Editor Articles Archive
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue September 2008
It’s an editor’s holy grail—to come up with a story about a revolutionary health strategy that wards off cancer and diabetes, eases pain, and even adds years to your life.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue July 2008
A dear friend of mine recently led me down the garden path. What started out as a champagne celebration of her recent career accomplishment ended up with us making s’mores in her fireplace. That was our dinner.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue May 2008
If you’re doing most office jobs these days, you’re stuck in sit position, like a puppy being disciplined. Unfortunately, no one’s taking you for regular walks.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue March 2008
Men and women are different.
I know what you’re thinking: Very astute, Ms. Obvious. For decades, though, this simple fact was apparently unknown to the thousands of medical researchers looking for treatments and cures for conditions as varied as depression and heart disease, and it has led to dire consequences.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue March 2008
WELCOME to your first edition of Better Health & Living!
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue January 2008
I used to be unhappily thin. Unless you’re of a certain age and can remember newsstands before “Anorexic of the Month” celebrity covers, you may not remember—or even believe—that young women could judge themselves to be too thin. But they—and I—did. Curvy bombshells ruled the big screen and TV.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue December 2007
Although the vampires we describe in this issue don’t bite you in the neck and turn you into the undead, it can feel that way when you’ve been cornered by one. These vampires are people who can become a nuisance, even a serious downer, if you have to deal with them on a regular basis.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue October 2007
Forgiveness is good. I learned this (well, I heard it; that’s different from learning) long ago in church school. These days, you’re as likely to hear about forgiveness in a health article as in a sermon.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue August 2007
Like most boomers, my impressions of hypnotism were formed by old movies and TV shows, in which subjects were put under a spell to walk to the edge of rooftops or cluck like chickens in front of dinner guests.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue July 2007
Back in the 1970s, I was in a job that was unrewarding, exhausting, and off the charts on the frustration scale. Luckily, I was good friends with a co-worker in the same boat with whom I could commiserate and laugh when either of us was feeling particularly out of control.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue March 2007
My top 10 list of favorite things to hear from my doctor would begin something like this: 1.) “It’s nothing to worry about.” 2.) “It’s covered by insurance.” 3.) “You’ve lost weight, haven’t you?” But failing to hear number one, I’d nominate the following as next best: “Well, if it were my wife/husband/child/parent…”
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue January 2007
A few years ago, a close friend of mine saw a doctor about some troublesome abdominal symptoms and was told that everything checked out fine. When the same symptoms resurfaced even more intensely last year, she consulted a different doctor. His tests revealed that she had ovarian cancer…
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue December 2006
When our styling and photo crew assembles the recipes presented in these pages in order to photograph them, we taste the finished dishes.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue September 2006
I hated brussels sprouts so much that the sight of them made me lose my appetite. I went so far as to ask friends at my college dining table to cover theirs with a napkin if they had to bring them to the table, and to eat them as discreetly as possible. It wasn’t for comic effect.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue July 2006
I’m not a stress sissy. I don’t think there can be life without tension-producing ups and downs; I no longer fantasize about finding serenity on a mountaintop, where I’d “Ohhmm” away whatever worrisome stuff followed me there. But I have learned to give chronic stress its due.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue April 2006
Have you ever heard of a cockeyed pessimist? Didn’t think so. While we may tease pessimists, calling them Eeyore or Gloomy Gus, we insult optimists. Maybe optimism has gotten such a bum rap because it’s uncool to wear hope on your sleeve. I’ve found that hope can make pessimists uneasy, sarcastic—even angry.
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by Susan Flagg Godbey
- Issue February 2006
One of the side effects of working on a health magazine is something I call OHDS (Ohmigosh, I Have That Disease! Syndrome). When you eat, sleep, and write about health concerns, reviewing the latest studies and noting the hidden clues of obscure but frightening illnesses, it’s easy to interpret every tummy gurgle…
