Fighting Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity effects children and adolescents and is a very serious medical condition. When a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height, they are considered obese. Childhood obesity is especially serious because it can lead to many other health problems later in life, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

One of the best strategies at reducing childhood obesity is to improve the diet and exercise habits of the whole family. Here are some things you can do: Be Supportive, Encourage Healthy Eating Habits, Encourage Daily Physical Activity, Discourage Inactive Pastimes, Be a Positive Role Model

Obesity is diagnosed by calculating the body mass index (BMI), which uses height and weight measurements to estimate how much body fat a person has.

underweight: BMI below the 5th percentile
normal weight: BMI at the 5th and less than the 85th percentile
overweight: BMI at the 85th and below 95th percentiles
obese: BMI at or above 95th percentile

It’s important to provide nutritious food alternatives to children when they are young so they can learn about healthy foods at an early age.

Eating Tips: Healthy Snack Ideas

Your child might enjoy trying the following foods:

- Fresh fruit.
- Fruit canned in juice or light syrup.
- Small amounts of dried fruits, such as raisins, apple rings, or apricots.
- Fresh vegetables, such as baby carrots, cucumber, zucchini, or tomatoes.
- Low-sugar, whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk.

Television personality Rachael Ray started her own non-profit organization called Yum-o as a way to empower kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.

Here’s a little bit about Yum-o:

Launched in 2006 by Rachael Ray, Yum-o!® is a nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking by teaching families to cook, feeding hungry kids and funding cooking education and scholarships.

Eating habits are formed at a young age and, if kids are given opportunities and knowledge, they will make better food choices. Yum-o! envisions a country where all kids experience the joys of cooking and eating nourishing food.

Visit Yum-o at http://www.yum-o.org/. The web site has all kinds of great stuff that will be a big help. There are pages on Kitchen how-to, recipes, games and more. Make sure you check it out!

Here are some other links to helpful information:

Overviews:
Helping Your Overweight Child Helping Your Overweight Child (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Overweight and Obesity (Kids Health from Nemours Foundation)

Other links:

Families Finding the Balance: A Parent Handbook (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) – PDF

Help Your Child Stay at a Healthy Weight (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)

Dietary Recommendations for Healthy Children (American Heart Association)

Holiday Stress and Depression

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Since the holidays are upon us and many people suffer from some sort of stress or depression during the holiday season, I thought I'd post some links for some helpful information and tips to deal with these issues.

Stress, Depression and the Holidays: 10 Tips for Coping

Holiday Depression and Stress

Holiday Depression and Stress (from MedicineNet)

Seasonal Affective Disorder

I found a great publication that the Department of Justice did for their employees and, even though the contact information is DOJ-related, the tips will be helpful for anyone:

Successfully Managing Your Holiday Stress!!!!!!

Healthy Holiday Eating Tips

Earlier this month I posted some links for healthy holiday eating tips. I thought I'd repeat those since Thanksgiving is upon us and Christmas will be here before you know it. Eating properly during the holiday season can be a real challenge so check out the following links for some great advice:

Healthy Holiday Eating (Family Guide)

Tips for Healthy Holiday Eating

12 Healthy Ways to Survive a Holiday Eating Frenzy

Healthy Holiday Eating Tips and Recipes

Concussion/Head Injury

After watching a weekend of football and seeing many players suffering concussions, I thought I'd share some information about concussion and the problems they can cause. It amazes me that with all the recent efforts to prevent concussions in football, so many players still lead with their head when making a tackle. That's not using your head in the right way! Not just athletes suffer concussions so it's important to learn about them before they happen so you can recognize the symptoms and seek medical attention if necessary.

Here are the symptoms of concussion as provided by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons:

Prolonged headache
Vision disturbances
Dizziness
Nausea or vomiting
Impaired balance
Confusion
Memory loss
Ringing ears
Difficulty concentrating
Sensitivity to light
Loss of smell or taste

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons also has a list of the warning signs of serious brain injury:

Pain: Constant or recurring headache
Motor Dysfunction: Inability to control or coordinate motor functions, or disturbance with balance
Sensory: Changes in ability to hear, taste or see; dizziness; hypersensitivity to light or sound
Cognitive: Shortened attention span; easily distracted; overstimulated by environment; difficulty staying focused on a task, following directions or understanding information; feeling of disorientation and confusion and other neuropsychological deficiencies.
Speech: Difficulty finding the "right" word; difficulty expressing words or thoughts; dysarthric speech.

Here are a couple links to more detailed information on concussion and brain injury:

Concussion (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

Heads Up: Preventing Brain Injuries (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Post-Concussion Syndrome (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

Protecting You and Your Kids from Dog Bite

I came across some health tips about preventing dog bites and I decided that would be a good topic to cover. I found some great web sites with some very helpful suggestions. I've seen people do some pretty dumb things to dogs so it's a good idea to check out these links to find out what not to do. Remember, if you torment or tease a dog, it will serve you right if it bites you!

Check out these links:

Dog Bite Prevention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dog Bites: How to Teach Your Children to Be Safe from the American Academy of Family Physicians

Dogs and Preventing Dog Bites from the Nemours Foundation

Looking for a Qualified Surgeon?

For many things in our lives if we have to make an important decision, we have certain criteria that must me met.  If you need surgery, you most certainly need to have criteria in mind when selecting a qualified surgeon for your particular type of surgery.  How do you go about finding a qualified surgeon? If you or someone you know is considering elective surgery, you should be aware that there are some ways to objectively evaluate your surgeon. The American College of Surgeons—the largest international organization of surgeons in the world—recommends that you look for the following criteria: 1) board certification 2) hospital or ambulatory center accreditation and 3) Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons.

If you want to read more detailed information about board certification, hospital or ambulatory center accreditation, and fellowship information, here is the link to the American College of Surgeons web page:  http://www.facs.org/public_info/yourhealth/findadoc.html
 
They also have A Guide to Surgical Specialists that lists all the surgical specialties along with descriptions.  If you want to check to see if a surgeon is a member of the American College of Surgeons, check out the ACS Member Search page.  If you want to see if your surgeon is board certified, the American Board of Medical Specialties has a Is Your Doctor Certified? database.  You have to register to search the database but it is free and only takes a minute.

NIH Senior Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a great web site for seniors called NIH Senior Health that has all kinds of information specifically geared toward seniors.  You can search by health topic or browse through categories.  There is some great information there.

I picked out a couple topics that I thought might be of special interest:

Falls and Fractures

Arthritis Advice

Diabetes Information

Since November is National Diabetes Month, I thought I'd share some great links that I found.  The first three deal with various aspects of diabetes and the last two deal with nutritional information for diabetics.  The last link is a full color booklet with recipes for diabetics and their families.

Your Guide to Diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2 (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Diabetes Overview (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Am I at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes? (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Diabetes - Meal Planning (Patient Education Institute)

Tasty Recipes for People with Diabetes and Their Families (National Diabetes Education Program) - PDF

November is National Diabetes Month

I'm a little late with this, but I found some great information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about November being National Diabetes Month.  The CDC page has some useful information on diabetes, plus they link to other resources.  Since diabetes has become such a problem, you should definitely take the time to look over the information.  Here is the link:  http://www.cdc.gov/Features/LivingWithDiabetes

I'll post more information throughout the month.  You can also click the diabetes links to the right (in the subject index) to go to the information on diabetes that I've previously provided.

Healthy Holiday Eating Tips

With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to post some links to some helpful information on how to prepare healthier meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Eating properly during the holiday season can be a real challenge so check out the following links for some great advice:

Healthy Holiday Eating (Family Guide)

Tips for Healthy Holiday Eating

12 Healthy Ways to Survive a Holiday Eating Frenzy

Healthy Holiday Eating Tips and Recipes

Diagnostic Tests

I thought since many people have to go through diagnostic testing for various health issues, I'd post some links to information on the different kinds of diagnostic tests and general information on tests.  The following links will provide you with some very helpful information.  One of the links has information that describes the amount of radiation exposure for each test.  I also included a link for a publication that parents should read if you have a child or grandchild who will be undergoing diagnostic testing.

Common Imaging Tests (Merck & Co., Inc.)


Diagnostic Imaging (National Institutes of Health)

Diagnostic Tests (National Institutes of Health)

X-rays, CT Scans and MRIs (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons)

Radiation Exposure in X-Ray Examinations (American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America)

What Parents Should Know about Medical Radiation Safety (Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging)

MedlinePlus Magazine

I frequently provide links to information from MedlinePlus from the National Library of Medicine.  Not only do they have a great web site, but they have a great magazine that has articles on all kinds of health information.  Here's a little information about the magazine:

"Our purpose is to present you with the best in reliable, up-to-date health information. We bring you the latest breakthroughs from NIH-supported research. We feature people from all walks of life talking about how they've handled their health challenges.

"Sometimes it's the famous, like Lance Armstrong, Randy Jackson or Mary Tyler Moore. But mostly, it's regular people who have turned to NIH for care and want to share their stories. Often, too, NIH scientists will write about their efforts to cure disease. Lastly, the magazine's lively graphics, fun quizzes and practical tips have been designed with your daily health in mind. "

You can check out the magazine here:  MedlinePlus Magazine

Adding Monounsaturated Fats to Diet May Boost Heart Health

The Canadian Medical Association Journal just released a study on how adding monounsaturated fats to your diet can be helpful to your heart.  Here is a summary of the article:  "People with hyperlipidemia consuming a very low fat diet had increases in HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) when monounsaturated fatty acid foods were substituted for a portion of the carbohydrates in their diet. These favourable findings were observed in a small, closely monitored pilot randomized controlled trial, set up to measure the lipid metabolism of 24 patients with hyperlipidemia. The long-term feasibility of such strict diets and their effect on cardiovascular outcomes remain to be determined, say the authors."

If you want to read the whole article, go to the CMAJ article summary and on the right side of the page, you'll find a link to the full text PDF version of the whole article.