What If Blogging Is Hazardous To Your Health?

(Note: This blog was originally posted under the headline "Bloggers Can Seize Own Health Care Reins" and posted earlier this year at Izumi: Spring Water .)

After viewing the latest health-oriented infomercials on the tube, did it ever cross your mind that if the proverbial Madison Avenue thought she could make money for selling you a cure an appropriate medical condition/disease would be readily invented?

My fellow bloggers - especially those with an inventive bent, were you fully aware when you began this activity may be hazardous for your health? Are you prepared? Have you done your research? Have you taken necessary precautions?

While the iron's hot, the time is perfect to make a preemptive strike. There's a whole new market out there that you can reach out and tap! Nutritional supplements to fortify the immune systems of those who post? Designer energy beverages? How about lotions or creams for bruised, battered and chapped fingers formulated with the seasonal winter or midnight/early morning poster in mind?

You can see that the possibilities are positively endless and this bit of spin was all made possible this morning when browsing brick and mortar press sites on the Internet when I came across this article at the New York Times posted today by Dan Fost entitled Some Brand-Name Bloggers Say Stress of Posting Is a Hazard to Their Health.

According to Fost, a brand-name journalist/blogger by the name of Om Malik who regularly breaks news about the tech industry on his blog GigaOm suffered a heart attack possibly due to the stress of having to post in late December 2007.

While I'm not anywhere in the universe by any stretch of the imagination even light-years near or ever will be a blogger of Malik's great reputation, my first satisfied thought after seeing this piece after returning to my computer after taking a week or more off from this blog was "I just knew I took this break just for my heath."

The plane of relief and mellow moment that followed was all too brief as my second thought was "Oh No!" and I had to fight off the urge to rush to mirror to check my complexion and dash to my closet and retry-on my latest pair of jeans.

So we live in interesting times and my other name is Pollyanna, but why should corporate drug companies and the advertising industry benefit? Bloggers - the power lies in our own hands. Forget panting for endless hours after too distant Internet sponsors or a break-the-bank deal for a corporate advertising contract.

Consider the dollars that can be generated by herbal scented air fresheners for ecology-minded bloggers who think Green. Breath mints for political-minded blogger a must during election years. Specially designed contoured seat pads...

Read more in the NY Times about the possible crisis facing bloggers at the top of their game.