Archive for May, 2008
May 30th, 2008
You may have researched your family tree — but what about your family health tree?
Beloit Memorial Hospital media coordinator Sarah Starmer recently alerted me to a new computer program from the U.S. Surgeon General that helps you create such a tree. The program is called “My Family Health Portrait,” and it helps you track factors such as heart disease, stroke, breast cancer and colon cancer in your own family history.
Family health history is one of the most important risk factors for chronic illnesses in your own life, said Larry Bergen, director of cardiovascular services at Beloit Memorial. The risk is in your genes as well as your family’s shared lifestyle and habits.
You can’t change the genes, but you can change risky health behaviors like smoking and poor eating habits, Bergen said.  And if you have a family history of certain chronic diseases, you could benefit greatly from screening tests for those diseases.
The free program “My Family Health Portrait” can be maintained online at https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/Â or you can download it onto your home computer at http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/download.html.
Beloit Memorial Hospital also has a Family Health Tree brochure you can request to receive in the mail. If you’re interested, call the hosptial’s community relations department at 608-364-5206.
May 29th, 2008
Lorna Benson of Minnesota Public Radio recently wrote a story about a new analysis of medical news coverage. One of the most common problems found in journalists’ reports on medical treatments, she noted: failure to “adequately discuss the price a consumer might have to pay for a new drug, device or test.” What’s more, Benson wrote, “about 65 percent of the medical stories didn’t mention whether there was any possibility of harm associated with a particular treatment.”
Benson’s article summarized the findings of University of Minnesota journalism professor Gary Schwitzer and his reviewers, who have been rating the quality of health intervention stories by U.S. newspapers, news magazines, television networks and wire services. Their findings were published in the Public Library of Science journal, “PLoS Medicine.” You can link to that report here.Â
Schwitzer said the report summarized his team’s first two years of grading health stories on their own Web site, HealthNewsReview.org.  I’ll be visiting and learning.
May 28th, 2008
I’ve had the good fortune to meet Joshua and Kalie Kuhl, who have quite a story to tell about their identical triplet boys Trevin, Gavin and Brodin.Â
And it brings back some very personal memories. I’ve had my own experience with a baby in a neonatal intensive care unit.
The Kuhl babies will be in Rockford Memorial Hospital’s NICU for weeks. My baby was only in the NICU for eight days, at Lee Memorial Hospital’s HealthPark in Fort Myers, Florida. She was full-term and healthy when born, a normal pregnancy. But in her first day of life she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal infection, e.coli sepsis.Â
I will be eternally grateful to the pediatrician who sensed something was wrong with this newborn and ordered the blood tests that diagnosed her. She got onto antibiotics right away. But it was quite a shock to have my baby taken from my arms in the birthing unit. Before I knew it she was behind glass, surrounded by tiny monitors. They even did a spinal tap on her when she was one day old, to make sure the infection hadn’t caused meningitis.
She’s 15 years old now. But I’ll never forget that first day when well-wishers came to visit and found me with eyes swollen by crying with worry and shock. I’ll never forget the days and nights spent living at the hospital after I was released and she was not. I went in to visit her every chance I got. Fortunately the hospital building was full of nooks and crannies with couches where I could curl up and nap in between visits. The cafeteria food was even pretty good.
Those eight days seemed like an eternity. I can’t imagine weeks or months. I am grateful that Kalie and Joshua are willing to share their story with us. I’ve already heard from others who read about the Kuhls’ experience and know themselves what it means to live in the four walls of the NICU.
May 20th, 2008
More than 40 doctors and senior officials of Bangkok, Thailand’s Crown Prince Hospital Foundation will visit Mercy Hospital Janesville from 8 to 11 a.m. Thursday as part of a study of quality assurance and hospital services.
The Crown Prince Hospital Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve administration, clinical services and overall health care quality.
Mercy Health System is a 2007 winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award which measures efforts in leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management, and results. The Crown Prince Hospital Foundation is trying to receive the Thailand Quality Award, the country’s equivalent of the Baldrige award.
May 15th, 2008
In the weight room and on the running track, they used to call me “Debzilla.” I was pretty hardcore for a number of years.
Then things happened. Injuries. Illness. Work and family. I’ve had some foot problems, and got doctors’ orders the last time around to stick with no-impact cardio, which generally means the elliptical machine. That’s fine with me.
But the weights? I used to pooh-pooh people who had excuses for not hitting the weight room as often as they should. Now, I’m seeing how hard it can be to motivate oneself, especially when coming home to hungry kids who want help with homework. When I do hit the weight room, it’s often late at night or on the weekends. I definitely don’t feel like “Debzilla” these days!Â
I’d like to hear from you: How do you motivate yourself to exercise when life throws roadblocks in the way? You’re welcome to share your tips with all of us, on this blog!
May 9th, 2008
Ooouuuccchh!!
That is my feet talking. It may not sound like a health issue, but is is for me: physical pain, calluses and mental wellbeing, if nothing else. I’m talking about finding comfortable dress shoes that don’t  a) put my feet in perpetual anguish and, b) make me look like an old lady. (I’m not admitting anything here.)
I have arthritis in the toes of one foot. Long gone are the days of pumps with three-inch heels and pointy toes. I can’t even tolerate low-heeled pumps. But I’ll be danged if I’ll capitulate and wear clodhoppers with my business attire.
If you’re a woman who’s struggling with that foot-health-versus-business-style issue — and especially if you’ve found a workable solution — I’d love to hear from you. Somewhere, somebody must have invented a healthy yet reasonably attractive shoe for women.
May 5th, 2008
Hi, I’m Deborah Austin! Welcome to our new blog, “Pulse.” It’s part of the Register Star’s new product, HealthyRockford.com, to be launched later this spring. HealthyRockford.com will be a one-stop shop for health news, information and advice in the Rock River Valley.Â
I’ve just started as blogger for ”Pulse” and reporter for HealthyRockford.com, but I’m not new here at the Rockford Register Star. I’ve moved here from my former position, BusinessRockford.com Editor.
I look forward to interacting with you here at “Pulse.”  Got any comments, questions or topics you’d like to see when it comes to healthy living or health information? Just reply on this blog and let me know! Or, I can be reached at daustin@rrstar.com.
