This afternoon I heard a gentleman here from the CDC talking about the ACE study. This is a very large, ongoing study, with fascinating outcomes.

ACE stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences - it's another way of saying emotional, physical or sexual abuse; neglect; substance abuse by parents; violence toward mother; divorce or separation of parents; incarceration of parent, etc. etc. etc. The list of adverse childhood experiences is so long it's hard to quantify.

What we know is that there is a relationship between the number of these a child has and their later health - physical and mental.

Adverse Childhood Experiences lead to social, emotional and cognitive impairment, which leads to high risk behaviors that gives us disease, disapbility and social problems and ultimately lead to an early death. The trick is to figure out how those experiences lead to the impairment which leads to the risky behavior - we know it does, we just don't know why. Yet. We will. Then the question will become what to do about it.

Interestingly enough, most of us have one or more ACEs - about 34 percent of women and 38% of men report none. The rest of us fall into the scale somewhere else. But, it's cumulative - if you have one you're at less risk than if you have three. By the time you have four there doesn't seem to be much distinction above that - i.e. having four is about the same risk as having seven.

When you look at the population as a whole, you find that behaviors such as smoking, risky sexual behavior, alcohol abuse, etc. do not fall randomly into the population. They cluster, and people who have one risk factor tend to have others. That's what prompted the research. The common factor is ACEs and how many of them we have.

This is important stuff - there is a correlation between these and everything from obesity to STDs to diabetes to heart disease.

This is not new research, but it is onoing. You can read more about it at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/index.htm. It's exciting, but also painful. This is just one more example of how our mental health affects our physical health. There are new ones every single day, it seems, but still in most places insurance companies are not required to cover your mental health the same way they are to cover your physical health.

Did you know that people who are depressed are four times more likely to have a heart attack? But, we'd rather treat the damage to the heart muscle instead of treating the depression. By the way, the success rate with treating heart disease is about 45%, while the success rate with treating mental illness is about 85%. So, we'd rather wait until the person has a greater chance of dying before we do anything. There's some good thinking. Newt Gingrich is right when he says the health care system in the US is so broken it just needs to be thrown out and we need to start over.

What can you do? Bug your representatives. There's a good chance the Wellstone bill will pass in this session of congress with democrats in control and insurance companies will have to cover mental health sufficiently. The votes have been there to pass it, but republicans would not bring it to a vote. With democrats in control, mental health advocates think it will be brought to a vote and pass.

Oh, and when the lobbyists tell you how expensive it's going to be to cover everyone, they're lying. In Vermont, the only state that has true parity (equal coverage for mental and physical health), it did not cause a dramatic increase in premiums - it just meant that people got care and insurance companies made a tiny bit less money. How often do you hear of them going out of business? Exactly.

Many health insurance plans cover mental health at only $10,000 for a lifetime. Guess how long that takes to use up? It would be like saying heart disease is only covered for the first $10,000. Families mortgage everything they own to get care for their children. People go bankrupt. People lose their homes. Surely we can put an end to such foolishness. Surely.

Art

I have spent part of the day today looking at art - impressionist art - Monet's art. Needless to say, I've had a great day.

Seeing particular pieces of art seems to, literally, feed my soul. I have a physical, as well as emotional, reaction to some artwork. It's as if my inner being is soaking up the experience.

Monet and Renoir almost always have that effect on me - not always, but almost. Other artists can impact me that way as well. Today a Chagall painting really struck a cord with me, even though he is not one of my favorite artists.




I'm sharing this close up I took today of a study Monet did for his final waterlilies paintings. I couldn't use flash, so it's not the best photo, but it does show the texture in the paint, which is one of the things I love in this work.

This is one of the reasons seeing a photo or print of a painting is not at all like seeing it in person - you miss all those details.

I'm watching a rerun of the first Harry Potter movie. Gosh, they look so young. I am so impressed with this series of books. I cannot wait for the next one.

Of course, I refuse to believe the ending of the last book. It simply cannot be true.

I don't really believe in making New Year's Resolutions. I never keep them so it's a useless exercise in futility. And it makes me feel bad that I didn't keep them so I stopped setting myself up that way.

But, a few years ago I started picking one or two things that I was going to make an effort to more or less of in the coming year. Nothing major - but something that would make a difference.

For example, a few years ago I decided I was going to drink more water. Considering that I drank practically none at the time, I had no where to go but up with that one. And, I have increased my water intake over that time. When I had to stop drinking caffeine about a year ago my water intake went up even more. One aside, you save a ton of money eating out when you're drinking water instead of pop. You don't think much about it because it's less than a couple of bucks. But, it really adds up. Yet another thing - people will start asking you what new cream you're using on your face because your skin looks better. Embarrassing but true - just water intake.

This year I've decided I'm going to "eat less fake food." This does not mean you will not see me eating junk food, it just means I'm going to eat less. An apple instead of a cookie kind of thing. An apple is real food. A cookie is a conglomeration of foods and food like substances, i.e. fake food. However, still expect to be served cookies and other sweets at my house. I'm just going to eat "less" - a nebulous, undefined amount that will equal "less" than I consume now - and will, yet, make me feel good about what I'm going for myself.

Much like the "resolution" about water, this will not be hard to achieve. But, such things make a difference over the course of a year. And, they tend to be lasting changes.

In the spirit of such things, this morning at breakfast I chose the apple instead of the waffle, which would have also required syrup - a fake food extravaganza. I already feel superior to the person I was a week ago. Geez, I'm easy.

Productive Day with Predictions

It has been a productive day, but I'm still not done with everything I need to accomplish. I have been working on things since 7:15 this morning and it's 11:33 p.m. so I think I'm about done for today. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Diana and Brad stopped by tonight to look at the tree. Brad is going to build me a stand for it that can hold it upright better than what I'm using. They do not manufacture Christmas Tree stands to hold the amount of lights and ornaments I put on. I need to have something built for me. Fortunately, I know someone who owns a metal fabrication place. And, yes, I do know I should be embarrassed by that. But it's so pretty and sparkly.

I did get everything unloaded from the car today - just in time to repack it all.

Meanwhile, Pat Robertson is taking a break from telling us to send our money to the Lord in care of him, to tell us millions of us are going to die in terrorist attacks sometime after September of this year. I guess that means we all need to live it up for the next few months - make them good.

I do believe God talks to people. I do not believe that Pat Robertson necessarily his designated messenger. I guess time will tell. If this blog ends abruptly after September, you can call Pat Robertson for the last laugh.

Back to Real Life

It's time to get back to real life. I always find this difficult and it makes me think I need to change my daily life. You shouldn't want to escape it - you should be loving it.

Of course, there are always parts of every day I love and today was no exception. I got to have lunch with Teresa and it was fun to see her and catch up on the holidays. I also popped in to say hi to Diana after lunch.

Otherwise, I've been working on things all day. I have a ton of things to get done. I haven't even gotten the car completely unpacked yet. But I've managed to trash my living room in just getting a few things out.

One cool part of my day was I took the birthday and Christmas money I got from Greg's mom and purchased an expansion card for my PDA. So, now I can listen to podcasts at length, which I will love. Whenever people give me money I try to buy something specific with it instead of letting it just be frittered away in the usual way money goes through people's hands.

I have thought about buying an Ipod but now I want to see what happens with the Zune. And, if I just use my PDA I only have to carry one device.

The trick now is to find some comfy headphones. I've bought two different ones and they are both too big for my ears. My ears, apparently, are smaller than the norm. I honestly had no idea - not like you see the inside of your ears very often - but there you go. Anyway, finding some comfy headphones would complete the setup now.

In sad news, Greg's mom had to let Miss Kitty go today. She has been ill and I suspected they were not going to get a good report from the vet today. I don't know all the details, but I'm sad about it.

I think I was the first to meet Miss Kitty when she wandered up onto Greg's mom's porch about 10 years ago. I said hello to her and petted her and pretty soon Greg's mom had a cat. In true cat fashion, I think she was never more adorable than when she was making that first impression. That's how cats are - they know when to turn on the charm - they are marketing geniuses.

I was already familiar with this because Greg and I had a 16 pound cat who had made himself at home in our lives a bit before then. Come to think of it, I was the first one who met him, too. That first meeting involved some tuna fish and, not surprisingly, he returned and pretty soon Greg and I had a cat.

It's very hard to lose a pet, but letting them go becomes the last act of love you can give them. I know it's going to be hard on her, as well as Greg and Steve who are both there. I will miss her, too.

Kansas

I arrived at my home tonight to find a dusting of snow still at the edge of the sidewalk. It was a beautiful day to drive - sunny and warm.

I stopped in Joplin and had a late lunch with Greg, Mia and Miss Joy. I didn't get home until about 9:30 tonight and I've been trying to get a couple of things done before bed but I am tired tonight.

I didn't get much sleep last night. I stayed up too late to get up as early as I did. Even I do need some sleep.

I'm happy to see that the Christmas tree is not leaning anymore than it was when I left. It needs some major engineering before next year. I need a welder.

Tomorrow I will unload the car and try to get things in a bit of order. It's amazing that things can get so messed up so easily. How do people keep their houses clean all the time?