Writer Jeph Lobe has been working through the stages of grief in the most recent issues of Marvel Comics. You see, Captain America has been gunned down. And his buddies -- Wolverine, the Avengers, Iron Man, and Spider-Man -- are battling with denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. The whole story will be revealed when the latest issue, Fallen Son, hits newsstands July 5th, the day after Independence Day.

Loeb, also an executive producer for NBC's Heroes, chose his storyline to represent current politics.

"Part of it grew out of the fact that we are a country that's at war, we are being perceived differently in the world," he says. "He wears the flag and he is assassinated -- it's impossible not to have it at least be a metaphor for the complications of present day."

Not everyone buys into the power of pink when it comes to breast cancer.

Pink ribbons, pink teddy bears, pink hats, shirts, scarves, socks, purses, jewelry, magnets, and even cooking appliances have monopolized the breast cancer market. And some people just plain refuse to associate the disease with anything remotely sweet, soft, and soothing.

Think about this:

Annette`s Angels, founded in 2006 by the children of Annette Roberta, love and applaud the effectiveness of the flood of pink used to raise awareness about a disease that took Roberta after a 15-year battle.

But they refuse to embrace any color but black as they proceed to kick breast cancer in the butt. Black reflects their anger at breast cancer. And their power to fight it.

Annette's Angels are committed to fighting this terrible disease, and they invite us all to shop at their online store, where some items -- there's just no way around it really -- are pink. The angels will donate 50 percent of all profits to FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, the only resource of its kind for those facing genetic breast and ovarian cancers.

The experts at Canyon Ranch resort and spa know what they're talking about when it comes to health and happiness. They make a living off their expertise, in fact. But they're not stingy when it comes to sharing their know-how, and on the Canyon Ranch website, they offer us all a chance to better our lives.

I promised in an earlier post to share more of what the Canyon Ranchers have to say -- so here are seven more healthy habits you just might want to embrace.

To Carb or Not to Carb

Canyon Ranch has watched "fad" diets come and go, never falling for their quick, easy-fix mentality and consistently advocating for balance, moderation and basic good nutrition. In recent years, some diets have forsaken whole grains for foods rich in protein and essentially free of carbohydrates. Whole grains, which are carbs, have always been a vital part of good nutrition. And while removing high-carbohydrate foods from your diet may initially help you lose weight faster, over time their absence can negatively influence your health.

Making Time for Time

People take classes to learn time management, they rely on the latest technologies to make the most of it and budget time as carefully as their money. Still, when it comes to health care, you may find yourself in a time crunch. Fortunately, Carl Pratt, managing director of the Canyon Ranch in Lenox, offers a timely solution: The 90-Minute Program. "It really only takes 90 minutes a week to stay focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. If you aren't willing to dedicate 90 minutes, you aren't willing to take care of yourself, and you need to accept that fact," says Carl. Carl breaks down the 90 minutes per week as follows:

• 15 minutes of planning for "mindful eating"
• 45 minutes of exercise (15 minutes, three days a week)
• 30 minutes of relaxation (five minutes, six days a week)
  

Commuting Bliss

When you change your mindset and treat commutes as a transition time for relaxation or education by listening to music or books on tape, your daily drive becomes a worthwhile experience. "We all see commutes as inconvenient, and we need to think of them as something valuable. Remember, the ultimate removal of commute time is not what people want. Otherwise, we would go directly from birth to death and skip everything in between. If you can't enjoy the commute -- and indeed, some are more difficult than others -- you are simply losing part of your life," says Robert Rhode, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at Canyon Ranch in Tucson.

Family Bonds Tied to Well-Being

Even painful family connections can be a significant part of personal growth. Learn to feel reverence toward yourself even as you feel pain. This connects you with your humanity and your ability to give and receive love. How to get comfortable with painful memories? Relax your body and allow yourself to feel emotions -- anger, pain, sadness -- while maintaining a positive attitude toward you.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Being thankful each day for the good things in your life and the ability to appreciate what you have rather than what you do not have is an important aspect of emotional health and well-being.

Think Big

One key to spiritual well-being is to get outside yourself with activities such as volunteering or contributing to worthy causes."Get involved with others and become committed to something greater than yourself. You start worrying about the greater good and you feel better about yourself," says Evan Kligman, M.D., at Canyon Ranch in Tucson.

Not a Morning Person? It's OK

Giving yourself a workout boost first thing is great for some, but an early morning workout may not be for everyone. Phil Eichling, M.D., sleep expert at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, encourages people with sleep problems to put off their workout for later. He says to enhance sleep, the best time to exercise is usually late afternoon. And people who have cardiovascular issues or certain other health concerns may also want to ease into the day before they strap on their running shoes or cross trainers.

Journalist Lynn Sherr is grieving the husband she lost to lymphoma in 1992. It's taken her many years to fully appreciate how his death affects her and while she once felt pressure from well-intentioned, clueless friends who urged her to move on, Sherr is now completely peaceful about her on-going, long-term grieving process. In fact, she fully plans on grieving -- for the man whose ashes still sit in her lingerie drawer -- for the rest of her life.

Sherr writes in her new memoir, Outside the Box, that it was during an interview with a pioneering psychiatrist about the agony of loss when she made her stunning revelation about grief. It's when she realized she would never fully recover from grief, that it is just fine to never fully recover.

Grieving individuals do not always follow the standard stages of denial, anger, and acceptance. Yet they often feel forced into these boxes by medical professionals, family, and friends who try to move them along and consider them abnormal if they don't get on with life in a set amount of time. But each person's pattern of grief is as unique as each person's pattern of love -- and stages and boxes just don't work. Sherr's breakthrough moment came at the exact moment she learned this.

"Bingo! I didn't have to follow anyone's pattern," she writes. "I didn't have to stop being sad. Not only was sadness okay, it was necessary. Nobody can tell you how to mourn. And it's not self-indulgent; it's not wallowing; it's hanging on to something important. We should not avoid bereavement. We should embrace it, welcoming our moments of sorrow as a time to reconnect with the person we've lost."

Sherr reconnects with her husband every chance she gets. He was her best friend, her deepest love, her soul mate, her pal. And she doesn't plan to move on -- ever -- from the sadness that keeps them connected.

Need one more reason to calm down? Take it all in stride? Walk on the sunny side of the street?

Boston's Harvard School of Public Health researchers have one more reason for you to let it all go because a new study has shown that being angry and hostile contributes to diminished lung function. During the eight-year study, 670 men -- aged 45 to 86 -- were tracked. Men who exhibited sustained levels of anger and hostility suffered from accelerated lung deterioration.

This study supports further evidence that emotions, and the mind-body connection, have a biological effect that can lead to better or worse health. Negative emotions are known to contribute to heart disease and other diseases. Experts explain that "stress-related factors are known to depress the immune function and increase susceptibility to or exacerbate a host of diseases and disorders."

Grab your coat and get your hat
Leave your worries on the doorstep
Life can be so sweet
On the sunny side of the street -- Louis Armstrong On The Sunny Side Of The Street

While public and private groups, along with researchers and a few drug companies, have been making serious efforts to help smokers quit smoking cigarettes, the tobacco industry has been spiking the level of nicotine in cigarettes, according to a study by the Department of Public Health. Between the years 1998 to 2004, the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has risen by ten percent.

According to Lois Keithly , director of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, "We in public health have tried to spend a lot of time figuring out why people don't stop smoking."

Full withdrawal will be felt after the first day of not smoking. But symptoms from nicotine withdrawal are felt within the first 30 minutes after the last cigarette, with smokers reporting cravings within the first hour after the last cigarette. In one hour, smokers reported anger. In three hours of smoking cessation, smokers reported heightened levels of anxiety, sadness and difficulty concentrating. Nicotine is what makes cigarettes so addictive.

The Boston Globe reports when contacted, representatives of the three major tobacco makers in the US declined to comment on the study and would not answer questions about the nicotine content of their products.

Battling cancer reframes life, written by Susan T. Lindau, speaks to my personal experience of cancer diagnosis and treatment. It may speak to your cancer experience as well. Although Lindau was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and I diagnosed with breast cancer, there are similarities that transcend the particulars of what cancer has been diagnosed.

Such as learning to wait. In an old diary entry I wrote during the time I was undergoing treatment, "if I am always on time for my appointments, why is the doctor never on time to see me." This came out of the regularity of sitting for at least two hours -- no I do not exaggerate the length of time -- beyond the time I was scheduled to see the doctor before I ever saw the doctor.

I, too, had an excellent team of physicians and nurses. I attribute their care with making it to cancer survivorship -- but there is at least one physician or nurse you are likely to meet along the way, who, in lacking good bedside manners or intelligent wisdom, really should be in a different profession. Physicians and nurses are human, and cancer scares a good many human beings. But if you are in the medical profession, allowing cancer to intimidate you is not good for the patient. As a cancer patient, you learn to reject such negativity in all its subtle forms. You learn to be an outspoken advocate for your cancer care.

Your medical team needs to believe in your cancer survivorship.

Lindau talks about learning new social skills that were not really a result of any intention to good manners as they were an inner drive of anger and resolve to fight cancer -- and to do whatever needed to be done to make it through to the other side. Battling cancer reframes life is very well-written and could only have been written by someone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis and gone through treatment.

Britain's television and radio fitness guru Diana Moran recently shared her breast cancer experience in an interview with BBC News. Back in the 80's, Moran led a national campaign for health and fitness with a program called Get Britain Fit. She gained the nickname Green Goddess for her trademark green leotards. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she said it came as a complete surprise to her. She had never felt better. She had no symptoms that told her anything was wrong.

Because Moran, at 47, was entering menopause, she had gone to the doctor to see if she qualified for hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It was then she had a mammogram and breast cancer diagnosis followed. From disbelief, to fear, to anger, she searched for information but back then, no one talked about breast cancer and little information was available. Moran decided, as a high-profile personality, to keep her breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy private, and in retrospect she feels that was wrong. Five years after the cancer diagnosis, she found herself in counseling working through all the intense emotions she had buried in putting on a strong front and concealing all that she faced as a cancer survivor. Her message is to connect with others, be open, share what is going on.

Moran, now 66, is still going strong and is the published author of numerous fitness and beauty books focusing on women's issues, ageism, health, fitness and beauty; is a sought-after public speaker; and well-known celebrity with more than four decades of work in television and radio. She devotes a considerable amount of time to charities involving cancer, cerebral palsy and older people.

When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer is a book of tips and insight from caregivers for caregivers when it comes to the needs and issues of being a caregiver for a loved one diagnosed with cancer. Published online by The National Cancer Institute, the introduction states, "The purpose of this book is to focus on you and your needs."

In reviewing it, I found it to be a valuable and realistic resource for family members who find themselves in the role of caregiver because a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer.

When Kay Stevens Lloyd was diagnosed with breast cancer, she began a daily diary as a way to work through the experiences of facing her struggle with cancer. Her diary eventually became a self-published book, Cancer With Attitude: One Woman's Journey Through Breast Cancer. Lloyd, 61, was a retired psychological examiner at the time of her breast cancer diagnosis, and her husband Mike Lloyd, a retired engineer. Her cancer diagnosis altered their retirement plans.

As the title suggests, Cancer With Attitude: One Woman's Journey Through Breast Cancer, chronicles the day-to-day challenge, suffering, anger, resentment and finally the resolve of one woman to fight cancer while undergoing cancer treatment and in becoming a cancer survivor. As Lloyd describes of the book -- it is not flowery, or the courageous tale against extraordinary odds, or of miraculous cures -- but the personal story found in the pages of a diary. It's everyday real.

Stress is not good. Long-term stress can suppress the immune system. Part of cancer prevention is supporting a healthy immune system so it can do the job of stopping cancer before it has a chance to develop into disease.

Whether stress is related to work or family life, most of us experience too much stress in our daily life. Why the same events will cause some people stress and not others, or why the same event can cause us to experience stress at one time but not seem to bother us as much at a different time, is largely based on our perception of the event and how we define what is happening.

One of the best ways to escape stress? Never personalize what is taking place. Easier said than done, but with practice, it works in reducing the amount of stress and the number of times you experience stress in a day. Still, easier said than done.