Precious Cargo on Your Back (Physical Culture | Gear Test, Backpack Carriers)

When You Carry Precious Cargo on Your Back

HIKING with backpacking gear is a matter of balancing weight and necessity. Add a baby and the equation gets complicated.

“You want a pack that will allow you to also pack in other items besides the child, or your hiking partner will get stuck with a very heavy load,” said Tim Hauserman, the author of “Monsters in the Woods: Backpacking With Children.”
The latest backpack carriers promise a greater variety of storage, including diaper bags. A few can now carry 60 to 70 pounds of baby and gear; older designs held only 40 to 45 pounds.
The weight of carriers has been reduced using technical fabrics over aluminum frames, and five-point safety harnesses are added.

Cole Kelly, the associate director of Camp Winadu in Pittsfield, Mass., took turns hiking in the Berkshires with his sons, Jack, 2 years old, and Luke, 10 months, in 4 new carriers. He also tested a more economical four-year-old carrier that has remained popular despite not having been updated.

All of the featured carriers adjust as children grow. For safety, babies should be at least 6 months old and able to hold up their heads.

Magic" mushrooms('Spiritual' psilocybin satisfies scientists )

Magic" mushrooms
mushrooms containing the hallucinogenic compound psilocybin – could help treat mental disorders, according to a study by Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University.

Researchers claim they've shown that the spiritual and emotional experience resulting from ingesting the fungus can have positive effects on the psyche even a year after the “trip.” According to Reuters, “More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.”

Does this mean people should go out and start munching on shrooms? Definitely not. After all, the researchers themselves even stressed that supervision is critical in administration of such drugs in any possible psychiatric setting, due to the fear and anxiety that is a common side effect of any psychadelic experience.

What this study means is that we must not be afraid to research consciousness-altering drugs and their possible benefits (and shortcomings) in psychiatric treatment.

Warm glow from magic mushrooms lasts and lasts: study



The feelings of well-being and life satisfaction brought on by the hallucinogen psilocybin, found in "magic" mushrooms, can last for months, a new study revealed.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland found that the majority of 36 volunteers who took psilocybin in controlled conditions continued to feel the beneficial effects for more than a year afterwards, the study, published Monday, showed.

"Most of the volunteers looked back on their experience up to 14 months later and rated it as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives," said Roland Griffiths, a professor in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neuroscience.

The first results of the clinical trial, aimed at uncovering the secrets of the "magic" mushrooms that have been used for religious or healing purposes in some cultures for centuries, were published in 2006.

Fourteen months after the trial, the 36 volunteers -- all in good physical and mental health -- were given the same questionnaire as well as some follow-up questions.

Results show that about the same proportion ranked their experience in the trial as one of the most personally meangingful or spiritually significant events of their lives.

"This is a truly remarkable finding," said Griffiths, lead author of the study which appeared in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

"Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."

He said the results gave credence to claims that the mystical-type experiences some people had during hallucinogen sessions may help patients suffering from cancer-related anxiety or depression.

Psilocybin could also be used as a possible treatment for drug dependance, the professor said.

He said his team was "eager" to continue their research, adding that although some of the volunteers had reported fear and anxiety immediately after receiving psilocybin, "none reported any lingering harmful effects."

However, the team warned against giving hallucinogens to people at risk of psychosis or other serious mental disorders, and said it was important that it be administered under controlled conditions.

Psilocybin is a plant alkaloid that affects some of the same brain receptors as serotonin, a neurotransmitter.

YOUR SECOND NATURE

A healthy lifestyle as second nature

Nine million kids are overweight, including 28% of NY high school students; the cost to society is too high

Parents and educators are rightly concerned that children get a solid grounding in language and mathematics. These skills will be useful and important in later life.

But what about ensuring that later life is long and healthy?

An estimated 9 million children in the United States are overweight or obese. In New York, state figures show more than 28 percent of high school students in that category.

It is time to start putting the same emphasis on health that we put on math. Grade it. Make schools comply with the same rigorous standards.



The costs to society of excess body weight are staggering. For example:

Type 2 diabetes is a growing disease among children, whereas a few decades ago it was virtually unknown among our youngest citizens.

From 1979 to 1999, according to the Institute of Medicine, obesity-associated hospital costs for children and youth increased by 262 percent, to $127 million.

Studies show overweight children are likely to become overweight adults, whose direct and indirect health care costs have climbed to $117 billion, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Much of our taxes support federal and state-supported insurance programs that pay for the chronic diseases caused by being overweight or obese.

Schools are the natural place to start to correct this. A recent study found that schools that implemented a nutrition program reduced the number of overweight children by half.

Requiring daily physical education classes - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only 3.8 percent of elementary schools have daily physical education - will increase children's activity, which will lead to better health.

Although regular physical education classes are required in New York State, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer found schools widely ignore the rule. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 70 percent of high school students in New York do not meet recommended physical activity levels.

New York State is considering setting nutrition standards for children in school. Now, only 7 percent of New York schools meet national recommended dietary guidelines, according to the State Education Department.

Setting and enforcing nutrition and fitness standards are good first steps. But a more effective approach would be to combine health education, including nutrition, education and evaluation, in one package.

Make school lunch programs reflect national nutritional guidelines: Don't offer soda; provide skim- or low-fat milk; offer more fruits and vegetables. Continue to teach nutrition and good lifestyle behaviors in all classrooms, not just health, and use the physical education program to boost activity and measure fitness. Provide activities before, during and after school that encourage healthy, active lifestyles.

This is the basic model of wellness programs now found in many companies. The hope is that by creating healthier employees, the cost of health insurance will stabilize.

An overweight employee or an employee who smokes is at risk for many diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and various forms of cancer. The medical costs to treat one smoker with a chronic illness like emphysema could bankrupt a small company.

It can be very difficult to change unhealthy habits in an adult. It is much easier to change these habits in children.

It is important to start young. Too often, education in health and health care is deferred until late in middle school or even high school, when many kids have already established bad habits they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

They become devotees of the fast-food business, lured as children with promotional toys to acclimate them to too-sweet, too-fatty food. Education in nutrition and exercise has to begin just as early.

A healthy lifestyle should be second nature, like brushing your teeth. Making it as important academically as it is in reality will require dedicated time and classrooms, and expert teachers. It will require planning on how to get and stay healthy and how to use health care effectively.