Health

By Jill Fleming MS, RD/LD
Veterans Memorial Hospital Dietitian

Sure, you can lose weight quickly. There are plenty of fad diets that work to shed pounds fast, leaving you feeling hungry and deprived.  The problem is that most people can only follow these restrictive diets for a short time, eventually going back to their old way of eating. I call this the “diet roller coaster”.

Instead of starting a restrictive diet, which lowers your metabolism, why not adopt a few new choices that can turn into lifelong habits?  The weight you lose with new habits is more likely to be permanent.

Here are 10 of my favorite proven habits to promote weight loss:

The Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation recently purchased a radio communication upgrade for the hospital. The purchase included 20 pagers and six handheld radios replacing outdated equipment, making a much more reliable paging system. Many of the Foundation members are pictured here with just a few of the radios and pagers recently purchased which have greatly helped improve the communication not only with the hospital and the ambulances, but also majorly improving communications with the Sheriff’s Department and other area ambulance services. Pictured in the front row, left to right, are Foundation members Nancy Schoh, Kevin Stinn, Nona Sawyer and Jane Dietrich. Back row, left to right, are Craig Lensing, Breanna Sommer, Amy Cote’, Diane Butikofer, RN, Emergency Services, Kevin Hanson, Dan Denk, Gail Prestemon and Bev Larson-Needham. The Foundation allocated these funds from the numerous memorials they welcome and receive on a regular basis. Submitted photo.
 

Veterans Memorial Hospital will again be offering a pain control presentation for the public March 13 and March 14. Dr. Dave Schwartz will be hosting these informative pain control presentations which will both detail the two new pain control options he offers at Veterans Memorial Hospital. Both presentations will include the same information, but are being offered on two different days at different times to try to suit more schedules.

The Wednesday, March 13 presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in the Large Conference Room located on the lower level of Veterans Memorial Hospital. The Thursday, March 14 presentation will begin at 10 a.m. and will also be held in the hospital’s Large Conference Room.

Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon is seeing an increasing number of patients with the influenza virus. The Veterans Memorial Hospital Community and Home Care public health department is sharing the following information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to alert the community about what to do if they do contract the flu virus and how to prevent spreading it.

FLU SYMPTOMS
Influenza (also known as flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by flu viruses. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. Flu is different from a cold. Flu usually comes on suddenly. People who are sick with flu often feel some or all of these symptoms:

When a person is diagnosed with a chronic illness, a lot of focus and attention is put on how to keep that person as independent and as healthy as possible. When a person loses some of their abilities to care for themselves the burden of care is often assumed by the spouse, a child (or children), or sometimes friends and neighbors. While everyone who becomes a caregiver handles the added responsibility with different skill sets, attitudes, and understanding levels, there is no question that there is a very real strain associated with care giving.

Recent studies have estimated that the stress caused just by becoming the caregiver of an adult with a chronic illness or disability will take seven years off of a persons’ life. With more and more Iowans aging, this is a real concern in our community.

The Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital will be holding its monthly Euchre Marathon for all individuals of the community interested  Thursday, March 21. Men and women are welcome to attend, even if not an Auxiliary member. The Euchre marathons are held the third Thursday of each month at the Senior Citizens Room at the Waukon Wellness Center. The Auxiliary’s Euchre Marathons begin at 11:30 a.m. with dinner, if chosen. Call Northland Agency on Aging at 877-838-8077 if choosing to eat dinner. Card playing will follow at 12:30 p.m. until approximately 2:30 p.m. Anyone wishing to stay and play cards following the Senior Citizens meal is more than welcome to do so. All proceeds go towards the Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital.  Prizes will be awarded. Anyone interested in attending, but preferring to play Bridge is also welcome to join in. It is asked that they come with their own table of four players, however.

Veterans Memorial Hospital in cooperation with the American Heart Association is offering a course in cardiopulmonary resuscitation for lay people (those not working in healthcare), which includes child care providers, Wednesday, March 20 from 5-8 p.m.

The CPR class, which will cover adult, child and infant CPR, will be held in the Large Conference Room located on the lower level of the hospital. The cost of the class, for certification or recertification, is the same. The card received with the course does certify attendants in CPR for two years.

CPR is administered when someone’s breathing, pulse, or both, stop. When both of them stop, the victim has suffered sudden death, which can be caused by poisoning, drowning, choking, suffocation, electrocution, smoke inhalation, or the most common cause, heart attack.

Memorials were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Marsha Bieber by Carol Moe and Dr. Arlen and Karlene Wonderlich, in memory of Gretta Baxter by Marian Smedsrud and in memory of Wesley Winters by Gayle Larkin, Darrel and Rosanne Wicks and Dave and Laurie Martin.

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group will hold its next meeting Thursday, March 21 at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held at Veterans Memorial Hospital in the Large Conference Room, located on the lower level of the hospital.

This diabetes class is open to everyone who has diabetes or has a friend or loved one with diabetes. For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call  Angie Mettille, RN at Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411.

By Jill Fleming, MS, RD/LD, Veterans Memorial Hospital Dietitian

Sugar is the new fat. The latest low-carbohydrate diet craze says sugar is the root of all dietary evil. There is good reason to be concerned, as sugar laden drinks and snacks are prime contributors to our obesity epidemic. Unfortunately, in an effort to get rid of sugar, most people are going too far by shunning fruit too.

It is a fact that fruit contains sugar, mostly fructose. And fructose, often in the chemically altered form of “high fructose corn syrup”, is the source of unwanted added sugar (and calories) in everything from soda pop to ketchup.

The logic is that if we need to avoid the sugar in a soda pop, shouldn’t we be just as concerned about sugar in an apple? The answer to that question is NO!

There are three important reasons to include some fruit in your daily diet, and they all decrease your risk of chronic diseases, plus you will feel better.