The Oregon Women's Report - Women's News from Oregon

HealthDay News — That extra hour of sleep you’ll get in most parts of the country over the weekend might be restful, but the beginning of Daylight Saving Time could spell trouble for your body clock, a sleep expert says. Dr. Atul Malhotra, medical director of the sleep disorders research program in the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, explained in a hospital news release that there are ways to prevent the time change from disrupting your sleep habits.

HealthDay News — Are you a bad driver? Maybe you can blame it on your genes. In a small study, researchers found that people with a gene variation performed 20 percent worse on simulated driving tests and did as poorly a few days later. Almost one in three Americans have the variation, the team said. “These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away,” said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor at the University of California at Irvine and senior author of a study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex, in a statement.

Is there a bully hurting your child? Does he poke fun of your child in front of others? Does he hit? Look inside to find out how the family meeting can help. How do you know when to step in? What should you do first? Consider starting with the family meeting.  Of course if the bully is physically abusing your child, you must step in.

Imagine gathering the family together and discussing the bully. Go around the room asking for information. Let each child speak. Make sure no one interrupts or hogs the conversation. Discuss the following:

Maria Shriver, and Lisa Niemi (Patrick Swayze’s wife) shared their grief moments to a crowd of 25,000 women at the 2009 Women’s Conference in California.  Both women endured losses of loved ones in 2009.
By Evergreen,
Oregon writer

Lisa Swayze spoke on how she felt sad for not saying I Love You enough to her husband who died of cancer this year.  She said, “I’ve spent two thirds of my life with him … My regret is that I didn’t tell him that I loved him enough over that entire 34 years. I am so grateful for what I had and my connection to him, and part of me believes that I will see him again,and I’m just going to have to go on until then.”

By Erika Weisensee
Milwaukie writing mom,

The bruises, wounds and emotional scars of domestic violence are not always obvious.  Victims often suffer in silence, afraid to tell anyone for fear of retaliation from their abusers. When victims manage to break free from the cycle of domestic violence, often they have received emotional support and vital information—like where to go for help—from someone who knows them (a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker). October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to remember that we can all be part of the solution. We can start by knowing the warning signs of abuse:

By Oregon Women’s Report viewer poll,

The latest Oregon Women’s Report poll shows that during an economic recession women are less likely to let go of their coffee and movies as compared to other attractions and expenses. The biggest sacrificed expense during this recession was eating out and new clothes. Both decisions have been reflected in the news of sales declines in retail and restaurants.

List each item you have spent less on this year due to the recession; (Choose any that apply)

Comments

- I dropped cable and saved $50 bucks month. Do you know how many lattes that is?

- “fewer donations to favorite causes”

- “Cut out major purchases and spending on improving our home.”

- Just take it out of the kids’ budget and you will not have to give up anything

By Chantelle K. Dockter,
MA, Licensed Professional Counselor
Associate of CCCOW,.

Question: My teenage daughter is moody, sullen, and has been hiding out in her room a lot. She doesn’t seem to want to even hang out with her friends much. Could she be depressed?

Answer: Depression is definitely a possibility. Anyone who has teenagers knows that teens can be unpredictable and moody in general, and this makes it difficult to accurately discern what expected teenage behavior is and what is cause for concern. However, it is important to differentiate due to the risks that teen depression brings.

Swine Flu Parties? Send Your Regrets, Experts Say

HealthDay News– While most people are doing all they can to avoid the swine flu, some groups of people are said to be actively seeking it out. These are parents who are reportedly arranging swine flu “parties” — similar to chicken pox or measles parties — so their healthy children can be exposed to the virus through kids who are already sick with the H1N1 flu. Health experts theorize that the rationale may be to give a child the swine flu while it’s still relatively mild, before it mutates into something more virulent. But, so far, all indications point to the H1N1 virus staying as mild to moderate as when it first appeared in the spring.

Written by Helpguide.org
A trusted online non-profit resource

The best things in life – success, happiness, love – depend on our ability to create and maintain great relationships. Most of us do a good job with relationships at the start, only to stumble down the road. Why do relationships develop such challenging problems? Oftentimes, relationship problems are due to a breakdown in the skills of emotional intelligence. Fortunately, it’s never too late to develop these skills and raise your emotional intelligence abilities. Once you’ve learned the five key emotional intelligence skills, you’ll be able to create and sustain secure, successful, long-lasting relationships.

How does emotional intelligence help our relationships?

Many people put their best foot forward in a new work setting or when looking to attract a mate, but stumble while trying to maintain their relationships over the long term. That’s because keeping a relationship healthy and fulfilling requires a unique skill set that many of us don’t have. This skill set is known as emotional intelligence. 

By Erika Weisensee
Milwaukie writing mom,

This week is National Teen Driver Safety Week, an appropriate time to review Oregon’s teen driving laws and remember that much can be done to prevent traffic accidents. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. In 2005, twelve teens ages 16 to 19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries, according to the CDC. Among teen drivers, those at the highest risk include male drivers, teens driving with other teen passengers, and teens in their first year of driving.

The numbers are startling but much can be done to help teens drive more safely and reduce these statistics. Research shows that graduated licensing (GDL) programs are very effective in reducing fatal and injury crashes for teen drivers, but these laws need to be followed and enforced. Oregon’s GDL laws place several restrictions on drivers under 18.

HealthDay News — If current life expectancy trends continue, more than half of babies born in rich nations since 2000 will live to 100 years of age, and they’ll have less disability than elderly people in previous generations. That’s the conclusion of researchers who found that increases in life expectancy evident in rich nations since 1840 show no signs of slowing.

by Cathy Rae Smith
founder of Culture Magazine

Shoes are one of the foremost revelations of a person’s path, whether with an eye for style or just focused on function. To the extent of style, quality looms large in the lexicon of the truly discriminating. Personally, I love that we dwell in an era of such range and diversity. In my considerable collection of shoes, I have old, well-worn (and tremendously comfortable) “Locals” flip-flops. I also have some exquisite black suede Manolo Blahniks. I have knee-high black Italian leather boots with 3″heels and I have knee-high tan suede UGG boots. I guess it reveals the duality of my interests, ranging from west coast surfer girl to international follower of fashion.

Oregon Women’s Report survey;

What Oregon attractions do you wish to visit someday
but never seem to have the time?
(Participants were allowed to choose multiple locations)

The option for “Local Tribal casino” received no votes and either repellents not a desired attraction or that people have been there before.  Crater Lake was by far the runaway leader in this missed travel location, despite its luster being seen on Oregon’s state quarter.

HealthDay News — New parents like baby names that are not merely popular but on the rise, compared to names that are falling out of favor, a new study suggests. The findings by researchers at New York University and Indiana University provide evidence that parental naming choices are influenced by trends in ways that weren’t previously understood, the study authors said.

“Our results give support to the idea that individual naming choices are in a large part determined by the social environment that expecting parents experience,” the authors wrote. “Like the stock market, cycles of boom and bust appear to arise out of the interactions of a large set of agents who are continually influencing one another.”

By Jean Tracy, NW Author
KidsDiscuss.com, Parent Newsletter

Of course, you want a successful marriage. You want your partner to love, honor, and cherish you. You promised the same to your partner. What happened? When two people marry, conflict will occur. That’s normal. How that conflict is solved holds the key to your happiness. Today I’ll give you a solution that will nourish your love, help you keep your vows, and solve your conflicts too.

Where Do Conflicts Start?

Conflicts start in your head. Your partner does something and you start thinking.

Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) — Deep blue and red cotton fabrics are better than yellow at protecting skin against damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, according to Spanish scientists. The researchers said their findings could lead to clothing fabrics that offer improved sun protection. The color of fabric is one of the most critical factors in determining how well clothing protects people against UV radiation. But there are gaps in knowledge about exactly how color interacts with other factors to influence the degree of UV protection offered by a fabric, explained Ascension Riva of the Universidad Politecnica de Cataluna in Terrassa, Spain, in a news release from the American Chemical Society.

By Evergreen, NW writer,

The video above was not only a segment from a popular reality Tv show but the clip has been viewed over a million times on the internet. I chuckled at the video but also worried about the privacy and well-being of the child acting foolish before millions of viewers. As reality programs operate, many of the good deeds get left out and the bad ones get edited together, often giving a false impression. Survivor was criticized for trying to emphasize how hungry and emaciated contestants were by showing body shots of bone thin people who were not even on the show.

By Erika Weisensee,
Milwaukie writing mom

Teamwork. Self-discipline. Sportsmanship. Ask anyone about the benefits of participating in athletics, and you may get these answers. The highs, lows and in-betweens of organized sports offer plenty of teachable moments. Take it from me, a former average high school athlete, lessons learned on the court (the field, or the track) stay with you long after you’ve hung up the jersey for good.

Here, in my opinion, are some of the lasting lessons of sports:

Hard work pays off:
For every “born” athlete, many more become proficient at their game through sheer determination and hard work. Of course, the lesson that “hard work pays off” can be learned not only from sports, but also through music and many other hobbies.