After 13 years, thanks and farewell

This is my last posting for Second Opinion. After 13 years, I’ve decided to retire from the column. Writing it for MinnPost has been an incredibly rewarding experience, but I want to put more “space” into my days. If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that we should not take our time with friends and family for granted.

Susan Perry
Susan Perry
When I told my 11-year-old grandson that I would no longer be working every day and could therefore spend more time hanging out with him, he did a little happy dance.

I have lots of people to thank, but I’d like to start with those of you who’ve been regular readers of Second Opinion. Over the years, I’ve had thoughtful e-mail exchanges with many of you, and I’ve also read with interest all the comments that you posted at the end of my articles. Early on, I realized I would not be able to respond to every comment (I simply didn’t have the time), but I did read and learn from them. Many of the points you made helped to inform what I wrote the next time I covered the topic.

From the beginning, I wanted Second Opinion to be an evidence-based column, one that looked at what the actual scientific evidence had to say on issues related to consumer health. That focus on evidence became my lodestar each day as I chose the next topic to write about.

And just for the record: In all the years I’ve written the column, no editor — nor anyone else — ever told me what to leave in or leave out. I selected the topic of each column. I also decided how I would approach it. Admittedly, I didn’t always make the best decision (some of the research I wrote about didn’t hold up in future studies), but the responsibility lies fully with me.

I have worked with many wonderful, talented people at MinnPost, but I am especially indebted to Susan Albright, my exceptionally skilled and steady long-time editor, and to Corey Anderson, who managed (with a sense of humor) every morning to come up with photos and other images for articles that often didn’t lend themselves to any kind of visuals.

I want to particularly thank, however, Laurie and Joel Kramer, who had the vision and courage to launch a nonprofit online newspaper in 2007, right in the midst of the Great Recession. I am grateful for having been part of this remarkable adventure in journalism. It’s been quite a journey.



from Health | MinnPost https://ift.tt/3bc5QbN

Comentarii

Trimiteți un comentariu

Postări populare de pe acest blog

Telehealth hubs offer care options for people living on the edge the virtual world

Imagine
At Catholic Charities Opportunity Center in downtown St. Paul, Senior Clinical Manager Stacie Joncas works with some of the people who’ve been hardest hit by the many crises that have befallen the Twin Cities over the last few months. “These are people who are really having a rough time right now,” she said. “With the murder of George Floyd, the riots and COVID, what we’re finding is a huge increase in mental health and substance use problems among our client population.” A day center for people experiencing homelessness and for members of other vulnerable communities, the Opportunity Center provides a safe place for people to spend time, eat a hot meal and get help with a variety of issues, including looking for a job, finding affordable housing and getting support for mental health and addiction concerns. When COVID-10 hit Minnesota this spring, most health care providers made the shift to telehealth as a way to safely see their patients without risk of spreading the virus. While
Citiți mai multe

Overuse on cattle feedlots is a key factor in antibiotic resistance, report says

Cattle producers purchased 42 percent of all medically important antibiotics sold for livestock use in the United States in 2018 — about the same amount sold for chicken and pork production combined, according to a scathing  report published this month by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In fact, in 2018, nearly as many antibiotics of medical importance were sold for use in cattle (5.6 million pounds) as for human use (7.5 million pounds). Most of those antibiotics wouldn’t be necessary if the U.S. beef industry made changes in how they raise cattle and produce meat. Cattle producers in the U.S. use antibiotics three to six times more intensively than do their counterparts in the European Union, the report points out. That’s because the drugs are fed routinely to cattle on U.S. feedlots — even when no animals are sick. The European Union, which is the third-largest beef producer globally, not only discourages the routine feeding of antibiotics to cattle, it has announ
Citiți mai multe

Bringing Your Ballpark Food Favorites Home

Imagine
You know what I love? Baseball . There’s just something about it, you know? As America ’s pastime, it’s so historically and culturally significant—patriotic, in fact. As a summer sport, it was always a game I enjoyed during a break from school , when fun, relaxation, and baseball were what life was all about. As a daily sport, it’s great for someone like me. The practice to game ratio is great; when you win, you get to keep the momentum going; and when you lose, you can get right back to it the next day. Now that I’m older, and no longer play the game myself, it’s this last reason that really sticks with me. Baseball is an everyday sport. Sometimes it’s a grind. Sometimes it’s full of highs. In that way, it’s a lot like life. It also becomes a part of your life due to this same, everyday nature. For six months, it becomes your routine. You watch, or listen, spending time with the announcers for a few hours, as you go about your day. It’s a hobby, a passion, habitual. You know what
Citiți mai multe