Only this time, it will be doctor recommended.

The American College of Chest Physicians released new guidelines that suggest sitting in a window seat is a risk factor for DVT (deep vein thrombosis), dangerous blood clots that can develop in your legs on long plane flights.

People who sit in window seats have the potential to move less than those who sit in the aisle.  And it’s really the lack of movement that raises your risk factor for DVT, not your seat.

Now, I sit in aisle seats whenever I can simply because I don’t like to be closed in.  And in my experience, passengers in the window seat have no problem asking me to get up and let them out. Repeatedly.  Several times a flight.  It’s like the people with bladder issues choose the window seat.

On purpose.

So I think they’ll be fine.  And I will, too.  Because they’re there to keep me on the move.

Thanks loads.

But what if the very floor could give you vertigo?

Don’t laugh.  It’s happening.

Researchers in Jersey City, New Jersey have found that high contrast black-and-white carpeting is making people sick.

We’re talking headaches.  Visual distress.  Even seizures in epileptics.

Man…that boat trip is sounding better all the time.

They aren’t exactly sure why a high contrast repeating pattern can give the illusion of motion and make viewers sick.  But based on their findings, researchers do recommend that you give carpet more than a quick glance before you make any purchase for your home.

Your home?  I think this information is even more important for all the planes, trains, and automobiles out there.

Talk about a double whammy!

Hint: it’s not a pill, an exercise routine or the now ubiquitous green smoothie.

It’s the hug — that simple (and simply wonderful) one-on-one human contact between friends and loved ones.

Fantastic, huh?

Lucky for all of us, today is National Hug Day!  The holiday was established in 1986 to encourage PDA-phobic Americans to ‘reach out, reach out and touch someone.’ So now’s your chance to get out there and improve your health, your happiness and your overall state of being.

You’ll probably freak out a few people along the way, but hey — that’s just a bonus for feeling so gosh darn happy!

(See you out there.)

I’d like to add another to the list:

The felt tip pen

One such pen swallowed by a woman in Great Britain 25 years ago was recovered by doctors from her stomach intact and ready to write. Stomach acids had eaten off the pen’s brand name — darn the luck — but not the ink inside. In fact, upon removal, doctors wrote ‘hello’ with the pen.

Find that hard to believe?

The woman supposedly swallowed the pen using it to check spots on her tonsils in a mirror while standing on a ladder when she fell, leading to the accidental ingestion.

Heck — forget the pen company.  Buy the movie rights!

You start seeing things.

Like pink bunnies.

There’s one on my keyboard now. Can you see him?  He’s hiding right now.  But he has other bunny friends with him.

Perhaps a few zinc lozenges will help keep the critters at bay.  Or cold compresses.  Or chicken soup?

I think I’ll just go to bed.

I can’t decide if I’m fighting a cold or a home invasion.

Is there a difference between pepper spray and mace?

Yes. Yes, there is.

Turns out they are two very different self defense products.

Mace is the brand name for an irritant similar to tear gas and usually has no effect on criminals under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Pepper spray is an inflammatory agent that will immediately take down and cause temporary pain to an assailant. It inflames the capillaries of the eyes and skin causing temporary blindness, nausea, breathing difficulties and an intense burning sensation.

Wow.

Makes you wonder why pepper spray was the self defense product ‘of choice’ at places like Walmart and Occupy Wall Street.  Wouldn’t a simple irritant have been good enough?

(And wouldn’t nothing have been the best choice?)

Plus, this seems less funny now.  And way more painful.

Or perhaps you’d prefer a snack cake.

Thanks to the research you conducted at Kansas State University — Go Wildcats — there is now empirical evidence that weight loss depends on the calories going in…and not the nutritional value of the food.

Haub, a human nutrition professor, put himself on the ‘convenience store diet’ as part of a class project, restricting himself to 1800 calories a day comprised of Twinkies, Nutty Bars, Oreos, and even Doritos.

Haub shed 27 pounds in two months, and his other health factors improved as well.  Lower triglycerides.  Lower bad cholesterol.  Higher good cholesterol.

He did take a multivitamin and drink a protein shake each day, and tried to eat a vegetable serving as well — usually something green.  But at least two-thirds of his daily diet came from snack foods.

In the CNN article, Haub sounds a little conflicted by his success.   Personally, I feel vindicated.   Although my diet is not as junkie as his study, I have never eaten as healthy as experts recommend, and have gotten my share of flack about it over the years.

Now, when I reach for Froot Loops as a snack, I’ve got scientific proof –

It’s diet food, people.

Well, I’ve found something that beats it.

A dentist in Mansfield, Ohio is offering to buy back Halloween candy from children.  And he’s not the only one.

Dentists across the country are participating in the ‘Halloween Candy Buy Back’ program.

At Dr. Callen’s office in Mansfield, trick-or-treaters will receive $1 per pound of candy turned in (5-pound limit per child) and free toothbrushes.  They will also be entered in a drawing for one of two children’s bicycles.

Now, I know the dentists’ intentions are good.  Halloween candy is all about sugar, and sugar consumption promotes tooth decay.

But geez oh Pete.

Halloween only happens once a year! Shouldn’t every kid experience the rush — and resulting sweet belly — from overeating candy after a night of trick-or-treating?  Believe me, it’s the best way to convince them to never do it again.

Plus, do we really want to turn Halloween into a money-making venture for kids?  Cause this sure feels like it.

Five bucks is five bucks, after all.

My left shoulder is injured (no doubt a result of daily blog postings to The Egg).

When my doctor put in the order with my insurance company, I made sure it said “open MRI” on all the paperwork.  And when I later made the appointment with the radiology center, I  re-confirmed that I was scheduled for an open MRI machine.

I would have to be sedated to go through the tunnel in the regular MRI machine.

Yep, I’m one of those claustrophobic types.  I don’t just talk the talk; I really am claustrophobic.  And unfortunately, my fear of tight spaces has reared its ugly head in public places in the past.

Most memorably, I panicked in the tiny, windowless elevator at the St. Louis Arch.  If you ever been, you understand.  If you’ve never been and you’re claustrophobic?

Don’t go.

Of course, going into my appointment today, I wonder if my chart has special notes on it because I specifically requested the open MRI.

Do you think there’s a medical code for ‘wuss?’

Yesterday, en route to Boston, I smelled it.

I hadn’t encountered the aroma since my early teens, but the moment it hit my nostrils, I knew –

Underwood Deviled Ham

Someone was eating it.  And I was suddenly a child again, sitting at my mother’s kitchen table on a summer day, eating ham spread and crackers for lunch.  I loved that stuff, back when processed foods were new and convenient, not the thing that was going to kill us all.

I like the logo, too.  To this day, I could pick their brand out on the supermarket shelf when others from my childhood are long forgotten.

Good ol’ Underwood Deviled Ham.

I have to admit, I checked out FreshDirect.com — where I order the majority of my groceries — to see if they carry the stuff.  Of course, they don’t.  (It doesn’t exactly match their fresh food philosophy.)

But the kid in me is curious to see…

What the devil did I like about the stuff?