Posts Tagged ‘health’
School district offers yoga to teachers worried about layoffs [VIDEO]
Watch this sotry: APS offers stress management to teachers worried about layoffs
As some Albuquerque Public Schools employees brace for budget cuts and layoffs, the school district is launching a stress management campaign to help them cope. It’s called the Spring into Health Campaign 2010, and it will focus on key habits that promote overall health.
It includes a free five week series of stress reduction classes, where an instructor guides people through meditation, breathing exercises and group talks.
APS officials say the program usually costs $300. For employees who can’t commit to the entire five week course, they can participate in a May 3rd stress management Webinar. Both are sponsored by Lovelace. APS will also host free yoga and Qigong classes.
Jennie McCary, APS’ Wellness Manager, said she understands the looming cuts are making employees nervous.
“When someone feels like they don’t have control and they’re anticipating a lot of anxiety, that can be really, really stressful,” McCary said.
APS officials announced they plans to lay off 180 people who retired, then returned to work. School principals are working on budget cuts, which could lead to more layoffs.
A clearer picture of how many positions will be cut will be available once APS submits its final budget to the school board at the end of May.
Each week, APS will promote a wellness tip.
Healthy Hip-Hop: Volunteer Uses Rap To Promote Health [VIDEO]
Watch this story: Volunteer Uses Hip-Hop To Promote Health
Is there such a thing as hip-hop healthy? James Christos says, “Yes.”
The local hip-hop artist told KMBC’s Maria Antonia that he uses his psychology degree to promote better health in the community. He counsels people with mental health issues and volunteers at a couple of health facilities.
Christos said, “I’m a rap artist, but I’m here promoting urban health relief programs.”
At the Samuel U Rodgers Health Center, Christos brings his message to young African-American men to live a healthier life. His songs are meant to show his listeners how to keep themselves healthy mentally, and how to look at themselves in a positive light.
The 33-year-old rap artist said he’s “trying to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves.”
He talks to people at health centers and also privately counsels patients who have mental health issues. Christos said he wants his music to address more mental health concerns, such as depression.
Christos said he knows that rapping about eating celery and lettuce would not be entertaining. His primary goal is to reach his audience and present his message in a way that’s fun.
He will be taking his message on a multi-city tour in June.
Earthquake victims find healing and compassion [VIDEO]
Watch this story: Earthquake victims find healing and compassion in Springfield
Thousands of miles from the rubble that now overwhelms the nation of Haiti, six children are laughing, growing, and healing at Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield.
They left behind their families, their comfort zones, and their native languages to get care at the specialty hospital. For the past several weeks, they received around-the-clock, one-on-one attention from a dedicated team of doctors, nurses and volunteers.
The care has helped them to heal not just physically, but emotionally as well. Now, four of the six children are ready to be discharged. Before they can return to Haiti, they will enter the local medical foster care system and continue treatment at Shriners as outpatients.
When they leave the hospital they will be missed, but the impression they made on the hospital and its staff will never be forgotten.
Country doctor saves boy with electric drill
Twelve-year-old Nicholas Rossi was lucky to have seen his 13th birthday on Tuesday, after a bicycle accident in a country town left him with bleeding on the brain.
Nicholas’ mother Karen, a nurse, took him to the district hospital when he complained of a headache. There he experienced seizures and lapsed in and out of consciousness. Doctor Rob Carson recognized the symptoms of a brain hemorrhage, realized he had minutes to act and quickly called Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace for procedural advice.
With no neurological drills in the district hospital, Dr. Carson had to improvise. Nicholas was anesthetized while Dr. Carson retrieved an electric drill from the maintenance room. He drilled a hole in Nicholas’ skull just below a bruise mark above his ear and a blood clot soon emerged. He then widened the hole to approximately 1cm in diameter with forceps to allow for the insertion of a drainage tube.
An hour after the makeshift surgery that Nicholas’ father Michael likened to a “military operation,” Nicholas was airlifted to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, where he remained under observation until was released yesterday (Tuesday), which also happened to be his 13th birthday.
Coffee good for you after all
Coffee drinkers, rejoice! The heavenly brew, once deemed harmful to health, is turning out to be, if not quite a health food, at least a low-risk drink, and in many ways a beneficial one. It could protect against diabetes, liver cancer, cirrhosis and Parkinson’s disease.
What happened? Lots of new research, and the recognition that older, negative studies often failed to tease apart the effects of coffee and those of smoking because so many coffee drinkers were also smokers.
“Coffee was seen as very unhealthy,” said Rob van Dam, a coffee researcher and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Now we have a more balanced view. We’re not telling people to drink it for health. But it is a good beverage choice.”
As you digest the news on coffee, keep in mind that coffee and caffeine are not the same thing. In fact, “they are vastly different,” said coffee researcher Terry Graham, chairman of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. One can be good for you; the other, less so.
“Coffee is a complex beverage with hundreds, if not thousands, of bioactive ingredients,” he said. “A cup of coffee is 2% caffeine, 98% other stuff.”
Before we rhapsodize further, a few caveats:
Caffeine — whether in coffee, tea, soft drinks or pills — can make you jittery and anxious and, in some people, can trigger insomnia. Data are mixed on whether pregnant women who consume caffeine are more likely to miscarry. In general, 200 milligrams a day — the amount in one normal-sized cup of coffee — is believed safe for pregnant women, said Van Dam.
For people with hard-to-control hypertension, a sudden, big dose of caffeine may boost blood pressure because caffeine constricts blood vessels. But decaf is fine in that respect. And even caffeinated coffee doesn’t increase blood pressure much once you drink it for a week or so, said Van Dam. In fact, the caffeine in coffee seems to have less of an effect on blood pressure than the caffeine in colas because there are so many other substances in coffee that have the opposite effect physiologically from caffeine.
One final caveat: The new research heralding coffee’s health benefits is not perfect. Most of the studies are observational; that is, they followed people over time and correlated health outcomes with coffee drinking — based on people’s recollections of how much coffee they consumed. The studies don’t prove that coffee was the cause of improved health outcomes. Still, the sheer volume of the research, and the fact that the conclusions line up so neatly, make it reasonably credible, researchers say.
Read more: Coffee won’t hurt you, research finds
Bike bell ringers break world record for charity [Video]
Over the past year, Leson Dunkley and her family have had a tough time. She was diagnosed with breast cancer around the time when her own mother died of the same affliction. But, Saturday they had a moment that may live in history.
“I think it’s beautiful. I think it makes it a more important record to break,” said Alys Hansen, one of Dunkley’s four children.
A total of 690 people turned up at New Vista High School Saturday to form the world’s largest bicycle bell ensemble of all time. They were divided in groups based on the sounds of their bells and played several songs including, “You are my sunshine,” and “She’ll be comin’ ’round the mountain.”
Each participant paid an entry fee which went directly to help Dunkley and her four children ages 10 to 19. Hansen says medical expenses have been mounting and they were in danger of losing their home.
Dunkley is going through her third round of chemotherapy. She is a teacher at the Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies. Last year, one month after she found out about her own breast cancer, her mother passed away.
Hansen says the outpouring of support from the community has been overwhelming.
“There are so many beautiful, loving people and that are so willing to give,” said Hansen.
The previous world record was 503 bicycle bell ringers, set by a small town in Germany. ‘The Guinness Book of World Records’ requires that the ensemble must play a recognizable song for at least five minutes. The effort in Boulder is the unofficial record till it is confirmed by Guinness.
“I think it’s an exciting incentive,” said Hansen. “It’s one of those things when I was a kid, you read the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ and you never imagine you get to be a part of one. And, then here it is and I’m in the middle of it.”
The event raised a total of $18,298 for the family including a $2,500 grant from a local non-profit group called The Beanstalk Foundation.
“We love our mom so very much and we are so glad that this has happened, so grateful” said Hansen. “I don’t know how to articulate that any more than we are grateful.”
Read more and watch this story: Bike bell ringers break world record for charity
Study: Wine adds five years to life, beer two years
Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live only 2 1/2 years longer.
Dutch researchers followed 1,373 men for more than four decades, noting their eating and drinking habits. Men who had about 20 grams of alcohol daily — equivalent to a half a glass of wine — had 2 1/2 years added to their life expectancy at age 50, compared with men who didn’t drink at all, according to the research published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Men who consumed only wine had twice as much added longevity.
Light alcohol intake was linked to lower cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and overall mortality in the study. Researchers had known that moderate drinking is tied to a lower risk of heart disease, possibly because of an increase in high density lipoprotein or so-called good cholesterol as well as a reduction in platelet clumping, making it more unlikely for clots to form. It is the first study to show that one kind of alcohol is superior to others in prolonging life, the researchers said.
“In this study, 70 percent of all wine consumed was red wine,” the researchers, led by Marinette Streppel of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, said in the paper. “This suggests that the cardioprotective effect of wine could be due to a protective effect of polyphenol compounds in red wine, but other explanations cannot be ruled out.”
Polyphenols are chemical substances found in plants such as tannins and flavonoids.
Read more: Wine Adds Five Years to Life, More Than Beer, Dutch Study Finds
Alert cop halts runaway SUV, saves marathon runners
Keith Lewis didn’t have time to think.
The Land Rover headed toward the Mariemont police officer and a pack of Flying Pig marathon runners Sunday morning.
He turned, jumped on the hood, swung his body toward the passenger side and hopped inside.
At the same time, a bystander reached through the driver’s side window and pulled the emergency brake. Lewis shifted the car, driven by a woman having a seizure, into park.
“It was instincts, just pure instincts,” said Lewis, who has been with the Mariemont department four years. “I didn’t have time to think about what was happening. My main thing was trying to stop the car before it went right through the crowd. It was just the adrenaline and trying to put in practice everything I’ve learned.”
Lewis, 37, had worked overnight.
He was less than three hours into an extra traffic detail when the sports utility vehicle came toward him at 20 miles per hour – “almost like she didn’t see me standing there.”
The SUV stopped about 100 feet from the East Street and Miami Road intersection where Lewis was standing.
The driver, who has not been identified, was taken to a local hospital.
It is unclear what happened in the minutes before the incident.
The woman started to regain consciousness and become more alert soon after medics arrived. She didn’t remember the accident – or even getting into her car, according to police.
No one was injured.
That’s a miracle, Mariemont Police Chief Richard Hines said, considering all of the commotion happened just as a large group of runners passed through the area.
“(Lewis) happened to be in the right place at the right time and did everything right,” Hines said. “It could have been a very different outcome. But it’s just one of those things where we have a happy ending, and I’m glad.”
Read more: Alert cop halts runaway SUV
Photo: Flickr user Green Marrow
World’s smallest bodybuilder [Video]
At 2 feet, 9 inches and a mere 19 pounds, Aditya “Romeo” Dev isn’t like other bodybuilders.
The 21-year-old from Punjab, India, weighs as much as the body armor worn by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, but that hasn’t stopped the little person from becoming a body builder.
Dev told “Good Morning America” today that the most he’s ever lifted is 10 pounds — about half his weight.
“From the very beginning I liked lifting the dumbbells and lifting weights,” he said through a translator. “I used to watch wrestling when I was a small kid and that’s how I got inspired.”
His hard work has paid off — three years ago the Guinness Book of World Records named him the world’s smallest body builder.
When he hit a Crunch gym in New York City, people flocked to him, picking him up for a pose and taking pictures.
And ladies, he’s available.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Dev said, with a shy grin.
Watch this story and see him in action: An Inside Look at the Littlest Bodybuilder
22 pound fat cat put on diet [Video]
This fat cat has been treating himself to too many kitty treats, weighing in at a whopping 10kg.
When it comes to bolting down all the nosh on offer, Lion has lived up to his name, taking the lion’s share of whatever is put in front of him — and then some, we suspect.
Lion has always enjoyed the finer foods on offer, preferring to dine on gourmet meals of chicken and rice.
As a result, he weighs about the same as a standard barbell, so no wonder this five-year-old cat is part of the growing obesity epidemic of fat cats waddling along the Gold Coast.
The weight problem for Coast felines has alarmed Cats on the Coast veterinarian Dr Kate Adams, who said Lion must lose weight in order to stay healthy.
She said the problem was more prevalent with indoor cats of people living in high-rise apartments.
“The overweight cats I’m seeing are much less active than cats with a healthy weight and face serious health risks simply because their owners may be giving them too much food,” she said.
“Obesity in cats increases the risk of a whole array of health problems such as diabetes and arthritis.
“However, we have an excellent weight control program available that will help cat owners to bring their cat back to its healthy weight.”
Depending on the animal’s size, the average weight for a healthy cat should be about four or 5kg.
Dr Adams said she had seen cats weighing as much as 11kg, putting them in the morbidly obese category.
“We have put Lion on a low-carb, low-fat eating program,” she said. “You can also incorporate exercise into a cat’s life by increasing their play, as well as putting their food on a shelf and making them jump for it.”
Lion’s owner Fiona Mattig said too many rich treats had seen her kitty put on the kilos.
“Lion has always loved his food,” she said.
“I used to feed him supermarket food but now we have him on obesity food for cats.
“We are hoping that Lion gets down to five kilos.
“At the moment he doesn’t have any major health problems but for him to live a healthy life, he has to lose the weight.”
Watch the video and see more fat pets: Lion’s share for this hefty feline
