Internet Round Up

1. Angelina Jolie Pitt: Diary of a Surgery: I first wrote about Angelina two years ago when she shared her decision to have a mastectomy with the world in the NYTimes. She is a BRCA1 mutation carrier, which means she has an estimated 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer. Because of her elevated risk and the fact that she lost her mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer, she decided to elect for a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, or removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes to prevent cancer. I think it’s incredibly brave of her to tell her story and give women around the world the courage to take control over their health, sometimes in areas that are seemingly uncontrollable like your genetics. As she says,

“It is not easy to make these decisions. But it is possible to take control and tackle head-on any health issue. You can seek advice, learn about the options and make choices that are right for you. Knowledge is power.”

What a kick ass role model.

2. 24 Must-See Diagrams That Will Make Eating Healthy Super Easy: Love these 24 infographics that teach you about eating healthy, from how to make perfect smoothies and healthy baked goods to ranking veggies and fruit serving sizes. I find that a lot of times the biggest barrier to healthy eating is not knowing exactly what to make or which ingredients to use. These infographics make it easy.

3. My Lovely Wife in a Psych Ward: “We met at 18. We wed at 24. At 27, I checked my wife into a psych ward—for the first time. How mental illness reshapes a marriage.” This is a touching tale of a couple’s struggle and eventual triumph over psychiatric disease. I see a lot of mentally ill patients in the county hospital, and most of them are alone without families to help take care of them. This story really shows the power of having a strong support network in patients with psychiatric disease.

4. 40 days of dating: In a seemingly unreal, made-for-tv real life experiment, two friends decide to see what would happen if they pretended they were dating for 40 days. They each kept diary entries answering a series of set questions everyday, documenting the whole journey. I haven’t read through all the posts but the initial ones are definitely entertaining and highlight the huge differences between how males vs. females think. Below is a quirky video the two main characters made.

5. Why your doctor always keeps you waiting: Patients are always wondering why their doctor is forever running behind schedule. I admit, when I’m a patient I wonder the same thing as the wait stretches from 30 minutes on to an hour and beyond. But this excellent article summarizes a potential day in the life of a physician that will explain to people not familiar with medicine just why it is incredibly challenging to keep appointment times based on the structure of the current healthcare system.