I always knew that naps were good for me. I fought them off when I was 4 or 5 and too young to know better, but now I crave naps. I’ve snuggled up with my children and dozed off on a Sunday afternoon, and I’ve caught a mid morning cat nap at home on a weekday.

Researchers in Greece have found that those who regularly take midday naps lower their risk of dying from heart disease – by more than a third!

I think we should make a siesta a way of life here in the good ole’ US of A and enjoy the benefits!

Have you ever needed to call 911 to request an ambulance? I have, and it was one of the scariest moments of my life. I was bitten by a caterpillar (one of those big fuzzy ones) and had an extremely strong allergic reaction to it. My arm felt like it was on fire. I thought I would die before the ambulance got there, but I didn’t, and they took care of me. Another time, our daughter got into her vitamins, and ate too many – we had to ride in an ambulance to the childrens hospital. Never a dull moment! And whenever I see the helicopter that transports the worst cases down to Tampa, I saw a little prayer – not just for the victims of the accident who need help, but for the people working in the air evac, that they are able to save a life. I’m sure paramedics and people working in air evac have amazing tales to tell. I found this story online about a man from Japan who injured himself in the US, and was transported back to Japan by a medical team. The flight took 19 HOURS and they had to stop in Seattle, Alaska, and Russia for fuel before arriving back in Japan. In the end, the patient arrived safely though, and that’s what matters. The same air evac company also transported hospital patients in danger of being of being hit by Hurricane Rita to a safer location. Never a dull moment!

I found the amazing story of Matt McKenna online tonight. 1 1/2 years ago, Matt weighed in at 500 pounds, and he was only 34 years old. He couldn’t walk from his house to his car without becoming short of breath, he struggled to breathe, and his joints couldn’t support his weight. Matt decided to change his life on October 3, 2005, and through diet and exercise, lost over 250 pounds!

I try to stay on top of current events in health and such, especially when I need to use it for content on this blog. Sadly, health news is usually buried in my hometown newspaper, on page 17 of section Z, or it ends up being a 20 second segment on the news. Who the heck has time to WATCH the news? I found a site with current health and weight loss information articles that I’ll be bookmarking – perhaps I’ll be inspired by something I read there and will end up blogging about it here!

When you think abot the people that needed to be saved during Hurricane Katrina, people who haven’t been born yet probably don’t come to mind. This is a great story about a baby boy named Noah who was born 16 months after the flood. Thanks to Roman Pyrzak, the lab director for The Fertility Institute of New Orleans, Rebekah Markham and her husband were able to be reunited with their frozen embryos, one of which resulted in Baby Noah.

Anyone who has ever suffered from the flu knows it’s a horrible illness. Chills, fever, hacking, coughing – the flu takes a lot out of you, or can land you in the hospital. Imagine a flu disease so deadly that it could kill you in a matter of days. In 1918, people didn’t need to imagine – they were living it. The Spanish Flu pandemic killed more people than World War One, and scientists now know why.

An international team put together to investigate the virus put together a reconstructed version of it, and infected monkeys. They discovered that the immunune system of the monkeys destroyed the lungs in days, instead of protecting the monkeys.

Why bother researching a flu virus from 1918? So that we can understand the flu virus of today even better, like the H5N1 bird flu that has killed 161 people since 2003. If that virus became as contagious as the 1918 flu, it would easily spark a flu pandemic that could kill hundreds, or thousands. Understanding what happened in the past with the flu virus will help to save hundreds of people in the future.