'health' posts

It’s officially summer and many of us—over 36 million Americans—have embraced international travel recently. For students and families in particular, this is the season for exciting adventures overseas. It may not be very glamorous, but, before heading off with passports in hand, how can we ensure the healthiest trip possible?

Your mother was right: plan ahead

• Check if your health insurance goes beyond the US border. If not, it is easy to purchase a short term travel insurance policy.
• Find out as much as you can about your destination’s health risks or dangers.
• Most diseases are preventable. Talk it over with your doctor or see a travel doctor who specializes in such advice.
• Be certain you have the needed vaccinations and medicines before heading out.
• Don’t let ....

Like most bright ideas, this one was sparked while sipping a mojito – why am I not growing mint? Well, this “little project” turned into a full-blown garden last year. So my challenge this year is to share with you how to grow some culinary herbs.

Why Growing Herbs at Home is Great…

• It’s fun. Trust me, the smell of basil straight from the ground will take your mind on a direct flight to southern Italy.
• It’s economical. How many times have you purchased a ginormous bunch of parsley, only to use a few sprigs? Having live plants means you can take as little (or as much) as you need, when you need it. One $3 basil plant can save you well over $20. You will waste less, and likely will use herbs more frequently since they will always be available.
• It encourages creativity. When you have an assortment of plants begging to be used, you might take a handful of each and add it to the recipe. You can create endless combinations of herbs and spices to a variety of dishes.
• It’s easy. Whether you have an amazing boyfriend that will yank rose bushes to make room for your gardening experiment, a balcony that sees the sun, or just a naked windowsill, you really can grow herbs anywhere.

Getting Started…

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and the same goes for your health. Sometimes the process of improving or maintaining health may seem difficult, if not impossible. It may seem like a journey of more than just a thousand miles even. But keep in mind, there are little things—baby steps—that you can do every day to make that journey to health an achievable and enjoyable one.

The key is to think small and realistically. Ask yourself, what is your overall goal? Do you want to manage diabetes? Do you want to be able to run a 5k? Do you want to quit smoking? Whatever your goal, even if you don’t have a map, it helps to know your destination and have your shoes strapped on before you head out on the journey.

To figure out if you’re ready to take steps towards your health goals:

• Make a list of pros and cons, such as “pro: eating more vegetables will help me lose weight, con: I don’t know how to cook vegetables that I like."

• Get a journal or find a friend and walk through all the pros you listed. They don’t just have to be health-related. For instance, will increasing the amount of sleep you get each night help you do better at work?

• Try to imagine how you will handle the cons that come with change and make a plan. For example, if your goal is to exercise at least thirty minutes a day but you find it difficult to make time, physically block out time on your calendar (at work, on your phone, etc.) If you miss a day, what will you do to make up for it?

When the pros outweigh the cons, you’ll have a better chance at successfully making that change. Just remember that the larger journey is the product of many smaller steps and often some wrong turns or setbacks. Thinking ahead about what you will do when you take a wrong turn and breaking down your goal into small steps will help you achieve the bigger health goals you set for yourself. If you want to cut down on the number of sweets you eat, cutting them out all at once (trying to leap ahead a thousand miles) is going to be much harder than choosing to eat one cookie after dinner instead of five (taking a single step).

Here are some tricks to help take the baby steps that will move you forward on your journey to better health:

 (Read part 1 of this ‘Spring Cleanse' series here for more on how many calories you actually need, how to track your intake, and what you need to know about fluids.)

The Cleanse…

There are thousands of books out there, everything from an intensive fasting period to a detailed 21+ day program. Pick one that seems like it would yield the highest degree of success for you, but remember these basic parameters of all detoxes and cleanses:

• Don’t go less than 1200 calories a day. (Doing so stimulates a decrease in your metabolism, which unfortunately won’t immediately correct once the cleanse is completed. )
• Don’t expect more than 2 pounds of weight loss per week. If you see this on the scale, it means you are losing lean muscle mass (not a brilliant idea since this tissue is most metabolically active = your best friend in the battle of the bulge) or you are under-hydrated. The goal is gradual fat loss, hydration maintenance, and preservation of lean muscle mass if you want your results to last.
• Avoid junk (caffeine, alcohol, sodium, artificial sweeteners, refined sugars and refined grains). You want to get the biggest bang for your caloric buck, so opt for whole grains, fruits and vegetables rather than processed food.
• Assess your tendency for withdrawal. This can be from caffeine, alcohol, salt, refined grains/sugars, or simply the habit of heading for frozen yogurt on weekends.

What you should know about….

• Caffeine:

Spring is finally here! Finally, the opportunity to congratulate Seattle for behaving according to season, and enjoy tulips that Dougie in the spring breeze, and the first panic wave reminds you that you’ve got only a few weeks before bikini season (you get the point). Your innocent neurons automatically fire “detox diet’ and “cleanse”. Well, let me warn you that I am not a fan of the “drink maple syrup and eat lemon wedges” diet. Not because nutritionally they are a joke, but if you follow one, you morph into a mix of Tasmanian devil and Garfield, a creature with a short temper, little patience, an appetite with no boundaries, yet profound laziness.

Instead, how about something realistic with sustainable results? Here are tips to clean up your eating behaviors and make sure you are on track to tackle your goals.

Track Your Intake:

Do you know how much calories, fat, sugar, fiber, fluids, etc. you are concerned about, that you are consuming these days? This is where you need to start...

When it comes to our health, we are often faced with a bunch of information, numbers, and big words. It’s no wonder that sometimes it can feel overwhelming when you hear things like this:

• “Take this medication once daily by mouth on a full stomach with plenty of water.”
• “Do you have a family history of hypertension?”
• “Your insurance policy will cover up to 50% of the procedure cost.”

Our ability to understand all of this information is called health literacy, and nearly 9 out of 10 adults (over 90 million Americans) struggle with health literacy. This is a problem because people with low health literacy may not know when or how to get the care they need when they are sick.

Just because someone can read does not mean they are health literate. To make the best decisions about our health and health care, we must be able to find, process, and understand health information. This includes the ability to read and understand medicine bottles, appointment slips, and forms that your doctor might give you to fill out. It also includes being able to understand nutrition labels in the grocery store or finding reliable health information online.

For example, the next time you grab a box of cereal, turn it over and ask yourself if you could calculate how many calories are in the serving you’re eating. Do you know how much one serving is? How many servings are you eating?

Next...

Doctors' Day was officially designated as a national day of recognition in 1990 to honor our physicians.  We thank the members of our talented medical staff for their compassionate care of patients and their enthusiastic pursuit of safety, quality and the highest standards in the delivery of medical care.

I want to thank all of our doctors for what they do, and give special thanks to those who are blogging and providing information online.

• What to do if you're having a stroke

• A physician's own experience with colonoscopy prep

• A number of interesting things can be done with a surgical robot

And of course, the physicians who participate in our livestreams are pretty incredible as well:

• Deep brain stimulation livestream

• Colonoscopy/colon cancer livestream

• Live knee surgery

• ...and those who scaled Mt. Rainier with a 'social media backpack' to raise awareness for organ donation

I've also captured a few tweets and Facebook posts from people who wanted to thank our doctors - see below, and if you want to share any, comment here or on Facebook, and we'll share them with our amazing doctors!