Getting and staying motivated is a state of mind, an attitude if you will. Being someone who has lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off for almost 3 years, I know a bit about it. First, I can tell you in the past what did NOT keep me motivated. Trying to be as thin as my friends, wanting to lose weight for my boyfriend, losing weight for an event or to fit into an outfit all seem like good ideas but in reality they are desires not necessarily motivators. Most of my teens and 20's I spent longing to be thinner and this, apparently, did NOT keep me motivated.

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of all American adults will develop osteoarthritis of the knee by age 85, and their odds increase if they are obese in middle age, a new study says.

A person's risk of having the painful condition increased as his or her body-mass index (BMI) rose, according to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. People who were of normal weight at age 18 but were overweight or obese by 45 or older had the greatest risk.

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The drug sorafenib may help "re-sensitize" certain breast cancer tumors to anti-hormonal drugs, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers say.

Women with estrogen-receptor or progesterone-receptor positive (ER or PR positive) metastatic breast cancers often take anti-hormonal medicines, such as aromatase inhibitors, to keep the cancer under control. Aromatase inhibitors lower the amount of estrogen in the body.

However, the tumor eventually becomes resistant to anti-hormonal drugs, and the cancer begins to grow.

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- If you are one of the 36 million Americans who suffer from seasonal allergies, there is nowhere in the United States that is free from pollen and other allergens this fall, a new report shows.

Allergies don't only happen in the spring, they can be bothersome in other seasons as well. In the fall, the most challenging cities to live in are Greensboro, N.C., Greenville, S.C., Little Rock, Ark., Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Jackson, Miss., according to the report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that obese people who have asthma are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized for the problem and to have lower quality of life and worse control of the disease than those with asthma who are normal weight.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School evaluated 1,113 adults with asthma, all members of Kaiser, in Oregon, Washington or Colorado.

The N.Y. Times recently reported on a new blood test for Ovarian Cancer, OvaSure. What at first seemed promising, may not be, after all, because the testing was done on women who already have Ovarian Cancer, not on women who are being screened for the early signs.

CA – 125

By:Dr. Sue Johnson/DivineCaroline

Sex often draws us into a relationship and then helps keep it alive. But what is “good” sex?

If you look at the images that bombard us every day from magazines and movies, good sex is instantaneous, totally mutual, cataclysmic, and is best at the very beginning of a relationship.

By:The Well Mom/DivineCaroline

When Brianna Grant laces up her sneakers and hits the road, she returns home with a clear head.“

The days I manage to run are my strongest, smoothest days,” she says. The mom of a four-year-old son and sixteen-month-old daughter wasn’t always a runner. The former teacher says she uncovered her inner athlete five years ago when she coached a group of third grade girls in an after school program.

By:Sybil Sage/DivineCaroline

Here’s a great article about specific, science-based ways to increase the joy in your life. Based on some relatively small studies, these tips range from the abstract to the hard-nosed. Take a look at the list below, then read my take on two of these tips - one gets a yes! and, one gets an I’m not so sure about that one…:

1) Allow your golden self to emerge
2) Design your life to bring in joy
3) Avoid “if only” fantasies
4) Put best friends first