Minnesota tops state health rankings for the fourth straight year, according to the annual United Health Foundation report -- which also shows Americans are 0.3 percent healthier in 2006 than they were in 2005.

The United Health Foundation survey has been around for 17 years -- and for 11 of these years, Minnesota has been at the top of the healthy list.

Rankings are based on factors such as access to health care, incidence of preventable disease, smoking rates, child poverty rates, and motor vehicle deaths. Minnesota boasts a low rate of uninsured (8.4 percent), a low rate of child poverty (10 percent), and a low infant mortality rate (5.1 deaths per 1,000 live births).

The other states in the top five are Vermont, New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Connecticut. Louisiana was rated the least-healthy state and shares this spotlight with Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

A few states -- New Mexico, Idaho and West Virginia -- show declines in overall health. And others -- Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kansas -- show the most improvement.

Sabrina Weill, CEO of Weill Media and former editor-in-cheif of Seventeen, accomplished a big thing on Monday. She launched her own website. And she hopes it will inspire others to do big things.

Weill is partnering with newspapers, television shows, magazines, radio shows, and websites and is asking professionals at these media spots to add a Halo Link to stories they feature about individuals in the midst of personal crisis who represent larger social issues such as autism, child neglect, poverty, cancer, crime, and natural disasters -- and who need financial assistance as they journey through difficulty.

The Halo Link will deliver readers directly to Weill's website where they can make a difference in the lives of those who need a little boost.

Weill's motivation comes from a news story she heard about a mother who saved enough money from recycled cans to send her four children to college. Weill wanted to send this woman a check but didn't know how to locate her. The next day, a friend shared she wanted to do the same thing but was stuck. Weill and her friend wanted to help. They just didn't know how to reach out.

Weill wanted to make it easier for others to locate potential recipients of their good will. And so ProjectAngelMom.com was born.

"In the wake of recent tragedies, and with the holidays upon us, I keep hearing people say they are looking for more personal ways to make a difference," says Weill. "Even if someone only has $5.00 to give, it adds up and can make a huge impact."

As Larry Stewart tells it, the story begins 26 years ago, when a week before Christmas he was fired from his job. It was the second year in a row he had been fired from a job the week before Christmas. As he sat in his car at a drive-in restaurant commiserating his untimely employment fate, he noticed the car hop was not wearing a warm coat as she worked in the elements of winter cold for nickels and dimes in tips. Although his recent unemployment status made his financial security uncertain, he decided to pay for his meal with a $20 dollar bill and told her to keep the change.

What happened next changed his life and the lives of countless others who would come to benefit from the generosity of a stranger. The car hop began to cry. She told Stewart he had no idea how much the extra money would help. Touched by her reaction, he went to the bank, withdrew $200 dollars, and then drove around looking for people who might need a few extra dollars.

Over the last 26 years, the cable television and long-distance telephone service businessman, who went on to earn millions after his rocky start in the working world, has given away over a million dollars. Anonymously. Stewart never wanted anyone to know his name or the name of his company. Until now.

Stewart has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus that has spread to his liver. He thinks it is time to reveal the mysterious identity of the Secret Santa many in Missouri and elsewhere have wondered about for the last 26 years. Why? By speaking publicly about giving, he is hoping to inspire others to give. According to Stewart, "that's what we are here for -- to help other people out."

Some campaigns just make me sad. UK's Age Concern, a charity that works to promote the health and welfare of older citizens, has launched a campaign called Hungry To Be Heard because it seems nine of of ten nurses do not have time to make sure elderly patients are getting enough to eat during their stay in the hospital. As a result, over half of the elderly patients are at risk for malnutrition. As hospital patients, if the elderly are malnourished, they simply are not going to recover or heal as quickly; they are at greater risk for post-surgical complications and they suffer a higher rate of death.

Health care coverage for working Americans is like a brittle tree in a hard wind -- and the larger limbs are beginning to snap. Between the years 2000 to 2005, 6.8 million more people became uninsured according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. Current data estimates 46.6 million people are without health insurance coverage. As employer-based health insurance continues to fade, government programs are taking up the slack -- up to a point. But given the lack of funding, there is only so much that can be offered.

In a statement issued by the Center for American Progress, "These problems did not just happen: they resulted from flawed economic and health policies which force Americans to work more for less. When it returns after Labor Day, this Congress should act to mitigate these problems by passing a straightforward minimum wage increase and extend health funding for programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Moreover, policy makers should recognize the need for major change, such as providing affordable health care to all Americans and taking action to address growing income inequality."

Some are calling for a government-based universal health care system that guarantees health care coverage for all Americans. Others are suggesting a mix of private and public health care coverage. What ever the solution, there certainly needs to be one.

We can start with a shift in perspective and change in expectation. If you are working full-time for a company, presumably your efforts are helping that company make a profit. Health insurance coverage should not be viewed as a luxury benefit, nor should the largest burden of health insurance premiums be shouldered by the employee whose earnings just meet living expenses. Yet, this is happening every day in this country. The hard wind continues to batter the brittle tree.

Personally, I am not sold on a government-run, government-backed universal health plan simply because I have covered too many horror stories about rationed care in other industrialized countries. It seems a combination of programs might be the solution but the government and our elected officials certainly need to be held accountable for implementing programs that insure all Americans.

American Public Health Association Georges Benjamin is quoted by United Press International as saying, ""This is the worst news we've had all year. Our nation is not secure if we're not healthy."

If you count yourself among the working poor, or one of the vanishing middle-class in a constant struggle to make ends meet, do not read this -- it is not going to cheer you up.

The most significant and unavoidable risk factor that increases the chance of being diagnosed with cancer is the aging process. The older we get, the more susceptible we are to developing cancer. Because of this fact, research into the aging process, how we age, and why we age -- even if the research is not specifically looking at the link between aging and increased cancer risk -- still might one day provide some insight into the potential for reducing cancer risks associated with aging.

According to the results of a new study, money cannot buy happiness and won't relieve stress. The more money you have the more stressed you are and the less time you spend enjoying yourself. That's what Princeton University economist Alan B. Krueger and psychologist and Daniel Kahneman, who developed a tool to measure the quality of daily life known as the Day Reconstruction Method, or DRM, which creates an enjoyment scale by requiring people to record the previous day's activities and describe their feelings about the experiences, report regarding the link to happiness and affluence.

Those who earned less than $20,000 a year spent far less time in a bad mood, and far more time involved in leisure activity, then those that made over $100,000. And the voice inside my head shouted, wait a minute! Who were the researchers talking to? If you are one of the 45 million working poor who cannot afford health insurance, how stress-free are you? If you get sick, and cannot afford the treatments you know are out there and available, but you don't have the money to pay for the treatments, how stress-free, happy and content can you possibly be? How much of your free time will you spend in leisure activity when all you can think of is not being able to get well, or a loved one suffering needlessly because good medical treatment cannot be financially afforded and their health is deteriorating as a result? Just a few quick questions that came to mind when I read the news of the study.

The more I read the feature story, The plight of the Russian cancer children, the more my heart broke. The more heavy my spirit became for the children and families around the globe who are facing what three-year-old Nastya Kuzmina and her parents have been facing in trying to figure out how to come up with the financial means to get Nastya the cancer treatments she needs in order to survive the leukemia she has been diagnosed with earlier this year.

Nastya came down with a cold that didn't go away and soon she was too weak to get out of bed. When the local doctor suspected cancer, he told the parents they would need to take little Nastya to Moscow to confirm the cancer diagnosis. While at Moscow's Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, Nastya's leukemia diagnosis was confirmed and the parents were told she would need treatment if she had any hopes of fighting the cancer and living. Cancer treatment is expensive. The parents are humble farmers of simple means. They sold all their furniture and livestock just to get to Moscow and -- with enough money left over to cover the cost of Nastya's first radiation treatment. They don't have money now to cover the expenses of living in Moscow and the special diet, medications and treatments that Nastya needs.

This is one ongoing story and struggle of the heartbreaking medical plight for the children and families in Russia. According to the newspaper reporter's account of the situation, ten years ago, 70 percent of children in Europe who had been diagnosed with leukemia were still alive five years later. In Russia, the figure was 10 percent. In Russia, a cancer diagnosis is often a death sentence. As the world remains in the dark, children are lost, and parents weep.

Photo credit: Will Stewart

In a follow-up post: The beginning of light and hope to dry the tears might be on the way with the Russian Midsummer Fantasy.

Two topics of conversation sure to make people uncomfortable are obesity and poverty. But both are necessary to conversation about cancer prevention because both increase the risk of cancer and death from cancer. Obesity is a cancer concern because being overweight is linked to an increase for some cancers. Obesity often reflects a nutrition-deficient fat-laden diet and a physically-inactive lifestyle that increase the risks for cancer. This is why the topic of obesity is so important to cancer prevention. Poverty often prevents people from seeking medical care because they cannot afford to see a doctor or undergo early cancer screening tests or cancer treatments once diagnosed with cancer. Researchers and organizations are beginning to devote more time and money into understanding the problem and in finding the solution to the rising obesity epidemic. No where is it more important than in the lives of our children.