

I chose to write about World No Tobacco Day for my featured article this week, and as I was reading though the articles published in the Health and Wellness section this week, I was pleased to find an excellently written article by AC content producer D. Howard which explores essays written about the addictive nature of smoking and whether a smoker has the free will to consent to the harmful behavior. In his own essay, entitled “Important Information About Smoking,” D. Howard picks apart the arguments of the writers and offers his own opinions on the issue. Whether you agree with his conclusions about the nature of smoking addiction and the question of consent, or not, I think you will enjoy reading this intelligent, thoughtful, and very timely piece.

Life is moving pretty quickly these days. Are you finding yourself feeling stressed out? Believe me, I can relate. I moved the clinic I run to a new site this week, and I am feeling about as strung out as I can imagine feeling. As I perused the week’s submissions to Health and Wellness, I happily came across the article “Stress Relief from Biofeedback,” written by content producer Maisah Robinson, Ph.D. As a proponent complementary medicine and natural solutions to health care concerns wherever possible, I have long been a big believer in the use of biofeedback for a number of health issues, and have used it myself for the treatment and prevention of migraine headaches. I think that a lot of people can benefit from Dr. Robinson’s article, which clearly explains the mechanism of biofeedback, gives a little history of the techniques utilized in biofeedback therapy, and includes resources for finding a qualified therapist in your area.