Consumer Reports

A lot of people in the nation’s capital have baseball on the brain this week. Primarily because the Washington Nationals have the first pick in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft this afternoon but also because tomorrow is the major league debut of last year’s first overall pick, Stephen Strasburg. I have baseball on my mind because of last week’s perfect game controversy. Last Wednesday, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers pitched what seemed to be the third perfect game of the young season. Unfortunately, umpire Jim Joyce called a hit on what should have been the final out. Joyce admitted the mistake after watching a replay, but Major League Baseball is not expected to overturn the call to make Galarraga’s effort a perfect game. Admirably, both Galarraga and Joyce handled themselves professionally and politely during the next game’s lineup card exchange . Videos of situations like that one that I linked to there can create opportunities for parents to talk to their children about good sportsmanship, and how to respect other players, coaches, and umpires.

The other night, I was awake the whole night. I haven’t had a night like that in a long time, but it reminded me of my past issues with insomnia . I was pretty young when it dawned on me that I didn’t have the same sleeping patterns as my sisters. I had frequent episodes of getting very little, or no, sleep 3-4 times a week. While my sisters were sleeping, I was awake for hours thinking, thinking, thinking. I would think about happy things, things that worried me, or sometimes I would ponder world problems. One night I didn’t want to eat my stew. My mom told me that children were starving in Africa and they would love to have that stew. I stayed awake the whole night thinking about it. I was only 8, but it seemed impossible to me that anyone would want to eat my mom’s stew… no offense Mom! I spent the rest of the night plotting how I could send those kids my stew. Around 3:30 am, I came up with the idea of borrowing my dad’s thermos on Friday night and, when my parents weren’t looking, filling it with the stew. I could take it to the post office on Saturday to mail it to those hungry, African kids. As long as they got the thermos back to me by Sunday night, my parents would never know. Around 4:30 am, I figured out I could probably ship them my mom’s liver, spinach, and beets too! My parents would take us to drive-in movies. While my sisters were zonked out after the first movie, I secretly watched the rest of the movies with my folks. One movie had zombies in it. The zombies roamed around at night and they didn’t sleep. Hey, that was my problem! Oh no, I was becoming a zombie! Of course, zombies also had sharp teeth and ate people, but I figured it was just a matter of time before I started snacking on arms and legs. For a while, I spent sleepless nights not only pondering those hungry, African children, but feeling my teeth to see if they were becoming pointy. Despite the fact that I outgrew my zombie fears, to this day, I still have this mental association with sleep disorders and being a zombie. These sleepless episodes followed me into adulthood. At some point I understood that I was experiencing insomnia. I read up on insomnia and tried various things to help myself. Nothing really seemed to help. I signed up for a relaxation class and was surprised to discover that it helped me a little, but the truth is that the “real cure” for my insomnia was… to develop severe sleep apnea . Yeah, isn’t that a kicker? I no longer had trouble falling asleep, but while I was sleeping, I would stop breathing 100s of times a night. In order to keep living, I had to wake myself up to breathe. Oddly, I didn’t even know that this was happening to me. It took me years to get a sleep apnea diagnosis, but eventually I got help. Sleep disorders impact a person’s life in many ways and they are quite dangerous to have. If you suspect that you or a loved one may have a sleep disorder, you may want to check out these additional resources: Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep How Much Sleep Do You Need How Well Are You Sleeping Insomnia Podcast Restless Leg Syndrome Sleep Studies Sleep Walking Teacher’s Guide: Information About Sleep

I accepted a long time ago that no bottle, compact, or spray with its glorious concoction of magical elements is going to turn me into some gorgeous babe, but I recognized that products could enhance my appearance, so I used them religiously. Now that I am older, I am getting stubborn, or perhaps just lazy in the pursuit of beauty. On any given day, it is anyone’s guess whether I will slap on the old war paint or even use some moisturizer. I may have skin like an old rhino and pores the size of Montana, but I really can’t be bothered. Don’t get me wrong, I have just as much product as the next gal. I consider it my consumer duty to keep the economy healthy by regularly purchasing quantities of beauty products that I then toss in to makeup bags, purses, drawers, and cabinets where they sit rarely, and sometimes never, used. When a friend mentioned to me that I should write a blog about cosmetics and beauty products, I decided to take inventory of my beauty stash. Holy cow! I have acquired so much stuff over the years! It is embarrassing to tell you this, but I have makeup and other products that date back to the 90’s. Most women know that makeup should not be kept for that long, but how many of us keep informed about other aspects of the cosmetics industry? Do you know what is in your beauty products? Do you ever look at product labels? To be honest, I don’t. As I began to delve into information about makeup and other beauty products, I realized that there are many information resources in the federal government that pertain to cosmetics and other beauty products. Here are a few: Cosmetics Consumer Information for Women Cosmetic Labeling Guide Food and Drug Administration Cosmetics Section Hair Dye and Hair Relaxers Household Products Database MedlinePlus Cosmetics Section Your Guide to Reporting Problems to FDA I learned from reading this information that I need to throw out my old beauty products. I also need to pay more attention to what I am purchasing, and just because something is more expensive doesn’t mean that it is, in fact, better. Hope you find these resources useful too. See ya next week.

Our guest blogger today is

I was recently asked to blog about medicare and while I agreed to do so, I must confess I only have a vague awareness of the topic because my mom mentions things like prescription drug plans, coverage gaps and other medicare-related issues. My mom seems pretty informed about these things because she had to deal with a lot of these types of issues when my dad was sick, and of course, she deals with them for herself. I am in my late 40’s and some part of my brain doesn’t want to have to think about such things now. Can’t I just worry about that when I get older? I admit, that is flawed thinking. Right now our country is struggling with some major issues regarding medicare and health care reform. As much as I would like to bury my head in the sand, everyone (even us 40-somethings) needs to be educated about what is at stake. The decisions that are made today could affect us in 20 years. Definitely, these decisions will impact our parents. If we end up assisting in our parents’ care, as caregivers we need to have an understanding of how medicare works and how these proposed healthcare reforms will affect their care. To begin your medicare education, go to medicare.gov . The site has information on the prescription drug plan , medicare plans , and how billing works. The site also has a a host of online comparison tools and tools to assist you in locating a variety of services. You can also go to the Health and Federal Programs sections of the Federal Citizen Information Center to order free hard-copies of: Your Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home ( spanish version ) Using Your Medicare Drug Plan: What to Do if Your Medicine Isn’t Covered ( spanish version ) Medicare Basics: A Guide for Caregivers Resources for Medicare Beneficiaries: Navigating the Coverage Gap If you want to read about the President’s vision on healthcare reform, announcements and commentary on medicare, you can go to the medicare search results on the Whitehouse website .