Besides pulse, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, a patient’s temperature is also considered a “vital sign.” The thing that makes a person’s temperature vital is that the body’s homeostasis, or ability to maintain all functions optimally, depends upon a certain range of heat. Most everyone can recite that the average body core temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit with a healthy range being anywhere from 97 to 99 degrees. Temperatures that vary below or above this average create an internal atmosphere that is not conducive to the various systems’ functioning. The term “fever” generally refers to anything over 99 degrees. In order to maintain the healthful range, the body has a regulating system that kicks in much like any thermostat. If the core temperature starts to rise, we begin a cooling mechanism through sweating. If the core temperature starts to decrease, shivering will initiate warming through muscle contractions.

From the moment chocolate was discovered it was considered a valuable, divine and decadent treat. The first chocolate candies were invented in the 1860s by Cadbury, who was also the first to market them in a heart-shaped box for Valentine’s Day that same decade.

Sorry, but Nancy Pelosi is wrong. We do have a spending problem and the heart of the matter is our inability to control medical costs. Spending on health care now consumes an astonishing 18 percent of our total economic output. Rising Medicare and Medicaid costs are the main drivers of our national debt crisis. Yet health care costs continue to shoot up relentlessly.

In a previous column I discussed the PACER, a test of cardiovascular fitness that is part of the national youth physical fitness test battery (FITNESSGRAM). FITNESSGRAM, was developed at the Cooper Institute in Dallas and is now offered as a cooperative program with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (PCFSN) and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD). In addition to assessing cardiovascular fitness, the FITNESSGRAM Test Battery includes tests of muscle fitness, flexibility, and body composition.

Saying they are being crushed by the cost of patients unable to pay, hospital executives rallied Wednesday to back a plan by Gov. Jan Brewer to expand the state’s Medicaid program.

TUCSON - Ah, the Caballero.

Saying they are being crushed by the cost of patients unable to pay, hospital executives rallied Wednesday to back a plan by Gov. Jan Brewer to expand the state's Medicaid program.

So you have made a New Year’s resolution (again?) to get fit this year. How do you begin?

The Affordable Care Act strengthened Medicare in important ways. Signed in 2010, the federal health law already has provided free preventive health benefits to millions of people with Medicare, and saved billions of dollars for those who hit the gap in their Part D prescription drug coverage.

To play a mother torn from her husband and sons by the 2004 tsunami, Naomi Watts sure wasn’t going Method.

Cardiovascular fitness is generally considered to be the most important component of health-related physical fitness. Other commonly used terms for cardiovascular fitness include cardiorespiratory endurance, aerobic fitness, and aerobic capacity. The national youth physical fitness test (FITNESSGRAM), developed at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, is now offered as a cooperative program with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (PCFSN) and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD). The recommended test for youth in the FITNESSGRAM battery is called the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER).

The headache, sometimes handy as an excuse, more often than not, a very real, annoying discomfort. For some, it is a pain that is debilitating and in some rare instances a headache could signal an emergency medical situation.

As more women choose to delay having children, childbirth after age 35 is becoming increasingly common. While it is possible to have a child at this stage in life, there are many factors that should be considered when deciding the right time to start a family.

Insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes and obesity (diabesity) are global epidemics that continue to rise and come with major health consequences. Type 2 diabetes is commonly associated with poor diet and inactivity. However, there is now evidence of autoimmunity in Type 2 diabetes.

Year after year, the glossy food magazines scream that you have to tart up your turkey and pimp out your pumpkin pie. But the truth is, when it comes to Thanksgiving, most of us don’t want exciting, new-fangled dishes. We want classic, comforting food, the stuff of Norman Rockwell.

Which scenario would you prefer?

With an estimated 26 million Americans diagnosed, some see chronic kidney disease as a problem growing bigger and bigger.

Saturday, Sept. 29

More than 300 million people worldwide experience severe or debilitating headaches. Migraines alone affect 9 percent of the U.S. population and cost $1 billion a year in direct medical expenses. The incidence of individuals who suffer migraine headaches has increased by 50 percent within the last 20 years with 75 percent of migraine sufferers being women.

Vital signs. Now there’s a phrase that brings a particular image to mind: An emergency room in a hospital with doctors and nurses flurrying about in life and death struggles; monitors and machines beeping, humming and whirring all clamoring to provide their piece of information as part of the care and treatment being provided. One such piece of vital information is blood pressure.

For youth, national guidelines for physical activity call for 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. The most recent survey indicates that less than 50 percent of youth get 60 minutes of activity five days a week and about one quarter get 60 minutes of activity on all days of the week. Fourteen percent are totally sedentary — have no days during the week when they get 60 minutes of activity. One third of youth spend three or more hours a day playing video or computer games that are not schoolwork related and one third spend three or more hours a day watching television.

To most who know or have been trained by Shannon Sorrels, you know she isn’t a “pat-on-the-head” kind of trainer.

What was your initial reaction the last time you reached for that shoe on the ground or picked up a weight at the gym and threw your back out?

Let’s say you just finished an intense workout, or you have a child that plays an outdoor sport. Maybe you’re a construction worker with a physically demanding job or a salesperson in and out of your vehicle during the hot, summer months.