NIH’s First Yoga Week Highlights Health

Since we live so close to many federal agencies, we should take advantage of the special opportunities they provide. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is having an unprecedented first annual Yoga Week on May 19-23, 2008. This five-day series will highlight the research as well as the practice of Yoga with speakers and demonstrations in Rockville as well as on the NIH campus. Not only will this comprehensive schedule deepen your knowledge and practice of Yoga, but it will also teach the preventative health benefits of Yoga.

Yoga Week will be beneficial to those skilled at all levels of yoga, including novices. Learn how to take time during your day to reduce stress at your desk or alleviate lower back pain. Experience the practice of Yoga beyond walls. Find out about earth-friendly face and body care, good for you and our world.

Susan Bowen of Thrive Yoga in Rockville said, “Our studio is sponsoring this exciting new collaboration because we try to help people better their lives. We have created an ordinary community place that welcomes people to share and realize we are all in the same boat with stress and tension. Yoga Week will bring the same sense of community to participants from around the country as it teaches the causes of stress in our lives and the tools to help.”

NIH and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) supported research on how Yoga affects insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, asthma, and hypertension. Yoga Week will discuss the ongoing research in these areas along with the specific research involving cancer, which could be beneficial to many fighting the disease. Yoga builds the immune system and helps the lymph node system, in general, it can be preventative to disease.

We can make the time to relieve tension and relax for the good of our health by taking advantage of the free sessions offered during Yoga Week. Bring a mat for practice. Metro and public transportation are strongly encouraged, and if not, carpooling. Leave time for navigating through security!

Warm Weather for Walking

During the course of both my pregnancies, I walked every street in Twinbrook constantly. Every day that I could, I was out walking. Of course, this was followed by walking with strollers and walking to lose the baby weight. I’ve covered a lot of ground and found it to be a painless and convenient way to exercise.

To encourage healthier lifestyles, the City of Rockville has made it easy to keep track of how much you have walked through a program called Walk Rockville.

Fourteen walking routes are mapped on the City’s website and also in a handy brochure available at City Hall. All the routes are about one to two miles long and they start in a variety of neighborhoods and parks. Before starting any exercise program you should always consult your physician.

You can purchase a walking starter kit for $10 at one these City facilities: City Hall, the Swim Center, the Senior Center, or the Twinbrook/Lincoln Park Community Centers. The kit includes a pedometer, t-shirt, wristband, maps, monthly log sheet, and fitness information.

If you really want to be organized you can participate in the City-wide walking challenge by submitting a monthly log sheet recording the number of steps you have taken. You can get the forms and submit them online, or bring/mail them to City Hall. A City-wide tally will be announced at Hometown Holidays. Grab some friends and walk together because there will be awards for schools, businesses, neighborhoods and age groups with the most steps walked.

To plan your own walking route from your doorstep, I recommend walkjogrun.net. With a few clicks, you can map out a route close to your home and know exactly how far you go. I use it and find it easy to adjust my path and add distance when I’m ready. As in any exercise routine, you should start out simple and increase intensity and distance over time.

The City lists some common walking mistakes:
-Overstride
-Swinging arms too vigorously
-Looking at the ground
-Hunching your shoulders
-Carrying hand weights or using ankle weights.

So if you want to control your weight and lower your risk for diabetes, heart attacks, or colon cancer, avoid this list of mistakes and simply walk around Rockville. The inviting warm weather makes walking a pleasurable way to get healthier.

Shady Grove To Host Forum On MRSA

Shady Grove Adventist Hospital will host a free community forum on Monday, March 3, 7-9pm to educate people about what they can do to prevent and reduce the spread of staph infections including Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus (”MRSA”).

Staphylococcus aureus, or “Staph,” are bacteria commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of healthy people — between 25 and 30 percent of the population carries the staph bacteria, according to Shady Grove. The antibiotic-resistant MRSA is generally present in about 1 percent of the population who carry the staph bacteria.

This month, a student at Thomas Wootton High School in Rockville was diagnosed with MRSA. That student is better now, according to the Gazette:

“The student has been successfully treated for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, according to a Feb. 13 letter to parents written by Wootton Principal Michael Doran.”

Since October, there have been more than 50 MRSA cases reported among students in Montgomery County Public Schools.

The panelists will include Shady Grove Adventist physicians and infectious disease experts who will be available to answer questions.

The March 3 event will be held at the Universities at Shady Grove, Building 1 Auditorium, 9630 Gudelsky Dr., Rockville.

(Image: InjuryBoard.)

Don’t Get the Flu Too

As I mentioned last week, both my kids were home sick. Symptoms came and went and came back worse for over ten days. They were mostly tired, with high fevers, headache, not eating, and some coughing. The doctors are calling this the “fever virus”. At church on Sunday, a mom said their family had just gone through the same sickness and the kids had missed a whole week of school. Everyone in their family had the flu vaccine and this seemed like the flu, so it wasn’t working.

This morning New4’s Doreen Gentzler reports on MSNBC that the flu vaccine this year does not include this strain of virus. It is the flu and it’s definitely going around Rockville. No one is safe!

Everybody knows the advice:

• Keep washing those hands with soap and water.
• Limit contact with people who are sick.
• Stay home when you have symptoms.
• Keep yourself healthy by eating right, exercising, and getting plenty of rest.

Everything we are supposed to be doing anyway, right?

"Be Healthy - Be Happy"

I discovered that the City of Rockville wants us all to “Be Healthy – Be Happy!”

As I was listing Weekend to Weekend last Thursday, I wanted to find out more about the 2nd Annual Fall Fest Community Health Fair to be held this Saturday, November 3, 2007 at the Twinbrook Community Recreation Center from 11 AM – 2 PM. Since I could not find the information on the City’s website, I called the number listed on the City’s calendar. What I learned is that we have a Community Wellness program www.rockvillemd.gov/residents/wellness ) with a Coordinator named Hillary Boguski. The City has started to offer monthly programs to help us improve our lifestyles, such as classes on cooking and maintaining a healthy weight.

Ms. Boguski filled me in on the Health Fair. Flu shots will be offered for $24. (They’ll also be accepting Medicare Part B.) Learning about nutrition will include food samples and demonstrations. The kid’s corner will provide dentist and pediatrician information. There will be games for the kids, exercise demonstrations, and free hearing/vision screenings. Plus, one of my favorite reasons for attending an event – free massages!

Certain screenings need to be registered through Rock Enroll:

Lipid profile ($35 Resident/ $38 Non-resident, Registration no. 23116) will determine is you are at risk for coronary heart disease. The tests will tell you if you are likely to have a heart attack or stroke caused by blockage of the blood vessels.

Glucose screening ($10 Resident/ $12 Non-resident, Registration no. 23117) will measure the amount of glucose in the blood and will determine if you have diabetes. The American Diabetes Association states that one third of people with diabetes don’t know it - that’s 6.2 million Americans. This disease will destroy your body over time if not treated. I’ve watched it happen.

Don’t miss this excellent opportunity to get on the path to better health. Let’s face it, we all have some improvements we can make!

Adventist Rehabilitation of Maryland Under State Microscope

Over the weekend it came to light that a hospital in Rockville Central’s coverage area, Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland, is in danger of losing its Medicare funding.

[NOTE AND UPDATE: A previous edition of this story listed the hosital in question as Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. That is a different hospital, though both are a part of Adventist Health.]

From the AP piece, via WJZ/Baltimore:

State investigations of Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland this year found some patients were not receiving diets ordered by their doctors, lapses that could have exacerbated their health problems.

The state investigation was triggered by the death of a man, Julian Frazier, 29, last December due to malnourishment: “[S]tate investigators concluded his severe malnutrition went largely undocumented and untreated until it was too late, placing additional pressure on his already precarious health.”

Aisha Bivens (the hospital’s quality-management director) is said in the AP piece to characterize “Frazier’s death as an isolated case, and [to say that] the facility is working to improve problems identified by state investigators. . . . ‘We do realize we could have coordinated our care better. We didn’t meet the high standards that we expect of ourselves,’ Bivens said.”

Yes, such a death probably counts as “not meeting high standards.”

Shady Grove Adventist Profit Drops

According to the Business Gazette, which reviewed state disclosure records, after two straight years of solid profits, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital showed a net loss in 2006.

After averaging more than $10 million in operating profits in 2004 and 2005, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville recorded a net operating loss of $6.3 million in 2006, according to recently released state data. . . . The loss, which included both regulated and unregulated operations, was the second largest among the state’s 47 acute-care hospitals in 2006.

Most other Maryland hospitals showed profits for the year. The only one performing worse than Shady Grove was Laurel Regional Hospital, part of the Prince George’s County health network, which has been having severe troubles.

Shady Grove points out that the operating numbers include real estate and that in the first part of 2007 things are turning around and the hospital is once again beginning to show a profit.

(Photo from Shady Grove Adventist site.)