plus 3, Dannii Minogue stripped to pay off her debts - News.com.au

Dannii Minogue stripped to pay off her debts - News.com.au
House Democrats unveil health bill - Boston Globe
Breast cancer survivors take the field - Gainesville Daily Register
Yoga -- Reduce Stress and Improve Your Mood - InteliHealth

Dannii Minogue stripped to pay off her debts - News.com.au

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 09:33 PM PDT

X-FACTOR judge Dannii Minogue has revealed that she stripped naked to pose for Playboy magazine in an effort to pay off her crippling debts.

The star owed $160,000 and could not even afford her rent after her marriage to actor Julian McMahon crumbled in 1995.

Pictures: Dannii Minogue's top shots

The singer refused to ask superstar sibling Kylie to lend her the money.

So Dannii decided to go against her parents' advice and bare all for the Australian edition of the men's magazine.

The 38-year-old said: "My parents didn't want me to do it. My dad was saying, 'Doing this is forever - you can never, ever change it'.

"Kylie knew why I was doing it. I could have asked her for the money, but it wasn't in my nature.

"I never wanted to admit the trouble I was in. I should have been looking at my finances."

Despite her parents' disapproval, Dannii insisted she didn't regret the photoshoot - but remained tight-lipped about the figure on the mega-bucks cheque she received.

She said: "I would never disclose how much - but it had to be a lot to look at my parents' faces and see the anguish in my dad's eyes.

"I don't regret it, but I feel relieved that people know why I did it - it's a huge weight off my shoulders.

"It was actually fun and I did feel liberated. I looked at the pictures and thought, 'I look all right!'.

"The magazine was the biggest selling title they had ever had and they had to reprint.

"My girlfriends went out to buy it and told me I looked beautiful. It then felt like a celebration of me."

In an ITV1 interview with Piers Morgan, to be aired on Saturday, Dannii wept as she recalled hearing that Kylie had cancer. The star said it was the hardest moment of her life.

Dannii - who is now dating former rugby league player Kris Smith, 31 - also revealed how it took years to get over her split with Julian. Her marriage to the Nip/Tuck star, 41, ended after less than two years.

And Dannii said: "I felt kind of uncomfortable and scared that I did not want to get myself into that same situation.

"It wasn't about not trusting others - I didn't trust me. I didn't trust my instincts any more."

Speaking of her anguish when Kylie, 41, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, Dannii said: "You just go to another depth. You find strength within yourself that you never knew you had because you never needed it before."

And she said she can't wait for the day when Kylie gets the all-clear.

She said: "The proper one is the five-year all-clear and we're not there yet. She's been so strong. In my head it's not going to come back, that's just not going to happen."

During the interview former Leeds Rhinos star Kris - who Dannii met in Ibiza nightclub Space last year - appeared on a video to tell Dannii he wanted to have kids.

He said: "I was brought up around children so I'm really keen.

"But the answer I get (from Dannii) is, 'Well, if you can go through the nine months and you can have the babies then, yes, I'm in'."

When Piers, 44, asked if she would walk down the aisle with Kris, Dannii replied: "I don't know, I guess he'd have to ask me.

"And I'd want him to be the first person to hear the answer - not you, Piers."

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House Democrats unveil health bill - Boston Globe

Posted: 29 Oct 2009 11:16 AM PDT

OBAMA'S REMARKS

Good afternoon, everybody. Please, have a seat. Before I begin, I want to just acknowledge two people who are working extraordinarily hard on behalf of small businesses. First of all, the administrator of our Small Business Administration, Karen Mills, is here. (Applause.)

The other individual who is on his way and will be here in a hot second but we didn't want to keep everybody waiting is a dear friend of mine, a great former governor of Virginia, is now the senator from the great state of Virginia, and a huge supporter of small business and trying to figure out how to help all of you control your costs, and that's Senator Mark Warner. So when he comes in, please give him a smile. (Applause.)

I asked you here today to talk about health insurance reform and why it's so critical to the success of small businesses across our country. But before I do, let me talk a minute just briefly about the new economic numbers that were released this morning.

I am gratified that our economy grew in the third quarter of this year. We've come a long way since the first three months of 2009, when our economy shrunk by an alarming 6.4 percent. In fact, the 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter is the largest three-month gain we have seen in two years. This is obviously welcome news and an affirmation that this recession is abating and the steps we've taken have made a difference.

But I also know that we got a long way to go to fully restore our economy and recover from what's been the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression. And while this report today represents real progress, the benchmark I use to measure the strength of our economy is not just whether our GDP is growing, but whether we're creating jobs, whether families are having an easier time paying their bills, whether our businesses are hiring and doing well. And that's what I'm here to talk with you about today.

I know many of you have come from different corners of our country to be here, and looking out at all of you I'm reminded of the extraordinary diversity of America's small businesses. You're owners of coffee shops, and diners, and hotels. You're florists, exterminators, builders. Each of your shops and firms reflects different passions, and different ideas, and different skills.

But what you share is a willingness to pursue those passions, take a chance on those ideas, and make the most of those skills. What you share is an entrepreneurial spirit, a tireless work ethic, and a simple hope for something better that lies at the heart of the American ideal. Businesses like yours are the engines of job growth in America. Over the past decade and a half, America's small businesses have created 65 percent of all new jobs in this country. And more than half of all Americans working in the private sector are either employed by a small business or own one.

Now, even in good times, starting a business, as all of you know, is not easy. It takes moxie, it takes gumption, it takes ingenuity, and failure is often more likely than success. But I don't have to tell you that it's been particularly difficult over the past few years. From the middle of 2007 through the end of 2008, small businesses lost 2.4 million jobs. Thousands have shut their doors altogether. And because of the credit crunch, banks have shrunk back from lending, making it harder to get loans to branch out, or finance your inventories, or maybe even to make payroll. Maybe you've had to forgo raises. Maybe you've had to do the unthinkable and lay off friends or family.

So we know how tough times have been for small businesses. That's why I made sure the Recovery Act included a number of measures to help small businesses weather this economic storm. We've put a tax cut -- a tax cut, not a tax hike -- a tax cut into the pockets of the vast majority of small business owners and employees. We've supported nearly 65,000 [sic] loans to small businesses -- more than $13 billion in new lending. More than 1,200 banks and credit unions that had stopped issuing SBA loans when the financial crisis hit are lending again today. And just last week, we proposed increasing the cap on what are called 7(a) and 504 loans -- some of the loans most frequently handed out by the SBA.

But given the enormous problems small businesses and all Americans are facing today, we're aware that these steps are by no means enough. If we're serious about strengthening small businesses, if we're serious about creating a climate where our entrepreneurs can succeed, if we're serious about giving you the chance to prosper and grow, I believe, this administration firmly believes, that we need to pass health insurance reform in the United States of America.

Now, few have a bigger stake in what happens than all of you. Few have a bigger stake than the men and women who own a small business, work at a small business, or rely on someone who does. Few have a bigger stake in what happens because few are struggling more under the status quo. You all know the story.

We all know that family premiums have skyrocketed more than 130 percent over the past decade. They have more than doubled. But small businesses have been hit harder than most. A story in the paper just the other day said that many small businesses may see their premiums rise about 15 percent over the coming year -- twice the rate they rose last year. And in part because small businesses pay higher administrative costs than larger ones, your employees pay up to 18 percent more in premiums for the very same health insurance.

In one national survey, nearly three-quarters of small businesses that don't offer benefits cited high premiums as the reason -- and that's not surprising.

The bottom line is that too many Americans like you can't afford to build the kinds of businesses you'd been hoping to build. Too many budding entrepreneurs can't afford to take a gamble on a smart idea because they can't give up the health insurance they get in their current job. Too many of you not only can't afford to provide health insurance to your employees, too many of you are having a tough time just affording health insurance for yourselves. That's bad for our economy, it's bad for our country, and that's what we'll change when health insurance reform becomes law.

Just this morning, the House of Representatives released its version of health reform legislation, and I want to commend Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Caucus for their leadership in achieving this critical milestone. They forged a strong consensus that represents a historic step forward. This bill includes reforms that will finally help make quality insurance affordable. Importantly, this bill is also fully paid for and will reduce the deficit in the long term.

Now, there is no doubt that this legislation, and the legislation that's being drafted in the Senate, would benefit millions of small businesses. It's being written with the interests of Americans like you and your employees in mind.

And yet, there are those who have a vested interest in the status quo who are claiming otherwise, and they're using misleading figures and disingenuous arguments. So I want to try to explain as clearly as I can exactly what health reform would mean for small business owners like you and the workers you employ.

The first thing I want to make clear is that if you are happy with the insurance plan that you have right now, if the costs you're paying and the benefits you're getting are what you want them to be, then you can keep offering that same plan. Nobody will make you change it.

What we will do is make the coverage that you're currently providing more affordable by offering a tax credit to small businesses that are trying to do the right thing and provide coverage for their employees. Under the House and Senate bills, millions of small businesses would be eligible for a tax credit of up to 50 percent of their premiums. That's in the legislation that's already been proposed.

We'll also make your coverage more stable and more secure. Right now, if just one of your workers falls seriously ill, it could spell disaster for your entire business. You could see your premiums shoot up and you face a painful choice: Do you eat the costs and ask your workers to contribute more? Do you seek another insurance plan, without any guarantee that you'll be able to find one that's affordable? Or do you just scale back benefits or drop coverage altogether?

I don't think that you should have to make that choice in the United States of America. Under health insurance reform, we put an end to the days when an insurance company could use one worker's illness to justify jacking up premiums for everybody. We'll crack down on excessive overhead charges by setting strong standards on how much of your premium can go towards administrative costs and requiring insurers to give you a refund if they violate those standards. It'll be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition. And it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most.

They'll no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. If you get your insurance through your employer, we'll change the cutoff on how old your kids can be to remain on your plan -- we'll raise that to 26 years old. We'll place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies -- because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse and cost more money. That makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives.

So that's what we'll do for all the small businesses that have insurance, that are currently providing insurance. And for all the small businesses that can't afford to provide insurance right now, and small business owners who can't even afford to get coverage themselves, we'll finally make quality coverage affordable. And here's how we'll do it.

One of the biggest problems in our health care system right now is if you're a small business owner or if you're self-employed, you often have such a small number of workers that insurance companies aren't all that interested in your business. It's basic economics. You don't have a lot of leverage as a small customer. And as a result, you end up paying higher costs than big businesses that can get better deals because they've got more workers -- they got more purchasing power.

So what we'll do is to set up what we're calling an exchange that will pool small businesses together. And that will mean it's not just you bargaining with insurance companies, it's you and many other small business owners and self-employed individuals all across the country. And with all that additional leverage, you'll be able to get better deals than you could have ever received on your own. In fact, small businesses that choose one of the plans in this exchange could save 25 percent on their premiums by 2016 -- only two years after the exchange has been set up.

And we'll also offer tax credits to make insurance even more affordable for millions of small businesses. So meanwhile, by expanding coverage for more Americans, we're going to help eliminate the "hidden tax" of more than a thousand dollars that the average worker is paying to cover the medical expenses of the uninsured.

Now, nothing is free, and it's true that when reform becomes law, businesses of a certain size who do not offer their workers health care coverage may be required to contribute to the costs -- and that makes a lot of small business owners nervous. Opponents of reform have tried to say that you'd be subject to this penalty and it could potentially drive up your costs.

But here are the facts, because this has been analyzed repeatedly. About 90 percent -- 90 percent of all small businesses, regardless of what version of this plan you're talking about that's currently going through Congress -- 90 percent of all businesses would be exempt from this requirement. So if your business is anything like the vast majority of small businesses out there, this requirement simply won't apply to you -- because I don't think it's fair to impose a penalty on small businesses that are already operating at very narrow margins.

So that's what health insurance reform would mean for you and for all our small businesses. It would reduce your costs. It would prevent small business owners from facing exorbitant rate hikes. It will make coverage affordable for all small businesses that can't afford it right now. And if you're providing health insurance to your employees, it gives you more predictability, more security, more stability.

It will help remove the worry that if you have the courage to strike out on your own and open a business, you'll be doomed from the start. It will help give entrepreneurs and all Americans the assurance of knowing they won't go broke when they get sick. It will help ensure that no small business owner in America has to choose between being a successful employer and an employer who cares deeply about the well-being of his employees, or her employees. It will help us be the kind of country we know ourselves to be.

So what's at stake isn't just the success of our businesses or the strength of our economy or even the health of our people. What's at stake is that most American of ideas -- that this is a place where you can make it if you try; where you can be your own boss; where the only limits to what you can achieve are your smarts, your savvy, your dreams, your willingness to work hard; where you can pass on to your children a better life than you inherited.

That's what's at stake. That's what we're fighting for. And I'm absolutely confident that if we do what has to be done, if we can build an economy that works for all Americans, if we can promote innovation, and foster growth, and build a better health care system that is not a drag on each and every one of you, then not only will we ease the burdens on entrepreneurs, not only will we give our small businesses a huge boost, not only will we produce the kind of growth we so desperately need in this country, but we'll secure the blessings of America for our children and our grandchildren.

That's what we're fighting for. I need your help to make it happen. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. God bless America.

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Breast cancer survivors take the field - Gainesville Daily Register

Posted: 29 Oct 2009 09:36 AM PDT

Published: October 29, 2009 11:41 am

Breast cancer survivors take the field

By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer

Two local women found out what it feels like to perform at an NFL halftime show recently.

Pat Northcutt and her mother, Eloise Pettit — both breast cancer survivors — were invited to take the field along with 98 other Texas breast cancer survivors to form a gigantic pink ribbon in the middle of Cowboy Stadium.

"It was a chance of a lifetime," Northcutt said of the experience.

She and Pettit are both active in breast cancer awareness and fundraising campaigns including Relay for Life.

Northcutt is on the First State Bank team which raises money for the annual event and participates each year.

Pettit still attends the relay —an all night walk-a-thon during during which cancer survivors, caregivers, family and friends of cancer survivors pledge to walk a track to raise pledge money for the American Cancer Society.

She also participates in the survivor lap and the caregiver lap.

Northcutt said her favorite Relay for Life activity is the lighting of the luminaries — a candlelight display to honor cancer survivors and those who have lost their battles with the disease.

"It's quiet. It's a really touching moment, and you're thinking of the ones that didn't make it," she said.

Northcutt said she and her mother have been each other's strength during the fight against the devastating disease.

"She was my caregiver and I was her caregiver," she said.

Their activism made them good candidates for the halftime event which was sponsored by the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys.

The event was held to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness Month — a nationwide campaign spearheaded by the American Cancer Society.

Preparation for the show began early Sunday morning.

The women rode a bus with other cancer survivors to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington where they got the chance to meet the Cowboy's cheerleaders during a practice session for the halftime event.

The women on the celebrated cheerleader squad were surprisingly sweet, Northcutt said.

"They just hugged us and shared such a good outlook on life," she said.

The women sat together during the first quarter and left the field during the second quarter to prepare for the show.

Each woman wore a pink t-shirt.

Some also sported little pink hats and other gear.

The women had more in common than their t-shirts.

"It's so good to meet people who know exactly what you're going through," she said.

Northcutt is a nine year cancer survivor. Pettit began her battle against cancer five years ago.

Both women joined survivors from the Dallas area.

"I think we were the only ones who participated who weren't from the Metroplex," she said. "We felt very privileged to be able to represent Cooke County."

Northcutt said she didn't feel nervous taking the field in front of thousands of football fans.

Individual faces were lost in a blur of color and motion, she said.

"It was like one of those puzzle books — "Where's Waldo" — you couldn't see anybody," she said.

Although she couldn't see the fans from the field, Northcutt said she was touched by the respect she and the other survivors found among the group inside the huge stadium.

"The audience stood up the entire time to show their respect. Then they high-fived us as we left the field. It makes you realize people really do care," she said.

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Yoga -- Reduce Stress and Improve Your Mood - InteliHealth

Posted: 29 Oct 2009 10:55 AM PDT

Yoga -- Reduce Stress and Improve Your Mood

By Michael Craig Miller, M.D.
Harvard Medical School

Since the 1970s, meditation and other stress-reduction techniques have been studied as possible treatments for depression and anxiety. One such practice, yoga, has received less attention in the medical literature, though it has become increasingly popular in recent decades. One national survey estimated, for example, that about 7.5% of U.S. adults had tried yoga at least once, and that nearly 4% practiced yoga in the previous year.

There are many types of yoga. Hatha yoga, the most common type of yoga practiced in the United States, combines three elements: physical poses, called asanas; controlled breathing practiced in conjunction with asanas; and a short period of deep relaxation or meditation.

Many of the studies evaluating yoga's therapeutic benefits have been small and poorly designed. But results from the growing number of randomized controlled trials, the most rigorous standard for proving effectiveness, suggest that yoga practices may be helpful for both anxiety and depression. In this respect, yoga is like other self-soothing techniques, such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, or even socializing with friends. Let's take a closer look at the research.

Taming the Stress Response

Yoga appears to modulate stress response systems by reducing the intensity of a person's reactions to anxiety-provoking experiences. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal, such as heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability. This is a sign of the body's ability to respond to stress more flexibly.

A small but intriguing study published in 2008 further describes the effect of yoga on the stress response. Researchers at the University of Utah noted that people who have a poorly regulated response to stress are also more sensitive to pain. Their subjects were 12 experienced yoga practitioners, 14 people with fibromyalgia (a condition many researchers consider a stress-related illness that is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain) and 16 healthy volunteers.

When the three groups were subjected to more or less painful thumbnail pressure, the participants with fibromyalgia — as expected — perceived pain at lower pressure levels compared with the other subjects. Functional MRIs showed they also had the greatest activity in areas of the brain associated with the pain response. In contrast, the yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI. The study underscores the value of techniques like yoga that can help a person regulate stress and, therefore, pain responses.

Improving Mood

It's not clear exactly how yoga works to improve mood, but preliminary evidence suggests its benefit is similar to that of exercise and relaxation techniques.

In a German study published in 2005, 24 women who described themselves as "emotionally distressed" took two 90-minute yoga classes a week for three months. Women in a control group kept up their normal activities. They were asked not to begin an exercise or stress-reduction program during the study period.

All of the participants had experienced emotional distress for at least half of the previous 90 days. Although they were not formally diagnosed with depression, they reported higher-than-average levels of stress, anxiety and depression. At the end of three months, women in the yoga group reported improvements in those three areas. They also had more energy. Depression scores improved by 50%, anxiety scores by 30%, and overall well-being scores by 65%. Complaints of headaches, back pain, and poor sleep quality also cleared up much more often in the yoga group than in the control group.

One uncontrolled study from 2005 described the effects of a single yoga class for inpatients at a New Hampshire psychiatric hospital. The 113 participants included people with bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia. Before the class, they answered a questionnaire. After the class, average levels of tension, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility and fatigue dropped significantly when they repeated the questionnaire. Patients who chose to participate in additional classes experienced similar short-term positive effects.

Further controlled trials of yoga practice have demonstrated improvements in mood and quality of life for the elderly, people caring for patients with dementia, breast cancer survivors and patients with epilepsy.

Potential Benefits for PTSD

Since evidence suggests that yoga can turn down nervous system arousal, researchers are exploring whether or not yoga can help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

One randomized controlled study examined the effects of yoga and a breathing program among disabled Australian Vietnam veterans diagnosed with severe PTSD. The veterans were heavy daily drinkers who were taking at least one antidepressant. The five-day course included breathing techniques, yoga asanas, education about stress reduction and guided meditation. Participants were evaluated at the beginning of the study using a standardized symptom scale.

Six weeks after the study began, the yoga and breathing group experienced improvements in symptoms that remained at a six-month follow-up. The control group, made up of veterans on a waiting list, showed no improvement.

About 20% of war veterans returning from Afghanistan or Iraq suffer from PTSD, according to one estimate. Experts treating this group of people suggest that yoga can be a useful addition to the treatment program.

Researchers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., are offering a yogic method of deep relaxation to veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Kristie Gore, a psychologist at the center, says the military hopes that yoga-based treatments will be more acceptable to the soldiers and less stigmatizing than traditional psychotherapy. The center now uses yoga and yogic relaxation in post-deployment PTSD awareness courses, and plans to conduct a controlled trial of their effectiveness in the future.

A Word of Caution -- and Encouragement

Although many forms of yoga are safe, some are strenuous and may not be appropriate for everyone. In particular, elderly patients or those with mobility problems may want to check first with a clinician before choosing yoga as a treatment option.

But for many patients dealing with depression, anxiety or stress, yoga may be a very appealing way to better manage symptoms. Indeed, the scientific study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are not just closely allied, but are essentially equivalent. The evidence is growing that yoga practice is a relatively low-risk, high-benefit way to improve overall health.

Michael Craig Miller, M.D. is editor-in-chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Miller has an active clinical practice and has been on staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for more than 25 years.

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Breast Cancer

Thursday, October 29, 2009