If you’ve been procrastinating about getting a mammogram you’ll be motivated to make an appointment after seeing Five, Lifetime’s quintet of short films that debuts tonight at 9 p.m. We can’t think of a better way to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month than with these emotionally resonant stories about women dealing with the disease.
We recently had the opportunity to hear the inspirational Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, speak at the American Dietetic Association’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in San Diego. “I know the month of October comes and a lot of you think, ‘Oh, a lot of pink,’” Brinker said, drawing laughs from the mostly female audience. But as long as 456,000 women die from breast cancer every year, “There will be more pink,” she promised. Enter Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which means October is the best month of the year for win-win shopping, in our opinion.
Though many remain in the dark about the specifics of lupus, an estimated 1.5 million people — 90 percent of them women — suffer from this chronic, incurable autoimmune disease. We know several people affected by lupus, so we were happy to support Lupus LA, which raises awareness and money for research, prevention and treatment of the disease, by attending its annual Get Lucky For Lupus LA poker tournament at Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. This year’s event raised more than $70,000, the highest total in three years, through entry fees, donations and auctions of Hollywood and sports memorabilia, trips, luxury gift baskets and VIP experiences like set visits to CSI: NY and The Office.
On the heels of a rocky financial ride last month, this we know for sure: we can block off the week of Oct. 10 to 16 for bliss. This fall marks the 15th biannual return of Spa Week, an event during which hundreds of spas, yoga and Pilates studios, and wellness facilities across North America offer some of their signature services, which typically cost between $100 and $400, for just $50. Booking begins Sept. 12 for the 2011 spa week, which features contemporary and cutting-edge spa services available, such as laser facials, trigger-point massage, nutritional counseling sessions and meditation and yoga classes.
In the July/August issue of VIVmag, we shared “The Right Spa for a Big Moment” for five of life’s biggest ups and downs, from celebrating a big anniversary to regrouping after a personal tragedy. Now through Sept. 11, Spa Week Daily, the official blog of Spa Week, and Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., nutrition expert for the Today show, are offering the chance to win a six-night lifestyle makeover package for a winner and guest at the Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge in Malibu, CA, with the Fast Track to Health Giveaway. Geared towards healthier living, those who stay at the resort get a head start on weight-loss goals.
We joined ubiquitous celeb trainer Bob Harper, who can be seen on Season 12 of NBC’s The Biggest Loser when it premieres Sept. 20, for a seaside workout recently outside the swanky Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica. The Los Angeles-based Harper led the strenuous partner fitness demo for female bloggesses to call attention to health insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s new Health Footprint campaign — a RealAge-style health assessment that weights your social-media clout heavily in its scoring. (We, for example, beat our workout buddy by 5,000 points, due no doubt to our multitudinous Facebook friends. You don’t have to be an Anthem member to use the calculator: You can see how you score on the company’s website.
We were very happy to get a clean bill of skin health last week from dermatologist Lisa Chipps, M.D., who was volunteering her time at the Road to Healthy Skin Tour during one of the van’s Santa Monica, CA, stops. But a lot of other Americans aren’t so lucky — one in five of us will develop some form of skin cancer. That means 2 million cases a year, of which approximately 123,590 will be melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer and potentially deadly if not caught early. Caught late, melanoma’s survival rate drops to 15 percent.
When we hear about celebrities with their teams of trainers, nutritionists and health professionals, we often wish we too had an entourage pushing, polishing and pampering us so we look and feel our best. Now with Zeel.com, it’s possible to access a network of experts who can help us do just that. And to help VIVmag readers get started, Zeel is offering a special $25 credit through the end of the year!
Enjoying the beautiful summer weather outside often comes with a price: mosquito bites. And the bites are not just annoying and itchy — mosquitoes can spread West Nile virus, which, in extreme cases, can be fatal. We recently learned that while we’re socializing outside with a cocktail, we might be at a higher risk for the pesky bites. According to Daniel Strickman, acting director for the Overseas Biological Control Laboratories for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and co-author of Prevention of Bug Bites, Stings, and Disease (Oxford University Press, 2009), alcohol makes us more enticing to mosquitoes by creating chemicals that mix with the ones we already emit from our skin and with our breath, amplifying the insects’ attraction to us.
We’re pleased at the recent announcement that women’s health care classified as preventive — including birth control — will now be free of charge to American women who have health insurance, no longer requiring a co-pay or a deductible. The new rules, which are part of the Affordable Care Act, mandate that insurers further expand their coverage on preventive services for insured women, who already have been entitled to get mammograms, colonoscopies, Pap tests and prenatal care without co-pays since last year. The rules begin to take effect immediately and should be fully enforced by August 2012, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
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