Phillips Health Care Newsletter

February is Healthy Heart Month. To help keep your heart in shape, here are some ways the CDC recommends to help keep a healthy heart and prevent heart disease.

By living a healthy lifestyle, you can help keep your blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar normal and lower your risk for heart disease and heart attack. A healthy lifestyle includes the following:

HEART healthy diet.

Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods.

Eating foods low in saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol and high in fiber can help prevent high cholesterol.

Limiting salt (sodium) in your diet also can lower your blood pressure. Limiting sugar in your diet can lower you blood sugar level to prevent or help control diabetes.

Eating two or more servings a week of certain fish, such as salmon and tuna, may decrease your risk of heart disease.

At moderate levels, ALCOHOL may have a protective effect on your heart.  For healthy adults, no more

drinks a day for men. (12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine & 1 1/2 ounces of liquor) Too much alcohol can be a health hazard.

BE SMOKE FREE

Smoking or using tobacco is one of the most significant risk factors for developing heart disease. Chemicals in tobacco can damage your heart and blood vessels, leading to narrowing of the arteries, causing plaque buildup (atherosclerosis). Atherosclerosis can ultimately lead to a heart attack.

Smoking  decreases oxygen in the blood, and makes the heart work harder, contributing to high blood pressure. The good news is, the risk of heart disease reduces as soon as you quit.  So, no matter how long you’ve smoked, quit!

 Regular, daily exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease. When you combine physical activity with other lifestyle measures, such as maintaining a healthy weight, the payoff is even greater.

Physical activity can help you control your weight and reduce your chances of developing other conditions that may put a strain on your heart, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

According to the Mayo Clinic :

“In general, you should do moderate exercise, such as walking at a brisk pace, for about 30    minutes on most days of the week. That can help you reach the Department of Health and Human Services recommendations of 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes a week of  vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity.

For even more health benefits, aim for 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity every week. In addition, aim to do strength training exercises two or more days a week..”

FISH OIL

Fish contain unsaturated fatty acids, may lower cholesterol. But the main beneficial nutrient appears to be omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of unsaturated fatty acid that may reduce inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation in the body can damage your blood vessels and lead to heart disease and strokes 

January;

The Beginning of  a New Year and the Time for Resolutions. Weight Loss is one of the mostcommon resolutions. Maintaining a healthy weight is key to overall wellness.

#1: Before you even begin to attack a weight-loss plan, it pays to remember this: You are not fat. You have fat. Losing weight isn't about blame or shame; it's simply another achievement to accomplish.

#2: It's Not a Diet. It's a Lifestyle

Thinking of a diet as something you're on and suffering through only for the short term doesn't work. To shed weight and keep it off, you need to make permanent changes to the way you eat. It's OK to indulge occasionally, of course, but if you cut calories temporarily and then revert to your old way of eating, you'll gain back the weight quicker than you can say yo-yo.

#3: Use it to lose it. Research shows that one of the best predictors of long-term weight loss is how many pounds you drop in the first month. It makes sense: Immediate results are motivating.

For that reason, nutritionists often suggest being stricter for the first two weeks of your new eating strategy to build momentum. Cut out added sugar and alcohol and avoid unrefined carbs.

 After that, ease small amounts of those foods back into your diet for a plan you can live with for the long term.

 #4: There's a Right Way to Exercise. Working out burns calories and fat and boosts your metabolism by building muscle. But those trying to lose weight are notorious for overestimating the number of calories they burn and underestimating the amount they take in. Unfortunately, your system is biologically programmed to hold on to extra pounds. That means when you start exercising, your body senses the deficit and ramps up its hunger signals, according to a review of weight-loss studies. If you're not diligent, you'll eat everything you burn and then some.     

Cardio gets all the exercise glory, but strength and interval training are the real heroes. They help you build lean muscle, which in turn increases your metabolism and calorie-burning ability. Current weight loss advice: Every week, strength-train two to three days. For the best losing weight because of hunger anxiety. To them, being hungry is bad—something to be avoided at all costs—so they carry snacks with them and eat when they don't need to.

Others eat because they're stressed out or bored. While you never want to get to the point of being ravenous (that's when bingeing is likely to happen), a hunger pang, a craving, or the fact that it's 3:00 p.m. should not send you racing for the vending machine or obsessing about the energy bar in your purse. Ideally, you should put off eating until your  stomach is growling.

When you feel the urge to eat, ask   yourself:   Am I angry or anxious, lonely or bored, or tired?

If If you're still not certain, try the apple test. If you're truly hungry, an apple should seem delicious; if it doesn't, something else is going on," says Robin Frutchey, a behavioral therapist at Johns Hopkins University Weight Management Center. In that case, give yourself a pep talk instead of a snack.

If hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution.

YOUR HANDS!

Keeping hands clean is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of infection and illness.

Handwashing is easy to do and it's one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of many types of infection and illness in all settings—from your home and workplace to child care facilities and hospitals. Clean hands can stop germs from spreading from one person to another and throughout an entire community.

When should you wash your hands?

· Before, during, and after preparing food

· Before eating food

· Before and after caring for someone who     is sick

· Before and after treating a cut or wound

· After using the toilet

· After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet

· After blowing your nose, coughing,  or  sneezing

· After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste

 the right way

to wash your hands

· Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.

· Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.

· Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the "Happy Birthday" song from beginning to end twice.

· Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.

· Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

Why wash your hands

People frequently touch their eyes, nose, and mouth without even realizing it. Germs can get into the body through the eyes, nose and mouth and make us sick.

Germs from unwashed hands can get into foods and drinks while people prepare or consume them. Germs can multiply in some types of foods or drinks, under certain conditions, and make people sick.

 Germs from unwashed hands can be transferred to other objects, like handrails, table tops, or toys, and then transferred to another person’s hands.

Removing germs through handwashing helps prevent diarrhea and respiratory infections.

Teaching people about Handwashing helps  everyone stay healthy.

According to the CDC, washing hands prevents illnesses and substantially reduces the spread of infections to others.

· Reduces the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by 31% .

· Reduces diarrhea illness in people with weakened immune systems by 58%.

· Reduces respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by 16-21% .

Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to reduce the number of germs on them . If soap and water are not available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol is a good substitute. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number germs on hands,  but sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs.