Rise Above It (RAI) is a non-profit organization that helps young adults battling cancer. The strength in spirit of its founder, Colin O'Donoghue, guides RAI in its efforts. As a friend, teacher and coach, Colin deeply enriched the lives of others.

RAI continues this practice with the same enthusiasm and vigor he brought to every aspect of his life. Colin always believed that enjoying life and embracing a positive attitude were essential components of happiness. Using this principle as inspiration, RAI devises fun and positive events that raise money to accomplish its primary objective: to provide meaningful support to young cancer patients.

This is achieved by hosting fund-raising events designed to provide eligible recipients with additional resources. Using the proceeds from these events, RAI board members solicit cases to provide grants and personal consultation to individuals and families with immediate needs in their fight against cancer. Through financial assistance and personal attention, RAI strives to instill a positive attitude within its recipients, thus allowing them to live each day with faith and a fighting spirit.

Pizza just might have the power to fight cancer -- not the pizza loaded with cheese and pepperoni and tons of tempting toppings, the kind that may have your mouth watering at this very moment. But a version of pizza as we know it may fend off heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

The secret is in the crust -- the cooking of the crust, that is.

Think about this:

It seems baking pizza faster and at higher temperatures can release disease-fighting antioxidants. And it's this one small change to pizza preparation that has scientists at the University of Maryland claiming there is such a thing as a healthy pizza.

Scientists baked pizza at 500 degrees for six minutes and were able to increase antioxidant levels 100 percent. They used whole wheat dough, already high in antioxidants, and let it rise overnight before using their hotter, quicker cooking approach.

One researcher says this study is more a lab curiosity than anything else and might not really lead to a healthier pizza -- because it's unlikely pizza joints will change cooking methods to turn out healthier products.

If you are tempted to try this technique, be aware that the toxin acrylamide can be released if the pizza is baked too long. And don't forget to cut way back on those tasty toppers.

It's been reported that procrastination is on the rise. Not only that, but it makes people poorer, fatter, and unhappier too.

It took 10 years of research when it was projected to take only five years -- procrastination at its best -- to come to this conclusion. And now Canadian industrial psychologist and University of Calgary professor Piers Steel is talking about his giant 30-page study that appears in this month's Psychological Bulletin.

Something must be done about this problem, says Steel, who reveals 26 percent of the American public consider themselves chronic procrastinators. This is up from five percent in 1978 and is likely due to the tempting diversions facing us in this day and age -- TVs, cell phones, video games, iPods, the Internet, and Blackberries.

It's no surprise with such temptations that a quarter of Americans say they procrastinate. When it comes to the sexes, men are worse than women -- about 54 out of 100 chronic procrastinators are men -- and the young are more like to procrastinate than the old. Three out of four college students consider themselves procrastinators. And it seems perfectionists procrastinate less because they don't like to delay.

Steel says procrastination wastes time. And it's costly too.

"The U.S. gross national product would probably rise by $50 billion if the icon and sound that notifies people of new e-mail suddenly disappear," he said.

Steel found a delay in filing taxes on average costs a person $400 a year. Last-minute Christmas shopping with credit cards was five times higher in 1999 than in 1991. Clearly, procrastination is expensive.

Procrastination also has physical and emotional costs. Procrastinators tend to be less healthy, less wealthy, and less happy. They are also harder to heal of their problems than alcoholics.

Steel, who plans to one day compare the procrastination practices in various countries and cultures, says his field has benefits. The more he knows about the problem, the less he indulges in delay tactics. He did, however, acknowledge that his study was completed five years late. But what he likes about this study is this -- "If you take a day off from it, you can always say it's field research."

2006 will forever be the year linking the decline in breast cancer cases to the decline in use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). This was big news on the cancer front, and while some argue other forces helped drive the breast cancer drop, there is still much speculation that the use of HRT somehow increases the risk of developing the disease. Even so, it is predicted that Wyeth's sales of hormone replacement drugs will have reached more than $1 billion as of yesterday, the last day of 2006.

Even more interesting is the prediction by analysts that revenue from the pills -- used to treat symptoms of menopause -- will rise five percent annually for the next several years.

It seems the sales growth, despite the overall decline in the HRT market, is primarily due to increased demand from wholesalers and price increases too.

It's hard to tell what will happen to the world of HRT in the year 2007 -- will women embrace what is considered the best therapy around for menopausal issues? Will they abandon the controversial treatment altogether? Will they find variations of HRT that meet their needs while minimizing risk for disease? Only time will tell.