Laura

For those of you that don’t know, Jim Karol came to LVC Friday, November 16^th.  His performance was good; I enjoyed it.  Magic is not something that I would normally go see.  I am very skeptic when it comes to magic.  It bothers me when I don’t know how something is done.  Jim Karol held my attention throughout his entire performance.  He was funny, very entertaining and had me asking myself ‘How did he do that?’

I never heard of Jim Karol or saw any of his performances until he was listed to come to LVC.  Apparently he is quite famous.  He performs for a lot of famous people and attends a lot of famous people events.  For example, Jim Karol attends parties at the Playboy Mansion and P. Diddy’s “White Party” every year.

Everyone likes to be entertained.  Most people enjoy magic; I on the other hand do not.  However, Jim Karol was not just a magician; he is an entertainer.  Throughout his performance he made jokes which were enough to keep me entertained.  I would go to another one of Jim Karol’s performances and I think that everyone should see him perform too.

This year over 1,150,000 women worldwide will be diagnosed with breast cancer; that is equivalent to 1 out of 8 women.  Out of the 1,150,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer 411,000 will die from this disease.  Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women ages 20-59.

About 1 million women at this very moment have breast cancer and do not know it yet.  The symptoms of breast cancer often go unnoticed by most women.  Some symptoms that may be notice are as follows: 

·        A change in how the nipple/breast feels or looks

·        A lump in the breast/underarm area

·        A change in the size/shape of the breast

·        A nipple turned inward toward the breast

·        Redness or swollen breast/nipple

Most women go in for a yearly mammogram and that is great.  It is important to know that mammograms do not always detect breast cancer.  Mammograms have a failing rate of 20% in women over 50 and 40% in younger women.  Doing self breast examinations are the quickest, cheapest, and easiest way to check for breast cancer.  You know your body better than anyone else.  Go ahead, touch your boobs!  It’s good for you!

If something feels different you should tell your doctor to check for breast cancer; even if you feel normal you should be checked for breast cancer.  If your doctor suspects that you may have breast cancer he/she will confirm his/her opinion by performing any of the following detection systems:  clinical breast exam, diagnostic mammogram, ultrasound, magnetic resance image (MRI), or a biopsy.

If cancer is found treatment will begin.  There are two types of therapy that can be used to treat breast cancer.  One way is to use local therapy.  Local therapy includes treatments such as surgery and radiation to remove or reduce the cancer.  Another way is to use systemic therapy.  Systemic therapy uses hormones to rid the body of the cancer or to control the cancer through the bloodstream. 

Breast cancer is scary, because there are few symptoms and the causes are usually unknown.  50% of all breast cancer cases are unexplainable.  During your lifetime you may be diagnosed with breast cancer or you will know someone with breast cancer.  Knowing the symptoms and performing self breast examinations frequently will help to increase your survival of this deadly disease.

To learn more about self breast examinations and how to perform the visit    http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms 

Jim Karol is a comedian, mentalist, and has the ability to memorize more information than the average person.  He has preformed on the Tonight Show, Today Show, Ellen, E Entertainment, CNN, and Phenomenon, just to name a few.  He has also been in the movie Jackass 2 and will be featured in Jackass 3 in the near future.  

Karol has performed for some of today’s top stars.  He has performed for people such as Coolio, George W. Bush, Carmen Electra, P. Diddy and many others.  By hanging around famous people and performing for them, Jim Karol became famous himself.  Most people do not know him by name, but they do know him by his performances.  Not only does he perform for stars, he also performs for the everyday average Joe like you and me.  

Card tricks play a big role in Karol’s performance.  He likes to involve his audience in his show.  While performing his tricks, he tells jokes to keep the audience laughing and entertained.  The magic tricks are entertaining, but his ability to memorize massive amounts of information is not impressive.  Who cares if he memorized zip codes and the entire Scrabble Dictionary?  

If you are interested in seeing one of Jim Karol’s performances you can see him on television or in person.  For a list of Karol’s performing dates and locations visit jimkarol.com.

Everyone experiences sadness throughout their lives, but when is sadness classified as depression?  It is sometimes hard to diagnose depression.  About 2/3 of depressed people do not receive proper treatment, because they do not realize that they are depressed and need to be treated.  According to Psychology Information Online, over 17 million adults experience a period of clinical depression.

The signs and symptoms of depression are greater than sadness and vary from person to person.  Some of the basic signs and symptoms of depression are as follows:

            1.  Withdraw from social events (not spending time with family and friends)

            2.  Thoughts of suicide (death or self harm of any kind)

            3.  Crying (crying for long periods of time)

            4.  Feeling hopeless (as if nothing will ever get better)

            5.  Daily activities are no longer enjoyable (hobbies, social things, and sex are no

                  longer fun)

            6.  Weight changes (weight gain or weight loss of more than 5% body weight                       within a month)

            7. Loss of energy (physically drained and fatigued)

            8.  Concentration problems (unable to focus on anything other then problems)

            9.  Irritability (annoyed easily)

            10.  Aches and pains (physically hurting)

Some possible causes for depression are the following:  loneliness, not enough social support, stressful experiences, family history of depression, relationship problems, monetary issues, alcohol or drug abuse, health problems, job stress and the list goes on.  Numerous experiences in life can cause depression.  Depression is not something that should be overlooked.  It affects the entire body and involves your mood, thoughts and body.  According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds.

If you or someone you know appears to be depressed, the best thing to do is to visit a doctor.  What appears to be depression might not be, and what appears to be simple sadness could be depression.  It is best to let a doctor diagnose, or not diagnose, your situation.  If you are diagnosed with depression, you may be treated with medication or therapy or a combination of the two.  Help does exist; it is just a matter of getting the help that is needed. To learn more about depression and getting help visit www.helpguide.com

Everyone experiences stress in their life at one point or another, but the way in which stress is dealt with varies from person to person.  One person might smoke cigarettes when they are stressed out; another person might over eat when they are stressed and another person might under eat. 

Anorexia Nervosa is defined by dictionary.com as “An eating disorder primarily affecting adolescent girls and young woman, characterized by pathological fear of becoming fat, distorted body image, excessive dieting, and emaciation.” Anorexia is more of a mental disease than it is a physical disease, but it does affect both.  One out of every hundred people is diagnosed with anorexia.  90% of all anorexia cases are female.

Sexual abuse, physical or emotional abuse, depression, stress, anxiety, unhappiness, and unhealthy weight obsession are just a few causes of anorexia.  Every reason for Anorexia is very emotionally complex.  This disease is sometimes overlooked and therefore is untreated.  Some people have a more serious case of Anorexia than others.  Most females will experience an eating disorder at some point in their life, but it will probably be overlooked and last for a short period of time. 

About 2% of American females are diagnosed with Anorexia.  Signs of Anorexia include the following:  obsessive exercising, calorie/fat counting, starvation, food restriction, constant concern with body image and diet pills, laxatives, and diuretics are often used in controlling weight.  Most anorexics will hide food instead of consuming it and will claim to have already eaten in order to avoid food intake.  The majority of anorexics will drink diet sodas, coffee, and tea because they all have zero calories and are stimulants that help to fight fatigue.  Cigarettes are often smoked to fight fatigue and reduce hunger.

Although Anorexia is more of a mental disease than it is a physical disease, the effects of anorexia affect the body physically.  An anorexic is always tried and has no energy.  Their metabolism slows and they lose their menstrual cycle (if female).  They are always cold due to a lack of needed fat and their body will naturally grow fine hairs all over their body to stay warm.  They have very little muscle and no strength.  All of these symptoms occur just to fit into a pair of jeans?  It doesn’t seem worth it.

Anorexia can be treated.  Treatment usually requires visiting a team of doctors.  Medical care is required for the physical part of Anorexia.  Psychotherapy is required for the psychiatric part of the disease.  Nutritional therapy helps the patient learn how to eat in a healthy way.  Medications can be prescribed but a mainly antidepressants or psychiatric medications to help the patient overcome the mental part of the disease.

5 million Americans will/have experienced an eating disorder.  Out of all of the people that experience an eating disorder only half will have a full recovery.  Some patients never recovery and struggle with the disease everyday. 

The question still remains:  Is skinny in?  The answer is:  Who cares?  Is being skinny more important than your health?

For more information and help with fighting Anorexia visit http://www.anorexiahelp.net/

Advertisements are everywhere!  Advertisements appear in all forms of media.  The reason why all forms of media include advertisements is because advertisements are a major source of their income.  Advertisements dominate some forms of media; for example, the newspaper.  Newspapers have more advertisements than news.  So, what is an advertisement exactly?  An advertisement is “any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor,” according to The American Marketing Association.

Advertisements have been around for many years.  It is unknown when exactly advertisements began.  Advertisements in America appeared in America as soon as the “New World” was discovered in order to get people from England to settle in America.  Some advertisements were misleading, or lies, to get people to live in America.

There are many types of advertisements that can be used to get your message out to large amounts of people.  Trade advertisements are used to promote businesses to other businesses.  Consumer advertisements are used to promote retail items to potential buyers.  Display advertisements are used to get the potential buyers attention.  Trade cards were used for businesses to put a message on one side and artwork on the other. 

The Industrial Revolution relied on advertisements to create massive demands for new products.  Producing large amounts of a product would allow companies to supply the product to the consumer at a cheaper cost.  Advertisements worked to the consumers benefit in some cases; however, it did not benefit them in all cases.  Some products that were being advertised sounded good, but in reality harmed the consumer’s health!  In 1924 a code of ethics was published to avoid misleading the consumer.  Some would say the advertising came a long way over the past hundred years or so; I think that we still have a long way to go.  Advertising still seems misleading, only now it does not harm your health.  It is good to know the truth about a product before it is purchased.  

Yogurt dates back to 3,200 years before Christ.  It originated in the Middle East to preserve milk.  Today people eat yogurt mainly because it tastes good.  Most people would not eat yogurt if they knew that it contained bacteria.  A bacterium is viewed as a bad thing that we try to avoid as much as possible.  However, it has been proven that the bacteria found in yogurt do have many health benefits.  Yogurt is proven to prevent and/or treat the following:  HIV infections, yeast infections, diarrhea, rotavirus (a viral infection), eczema (flare ups were reduced within one month), protects the heart, normalizes blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, decrease carcinogens (in other words, prevents cancer), and MAY help with digestion.

Yogurt companies have been targeting consumers by promoting the yogurts ability to help the digestive system and promote regularity.  Most yogurt companies say that their product “MAY help with digestion.”  The truth is that yogurt only helps the digestive system in people that are lactose intolerant (people that lack an enzyme that helps them to break down milk sugars). 

A bacterium found in yogurt is good for you and does have many health benefits.  Yogurt MAY help your digestive system, but then again it MAY NOT help.  Over all, yogurt is good for you whether you have digestive problems or not you should be eating yogurt.  Not all bacteria are bad for you, so eat up!

Public Relations (PR) has been around for a long time; so long that the exact date cannot be found.  Public relations is the relationship between an organization and the public.  Public relations is not advertising.  People criticize Public relations, because some people think that public relations is dishonest.  Public relations uses sneaky tactics to get the publics opinion and give them exactly what they want by using spies and wording that is what the public wants to hear, but may not necessarily be the truth. 

Although public relations is not always completely honest (or at least they do not tell the whole truth), jobs in the public relations field is growing at a rapid rate.  Today 500,000 people are employed by public relations firms throughout America.  Most of public relations handle celebrity cases and tell him/her how to behave, what to say, what to wear and so on.  Public relations can save a celebrity’s career! 

Public relations is a broad field that includes research, counseling, and communicating.  The research part of the public relations duties is to search for the answers.  Researching allows for the public relations to see the issue at hand as the general public views the issue.  At times, public relations does not reveal to the public that they are conducting research, but sometimes public relations is very open with the public and will conduct poll/surveys to get the information that is needed.

The counseling part of public relations is to give advice to their clients.  Counseling offers information/ideas on basic decisions and organizational policymaking.  And communication is getting the clients message out to the public through various outlets of media.  The purpose of public relations is to take an issue and twist it into what the public wants to hear and/or what the client wants the public to hear.

It is hard to believe anything that is being said through public relations (if you can tell).  Maybe not everything that is being said through public relations is a lie, but it probably is not the whole truth either.  Public relations can take one issue and twist it (or spin it) in many ways to give the client what they want and gives the client what they want to hear.