Health

Kale: Its Green is the New Black

Alisa Bowman — 2012-05-25T12:09:47-04:00

It used to be that any recipe that called for kale was a recipe I didn’t try to make. I assumed kale was a chewy, yucky, gross green that I was never, ever going to like.

It’s loaded with vitamins A and C and a good amount of iron and calcium, too, not to mention various healing antioxidants. I didn’t care. I didn’t like it.

Or so I thought.

The past year has elevated kale from an unglamorous leafy green to famed status. It’s now found in nearly everything, including several foods and beverages you might actually like. There’s even a blog completely devoted to kale called 365 Days of Kale.

For instance, there’s this concoction known as the kale chip. Think potato chip, but with kale instead of potato.

And think baked instead of fried.

And think good for you instead of bad for you.

And even more addictive.

If you can manage to think all of that, then you understand the kale chip. They are sold commercially at many health food stores for a steep price, but you can also make them at home by dabbing kale with olive oil and sea salt and baking it at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

Then there’s also the Kale Smoothie, often referred to as the “green smoothie.” Try this one from Whole Foods.

Finally, I hear that the good folks in LA are drinking Kale-Tinis. But I think that might be where I draw the line.

Kale comes into season this June. Look for it at a Farmer’s Market near you.

Remembering to keep vets alive this Memorial Day

Tim Darragh — 2012-05-25T11:19:13-04:00

Memorial Day is a time to honor the memory of our fallen soldiers, but it also is a time to acknowledge the sacrifices of those who've served and bear the psychic scars for it. The U.S. Defense Department is providing a free and easy way to start the healing process.

It's not uncommon for anyone to experience feelings of sadness, anxiety, anger or insomnia. But when they become persistent, that may be a sign of a treatable mental health condition. That's when vets can take a free, anonymous, online mental health screening by going to www.militarymentalhealth.org.

Defense teamed up with a nonprofit organization, Screening for Mental Health, to launch Military Pathways, which has come up with the self-assessment tool.

Self-assessments, according to a Military Pathways news release, are a proactive step by which families and service members identify their own symptoms and access assistance, before a problem becomes a crisis. The self-assessments available address posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and alcohol use. After completing an assessment, individuals receive information about where to turn for help, including services provided through Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Unlike other post-deployment health surveys, this program is voluntary, anonymous, and accessible any time, the news release says. It will serve troops who may develop symptoms later, or who want to test themselves anonymously before seeking help. It is also for family members, who are often indirectly affected by the trauma of war.

Questions in the self-assessment, it says, include: Do you have trouble sleeping or eating? Have you ever tried to cut down on your drinking but found you couldn’t? Are you keyed up and anxious all the time? Are you having nightmares about something that happened in the past? Do you suffer from unexplained aches and pains?

Here's hoping that those who need help will find this a useful tool in taking the first step to better mental health.

Highmark Walk raises funds for nearly two dozen Lehigh Valley agencies

Irene Kraft — 2012-05-25T09:00:00-04:00

When Terry and Judy Iasiello’s daughter, Nikki, was born in Nashville, Tenn., in 1962, she was given a one-in-a-million chance of survival. She had life-threatening birth defects, including Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a congenital brain malformation involving the area in the back of the brain that controls movement.

Within 24 hours, she had emergency surgery and continued to have major surgical procedures throughout her first year of life.

Because services for people with developmental disabilities were not that readily available in the early 1960s, the Iasiellos initially traveled to Georgia to get help for Nikki. But when the little girl was 8-years-old and they learned about the variety of services for people with special needs available in Pennsylvania, they packed up and moved back to Terry’s hometown, Bethlehem.

Inspired by her daughter’s needs, Judy went back to school to earn a Bachelor’s degree in special education and Master’s in education and secured a job with a local intermediate unit for 27 years. During those years, she and her husband became advocates for people with special needs.

After keeping Nikki at home for 39 years, the Iasiellos realized they were getting older and might soon not be able to care for her. After researching residential programs, they found LifePath’s Rosewood facility not far from their home. They became and remain very involved with Nikki’s program at LifePath and continue to be advocates for individuals with disabilities.

Nikki comes home for holidays and enjoys attending as many Phillies and Iron Pigs games with her family as she can. She is proof that with the help of doctors and community services, even a one-in-a-million baby can beat the odds. And she continues to thrive because of family involvement and organizations like LifePath.

Each June, the Iasiellos raise at least $2,000 for LifePath by participating in the annual Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community. LifePath is one of 23 agencies receiving funds through the walk. Walkers can raise funds for the agency of their choice and 100 percent of what they raise goes to that agency.

The 8^thannual Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community has a new home this year – the SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem. The June 2 event includes a 5K walk, which begins at 9 a.m., and a one-mile fun walk, which starts at 9:15 a.m. Registration begins at 7:45 a.m. You’ll receive a walk T-shirt if you raise or make a donation of $25 or more.

For a list of agencies you can support in the Highmark Walk, go to http://bit.ly/JqGJSj. Info: 866-620-WALK(9255).

Lehigh Valley Arthritis Walk helps kids like Taylor keep moving

Irene Kraft — 2012-05-24T09:00:00-04:00

Twelve-year-old Taylor de Castro has always been an active child, who loves playing sports and prefers running around outdoors and getting sweaty to being couped up in the house.

The sixth grader at Southern Lehigh Intermediate School especially loves playing soccer. But about four years ago, she began experiencing some unexplained stiffening in her knee after her games. It had the then 8-year-old and her family puzzled.

“I thought it was growing pains,” says her mom, Mary de Castro of Upper Saucon Township. Energetic Taylor continuted playing despite the discomfort.

During the next two years, however, her “growing pains” seemed to intensify – enough to keep her from sleeping well at night.

At bedtime, when Taylor complained that her legs hurt, Mary gave her motrin to ease the pain. But she began suspecting it was more than growing pains when Taylor woke up in the morning still complaining. When the stiffening was accompanied by swelling -- her knee blew up to nearly twice its size – it was time to see a doctor.

Suspecting Lyme disease, her doctor gave her a long course of antibiotics, which initially seemed to help. But her relief was short-lived. Knee swelling returned and soon she was so stiff that she needed to use crutches to get to school. At night, she surrounded herself with pillows in her bed in an attempt to keep her legs from moving. When she did move, she’d scream out in pain. Her mother slept with her to keep a heating pad on her legs and keep them as still as possible.

Taylor went through more testing, but the results of both x-rays and an MRI were normal. So Mary took her to a pediatric orthopedic specialist. He drained the fluid from her swollen knee and tested it, once again for Lyme disease, but the results were negative. He ruled it out along with a sports injury.

Finally, Mary took Taylor to a pediatric rheumatologist, who was able to make the diagnosis – oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a form of juvenile arthritis that most commonly affects knees, ankles, fingers, toes, wrists, elbows and hips. Symptoms are usually limited to swelling and pain, but it also can lead to uneven bone growth.

Since her diagnosis in 2010, Taylor’s arthritis has remained stable. Taylor was lucky to have a form that’s considered relatively mild because it affects fewer than four joints. It primarily affected her knees and thumb and his been managed with steroid injections and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. She received physical therapy to help resolve some residual stiffness in her legs. And, she starting seeing an opthamologist regularly because children with oligoarticular JIA are also prone to eye inflammations that can lead to blindness

The one thing Taylor has learned is that, despite the pain and stiffness, it’s important to keep moving. She’s once again is active in sports. She still loves playing soccer, but feels some discomfort in her knees afterward, so Mary is encouraging her to swim and play sports that have less impact on her joints, like golf, lacrosse and field hockey.

“In the big scheme, there are a lot worse things,” says Mary, who worries most about Taylor’s future. While it’s a good sign that arthritis hasn’t showed up in another joint in two years, there’s no telling how long she’ll be that lucky.

After Taylor’s diagnosis, the de Castros learned about the Lehigh Valley Arthritis Walk, an annual event that helps the Arthritis Foundation raise funds for research, education and programs in the community. It also strives to raise awareness and celebrate movement. The Arthritis Foundation’s rally cry is “Let’s move together.”

Taylor is an honoree at this year’s walk, which begins at 1 p.m. June 3 at Sand Island in Bethlehem. (Registration starts at 11 a.m.) And, she is leading her own fundraising team – Team Taylor. She hopes to raise $5,000 and needs your help.

There’s no registration fee. But donations are needed to fund research and programs that will keep children like Taylor moving. If you can’t join the walk, you can make a donation at www.lvwalk.kintera.org/taylor.

When mishaps on the road become life-saving

Milton Carrero — 2012-05-23T17:44:29-04:00

Perhaps the plethora of billboards from area health providers, boasting their achievements along Lehigh Valley's main traffic arteries, serves as a subconscious hint for visiting truck drivers. But it is not the first time that a passing truck driver ends up at the emergency room of Lehigh Valley Hospital--Cedar Crest and learns about a life-changing diagnosis.

In June 2011, a Tennessee truck driver by the name of David Sweeton suffered a septic shock while driving on Interstate 78 near Cedar Crest Boulevard. He felt dizzy, pulled over and passed out. When he woke up, after spending two weeks in a comma, he learned that if physicians hadn't treated him with medications that channeled his blood flow to his brain and his heart, he would have died.

He also learned that the lack of blood in his legs and right arm had caused the tissues in his muscles and skin to die. Sweeton needed to have a part of each of his legs amputated, as well as a portion of each finger on his right hand.

In addition, Sweeton learned that he had colon cancer.

If the situation would have happened in a remote area without easy access to a hospital, Sweeton would not have lived to tell his tale. He not only survived, but he made ties with other area amputees before leaving the Lehigh Valley.

This month, a truck driver from Kentucky ended up in the ER of Lehigh Valley Hospital--Cedar Crest after experiencing problems on the road. Like Sweeton, the man was living with cancer and didn't know it. It took an emergency to alert him about his blood cancer.

I learned about the case while shadowing one of the hospital's oncology surgeons, Dr. Rick Boulay. An oncology nurse was reminiscing about how serendipity has played a role in the diagnosis of these visitors over the years. A few months before Sweeton, there had been another truck driver, this time from Georgia, who also ended up in the hospital after having an accident on the road. A close analysis revealed the man had testicular cancer. The man also found treatment before leaving the valley.

Apparently, sometimes road mishaps on the road can be blessings in disguise.

Valley coalition expands health plan choices

Tim Darragh — 2012-05-23T10:42:16-04:00

Large and medium-sized companies belonging to the Lehigh Valley Business Coalition on Health Care have more options to choose in providing health care to their workers in 2013.

The coaltion announced this week that Aetna and Capital Blue Cross will be offered as "preferred" partners, and Cigna and United Healthcare will be partners. Coalition President Thomas J. Croyle said the four options are up from two choices this year.

“Plans endorsed by the board typically scored better in the National Business Coalition on Health’s “eValu8” process and are clearly aligned with the coalition’s goals for improving quality, patient safety, transparency and efficient care delivery," he said in a statement. "In addition, the endorsed plans offered the exclusive pricing and service options for coalition members in a broad market area yielding significant savings for employers."

To achieve preferred partner status, Aetna and Capital Blue Cross demonstrated better plan performance, pricing or enhanced service capabilities, he said.

The other good news is that Croyle expects that members will save $2 million-$3 million in administration fees. Additional savings can be realized, he said, if employers can help workers with chronic conditions manage them and keep out of the hospital, where the real savings lie.

The bad news? Croyle says overall health care costs are projected to increase 5.6 percent this year. That's down from 7.6 percent last year, but still well above the general cost of living.

The new pricing kicks in Jan. 1.

The coalition negotiates rates that it says are better than an individual employer could obtain on their own. In addition, the coalition says the new partner agreement links to the broker community, which can expand the coalition's reach to potential members.

Medium- and large-size employers include companies that have 200 to several thousand employees.

3 Ways to Slim Down for Summer

Alisa Bowman — 2012-05-16T11:52:22-04:00

The dreaded bathing suit season is upon us. I don't know about you, but bathing suits make me think of one thing: my muffin top, and not the edible kind. If you have a muffin top of your own that you wish to lose, use these tricks.

Sleep when it’s dark. Get outside when it’s light. University of Munich researchers have found that people who suffer from severe social jetlag—staying awake late into the night and waking to an alarm instead of to sunlight—end up eating more and gaining weight. Now that most of the good TV shows have gone to reruns for the summer, use this opportunity to hit the sack closer to sundown. Also the authors suggest getting outdoors or at least sitting by a window during the day. The sunlight will help to set your body clock, causing you to become sleepy in the evening.
Drink water with meals, not soda. Researchers at the University of Oregon and Michigan State University found that sweet beverages cause us to crave salty, fatty foods, whereas people (and children) are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables when they consume water instead.
Turn it into a competition. Researchers have known for a long time that obesity is contagious. Now they know that the converse is also true. When dieters competed on teams online to see which team could drop the most pounds, they lost more weight than when they went it alone.

Alisa Bowman is a health journalist and author of Project: Happily Ever After, the story of how she saved her marriage.

Asthma a big issue in PA, U.S.

Tim Darragh — 2012-05-16T10:45:19-04:00

Breathe in, breathe out. It's so basic, you do it in your sleep.

But for more than a million Pennsylvanians, breathing is not always such a simple matter.

That's one of the findings in a new report, Asthma's Impact On The Nation, released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report shockingly says the proportion of persons with asthma in the United States increased by nearly 15 percent between 2001-2010.

Looking at state-by-state results, Pennsylvania pretty much was an image of the United States as a whole. Adult prevalence was 13.3 percent for the country and the state, while the rate for children here (9.3 percent) surpassed the national rate of 8.5 percent, the state profile shows.

CDC says the report is the first state-by-state data gathered using the Asthma Call-back Survey, an in-depth survey conducted among people with asthma identified by the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

“The information in this release is a stark reminder that asthma continues to be major public health concern with a large financial impact on families, the nation, and our health care system,” said Christopher J. Portier, director of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. “A key component for adults and children is to create and follow an asthma action plan. Significantly, this analysis reveals that more than half of all children and more than two-thirds of all adults with asthma do not have an individualized action plan. CDC encourages those with asthma to work with their doctors to take control of this disease.”

In total, an estimated 29.1 million adults have been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetimes, and 18.7 million still had asthma. Among kids, an estimated 10.1 million had been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetimes, and 7.0 million still had it, according to 2010 figures. In Pennsylvania, the estimates are just under 900,000 adults and about 268,000 children.

About that Time magazine cover story

Tim Darragh — 2012-05-11T10:18:08-04:00

So, Lehigh Valley Health readers -- Attachment parenting: Yay or nay?

Our colleagues at The Chicago Tribune jumped on this question right away.

Nancy Mohrbacher, an officer with the Chicago Area Breastfeeding Coalition, said the cover has sparked the wrong questions.

"The question is not are you mom enough, but is our culture family friendly enough," Mohrbacher said. "The question is not how should we parent, but how do we support and value parenting in our society."

"One of the reasons there can be a conflict with attachment parenting in our culture is we don't have family-friendly environments. It's not part of our culture. We're expected to have a strict dichotomy between family and the rest of our lives."

But is the Time cover attempting to promote those conversations, or just trying to stand out at a tough time for magazines? Or both?

"The point of a cover is to get your attention," Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel said on MSNBC, "and this gets your attention."

He's right about that.

How fast is your ER?

Tim Darragh — 2012-05-11T10:12:25-04:00

There's a serious reason why most people visit a hospital emergency department. Easton Hospital is pledging to take the stress out of one part of that visit.

Starting Monday, Easton says it will all but promise to see every emergency department patient within 30 minutes.

“Our pledge is that a clinical professional will work diligently to initially see each patient within 30 minutes or less of their arrival to begin the evaluation and treatment," said Easton Hospital CEO Brian Finestein in a news release. "When the patient is seen by a clinical professional, defined as a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner, the time is logged on the patient’s chart -- so we can track our performance in keeping our pledge of low ER wait times."

“While the goal of Easton Hospital’s ER pledge is to work diligently to initially see every patient within 30 minutes, the most critical health emergencies will always receive top priority,” added Dr. David Ligor, ER Medical Director. “While we are committed to prompt and appropriate care for our ER patients, the 30-Minute ER pledge should not be misinterpreted as an effort to rush patients though the ER,” he said.

For the first quarter of 2012, the release says, the average wait time at the ER was 24 minutes.

The public will be able to view Easton Hospital’s average ER wait time, based on a two-hour rolling average, updated every 15 minutes, online at www.Easton-Hospital.com.