By Kelly Kilpatrick

Achieving personal well-being means taking the time to nurture several parts of your life so that each are healthy and strong. In this busy world, it can be difficult to find the time, and sometimes it’s difficult to know how to break out of your current patterns. From eating right to building strong relationships and securing personal finances, the following resources will give you the tools to help you find your way to a happier existence.

Healthy Living

From getting enough sleep to changing the way you buy goods and spend money, these resources will give you plenty to consider about living your life more healthily.

  1. Choosing Voluntary Simplicity. Follow this family as they have made a conscious decision to live life more simply and in a much more fulfilling way.
  2. 9 Little Known Ways to Sleep So it Counts. Waking up from a full night’s sleep feeling exhausted is no good. Follow these tips to help you get the most from your sleep.
  3. Six Sleep Tips. Using relaxation and visualization, these suggestions will help get you on your way to a good night’s (or day’s) rest.
  4. Holistic Approach to Wellness. Being healthy is usually the goal for most people, yet it is easy for the balance in life to get disrupted and result in ill health. Read this article to examine your life and make sure you balance each of the facets to ensure continued good health and well-being.
  5. 11 Odd but Simple Ways to Improve Your Health. Move beyond simply improving diet and exercise with these interesting suggestions.
  6. 7 Simple Ways to Burst Out of Bed Each Day. These tips on taking a few extra steps to overall health will do more than just help those who struggle to get out of bed each morning. 
  7. Top Ten Health & Wellness Gifts: For the Mind, Body, and Spirit. These are gifts worth getting all year round.
  8. Whole Longevity. Find out how healthy living can increase your longevity and quality of life with the articles on this site.
  9. Prevention is better than cure. This article about holistic healthcare explains how prevention is the best form of healthcare.
  10. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, this comprehensive site offers information about specific forms of medicine, clinical trials, research, training, and more to help you stay healthy.

Nutrition

Eating well and putting the right types of foods in your body are important to ensure you are in top shape. These resources will help you get the best nutrition.

  1. Superfoods. Goji berries and cacao nibs?  Learn what is so special about these superfoods and others that you might be more familiar eating with this podcast. Be sure to listen to the other installments in the superfoods series.
  2. Top 15 Diet Hacks. This list offers tips on how to shift your eating habits to a more healthy style.  Don’t forget to read the Comments for more tips.
  3. Organic Guide. Included in this blog are posts about organic-relevant news pieces as well as many organic food topics such as growing your own sprouts, finding a good juicer, and recipes.
  4. Five Easy Pieces of an Organic Diet. Having a hard time going organic? This article will help you get started while making the biggest environmental impact.
  5. 10 Tasty, Easy and Healthy Breakfast Ideas. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Here are some suggestions for what to eat and how to do it when you are short on time in the mornings.
  6. Nutrition Fact Sheets. Get a wide variety of fact sheets ranging from kid’s nutrition needs to benefits of chewing gum to weight management.
  7. Antioxidant Benefits From Drinking Green Tea. Learn about how antioxidants help your body and why green tea is such an excellent source.
  8. Do You Get Enough Probiotics In Your Diet?.While this blog post is specifically focused on weight loss, it does an excellent job of explaining why probiotics are important for your body.
  9. Holistic Health Nutrition Facts. Browse this blog for tons of information about nutrition and keeping your body healthy. Topics include omega-3 fatty acids, preventing heart disease, and the health benefit of minerals.
  10. 7 Fish Oil Benefits Proven by Research. Taking a fish oil supplement is incredibly beneficial to your body. Choosing a high-quality fish oil will ensure the best results and eliminate any "fishy" taste from the supplement.
  11. Body-for-LIFE 10 Nutritional Guidelines. Even if you are a very active person, you cannot discount the importance of nutrition. These tips tell you how to get the most out of your workout with better eating habits.

Stress Management

Stress causes health issues as well as mental strain. Eliminate stress from your life with this list of tips to help you achieve a sense of calm.

  1. Meditation Oasis. A companion to their podcasts, this blog offers guided meditations. Be sure to sign up for the podcasts, too.
  2. Tips for Managing Stress. While created for university students, this list of suggestions is great for anyone feeling the strains of stress.
  3. 20 Ways to Eliminate Stress From Your Life. Some of these are simple and others a bit more drastic, but you are sure to find some solutions to the stress in your life.
  4. How to Practice Buddhist Breathing Meditation. Follow these simple steps to establishing an ancient form of breathing meditation sure to help you find your inner peace.
  5. 6 Ways to De-Stress. These tips focus on a more global approach to living a more stress-free life.
  6. The Top 10 Steps to DeStress. Use these suggestions to create a way of living that produces less self-expectation and pressure.
  7. Natural Stress Relief. Combine the suggestions in this article with other stress relievers such as exercise and getting enough sleep to combat the stress in your life.
  8. Five Tips to De-stress Your Life. This article offers suggestions on making changes to the way you live in order to live less stressfully.
  9. Top 10 Stress Relievers: The Best Ways to Feel Better. Take these actions to reduce stress instantly. Make them a habit and you may avoid feeling that stress creep back into your life.
  10. Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress. From Helpguide.org, find information about stress, tips and resources to reduce stress, and more.
  11. Tips for Beating Stress. Get a common sense approach to life that will help you live less stressfully in this article.

Exercise

Use these resources to get your body in shape and give you more energy to get through your busy day.

  1. How to Increase Physical Activity When Time is a Problem. These 20 tips will get you moving even when you don’t have a moment to spare.
  2. Bike About. The posts in this blog offer much more than just biking with thoughts on healthy eating, hiking, and more.
  3. 5 Exercises for Everyone. You don’t have to buy a membership to a gym to get your exercise, and these tips will show you how.
  4. Top 42 Exercise Hacks. These ideas will motivate you to take the first step or to continue to exercise when your motivation flags.
  5. Abdominal Exercises–Best Ab Exercises–Core Workout. Many experts believe when you strengthen your core, you strengthen your whole body. Try these exercises to do just that (and get flat abs as a bonus).
  6. The Everything Yoga Blog. Read the posts to gain information to improve your yoga practice or visit some of the other blogs and sites included here.
  7. Free Picture Galleries of Hatha Yoga Poses. These helpful photos and accompanying text will improve your yoga practice whether at home or in class.
  8. Ten Cheapest Ways to Exercise. If money is a concern, it shouldn’t stop you from exercising. Follow these tips for easy and inexpensive ways to do it.
  9. 10 Ideas to Get You Exercising. If you are feeling stuck but want to get moving, read these suggestions for motivation.
  10. Trying Fitness. This blog offers tons of suggestions for ways to get yourself moving in the name of fitness.

Attitude

Sometimes a simple change of attitude can create a whole new perspective on life. Find out how to do that with these resources.

  1. Centre for Emotional Well-Being. This blog offers plenty of advice for those looking to improve their outlook on life. There is a heavy emphasis on body image.
  2. 8 Powerful Ways to Rediscover Your Passion. It’s easy to get caught up in the rut of our daily existence. If you need to shake it up and rediscover yourself, these steps will help.
  3. 5 Steps to Finding True Joy and Removing Sorrow. Learn how to identify and recognize emotional responses so that you can redirect the negative to a more uplifting, positive expression.
  4. The Happiness Project. Join the experiment as this woman tries out all the various tips for finding happiness. Wednesday is tip day, so be sure to check in then for great ideas on finding your happy place in life.
  5. Out of the Box: 11 Ways to Break Out of the Same Old Routine. Living in a routine can feel safe, but it can also hold you back from your potential. These suggestions will set you on a new path.
  6. Work and Life: 15 Ways to Strike a Balance. With busy lifestyles today, it is easy to feel pulled in many directions. This list offers ways to find the balance.
  7. 10 Quick Examples of Zen Living. Embrace these life lessons in order to find your joy.
  8. The Positivity Blog. Become inspired to stay positive and find the beauty in life with the posts on this uplifting blog.
  9. Wake Up Feeling Great with These 22 Tips for High Self-Esteem. These suggestions will have you feeling better about yourself and improve how you approach your life.
  10. My 50. This tool will help you keep focused on your life goals by managing your list of places to go, things to do, and anything else you want to do in your lifetime.
  11. 10 Surefire Ways to Kill Your Crabby Mood. A bad mood can affect your productivity, relationships, and the way you feel about yourself. Use these tips to rise above it.
  12. Well Being Journal. This online magazine offers articles on mind/body connection, nutrition, health, and fitness.
  13. 75 Simple Pleasures to Brighten Your Day. Some of these ideas will brighten your day just reading about them. Readers have left some of their own ideas in the Comments section below the list.

Relationships

Learn how to keep your relationships with family, co-workers, and friends strong and successful with these suggestions.

  1. Managing Relationship Stress. From your job to family members to friends, this article helps you manage the stress when your relationships are going through a rocky time.
  2. Friendship–Tips for a Special Relationship!. Everyone should read these tips for a reminder of how to treat the important people in your life.
  3. Tips on How to Repair Your Family Relationship Rightly!. Families are so busy it is easy to forget the small things that keep them together. This article reminds you how to go about the small tasks that make a family united.
  4. 20 Ways to Attack Shyness. If you have a difficult time coming out of your shell, this list is for you. Not only does it offer tips to get you going, it also explains a little about the mechanics of shyness.
  5. 10 Ways We Hurt Our Romantic Relationships. This list lets you know what to avoid to ensure your relationship grows stronger instead of weaker.
  6. Can Your Dog Help Fix Your Relationship?. Find out what the family pet can teach you and your partner about strengthening your relationship.
  7. Building Healthy Relationships. From listening to humor to forgiveness, learn how you can build a healthy relationship.
  8. 8 Ways to Strengthen Your Relationship. Learn what you and your partner can do to help keep your relationship growing with these suggestions.
  9. 18 ways to improve your body language . Set a more positive tone about yourself by improving your body language. This list will tell you how to do it.
  10. 10 Tips to Strengthen Families. Find how you can improve the relationship between parents and children with these suggestions.
  11. Ways to Build, Strengthen, and Enhance Your Relationship. Taking care to do these five simple things may provide just what your relationship needs to make it last long term.

Spirituality

Whether or not you are religious, a sense of spirituality can open your life in a whole new way.

  1. Spirituality & Well-Being Self Tests. Take these two tests to see how your body-soul connection lines up.
  2. Spiritual Endeavors. This website offers articles, links, and more to help you in your spiritual journey–no matter what shape it takes.
  3. Spiritual Teachings. With a focus on a variety of spiritual teaching traditions and both essays and links to other resources, this site helps you get started down your spiritual path.
  4. Buddhist Studies WWW Virtual Library. Find anything Buddhist here from Zen Buddhism to Buddhist art.
  5. Links Relating to Creation Spirituality. Hosted by Trinity United Methodist Church in Austin, TX, this site provides several links to resources for those interested in learning more about Creation Spirituality.
  6. 10 Ways to Grow Your Spirit. From tying up loose ends to letting go to loving yourself, these suggestions will help you become more spiritual.
  7. Tips For A More Effective Prayer Life. If prayer is a part of your life, these tips can help you get more from your daily practice.
  8. Belief-O-Matic. If you are struggling to find a spiritual or religious path, take this quiz to help you determine which religion is best suited to your personality.
  9. Cultivating Spiritual Virtues. This article offers a straightforward approach to ways you can expand your spirituality while embracing what is good in the world.
  10. Beliefnet. No matter what you religious beliefs, Beliefnet has much to offer in the way of spirituality and religion.
  11. Fitting Spirituality Into The Rest Of Your Life. It is easy to let important things slip away in the hectic nature of life, but this article tells you how you can find time for spirituality despite the busy day.

Financial

Get control of your personal finances and make managing your money less stressful with these great resources.

  1. When Times are Tight: 168 Frugal Tips to Make Your Dollar Stretch. Including tips from around the house, at the grocery store, and entertainment, this list will help you find ways to save your money.
  2. mint. Manage your money with this free software. Connect with your bank, credit cards, and mutual funds to effortlessly gain control over your finances.
  3. Zopa. This social finance company brings borrowers and investors together to work out loans that benefit both parties.
  4. 35 Sneaky Ways to Improve Your Finances. These suggestions are simple and easy to implement. Follow these and watch your financial situation perk up.
  5. Financial Planning: A Comprehensive Guide to Personal Finance. This guide from About.com offers great resources to help you make the most of your finances.
  6. USA.gov Personal Finance. The U.S. government has created a list of resources ranging from bankruptcy to home ownership to retirement and estate planning.
  7. 5 Tips for Getting Out of Debt (and Why). With credit cards so readily available, it’s easy to find yourself in debt. Here are five ways to find yourself in the clear.
  8. wesabe. Getting out of debt can be a struggle, but not with wesabe. This free software helps you track spending and create goals towards getting out of debt or saving money.
  9. AllBusiness Personal Finance Center. Find anything you could want to learn about managing your finances with this awesome resource.
  10. 21 Strategies for Creating an Emergency Fund, and Why It’s Critical. Emergencies can send your finances tumbling. Follow these tips for creating a cushion so when the unexpected happens, you aren’t caught short.
  11. BudgetTracker, Inc. Create and track your budget with this tool. It helps with bills, investments, bank accounts, and more.

Career

Most people spend the biggest part of their day at work. If you do, learn how to make that time enjoyable and successful.

  1. Work Happy Now!. Learn how to love your job with the great posts on this blog. Recent topics have covered developing emotional intelligence and expanding your various networks.
  2. A Balancing Act: Finding Balance Between Work and Life. This article offers a helpful perspective on the work/life balance while providing suggestions for ways to approach finding your balance.
  3. Chief Happiness Officer. Written by a Danish consultant, this blog offers great advice on finding your happiness at work.
  4. 5 Ways to Improve Your Productivity in the Office. This site suggests you focus on these five areas of your work to increase your productivity.
  5. 11 Lifehacking Tips for Improving Productivity–and Knowing When That’s Not the Point. If you would like to boost your work productivity, these suggestions are sure to help you change your habits in a more productive way.
  6. Top 10 Email Productivity Boosters. You don’t have to go away on vacation to know what it’s like to be overwhelmed by emails. These tips will help you stay on top of emails in an organized and professional way.
  7. Instant Calmer: 11 Easy Answers to On-the-Job Stress. These helpful tips are easy to implement and will have you back on track and feeling calmer in no time.
  8. Develop a Career Action Plan. Make sure your career goes the direction you want it to with a Career Action Plan.
  9. 12 Tools to Recover from Procrastination and Get Things Done. Anyone who has a habit of putting things off until the last minute know the frustration of procrastination. Follow these suggestions to get things going and stay on top of your work.
  10. Just a Minute: Dr. Z’s Top 5 Time Management Principles. For a more Zen-like approach to time management, follow these five suggestions.
  11. All Things Workplace. This blog offers great career coaching advice to improve your experience at work.
  12. BetterMondays. Find out ways to brighten your office, how to succeed at an interview, what not to do at work and more on this blog dedicated to helping people enjoy their jobs.

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Top 50 Medical Professor Blogs

September 11th, 2008

By Alisa Miller

Whether you are a physician or just want to keep abreast of the latest news in the field of medicine, blogs from medical professors are a great way to stay on top of it all. These blogs range from ethics to general health issues and some even include podcasts. Take advantage of the knowledge these professors have to share by diving into their blogs.

Bioethics and Legal Issues

From human rights to end-of-life, these blogs examine the ethics and legal aspects of the field of medicine.

  1. Global Bioethics Blog. This professor’s blog examines issues concerning bioethics and research ethics in sub-Saharan Africa. Find topics ranging from AIDS to health and human rights among these posts.
  2. Women’s Bioethics Project. Written by both scholars and public policy makers, the issues in this blog cover medical ethics, current research, and more.
  3. Sufficient Scruples. This blogger has previously taught both bioethics and ethics and focuses on "healthcare-related issues from a moral perspective," with a focus on both theoretical and practical issues.
  4. Neuroethics and Law Blog. Law professor Adam Kolber writes about the law, ethics, and the brain. Topics also include a heavy dose of psychology for a well-rounded blog.
  5. Lost in Translation. Learn about bioethics as it pertains to cutting edge medical interventions in early phase clinical trials in this blog written by Jonathan Kimmelman.
  6. HealthLawProf Blog. Written by a legal professor, this blog focuses on the issues where medicine and the law intersect. Read about drug labeling, plastics used in baby bottles, and more.
  7. Medical Futility. This professor looks at medical futility in his blog. This is a great resource for topics on physician/patient conflict, euthanization, end-of-life care, and more.
  8. Adventures in Ethics and Science. Written by a philosophy professor, this ethics blog looks at science and the humanities with plenty of medical topics such as medical research and mammograms.
  9. Bioethics Discussion Blog. Dr. Maurice Bernstein writes about the ethics associated with medicine, medical care, and science in this blog with over 600 topics in it.
  10. HealthLawBlog. This blogger teaches ethics, law, and medicine at three different schools. Take advantage of his knowledge across these fields by reading his blog that discusses health law and policy.

Men, Women, and Children

These blogs offer information on women’s and men’s health, pediatrics, and family medicine.

  1. Dr. Tori Hudson, N.D.. This professor at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine discusses women’s health issues and treatment with a naturopathic approach. Recent topics include perimenopause symptoms, calcium guidelines, and saffron to help PMS.
  2. Dr. Scherger on Revolution Health. This physician and professor writes on men’s health issues with topics such as chest pain, screenings, and exercise.
  3. Dr. David’s Blog. This practicing pediatrician who also works as a professor of oncology blogs about pediatric oncology, cancer research, and cancer treatments. Recent topics have touched on cancer and athletes, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and a wonderful case of successful of chemo.
  4. Family Medicine Notes. This professor keeps notes of what he learns through his practice and offers links to medical news in his blog. This physician has been blogging since 1999.

Neurosciences

If the brain is your area of interest, then take advantage of these blogs focusing on neurology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience.

  1. BrainBlog. Read about neuropsychology and the latest topics in the field at this blog written by Anthony Risser.
  2. Mind Hacks. Technically written collaboratively by a group of bloggers who mix academia with the tech field, this blog offers interesting posts on neuroscience and psychology.
  3. Renegade Neurologist. This professor blogs about neurology-based topics like Alzheimer’s and dementia, but he also touches on many other more general-interest medical issues as well.
  4. Alzheimer’s Blog. Learn about respite care, caregiving issues, genetic tests, exercise to combat effects of Alzheimer’s and much more on this educator’s blog.

General Health and Medicine

These blog offer interesting and sometimes amusing glimpses into the world of medicine.

  1. Clinical Cases and Images–Blog. This eclectic blog includes medical topics ranging from Michael Phelps to genetics to pollution. Founded by a medical professor, this blog is interesting and entertaining enough for anyone inside or outside the medical community.
  2. Sporula. This ex-professor who turned science writer is blogging about all sorts of unusual and interesting medical and scientific topics.
  3. Reflections in a Head Mirror. Read about the experiences at an academic medical center through Dr. Bruce Campbell as he chronicles everything from his speech to the first-year medical students to a cancer patient smoking in his hospital bed.
  4. Dr. Geoff’s MedBlog. A former emergency medicine professor and currently on staff with Wellsphere, Dr. Geoff blogs about various medical-related blogs on his blog.
  5. DB’s Medical Rants. Read about teaching medicine, learning medicine, and the world of medicine in general in this physician and professor’s blog.
  6. Mothers in Medicine. Juliaink, one of the contributors to this collaborative blog, is a professor of psychiatry and shares her views on motherhood, academia, and psychiatry in her posts.
  7. DoctorMama. This blog touches on everything from running to medicine to being a mama–and even has a few cockroaches and snakes thrown in too.
  8. tails of a mouse asthmatologist. Follow this professor and scientist’s blog as he documents his growing family, posts photos, and even talks about medicine.
  9. Super Dok. This professor, doctor, and mother in the Philippines blogs about various aspects of medicine including Wii not being a good substitute for exercise, the importance of sleep, and nutrition and diabetes.

The Current Condition of Health Care

With the current health care crisis gaining so much attention, the professors themselves are sure to have plenty to say on the current condition of medicine and medical treatment in these blogs.

  1. The Health Advocate. A collaborative blog that includes professors, students, and alumni of The Health Advocacy Program at Sarah Lawrence, this blog examines the issues surrounding patient advocacy and the current state of health care in America.
  2. Health Care Renewal. These bloggers take a look at the state of health care and threats to the current system stemming from abuse of power. Conflicts of interest feature highly in these posts.
  3. Health Care Organizational Ethics. Harvard professor, Jim Sabin, writes about the state of health care, including topics such as personal responsibility, pharmaceuticals, and hospital ethics.
  4. Wachter’s World. Bob Wachter blogs about hospitalists, hospitals, and their quality and safety.
  5. Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma. The posts in this blog examine the issues of conflict of interest and how it affects medical care, especially as it pertains to the pharmaceutical industry.
  6. MedicationSense.com. Technically a newsletter and not a blog, this free e-publication provides the news and information on medicine and health care that you likely won’t hear from the mainstream medical organizations.
  7. EMedConcepts. Dr. Steven J. Davidson blogs about hospital-based medicine and growing leadership in the field. Recent posts have covered physicians and electronic health records, medicare policy, and hospitals showing their list prices.
  8. California Medicine Man. This blog touches on policy, medicine, patients, and much more as Dr. John S. Ford offers his experience and wisdom.
  9. Dr. Thompson’s Blog. This practicing pediatrician and professor of pediatrics writes about the state of health care with a focus on children and family issues.
  10. The Physician Executive. Read about the business of medicine as well as current medical policy issues in this blog written by an anonymous physician.

Specific Specialties

Whether they are writing about cardiology, alternative medicine, or orthopaedics, these professors share their specialty with you.

  1. Dr. Wes. Dr. Wes is a practicing heart doctor as well as a professor, and he shares his knowledge in this engaging and informative blog.
  2. Terra Sigillata. This anonymous professor describes his blog topics as "natural product drugs and dietary supplements, academic career development, medical journalism and, occasionally, making and listening to music and wine appreciation for the monetarily-challenged."
  3. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog. This blogger is both a practicing lawyer and was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. He currently writes about integrating complementary and alternative medicine into western medical practice.
  4. Stress Blog. This professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic offers sound advice for ways to reduce stress and find your happiness in life.
  5. All Things Orthopaedic. Read Dr. James Herndon’s blog that touches on orthopaedic implants, osteoporosis assessment tools, and athletics.
  6. Aetiology. From anthrax to gastric bacterium to salmonella, this professor of epidemiology blogs about a wide range of illnesses that affect humanity with a particular interest in the ones that touch on both humans and animals.
  7. Cosmeticsurgerybangalore’s Weblog. This professor of cosmetic surgery in India posts videos of various cosmetic surgical procedures in this blog.
  8. Docinthemachine. This blog is written by an Ob/Gyn who has an interest and background in all things tech. Find interesting posts about technology in the medical field with a special emphasis on women’s health and reproduction.

Academic Podcasts

These podcasts offer an easy way to get your medical news and information. Either click on the links to listen directly or sign up to have RSS feeds deliver new content directly to you.

  1. Harvard Medical Labcast. Listen to podcasts from experts at Harvard Medical School as they offer a glimpse into the groundbreaking work going on in the field of medicine.
  2. Medcast. From the Stanford School of Medicine, these podcasts offer a sampling of lectures from renowned experts. Some podcasts include stem cell research, childhood obesity, and women and heart disease.
  3. Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts. Presented by a professor of medicine and the director of electronic media, this podcast brings weekly looks at all the top news from the medical world.
  4. University of Michigan Health System Podcast. The podcasts available here are many. Choose from podcast topics such as health news, health and medical questions and answers, and child development and behavior.
  5. New England Journal of Medicine. This medical journal offers two different podcasts. Listen to Audio Interviews or select NEJM This Week for a recap of all the articles in the journal.

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