Far too many of our executive clients come to us both in the middle of a career transition and in middle of a divorce. They rarely start the divorce proceedings. Sometimes, when the money is gone, so is the spouse. For the (mostly men) who face this double whammy of job loss and divorce, it is devastating. But there are things that can be done to preserve a marriage through career transition. Here are a few tips.

1). Don’t close off your feelings. We buy Kleenex by the case to keep in our office to be used by people who are breaking down and crying over the stress and loss of identity that has occurred in losing their jobs.

But this is, too often, hidden from their loved ones. Rather than opening up, many people just shut down. This leads to increased alienation and a feeling on the part of the spouse of being unloved. That, of course, leads to divorce.

2). Talk about the situation with your family. Most people feel that it is their responsibility alone to produce money for the family. But this is not the way families are supposed to work. Remember that “for richer or for poorer” in the marriage vows? Your family should be there for you whether you’re a walking wallet or not right now.

This requires that you open up and actually talk to them about the situation. Many people are surprised at how supportive their families are once they understand the situation. Be very realistic about the money situation so that everyone understands that things can’t just go on as if you were still employed.

3). Listen openly to your spouse’s concerns. It is easy to be defensive when a spouse talks about your career hunt. Don’t be. Try to hear the real concern behind what is being said and respond to that. It is difficult when your ego is already battered. But it is also necessary.

4). Don’t put the burden all on your spouse. Often, when one partner is the only one bringing in money, he or she can feel overwhelmed. This can lead to marital problems. Do what you can to take some things off of the still-working partner, such as spending some time to clean the house and, if you don’t have networking meetings or an interview, picking up the kids from events that your spouse would ordinarily have to take care of.

5). Show appreciation for your spouse. Tensions can run high during unemployment. Try to be very clear that your spouse is not responsible. Let your spouse know at least daily how much you appreciate and love him or her, and how important he or she is to you, especially during this time. One rose in a bud vase doesn’t cost much. But it lets someone who is standing by you know that you notice and are grateful for such a great person in your life.

6). Get counseling as needed. While it might seem to be an expenditure you can’t afford, you also can’t afford to lose your marriage. If things are rough, find a qualified marriage counselor to help you through this time. And don’t discount counseling for yourself, either. Depression and anxiety disorder are common among those who have lost their jobs. They can be treated.

7). Be realistic about money. Sit down with your spouse and financial advisor and know your financial situation. Spend money on things to help with your search, but look for every way possible to cut down on monthly expenditures. Know how long a “runway” you have before you crash and burn. You might be pleasantly surprised.

8). Recognize that the problems didn’t come overnight. A termination or lay-off is sometimes just the last straw in an already troubled marriage. See this time as a time to really work on the issues that are making your marriage troubled, and resolve them.

In the end, some marriages just won’t work out. This is especially difficult when there is already job loss. Try everything possible to keep your marriage, just as you did on your job. But recognize that it takes two to make a marriage work. Just like the layoff it may be beyond your control. You’ll get through it, one way or another, and laugh and live again.

By: John Heckers

Flight attendant careers with any of the major or legacy carriers are sought after for good reason. The lifestyle and benefits of an airline flight attendant is envied by everybody and sought by many.

Benefits such as:

Worldwide travel benefits which can include your next of kin and friends Medical cover including dental plans and eye care Life insurance for you and your significant other Profit-sharing plans within the company and retirement planning Achievement awards Vacation rewards Gifting programs Human resources support including workers assistance for security of emotional health.

Is it any wonder that Flight Attendant careers are sought after for the many benefits that they offer alone?

And while benefits are one thing, the lifestyle of a flight attendant can be champagne too. With luxury 5 Star hotels to stay in while over-laying, the opportunity to see the world at literally no expense, the thrill of shopping to your hearts’ content, and the educational brilliance of meeting with and experiencing foreign cultures. Yes you can literally travel and experience the world and get paid for it.

Be one of those that hold down Flight attendant careers with Delta Airlines for example and the world will literally be your oyster with flight services to six continents and some 575 destinations including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, The Caribbean and South Pacific, Indonesia and the Middle East. Perhaps Southwest airlines is more your type of airline or preferred route structure with services to 35 States and 68 cities including Chicago, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Okland, Olando and Los Angeles.

Flight attendant careers are open to anyone who can meet with minimum educational requirements and certain restrictions. Delta Airlines require you to be at least 18 years of age as do Southwest Airlines however some airlines stipulate a minimum age of 21. Educationally you must possess at least a H.S. diploma/GED equivalent or similarly year 12 in other parts of the world. A common requirement for flight attendant careers with any airline is that you are a people person as you are the font-line service professional to its customers. Delta Airlines state that, ‘you are the face of the company’ and that ‘you must be passionate about maximising each customers experience while promoting the brand’.

Similarly, Southwest Airlines state that, ‘Our people are our single greatest strength and our most enduring long-time competitive advantage’. In essence your service acumen, customer focus and the ability to represent and promote the company positively are just some of the factors you’ll need to consider if applying to their flight attendant careers HR department. Your grooming must be impeccable and your communication and team work abilities a proven skill on interview day.

Other ‘must have’ requirements will be a Senior First Aid certificate and a Responsible service of Alcohol certificate. Practically you must be able to swim 50 metres (150 feet) fully clothed and be able to then board an aircraft life raft unassisted. And while you must be able to speak the native tongue of the airline that you join, a foreign language in any of the destinations flown to will put you in a good position on their flight attendant careers application short list.

Flying is a passion for some and for others it’s a lifelong dream for obvious reasons. Turning dreams into a lifestyle starts with making the first step and before looking at flight attendant careers with any airline your first step is to be able to satisfy the minimum requirements. This will open the gateway to pursuing your chosen airline and see you get the opportunity to literally make your flying dreams become a reality.

By: TJ Reincke

The Lean OR, or in more inclusive terms the Lean Perioperative Services Department, can turn instrument sets quickly and with perfect quality. This may sound like a fairy tale to many of you, so let us first define what “quickly” means. To turn instrument sets quickly means that the lead time for a given instrument set must be as close as possible to the time it actually takes to decontaminate, wash, reassemble, wrap, and sterilize the instruments. We refer to this as the ability to “flow” instrument sets.

Let’s assume a very simple sequence of processes from the time an OR surgical case is finished to the moment the instrument set is ready to be picked for the next case:

Spray -> Transport -> Decontaminate -> Wash -> Cool -> Reassemble -> Wrap -> Sterilize -> Store

Each of the steps above is what in lean terms we call a “process”. The sequence of all processes to deliver a unit of value to a customer is called a Value Stream. There are three major stages in developing a lean value stream capable of flowing instrument sets:

• Calculate resources and design the physical layout
• Bring live and manage the value stream
• Sustain the changes

To fully design a value stream capable of flowing instrument sets in the fastest possible manner we must:

• Define the Product. The product is the individual instrument set. Since there are many variations, we recommend classifying them into groupings by specialty and size. To keep things manageable, use Large-Medium-Small. The amount of work content is directly related to the size of the set.

• Gather Volumes. Not all instrument sets are used equally. If your hospital is performs many Ortho surgeries, your knee sets and ortho minor surgical sets will get a lot of usage, while your cysto sets may rarely see the light of the OR suite. You will have to figure out how to get this usage data. If you have an instrument tracking system, that should be your first stop. If you trust your EMR’s intra-operative notes, look at them. There is always the possibility to have to gather the data manually. We have done this and it is not that difficult. The goal is to have a figure of daily usage per instrument set.

• Define the Work. This is achieved by drawing a Process Flow Diagram (PFD) per instrument set. A PFD show the sequence of processes an instrument set follows. Patterns will start to emerge from this. The machine-washed sets that are wrapped follow a different processing path than the hand-washed peel-packed instruments. We are likely to end with a dozen different PFDs to cover all instrument sets.

• Identify Families. We must now analyze the PFDs and find groups of sets that share a common processing path. There may be two or three PFDs that are very close. These families of sets will give us the first indication of what physical processes should be collocated to minimize travel distances. This is normally achieved by creating a “Set-to-Process matrix”. Picture a matrix with all instrument sets (or groups) as rows and all processes as columns. Every time a set goes through a process, place an “X” at the intersection.

• Gather Standard Times Per Process. This is probably your most laborious step. Go back to the prior step. Everywhere you see an “X” in the matrix, it must be replaced with the time it take to do the work in that process for that set. There may be some repetition and you might be able to use estimates, but it is a very good idea to reach for the stop-watch.

• Calculate Resources. The resource calculations are remarkably simple, yet they require a great deal of experience to interpret. The calculation is as follows:
Resources = Standard Time / Takt
Takt = Work time / Volume

• Develop a Conceptual Layout. This layout is your first pass to locate resources (people, machines, and inventory) in a block layout without any regard to the existing constraints. This is a highly recommended exercise, as it will give you a glance into the possibilities of an “ideal” layout.

• Develop the Actual Layout. Working on the blueprint of the available area and the picture of the conceptual layout, place all the resources in physical locations that most closely resemble the conceptual layout.

You now have the blueprint of your new department. You now must develop a plan to move all the resources, train staff in the new way of flowing sets, and begin the acquisition process of any new equipment you may need. A note on new equipment: resist your urge to buy stuff. Do all you can to redesign your department with the existing resources. A good redesign will not require any more capital equipment than what you have.

The next stage of your project is to bring live the department and manage the new instrument set flow. The live process must be done with the assistance of the entire process improvement team and the performance of the department must be closely monitored. You should plan to hit your stride within a few days. Keep a close eye on the expected performance as compared to actual performance and act swiftly if necessary. If the calculations show that the department should be able to flow a set in 160 minutes and you are not hitting this average response time within 3-to-5 days, you must take action. This may be a case of faulty assumptions, or an unexpected glut of hard cases that use large sets. Whatever the case, you cannot afford to wait and see.

To ensure the sustainability of results, you have to set up four key elements of a Lean Value Stream:

• Standard Work for Leaders. The idea behind this sustainability feature is that Standard Work applies to all in a Lean Value Stream. The closer we are to the value (the instrument set) the more standardized our work is. As an example, for a SPD the team established an “end-of-day checklist” for the department manager. This list had to be completed and signed off at the end of each day.

• Daily Accountability Process. This refers to setting up daily checkpoints, in the form of brief meetings, for all the team members in the department to ensure that all aspects of the value stream are being managed.

• Visual Controls. The Lean Value Stream moves fast, and it is very important to have the ability to check the status of the department by quickly scanning a series of visual controls. Examples are completion charts, statistical process control charts, and the instrument cooling rack (overflowing vs. empty).

• Discipline. This is what makes Lean work. Lead by example and allow no exceptions to the rules and the established processes. If there is a need for an exception, look for ways tostandardize the change.

This should give you a good starting point to get started with the Lean transformation in your Sterile Processing Department.

By: Gerard Leone

This is a classic line, from the movie Top Gun, which holds true even today. Whether it’s a quest for financial gain or political glory, the results are the same. The Wall Street big wigs and President Obama are writing checks they just can’t cash.

Wall Street’s non-existent view of a healthy economy and a lust for quick profits led the United States into one of the worst economic downturns in history. Wall Street dreamed up all sorts of investment schemes in order to make large profits. To Wall Street, it didn’t matter the losers would be the American people and their retirement funds.

We Americans have not seen the end of Wall Street’s destruction. Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are a contract in which an individual pays for protection in case of a default of an event. Unlike insurance, CDS are derivatives and therefore priced based on financial models. The CDS market around the world has grown exponentially over the last decade. To put it into perspective, the housing market is roughly $7 trillion in size and the CDS market is estimated to be near $50 trillion. Should the CDS market collapse, our economy will reach lows never seen in its 234 year history.

President Obama came onto the World stage with an agenda and the President has not veered from it once. To admit that his wishes are to help others, there is no doubt. To his timing, it couldn’t be worse. We’re coming off one of the worst economic down turns in our country’s history. We’re experiencing unemployment rates near ten percent. Mr. President, this is not the time to be focused on an agenda that was put together a decade ago.

Now is the time to put all those charity plans aside and create a new plan. A plan no-one would have imagined necessary even five years ago. Today, we need to focus on getting capital to our small businesses. Small business is the engine that drives employment in the United States. Our Congress has invested way too much time on National Health Care Reform instead of focusing on the economy.

Banking, in the United States, is broken. Bankers have discovered there are more lucrative options to put our money into such as hedge funds and CDS. We need to find a way to make lending to small business more appealing to bankers. We need to distinguish between acts of gambling and good business practices. Placing our bank deposits into hedge funds and CDS is gambling with other people’s money. It’s time to get the American engine turned on and begin to grow employment.

Mr. President, now that the Health Care bill has passed, why can’t we push back the implementation until a constructive mile marker is reached? Maybe we can set unemployment below seven percent as the mile marker to begin spending on Health Care? Maybe we should try and reach a certain amount of lending to small business as the mile marker? Now is not the time to be asking businesses to take a charge for health care. Heath Care Reform will require AT&T to take a $1 billion charge; Caterpillar – $100 million; 3M – $350 million, etc. This will have the opposite effect of a true economic stimulus plan. We’ve reached a point where we’re finally getting some footing, why are you pulling the rug out from under us now?

By: Frank Denver

If you have a criminal record of some sort, I know it is hard to find a job. And I know that, so I’m going to show you a list of jobs that will hire you – even if you have a criminal records.

I mean how many times you try to get a job but the employer turned you down because of your criminal record that happened like a couple years ago or even 10 years ago? It stinks, doesn’t it? So what kind of jobs are there for people with a criminal record?

Here is a short list of jobs that you could get even if you have a criminal record … such as the military related jobs, truck driver, and clerical jobs but I want to talk about working at home using the Internet.

So here are 3 jobs that you can get even if you got a criminal record:

1. Military jobs (they will waive your criminal)

2. Work at home jobs (freelancing)

3. Restaurant jobs (depends on the restaurant … high class restaurants care, but if you’re working for a family restaurant, they’ll be okay if you’re honest about your criminal history. Sometimes they don’t even ask if you got a crime record)

You see, there are a lot of companies that hire people to work at home (it’s called telecommuting). And they don’t mind hiring people with a criminal record. Basically you can get jobs like customer care service, data call center specialist, researcher, or just secretary jobs.

Believe me I don’t want this to sound complicated or technical … because my silly friend got a job at home. If he can do it, I believe anyone can. Where do you find these jobs? Well it’s mostly contract work and you have to find them at various free lance job related websites.

But I recommend you learn how to make money on the Internet with Freebie Incentized Websites. And what is Freebie Incentized Websites? Basically what you do is you try out products on the Internet – and get paid for it at the same time.

This is a good way to make money on the Internet because you don’t need to invest any money up front and you can make an average of $10 per hour – which is okay if you’re working from home, right? So don’t worry if you got a criminal records because there are jobs for people with a criminal record.

By: Ken Nobo

After any kind of accident or injury involving either a lawsuit or insurance company, you will need copies of your medical records. Medical records help establish the facts of the case and are one of the basic metrics used to determine damages or compensation from a Denver motorcycle injury.

In our adversarial legal system, people and companies usually will not pay unless they have to, regardless of fault. So the first thing that medical records do is establish that an injury or condition was caused by the car accident. If you do not have a Denver personal injury lawyer, unscrupulous insurance adjusters may try and claim that your injuries were pre-existing. As the claimant, you do have the burden to prove your case against any attacks.

Of course you may also need to know how to access and distribute your records if your injury requires the attention of a specialist.

Outside of motorcycle injuries, medical malpractice suits usually revolve around medical records, which may mean the doctor is loath to give them up. However you do have the right to access all of your records because of a piece of legislation called the Federal Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Generally, the act states that you have access to your own records, or someone else’s if you are their representative or guardian. Executors of estates also have access to the deceased party’s records. You also may ask for the records if you are related to the deceased and their disease history may shed light on your own problems.

There are a few exceptions to the records you are allowed to access. Usually these are not important for your Denver injury lawyer unless your case is related to psychotherapy or could endanger you. The law requires the medical provider to give you records within 30 days, or give a written reason for delays. Of course some state laws give patients more rights. Colorado injury patient laws are a little stricter. If you need the records and the hospital will not release them, you may need to hire a lawyer. This usually only happens when there is a pending medical malpractice lawsuit.

The doctor or hospital is allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for the records, and sometimes the records are not complete if they consist of several different specialists. You may have to file requests to each doctor to get your full medical history. It is always best to have as complete a medical history as possible before going to court as a car accident victim.

By: Clark McReynolds

The motivation to exercise- sometimes it can be hard to find, can’t it. You may have followed your New Year’s resolutions for a few weeks or a couple of months, but the newness has worn off and you find yourself in the same place you were before. You make excuses instead of finding the time to exercise consistently. Regardless of what season it is when you read this article, there is never a bad time to begin the process of getting more fit and the health benefits that come along with that. What better time to get your body in shape than right now!

As we have discussed on many occasions in other articles, putting an exercise program into your lifestyle is an essential component to being optimally healthy. Not only does it help you look and feel your best, but your organs and all of the systems in the body work better as well. Exercise has even been proven to create the internal environment that slows the aging process! I don’t know of anyone at any age reading this article that would not be interested in slowing the aging process to a crawl. Am I right?

The following is a simple, seven step program to help you get back in gear and begin exercising again. These are the keys to helping you get the most out of your own exercise program. Your part is to start!

1. Take inventory. The first step in the process is to figure out where you are now and then decide where you want and need to be in the future. Remember, it’s the choices and decisions that you make today that will determine where you are in your life tomorrow! Don’t rely solely on your own perceptions- ask a trusted friend or loved one for their opinion of what would help make you your best. Do you need to lose weight, lower your body fat percentage, gain some muscle, build strength or just be more fit overall? Make sure that they are honest with you since you can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. This will help you determine what kind of a exercise program you would most benefit from implementing. If necessary, get a check up from your doctor, especially if you have been inactive for awhile. They can accurately assess your level of fitness along with documenting your starting blood pressure, body fat percentage, height and weight measurements, etc. This is important to protect yourself from overdoing when you start your program and it provides a basis for tracking and monitoring your progress during your exercise program.

2. Set specific and realistic goals for yourself. Decide if you are more interested in losing weight, reducing body fat, building muscle and strength, or gaining endurance and stamina. If you have a strong desire to succeed, you will have the most success by setting both long-term and short-term goals by which to monitor your progress as you go. Achievable goals will not only help you accomplish the desired end results but will keep you motivated in the process. If goals are too lofty, you may get discouraged and quit all together. An example would be to improve your eating habits and add daily exercise with a goal of losing 1-2 pounds per week. At the end of 10 weeks, that could add up to almost 20 pounds! That would be well worth accomplishing!

3. Begin gradually. No matter how excited you are, remember to begin slowly and make consistency your initial aim. Do not expect to pick up where you left off the last time you were exercising consistently 1- years ago! Make the first several exercise sessions a test to see where you are currently, and use this information to determine how you feel and how much your body can handle at one time. To avoid injury, include some form of stretching and flexibility training in your exercise program. Stretch the larger muscles of the body first (such as the legs and the lower back). Be careful not to bounce when stretching- carefully hold the stretch for 15-20 seconds and then relax/release that stretch. You will be surprised how quickly your body will adapt to the changes you are asking it to make!

4. Keep a journal. You must keep some kind of written record of your workouts whether you are walking or lifting weights. This will help you note your progress and provide a record for the planning of your next workout. Try to gradually add to what you accomplished on the workouts before the current days session. When you log the time and energy invested in the project, it makes it harder to quit, and the results help sustain your motivation. It is highly beneficial to be able to look back on where you started and remind yourself of how much progress you have made during the early weeks of your program. Motivation or the lack thereof is the main reason that people drop out after a short period of time and stop exercising all together. Progress, even in small increments, helps to keep you on target and on track to reach your goals.

5. Find a workout partner. Hold each other accountable to the goals that you set for yourselves. This makes it much easier to stay motivated and you have less excuse to “bail out” of a workout when someone else is depending on your support for their progress. Nothing is more effective than finding someone with similar goals and then supporting each other toward the accomplishment of them. Don’t get caught up in trying to be better than your partner, but use their current level of fitness to help drive you to catch up. If you are already ahead of where they are in their level of health, keep them encouraged and support them in the way that they tell you they need it. Don’t try to decide for someone else how quickly they should be progressing, and don’t let them tell you where you should be and what you should be doing. Just support each other in the accomplishing of the predetermined goals that you have each set for yourselves.

6. Learn to be flexible. Figure out what barriers or obstacles that might interfere with your consistency, then set a plan in advance of what you will do when they come up. Have a game plan for when you travel, when it rains, when your partner cannot train with you, or when you are sore from the last session. By pre-determining what course of action you will take when the obstacles surface, you will have no excuse to give up your exercise for the day. The last thing you need is another excuse NOT to stick with your program!

7. Remind yourself of the benefits of your exercise program. Remember that you will be around longer for your family, that exercise increases the production of endorphins in the brain so that you may even be a nicer person from exercise. The list of benefits is endless. Just find the ones that work for you in order to help you stay the course. Knowledge is power and in order for you to stick with your plan, you must understand the benefits to the program you are implementing. As you accomplish results it becomes easier to see the rewards, but early on you must remind yourself of why you are exercising and putting forth the effort in the first place. They include a reduced risk of heart disease, lower stress, improved longevity, a sharper mind, looking and feeling better, having more energy, etc. When it is time to shed your winter clothes, you do not want to look like you spent the winter hibernating!

Remember, nothing is more important to optimal health than a consistent exercise program. Research has proven that it may even be more important to your overall state of health than your diet! And you know how important I feel diet is to your health if you have read any of the articles I have written on the topic of health and wellness. Just a few simple changes in your daily routine allow you to add enough exercise to change both your current state of health and your future. Carve out the time from your daily schedule- your body will thank you for it!

By: Dr. Tom Bolan

Quitting your job is scary, I know, but there are some situations in life when it becomes unavoidable. If you ignore these reasons, you may just end up being very unhappy in your current career, rendering you useless anyway. There is no shame in admitting that maybe your current job isn’t the right job for you anymore. If you’re thinking about changing careers but you don’t know if your reason is valid, here are some reasons that give you enough reason to do it.

1. You are simply burning out. “Burnout” is a psychological term which means the state of long-term exhaustion and losing interest in something. If you are looking at your job with disdain or apathy as opposed to the drive that you once had, then it’s quite possible that you are burning out. This is probably one of the foremost reasons for people changing careers. If this is the same for you, then you should know that you are not the only one experiencing this.

2. Your life situation has changed. This is true for a lot of mothers who are no longer able to keep up with a stressful job, as well as take care of a baby. Not everyone can afford to have a nanny or a daily babysitter, so a lot of mothers who have a hard time tend to change careers, or quit work altogether. If your life has drastically changed in this way or another, and your job no longer fits into your life, then changing careers is a good option for you. You should not sacrifice your life for your job, but instead your job must fit well with the life that you have.

3. You are dying of boredom. It’s pretty simple, isn’t it? There is no possible way that you will be effective in a job that you find as interesting as drying paint. This boredom could be due to the fact that you didn’t do your job hunting well enough to find out what it was you were getting yourself into, or maybe it’s just that you’re really not meant for that job.

4. Your job is too stressful. Stress is very dangerous to one’s health. If you find that your job has a stress level that your body simply cannot handle, then changing careers is a good option to take for you and your health.

5. You need or want to make more money. A lot of people will testify that money does not make a good career. But for some people, money makes for a good life. If you want or need to make more money, and it seems like your current career will not be able to give that to you, then looking in another direction is probably a good step for you to take.

By: Kent Johnson

Many of the studies that document the beneficial effects of alcohol have highlighted the virtues of red wine. Only recently has beer come to the foreground as a health-giving beverage. The published research papers cited below provide ample evidence that beer, when consumed moderately, may be even more salutary than wine.

Healthy Effects of Alcohol

The overall picture that has emerged is that consumption of alcohol in moderation is good for the cardiovascular system. Its consumption is associated with elevated levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Many drinkers have also been found to have less fibrinogen, a protein thought to be a culprit in the occurrence of strokes and thromboses. Alcohol has also been known to lower insulin levels, which in turn lessens the risk of atherosclerosis, a condition in which the arteries harden.

Several experiments, such as one conducted at the Institute of Epidemiology at the University of M?nster in Germany, suggest that beer may lessen the risk of coronary disease. But a number of other studies demonstrate that the benefits of beer go beyond those attributed to the alcohol it contains.

Research from the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute in the Netherlands showed that levels of vitamin B6 in beer drinkers increased thirty percent while those who regularly consumed gin and red wine gained by only half that rate.

Study findings published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition’s July 2001 issue suggest that the presence of folate, the anion form of vitamin B9, is responsible for some of beer’s healthful effects. Folates have been known to fight cardiovascular disease.

One study conducted at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and published in a 2001 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that beer consumed in moderation aided in the preservation of mental capacities in older women.

A study from Tufts University in Massachusetts shows that drinking beer, be it light or dark, helps to maintain the mineral density of the bones. The leg bones among elderly people are prone to thinning.

Risks Associated With Beer

What about the health risks associated with beer consumption?

There is enough evidence from research about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to warrant prohibiting women from drinking alcohol. A baby may suffer from brain disorders if the alcohol consumed by the mother passes through the umbilical cord and through the milk in her breasts.

Gaining weight can be a concern for beer drinkers. While beer contains no fat, one glass will have 150 to 450 calories, depending on the kind of brew. Counted in terms of volume, this amount is lower than the calories found in apple juice or red wine in a glass of similar size.

Other known adverse effects of excessive beer drinking include liver damage and stress on the kidneys. Amount of intake is, of course, a key factor in whether beer becomes a healthy or unhealthy drink.

Immediate Effects

Coffee is an example of a beverage that contains a less-than-desirable substance (caffeine) yet immediately provides benefits when taken in the right amount. The alertness that caffeine causes can be advantageous at work and when driving.

Drinking beer in excess does result in lowered mental acuity in the immediate aftermath, making automobile driving a high-risk undertaking. But when intake is moderate, beer becomes a relaxing drink that provides relief from stress, a known causative element in many diseases. It helps to remember that the drawbacks of intemperate drinking outweigh the advantages of controlled alcoholic beverage consumption.

The alcohol in beer provides modest B vitamins amounts, plus more useful quantities of magnesium, selenium and other trace elements. Beer is mostly water, which along with the alcohol, helps to cleanse the kidneys. Alcohol and the brewing process also help destroy bacteria in the water.

Needless to say, no single study or report on the health effects of beer can be considered definitive. But most suggest, that when taken in amounts exceeding no more than two 12-ounce glasses a day, beer will almost always be a great benefit, rather than a risk, to one’s health.

By: Alan Kenyon