Tweet tweet! Twitter your way healthy

Follow Kate on Twitter!

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When my nerdy (in a lovable way) boyfriend first tried to explain Twitter to me, it was so simple it confused the heck out of me. Why, I wondered, would anyone do that?

Fast forward a year or so. I happily tweet most days, about what's going on, what's stressing me out, how my workouts went (or why I skipped them), what delicious culinary delight I've created (ha). While not a total addict - yet - I follow more than 300 other Twitterers, and for some reason totally unbeknownst to me, 233 people have signed up to follow me.

I just wrote an article for the Star Tribune about how Twitter and other forms of social media help people on their weight-loss and get-fit journeys because I was blown away by what I saw among my virtual "friends."

Twitter is health crazed. Really. Hundreds of gazillions of people tweet all about what they eat (there's even a TweetWhatYouEat.com), where they get their exercise and how they struggle to be healthy. And it's a small world: I see the same Twitterers popping up all the time, responding to one another's updates with amens, you-go-girls, etc.

And health news is everywhere in the Twitterverse: Sanjay Gupta of CNN, the New York Times health beat, the CDC.

As a public health student, health reporter and self-proclaimed health nut, keeping up with Twitter means keeping up with the big and individual-level pictures at the same time - from the massive new research that just came out to the dieting woman who just can't step away from the candy dish to my own swim that totally sucked this morning.

And because I get pumped about every idea that pops into my head, I'm way excited for the ways I think Twitter can - and will - be used in the health sector. Quitting smoking? Tweet about it. You see where I'm going here? It may seem simple and sort of frivolous, but I think if this is they way things are moving, health fields better start moving with them.

Are you on Twitter? What do you tweet about? How can it be used to get and keep people healthy?

Ready to get started? Follow Kate on Twitter!

Broke? Go to med school.

I saw this in the news and, in the spirit of soon-to-be-Dr. Lyndsey's med school account last week, though it was super interesting -- and finally some good news in the crappy economy!

Check it out:

Boom Amid Bust: Med Schools Grow As Economy Tanks

This article talks about a feared doctor shortage mixed with a large aging population, but I think it might play into the theory that grad school enrollment increases when the economy gets scary, too.

Are you thinking of heading to med -- or any other grad -- school now rather than later because of the economy?

GUEST POST: Me and My White Coat

Lyndsey Runaas received her Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Ithaca College and is currently a third year medical student at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She has not yet decided on her future field but has interests in both women's health and oncology.

Let's welcome Lyndsey to Health Nuts! She's got the med-school dirt for you. Dying to get your hands on the coveted white coat? Think again.

At my medical school, like many schools, we have a ceremony at the beginning of our first year where we are presented with our first white coat. It is a time to officially recognize that we are on the path to becoming physicians – and all of the privileges and responsibilities that goes along with this profession. It is a special moment for medical students and their families. However, after the ceremony’s over, you go back to textbooks, lectures and exams and your white coat is largely forgotten for the rest of your first two years of school. Sure, it is dusted off for the occasional day in clinic or clinical skills exams, but for the most part our wardrobe in the first two years was not any different from the typical undergraduate garb.

Once third year began, however, I quickly developed a true love-hate relationship with my white coat. First, I learned not all white coats are created equal. There is an unwritten but widely acknowledged caste system among white coats. It is pretty simple actually – the shorter the coat the lower your ranking. Needless to say, medical students white coats are the shortest in the hospital. Suddenly, my coat I had so proudly donned two years ago now marked me as the least informed, least experienced member of my team. My short white coat marked me as a medical student to hospital personnel as clearly as a scarlet M on my chest might.

On the other hand, my white coat became a bit of a security blanket. It has five big pockets with a total of seven different compartments. This was key as I started out on the wards attempting to carry two years worth of medical education as well as numerous tools and reference guides with me at all time. At any given moment I was carrying my stethoscope, reflex hammer, tuning fork, penlight, several pens, my PDA, my pager, my cell phone, a small notebook, Maxwell Quick Medical Reference, The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine and my patient list. Plus, I’ve been known to shove anything from my coffee cup, a sandwich or a small textbook in there as well. Since my coat is so short, my bulging pockets are really just like larger than life saddle bags – obviously a very flattering look. But there is something really reassuring about having all of this information with me at any given moment – in my unpredictable first few weeks on the ward, I never knew exactly what I would need or who would be asking me what so I just tried to “Be Prepared.”

Additionally, the attendings and residents expect us to be prepared. Not only do the coats seem to get longer as your rise up the ladder – but they seem to be less filled with stuff. Now, there does come the rare occasion when attendings might actually need a tuning fork, but they don’t carry these tools themselves, this is our job. This should be, one would think, my chance to shine. I mean, I’m prepared – I can now squat 15 more pounds from all of this baggage I’ve been carrying around! Surely I can produce a tuning fork from my white coat when it is requested. But alas, time and again my white coat lets me down. Because with all of these pockets and all of their compartments, I can never seem to pull out my tuning fork, when asked for, in anything less than a good solid minute. It is so embarrassing, digging through sandwiches and electronic devices, while my resident calmly and easily hands my attending the requested instrument.

In the meantime, I’m already daydreaming about my perfect, long white coat that is waiting for me at the end of this road. I’ve decided I like the type with toggle buttons and cinching at the waist. And I’ll try to be understanding when my medical students have a hard time pulling a tuning fork out of their saddle bags – who knows, maybe I’ll even have a special pocket for my own tuning fork.

My Life...is totally embarrassing

Because I care about my Health Nuts readers, I'm going to set my total humiliation aside and show you something that might (make me look like a huge dork and) be useful...and, yes, probably amusing.

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health does video profiles of a few students a year and I, because I also blog for the school, was an easy target.

So, without further ado, check out My Life as a public health and journalism grad student. Glamorous? Not so much. But fun? Yep.

Q & A installment 2: Doc alternatives, psych careers & adjusting to the real world

Have a school-, career- or life-related question for Health Nuts? Leave it in the comments or email healthnutsblog@gmail.com.

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I've always wanted to be a doctor but am having second thoughts about going through med school. Nursing is the only other think I can think of, but I'm not sure it's for me. Can you suggest some other fields where I'd still get to work with patients? -Amy

Sure! There are tons -- TONS -- of other medical careers out there that will still allow you to work with patients and make a difference. From respiratory therapists to nutritionists to ultrasound technicians, you have lots of options. Check out this list of non-doc careers from Experience and poke around a website I love, ExploreHealthCareers.org.

I majored in psychology because I thought it was interesting, but now that I'm graduating I don't know what I can really use my degree for without going right into more school. Do I have to? -Brent

It depends on what you want to do. To be a clinical psychologist or certain type of counselor, yep, you'll probably need to keep hitting the books. But psychology is a broad field, and all kinds of companies want people with psychology backgrounds--in sports, in educational settings, for organizational and product development. Check out this article for some general info, and ask your college's psych department to hook you up with some alumni so you can chat with them about what they're up to now.

I know it sounds stupid, but I'm sort of scared to not be in college anymore and have to find an apartment, make new friends, start my first real job. How much does it actually suck? -Jon

Well, it does and it doesn't. For me, the weirdest part was suddenly being half a continent away from the people I was with basically 24-7 for the past four years. I found myself in a city I didn't know very well, in a sketchy little one-bedroom apartment, and I didn't know what to do with myself! And the biggest surprise, I think, was that I had FREE TIME! I think I forgot what that even meant in college. So I'd get home from my 9-to-5 job, not have any homework or club meetings or parties, and be totally bored.

But it honestly got better really fast. I made a point of making friends at work and looking up old friends from high school, finding a great ongoing volunteer position with Make-A-Wish and joining a local gym. Everything fell into place and felt totally natural within a few months -- and I even started enjoying being a grown up. For the most part.

A few tips:

• Make a point of keeping in touch with college friends -- but don't rely on them. A phone catch-up one or twice a week is great, but don't spend so much time clinging to the good ol' days that you forget to enjoy your new life.
• Remember reading for pleasure? The last thing a lot of people want to do is pick up a novel at night after reading for three classes in college, but when you don't have to read, choosing to read can be fun.
• Join a group, team, club, anything. By volunteering or signing up for a soccer league or joining a book club, you'll have an automatic pool of new acquaintances. 
• Get into a routine. Getting up/going to bed at the same time each day, setting up a workout schedule and having a Tuesday evening grocery store ritual make things feel normal, settled and real.
• Have fun! You'll feel cool doing classy grown-up things like joining coworkers for a drink after work and decorating a new apartment. It's a change for sure, but it can be a good one.

Thanks to alexanderdrachmann for the photo!