Health Information

It’s Saturday and I’m out shopping for clothes with my girlfriend. I’m near the women’s change room, waiting for her to come out and show me what she has picked out, when I over hear a few women talking about how their clothes don’t fit. The very next sentence, they ask each other, “Where should we go for lunch?” What’s the first place that comes up? No surprise to me, it was McDonald’s and Wendy’s. One of them follows with a comment about how these restaurants’ salads are “so healthy for you.”

There are so many people like this, trying to fight with their weight, diets, working out, etc. with the wrong information about what is healthy. The wealth of media out there and the billions of dollars of advertising going into falsely educating the population on what they should eat to lose weight and be healthy is horrifying. Much of what we hear about processed and/or commercial food being so good for you is misinformation. People are not aware of all the chemicals, food colouring, additives and preservatives that are in those foods. On top of that, when you cook and/or microwave these chemicals they become something completely different. No wonder our society is getting sicker and sicker. More people are developing allergies, colds, flues and have weaker immune systems. On top of our stressful lifestyles of trying to keep up with the Jones’s, this is the perfect formula for disease.

We need to take control of our health by first consuming the right nutrients to look after our health. I’m sure your asking at this point, “How do I do this?” First start by eating certified organic whole foods 80% of the time (5 days out of the week, for example Monday to Friday eat each meal as healthy as possible) and 20% (say, Saturday and Sunday) throw caution to the wind and eat some fun foods. (Hamburgers, Pop, Chips, etc.) This will help your body get the nutrients it needs 80% of the time which in this day is really good. Second, drink good quality water (Evian, Fuji just to name a few brands I recommend to my clients). You want to make sure you drink ? your body weight in ounces per day (150lbs person would drink approximately 3 litres of water). Third, exercise at least 20 minutes per day. This doesn’t mean go to the gym each day; 3 to 5 times a week is sufficient, depending on your fitness and experience levels. I highly recommend you consult with a personal trainer before starting any exercise program. Fourth, find out if you have any food sensitivities. This is important because if you’re sensitive to some of the foods that you’re consuming it could be causing inflammation in your stomach (among other things, but that is a another article in its own). Food sensitivities might be a reason why it’s so hard for you to achieve six pack abs.

Start with these 4 tips and you will see a difference on how you feel. Remember, if you take care of body it will take care of you.

For more information you can contact me:

Brandon Krieger H.L.C 2, C.M.T.A

HEALTH INFORMATION: ARE WE REALLY LISTENING?

By Frank Addleman

It’s funny how humans perceive health information and adsorb information. For example, you may see a public announcement on television recommending “we should eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day”. How do you perceive that message? Well, if you’re a healthy thinker you probably not only agree, you think it is important that everyone gets that message. The reality is that many people just change channels or do not absorb the message. As a health professional I can be channel surfing and if I hear any trigger words such as cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, healthy foods, etc. I stop and check it out, I’m a healthy thinker! I should be, it is my profession. If we were all healthy thinkers we would all probably do the same. Another example is the new food pyramid that the government spent millions of dollars to create. That should mean that everyone will now know not only what to eat to stay healthy and prevent disease but exactly how to do it. In reality here is what will happen. Healthy thinkers will scrutinize and evaluate the information based on their present diet. For most of the population, especially those who need it most, you will get varied answers. When the first food pyramid came out I ask my students if they had heard about the food pyramid. Some said they had heard about it but could not describe it. Several students had actually seen it but could not explain it. Others thought it was in Egypt, but were not sure. In reality few people will pay much attention to it. Get the picture? Until people learn to think healthy they just do not pay much attention to information about how to stay healthy and prevent disease.

How do you know if you’re a healthy thinker?Here are a few simple questions that I want you to answer:

1. Do you floss your teeth?2. Do you set aside time for movement {exercise}?3. If your doctor suggest prescription or over the counter drugs for a health problem, do you always ask, “What can I do to avoid taking medication”?4. When dining out do you always look for healthy choices?5. When shopping for food do you always read the nutritional information on products you are unfamiliar with?6. When traveling, do you bring healthy snacks for your family to avoid fast food outlets?

Obviously, if you said “yes” to all the questions you’re a healthy thinker. You not only listen to health messages, you seek out information on your own. The good news is that if you only answered one question “yes”, you’re on the track to thinking healthier. You have to look at health as a journey, not a destination. The fact that you answered one question like a healthy thinker means your open to other healthy suggestions. That’s a good sign.

Let’s evaluate a couple of the questions:

For example, if you only said you floss your teeth that indicates that someone got through to you on the health benefits of flossing. As simple as it seems, flossing can prevent bacteria build up in your gums that can get into your blood stream, trigger inflammation, and possibly trigger a heart attack in susceptible individuals. The question regarding prescription drugs says a lot about your thinking. If you just go along with the doctors suggestions you’re not accepting responsibility for your own health. That’s unhealthy thinking. Imagine your doctor’s surprise at your next appointment if you said, “I would rather lose some weight, exercise, and change my eating habits than take drugs”. That would make their day!

People who think unhealthy have some of these characteristics:

1. To them health means not being sick.2. They depend on over the counter medications for minor aches and pains.3. They depend on advertisements for health information.4. They are usually sedentary and give little thought to exercising and eating healthy.5. They are always looking for quick fixes for energy, weight loss, and feeling better.

One way to get people to think healthy is to focus on the outcomes of a healthy lifestyle rather than just telling people the changes they should make. For example, rather than tell people to eat more fruits and vegetables, it would probably be best to first emphasize that plant foods are nature’s medicines! They contain literally thousands of phyto-chemicals that work synergistically to protect you against disease. More people would start thinking about that and start adding more fruits and vegetables and other plant foods without considering how much or what ones. Exercise is another hot button with sedentary people. When we mention the word “Exercise” to a sedentary person the first image that comes to mind is work and sweat. That’s not a good image, so they are more likely to take a nap until the thought goes away. The better approach is to stress “movement”. That’s less stressful and they can start by avoiding elevators, parking farther away at the mall, walk more, drive less. If they do that they start thinking like a healthy person.When you start to make small changes in your lifestyle you will experience some positive feedback in how you feel. That will motivate you to keep going. Sedentary people may or may not ending up running marathons and eating the perfect diet but our society will be a lot healthier. The goal is to increase the quality of the years in your life. Thinking healthy is the first step.

Health record is in totality the persons health history. This proof is maintained each time you visit your physician, health care facility or any other health care provider. This information is typically referred to as the patient/client medical record and serves as a data for diagnoses, treatment and plan for future care. The other vital aspects for which your health information record is utilized are:

-.Planning your treatment and care.

- Communicating among health care professionals anxious in your case,

- It is basically a record which is legal.

- Verification of services actually provided and billed for payment by third party,

- Acts as a tool in educating health professionals

- The personally de-identified data is used for medical research as well as for promoting the health of the region or nation by public health officials,

- De-identified data is vital for marketing and planning for business.

Apart from the above, knowing your health information record helps you to ensure its accuracy, whether your data is being accessed unauthorizedly and make informed decisions while authorizing exposure.

It was reported in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine that almost 98,000 people died in any given year due to medical errors occurring in hospitals, and this prodded Patient Safety organizations to find industry wide solutions to avoidable medical errors. The consequence was Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), which emerged as a key component for such solutions. CPOE became an effective solution to problems occurring due to medical errors, by integrating the care process to reduce the chances of error. The two vital features of CPOE systems are they support physicians to order electronically instead of handwritten or oral instructions and provide detailed information of patients by merging clinical information from several sources like pharmacy, laboratory and radiology.

Another intent of CPOE was improving patient safety. In manual system, clerks generate errors while transcribing imaging orders from written charts, but with CPOE the physician enters the order honestly, eliminating clerical intervention and transcription errors. The radiologist computerizes all data’s and helps the Doctor for a perfect diagnosis.

It is observed that CPOE cuts turn around time for x-rays and other radiology procedures by 43 percent, cuts medication turn around time by 64 percent and eliminates turn around time for lab tests by 25 percent; apart from the evident benefit of eliminating drug errors associated with handwritten prescriptions. This hastens the treatment of the patient. Additionaly, CPOE combined all patient orders, radiology studies, medications, special diets, lab studies, tests and consultations in a single technique.