If you look at the list--what you see are ways that HCPs, and in particular the drug companies can make money. Even something like quitting smoking is framed in the context of seeing the doc. BTW, I wonder how "brief counseling" by a doctor is going to help a problem drinker or a smoker. This is not about prevention, nor personal responsibility. If it were, then the primary focus would be nutrition--beginning with pregnancy and breastfeeding and throughout life, exercise, and behaviours that promote wellness and well-being beginning with secure attachment (co-sleeping, baby-wearing, etc) and continuing with the development of healthy lifetime practices like yoga, meditation, martial arts, bodywork and holistic therapies as the first line of treatment for any condition. Sorry, but this is more of the same self-serving drivel we always see. Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA in this morning's paper, the headline "20 things we could do to be healthier" caught my eye. I expected breastfeeding promotion, education, and support would be at the top of the list. it wasn't even on the list: 20 things we could do to be healthier By Frank Greve WASHINGTON - What preventive measures would keep us healthiest for the least money? Former Surgeon General David Satcher led an alliance of health insurers, state health departments, academics and trade groups as they tried to answer that question by reviewing more than 8,000 preventive-medicine studies. Below are their top 20 preventive measures in order of rank. Preventive measures that are ignored by more than half of those who would benefit from them are indicated by asterisks. 1. Daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks and stroke in men older than 40 and women older than 50.* 2. Childhood immunizations for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, hepatitis B, etc. 3. Tobacco-use screening and brief counseling by doctors.* 4. Routine colorectal-cancer screening for adults 50 and older by any recognized method.* 5. Hypertension screening via routine blood-pressure tests and medication if necessary. 6. Annual flu shots for adults 50 and older. 7. Immunization of adults 65 and older against bacteria that cause pneumonia and related diseases.* 8. Screening of problem drinkers and brief counseling by doctors.* 9. Vision screening for adults 65 and older.* 10. Cervical-cancer screening for sexually active women and women older than 21. 11. Cholesterol screening for men 35 and older and women 45 and older. 12. Routine breast-cancer screening for women 50 and older, and discussion with women ages 40 to 49 to set an age to begin screening. 13. Routine chlamydia screening for sexually active women younger than 25.* 14. Calcium-supplement counseling for adolescent girls and women. 15. Vision screening for children younger than 5. 16. Routine folic-acid-supplement counseling for women of childbearing age to prevent birth defects. 17. Obesity screening for adults and high-intensity diet and exercise counseling for the obese. 18. Depression screening for adults. 19. Hearing-impairment screening for adults 65 and older. 20. Promotion of child-safety measures such as car seats, pool fences, bicycle helmets, poison control and curbs on scalding-water burns. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html