Ground flax seed consumption may decrease breast cancer risk by slowing one’s menstrual cycle. It may also control prostate enlargement as effectively as the leading prescription drug.

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My name is Melissa, I am Barbara’s daughter. We are writing this note together today. We need to make sure everyone realizes that our life is not a big love fest everyday. We are mother and daughter, even though my mother has Alzheimer’s, and I have MS, we are still mother and daughter. We live in the same house, and we argue, just like all mothers and daughters. Some people have gotten the idea that ours is a perfect relationship…it is not, it is something that we are still working on.

Being a caregiver to my mother is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. There are days that we have so much fun, and talk and remember, we go volunteer, or just go sit and watch the river. Other days are full of yelling, screaming and being sick. There are days that I am so sick with MS that I can not get mom dressed and we both wear our pajamas all day. There are days we get dressed up and go visit friends. There are days that she knows me, some days she doesn’t. We go day by day around here.

The last 6 months have been very difficult for me, not only having MS, but the financial responsibility of caring for my mother. Read more…

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We lost Shayne to Oklahoma this week..but he called in from the streets of Colon (population 800), to give us the lay of the land on healthcare in his home state. He tells us access to care is difficult to non-existent in many areas, diabetes and heart disease are disproportionally high, and night life? Well…Shayne will tell us all about that when he returns to the show next week.

Our good friend and D.C. Healthcare correspondent Donna Smith joins us from the road—on the National Nurses United Medicare For All bus tour. The bus pulled out of San Diego, CA last week with 22 stops along the way. The nurses are providing mobile blood pressure screenings, information about accessing health screenings and check-ups in their own towns and cities and about the Robin Hood Tax, (robinhoodtax.org). Good stuff peeps!!! Oh, and for anyone who thinks the Robin Hood Tax is a pipe dream…check out this article..13 European nations—led by Germany—are moving closer to signing onto this initiative. Read more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:30 — 18.5MB) | Embed

Our good friend and D.C. Healthcare correspondent Donna Smith joins us from the road—on the National Nurses United Medicare For All bus tour. The bus pulled out of San Diego, CA last week with 22 stops along the way. The nurses are providing mobile blood pressure screenings, information about accessing health screenings and check-ups in their own towns and cities and about the Robin Hood Tax, (robinhoodtax.org). Good stuff peeps!!! Oh, and for anyone who thinks the Robin Hood Tax is a pipe dream…check out this article..13 European nations—led by Germany—are moving closer to signing onto this initiative. Read more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:47 — 73.9MB) | Embed

Podcast (nnu): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:30 — 18.5MB) | Embed

Coming Up…

We lost Shayne to Oklahoma this week..but he called in from the streets of Colon (population 800), to give us the lay of the land on healthcare in his home state. He tells us access to care is difficult to non-existent in many areas, diabetes and heart disease are disproportionally high, and night life? Well…Shayne will tell us all about that when he returns to the show next week.

Our guest co-host shows us once again that “talk is cheap!” We paid her nothing and she talked all through the show…no dead air time on this one!

Our good friend and D.C. Healthcare correspondent Donna Smith joins us from the road—on the National Nurses United Medicare For All bus tour. The bus pulled out of San Diego, CA last week with 22 stops along the way. The nurses are providing mobile blood pressure screenings, information about accessing health screenings and check-ups in their own towns and cities and about the Robin Hood Tax. Good stuff peeps!!! Oh, and for anyone who thinks the Robin Hood Tax is a pipe dream…check out this article…13 European nations—led by Germany—are moving closer to signing onto this initiative.

WANTED…preferably alive! Nominees for the Nurse Talk Golden Bed Pan Award. Yes…we know it’s not particularly P.C. but we do like to celebrate those silent heroes out there. Send us those worthy people or organizations—even if it’s you! Email Pattie@nursetalksite.com.

On the Blog this week: Behavioral Health Teen and the ER Setting on Love Your Nursing Life by RN Bobbi McCarthy. She writes, “I do not know if our nursing intervention helped her in any way but I believe that it did…I can only hope that it meant something to her and that she will in her heart know that there are kind adults in the world.”

I stood in the doorway and watched my 15 y.o. behavioral psych. patient. She sat cross legged on the stretcher, hands tightly clenched in her lap, head down and eyes closed…rocking back and forth. A loud,continuous hum escaped through her throat…not a song kind of hum…but a static sound of humming.

She came to us after being kicked out of her foster home for aggressive behavior and suicidal language and she now is boarding with us until a new home or psych hospital bed opens up for her. Because of her suicidal language all of her belongings were removed from her and she was in our blue hospital scrubs, on a watch with security and in the behavioral health section. The areas is small, has a TV, a bathroom and small area to walk around—no windows.

Hour 90 was upon us and she was melting down. As I watched her, my heart broke. This child was alone—her life story is of abuse and neglect—and now once again she is alone…Life isn’t fair for this child!

Earlier that day I silently prayed for her and I sat and talked with her. She liked to write and to draw, listen to music and take long walks. Read more…

Nurses and the Campaign for a Healthy California are traveling in a bus to promote Medicare for All. Along the way we are doing health screenings in the communities we visit. We’re asking the public to “Tell Us Where It Hurts” with regard to their healthcare.

Here Joan Potts and Myra DeTate tell us about their struggle to obtain health care. Interviews are part of the Campaign for a Healthy California and Nurses Campaign to Heal America.

Get the full bus tour schedule at: www.NursesHealAmerica.org Read more…

My cancer won’t wait and doesn’t care about what nine robed judges in Washington, DC, say about healthcare. Cancer doesn’t care. Obamacare. Romneycare. No matter. Cancer doesn’t care. But the nurses do.

Unrelenting and not fearful of any CEO’s rage or the loss of a political contribution, cancer, illness and injury march on. It is with that sort of fearless and unwavering force that the nurses of National Nurses United and the patients for whom they advocate are advancing the cause for healthcare justice.

We’re on the road in California bringing the message that it doesn’t really matter what the Supreme Court announces about the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that we all purchase private insurance or pay fines for not doing so.

I know, I know. All the hoopla. All the drama. All the buildup by the Republicans and the Democrats and the media falling all over themselves to say what the Supreme Court’s ruling means for November’s presidential election. But you know what? My cancer doesn’t care.

It doesn’t matter which way the Supremes take this. So long as the private insurance giants are in my life and in my body, those insurance companies do what they do to keep their costs down and make money. Read more…

What is your first memory? Have you ever thought about it? I know what mine was…it was of my mom holding me and singing to me. I can even smell her cologne, she has worn the same type of cologne all of my life.

She asked me last night what my first memory was. She was wondering if she will have a last memory with her Alzheimer’s…one that will stay in her mind when all her other memories leave. I told her what my memory was and she told me that she hopes that is her last memory, her singing to me, but me holding her. She fell asleep last night singing, “You are my sunshine….my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you will never know dear how much I love you…” and I added, after she was asleep…please don’t take my sunshine away. Read more…

From EurActiv, EU news & policy debates:

At least nine countries led by Germany are expected to ask the European Commission to draw up plans for a so-called “enhanced co-operation” on the financial transactions tax (FTT) following a meeting of EU finance minister in Luxembourg on Friday (22 June).

BACKGROUND: A financial transactions tax (FTT) is one of many proposals made to tax the financial sector and hinder market speculation. Many countries have already implemented a levy on banks’ assets and liabilities.

The European Commission and the International Monetary Fund have also examined the possibility of a financial activities tax which would place levies on profits and bonuses.

In a bid to lower national contributions to the EU budget, the European Commission proposed to tap into an FTT. The UK is the staunchest opponent of the tax, arguing that the move will encourage financial operators to route their business through tax havens.

In May the European Parliament supported the Commission proposal.

Finance ministers took the decision after their Austrian colleague Maria Fekter told them that Vienna’s support for the EU’s permanent bailout fund – the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) – depended on progress on the FTT.

“If I do not get this [enhanced] co-operation, then the ESM will not be ratified and this would really be a pity,” Fekter told the ministers. Read more…