The Holiday Season is Here! Are You Ready for the Stress?

We all know how stressful the holiday season is. The pressures of out-of-town visitors, travel, crowded shopping centers, and cooking fancy dishes that we only make once a year compound to frazzle everyone’s nerves. And that’s not even counting the everyday stresses of work, paying bills, and attempting to avoid the cold and other bugs that tend to go around at this time of year. Stress can cause all manner of problems, including sleep problems, headaches, a decreased sex drive, irritability, and depression. Additionally, stress contributes to longer-lasting health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes.

Fortunately, there are ways to deal with stress. Several sources suggest yoga, exercise, and meditation, and we have plenty of books on those topics, far too many to list here. To find books on those topics, search for yoga in the St. Louis Public Library catalog. We’ve also got several books on stress management, particularly around the holidays. Here’s just a sample:

• Christmas Sucks: What to do When Fruitcake, Family, and Finding the Perfect Gift Makes You Miserable by Joanne Kimes
• I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas: A Holiday Survival Guide by April Nunn Coker
• I Saw Mommy Kicking Santa Claus: The Ultimate Holiday Survival Guide by Ann Hodgman
• Holiday Blues: Rediscovering the Art of Celebration by Herbert Rappaport
• Stress Management for Dummies by Allen Elkin
• The Smart Guide to Managing Stress by Bryan Robinson
• The Everything Guide to Stress Management: Step-by-step Advice for Eliminating Stress and Living a Happy, Healthy Life by Melissa Roberts

If you don’t have time to read a whole book (and, let’s be honest, trying to find time to read a book on stress management may defeat the point), here are some websites to check out:

• Tips for dealing with stress from the American Heart Association
• Relaxation techniques for stress management from Helpguide.org
• Survival tactics for dealing with holiday stress from the Mayo Clinic
• Tips for coping with stress and depression during the holiday season from the Mayo Clinic
• A handy list of reasons why and ways to say "no" to new responsibilities from the Mayo Clinic
• For those whose spouse is currently deployed with the military, check out this blog post focused on managing holiday stress while your spouse is away

Happy Holidays!

Healthcare.gov Glitches are Being Fixed, So Keep Trying to Enroll!

UPDATE: Because of the technical problems with Healthcare.gov, the enrollment deadline for getting health insurance coverage that starts January 1 has be extended to December 23. Previously, the deadline to enroll for January 1 coverage was December 15. For plans that begin later in 2014, the deadline remains the same--March 31.

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Since it was launched at the beginning of October, Healthcare.gov has been troubled. People across the country have been frustrated with error messages, and few of the 7 million people that the Obama administration expect to sign up have been able to enroll in new health insurance because of glitches on the website. 

However, work is being done to fix the site. According to a statement from the director of communications for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, two-thirds of the most problematic glitches have been fixed, and web programmers are working to fix the remainder quickly. And according to an article in the St. Louis Business Journal earlier this week, 90 percent of the people who previously had trouble creating accounts on Healthcare.gov have since been able to do so.

The moral of this story: be persistent. If you’re frustrated with the enrollment process, keep trying. And if you’re at your wit’s end, remember that the St. Louis Public Library is offering lots of opportunities to work with certified application counselors, who can help you navigate Healthcare.gov and the insurance enrollment process. Visit our Upcoming Events page on this blog for a list of times, and remember to check back often as we add more events!

New Guidelines Released For Lowering Cholesterol

According to guidelines released November 12, nearly a third of Americans should at least consider taking statins, drugs that help lower cholesterol. The new guidelines were created by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, and advise doctors to recommend statins for those who have already had heart disease; those whose LDL or bad cholesterol is extremely high; and for those who are middle-aged and have type-2 diabetes. The guidelines also recommend a combination of statins, diet, and exercise to lower cholesterol and achieve better heart health. The full guidelines are available here. 


The release of the new guidelines comes hot on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration announcing its preliminary determination that trans fats are not “generally recognized as safe.” Over the next few months, the FDA will take comments from the public and consider the risks involved with trans fats (also known as partially hydrogenated oils), which have been linked to heart disease and increased LDL or bad cholesterol levels. To see a full announcement from the FDA, visit this website. 

St. Louis Public Library has several books about heart health and lowering cholesterol, as well as several heart-healthy cookbooks from the American Heart Association. Searching the library catalog for “American Heart Association” will pull up a list of cookbooks, too many to list here! Other heart-healthy titles include:

• Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart for Life!: The Mayo Clinic Plan for Preventing and Conquering Heart Disease 
• 100 Questions & Answers About Managing Your Cholesterol by Vera A. Bittner 
• 101 Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol: Easy Tips That Allow You to Take Control, Reduce Risk, and Live Longer by Shirley Sugimura Archer 
• Cholesterol: Food, Facts, and Recipes by Juliette Kellow
• Controlling Cholesterol for Dummies by Carol Ann Rinzler 
• Heart 411: The Only Guide to Heart Health You’ll Ever Need by Marc Gillinov
• Best Practices for a Healthy Heart: How to Stop Heart Disease Before or After It Starts by Sarah Samaan 
• The Buena Salud Guide for a Healthy Heart by Jane L. Delgado 
• The Truth About Statins: Risks and Alternatives to Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs by Barbara H. Roberts 
• Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum’s Heart Book: Every Woman’s Guide to a Heart-Healthy Life by Suzanne Steinbaum 
• Eat to Beat Cholesterol by Nicole Senior

There are also several informative websites that can provide clear, easy-to-read information about statins and cholesterol. Just a few of those are listed below:

• A Mayo Clinic information sheet about the pros and cons of statins 
• This printable information sheet about cholesterol and statins, from the FDA 
• General information about cholesterol and the use of drugs to help lower LDL levels, from the National Library of Medicine 
• The American Heart Association’s page about cholesterol
• An interactive tutorial about cholesterol, from the National Library of Medicine 
• Instructions on how to get your cholesterol checked and how to interpret your cholesterol levels from the American Heart Association