The good advice to increase our intake of fresh fruits and vegetables comes from just about everywhere these days — including Betsy Hornick, Jody Perrecone and Carol Burmeister, three of HealthyRockford.com’s Good for You bloggers.
Farmers markets are a great place to get the goods and the downtown market across State Street from the News Tower on Friday evenings and the market at N. Main and Auburn streets on Saturday mornings are two of the more popular places to do just that. (I know there has been a popular one on Wednesday’s and/or Friday’s in the parking lot at Colonial …
Read more
Illinois ranked as America’s 23rd-fattest state with 27.7 percent of the state’s adults ranked as obese (defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more), according to an annual report issued today by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report is based on information gathered in 2010.
Illinois ranked 27th in the 2010 and 2009 reports with adult obesity rates of 25.9 and 26 percent.
Illinois state fared better than all but one of its surrounding states — Wisconsin ranked 25th with a 27.4 percent obesity rate, but Indiana was 15th with 29.1 …
Read more
Dr. Timothy Johnson, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent for more than 30 years and a Rockford native, sees problems with Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s idea in his ‘Roadmap for America’s Future’ for the federal government to replace Medicare by issuing vouchers to seniors which they could use to buy private health insurance.
A criticism raised by opponents is that the value of the vouchers — which Ryan now refers to as “premium support” — would be less than expected Medicare spending per enrollee.
“I think there are, basically, two problems,” Johnson, who was in Rockford this week, said. “One is, basically, …
Read more
Dr. Timothy Johnson, who has just about seen it all in more than 30 years of health care reporting as ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, favors mandates requiring everyone to have health insurance.
During an interview while he was in Rockford to help SwedishAmerican Health System celebrate its 100th anniversary, Johnson wasn’t convinced that – if universal health coverage comes about in the U.S. – health insurance companies would be part of it.
That’s because he thinks Congress won’t have the will to finally solve America’s dilemma of paying for ever-increasing health care costs until it has no choice but to expand Medicare to cover everyone.
Read more
Theresa Thompson, OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center’s organizational development coordinator, probably took just about everyone at the OSF Trauma and Emergency Services Achievement Award Ceremony by surprise this week when she opened her speech by instructing everyone to sniff the Crayola-brand crayon placed at their seat.
She guided the audience through taking two long, slow whiffs of the familiar waxy scent and promptly announced, “I guarantee you have just lowered your blood pressure by 10 points.”
Thompson, a masters prepared registered nurse, said the explanation comes from Harvard Medical School research that identified the smell of the crayon (it has to be …
Read more
