In
Honor of National Nurses Week 2012
During National
Nurses Week, we recognize the tremendous contributions that nurses make to
keeping America healthy. As passionate advocates, leaders and innovators for
better health, America’s nurses have demonstrated their commitment to meeting
the public’s health care needs.
The health
initiatives called for by the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act,
would not be possible without our nation’s nurses. By expanding investments in
primary and preventive care programs in which nurses play a vital role, the
Affordable Care Act strengthens the focus on keeping people healthy and
managing chronic conditions. Through the law and other efforts, the Department
of Health and Human Services is working to ensure that nurses get the support
and training they deserve and need to do their job.
Since the beginning
of the administration, the number of mostly uninsured or under-insured patients
getting care at community health centers has grown by 2.4 million people,
primarily due to funding by the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act. About
16,000 nurses now work at community health centers, an expansion of about 3,000
nursing positions. With continued support from the Affordable Care Act through
fiscal 2014, the number of nurses at health centers will continue to grow.
More nurses are
getting assistance in securing needed training or repaying educational loans,
partly through an expansion of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), under
the Health Resources and Services Administration, which ensures that primary
care providers practice in underserved areas in exchange for receiving
scholarship support or loan repayment. The Affordable Care Act allocated $1.5
billion over five years to expand the NHSC.
And recognizing that
better training and support for nurses will mean higher quality care for
seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services recently announced a four-year, $200 million Affordable Care Act demonstration
partnering certain hospitals with nursing schools and non-hospital
community-based care settings to provide advance practice registered nurses
with clinical training to help strengthen primary care across the country.
Please join me during
this National Nurses Week in thanking our nation’s nurses for the critical work
they do in bringing better care and better health to all Americans.
A Heart Disease Veteran at Just Age 12
Survivor stresses importance of asking questions and pushing for
answers
Even youngsters who seem to
be in perfect health can be at risk for heart disease. Just ask Heather Link.
When she was 12, Heather
was the picture of health as a competitive swimmer. But, several weeks after a
dental checkup, she was suddenly engaged in the fight of her life.
She had a condition known
as infective endocarditis, which develops when bacteria enter the bloodstream
and infect the lining of the heart, a blood vessel or the heart's valves. In
Heather's case, a small cut that had occurred during her dental checkup gave
the bacteria a way in.
At first, she had no idea
she was even sick. But, after some time, she started to feel as if she might
have the flu. She had a fever, felt achy and had chills. Her fever spiked to
104 degrees Fahrenheit at one point. Her mother repeatedly took her to the
doctor, but it seemed as if Heather just had a viral infection, such as the
flu.
But when her condition
worsened, Heather's mother took her to an emergency room in Buffalo, N.Y.
There, she recalled, a spinal tap revealed the bacteria that were infecting her
heart. The infection had seriously damaged her heart's aortic and mitral
valves, and she needed immediate open heart surgery to repair the damage.
Though just a kid then,
Link recalled not being scared before the surgery. "I was so weak and so
sick at that point, that I don't really remember much of what was going
on," she said.
Several weeks later, she
started to have symptoms of heart failure, such as severe shortness of breath,
and she had another surgery to fix the repairs that had come undone. But her
symptoms continued.
"I couldn't keep any
food in," she recalled. "I was losing weight. All I could do was lie
on the couch and watch TV," she said, noting the sharp contrast to how she
had been living before the surgeries.
Ultimately, she had a third
surgery, this time at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and felt better
for a while. She went home and started seventh grade, but by December she was
having chest pains.
Not taking any chances, her
parents took her back to Boston, and she went into cardiac arrest when she got
to Brigham and Women's Hospital. By now, her heart had been under so much
stress that her doctors decided to put her on a ventricular assist device. For
about a week, the device took over the work of her heart and lungs, allowing
them to rest. Then there was one last surgery, to remove it.
"The ventricular
assist device allowed my own heart to recover and saved me from needing a heart
transplant, which would have changed my life dramatically," Link said.
Instead, she was back in
the pool about nine months after the device was removed. And doctors told her
that she probably owed her life to swimming.
"They told me that
competitive swimming saved my life because I was in such good shape and had a
strong heart," Link said. "If I were just a normal kid, they said I
probably wouldn't have made it."
However, Link said, her
heart never completely recovered. It works at about 70 or 75 percent of what it
once did, she said, but she's had no more surgeries and is as active as she
wants to be. She's 26 now and teaches first grade.
She also works to raise
awareness of ventricular assist devices through Abiomed, the company that
manufactured her device. She wants people to know that there are viable options
to heart transplants.
And for others who might
find themselves in a similar situation, Link stressed the importance of being
aware of all options and not being afraid to ask questions.
"If my mom hadn't
pushed so hard for me to see the doctors in Boston, I wouldn't be here,"
she noted. "As much as I hate what happened to me at the time, people have
learned from it, and in our area, things have changed now that the doctors are
more aware that this can happen."
Vogue Pledges to Only Use Healthy-Looking Models
The fashion magazine Vogue
will no longer use models who appear to have an eating disorder or models under
the age of 16.
The pact, made by the
editors of the 19 international editions of the magazine, was announced
Thursday, CBS News reported.
"Vogue editors around
the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the
models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers," Conde
Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse said.
The change will take effect
in the June issues of all the international editions of Vogue, CBS News
reported.
-----
Federal Funding for Oregon
Preventive Health Program
The Obama administration
says it's willing to provide $1.9 billion over five years to help Oregon launch
a new health care plan to promote preventive care in order to reduce health care
costs.
State officials believe the
program could save $11 billion in state and federal health care spending over
the next decade by reducing duplicated treatments and preventable
hospitalizations, the Associated Press reported.
Using this approach to save
Medicaid billions of dollars can be achieved without sacrificing the quality of
health care, according to Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat and former emergency
room doctor.
He said the federal
government could save $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years if all 50 states
adopted similar programs, the AP reported.
-----
Helmet Use in Tornado Okay,
But Still Need Safe Shelter: CDC
Wearing a helmet during a
tornado is okay but you still need to find safe shelter, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention says.
Head trauma is a common
among people who die or suffer serious injuries in tornadoes. Some safety
advocates have started telling people to wear helmets when there is a tornado
warning, USA Today reported.
While there is no good
research on the effectiveness of helmets in tornadoes, "we do know that
head injuries are common causes of death during tornadoes, and we have long
made the recommendation that people try to protect their heads," the CDC
said in a statement Thursday.
However, the CDC said if
you decide to wear a helmet during a tornado warning you need to make sure that
looking for it won't delay you from getting to the basement or other types of
shelter, USA Today reported.
The CDC also emphasized
that helmets "should not be considered an alternative to seeking
appropriate shelter."
-----
Electronic Implants Restore
Men's Vision
Small wireless devices
restored useful vision in two British men who had previously been totally blind
due to the genetic eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.
The implants, which contain
1,500 tiny electronic light detectors and are fitted behind the retina, send
electronic signals to the optic nerve, CBS News reported.
Chris James, 54, and Robin
Millar, 60, were able to detect light and locate objects on a dark background
immediately after the devices were activated.
The devices are made by
German company Retina Implant AG and the clinical trials on the two men were
conducted at Oxford University Hospital NHS Trust in the U.K.
"What makes this
unique is that all functions of the retina are integrated into the chip,"
surgical team leader Professor Robert MacLaren said in a university news
release, CBS News reported.
-----
Bacterial Infection Killed
California Researcher
The death Saturday of a
25-year-old researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center was caused by a
meningococcal infection he may have acquired at the hospital.
The man, whose name has not
been released, developed headache, fever and chills on Friday about two hours
after he left the lab where he was helping to develop a vaccine for Neisseria
meningitidis, a bacterium that causes life-threatening blood infections and
meningitis, ABC News reported.
"It looks like he took
all the appropriate precautions," said Dr. Harry Lampiris, chief of
infectious diseases at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, who described the
ventilated workspace in the lab that sucks air up and any from the person
handling the bacteria. "But this is under investigation by Cal-OSHA
[California Occupational Health and Safety Association]."
Neisseria meningitidis is transmitted person-to-person through respiratory droplets. Ten
people who had close contact with the researcher, including his girlfriend and
roommates, have been given antibiotics, San Francisco Department of Public
Health spokeswoman Eileen Shields told ABC News.
Another 60 people at the
San Francisco VA Medical Center have received antibiotics, including the
researcher's coworkers and medical staff involved in his treatment.
-----
U.S. Health Officials Link
Outbreak of Rare Eye Infection to Florida Pharmacy
Thirty-three cases of a
rare eye infection spanning seven states were reported Thursday by U.S. health
officials, who say they have traced the products linked with the outbreak to a
Florida pharmacy.
Many of the eye infections
have been traced to a dye and an injection including the corticosteroid
triamcinolone from Franck's Compounding Lab, in Ocala. According to a report
from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was published
Thursday, 20 of the cases appear to be linked to the dye and 13 are connected
with triamcinolone. All the products involved were bought from Franck's, the
report stated.
Some type of eye procedure
that included surgery or injections was involved in all 33 cases; 23 of the
patients suffered vision loss and 24 had to have another surgical procedure,
the CDC report indicated. California health officials first alerted the CDC in
March after nine patients treated at one center in that state developed the
rare eye infection late last year. Meanwhile, Franck's recalled the dye lots
and a single lot of triamcinolone in March.
The ongoing investigation
has involved numerous state and local health departments, the CDC and the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration. When FDA officials tested unopened bottles of dye
and unused syringes at Franck's, numerous species of bacteria and funguses were
found, according to the CDC report.
Officials from Franck's
said in a statement that several changes have been made at the lab to assure
product safety, including hiring a pharmacist to oversee quality assurance, the
Associated Press reported.
While the investigation is
continuing, federal health officials advise doctors and patients to avoid
"compounded products labeled as sterile from Franck's," the CDC
report stated.
According to the AP,
health officials noted that Franck's had mixed supplements in 2009 that wound
up killing 21 elite polo horses. The owners of the ponies have since filed a
lawsuit against the company, which admitted to putting too much selenium in the
horse supplement mix, the wire service reported.
-----
Ex-NFL Star's Death Likely
to Spur Questions About Concussions
The apparent suicide of
retired NFL star linebacker Junior Seau is likely to raise questions about the
possible role of a brain disorder that results from repeated concussions,
according to Scientific American.
Seau, 43, was found dead
Wednesday in his California home after reportedly shooting himself in the
chest. It's unknown what may have prompted him to commit suicide, authorities
said.
Repeated concussions can
cause a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can produce
dementia and other types of cognitive dysfunction. The National Football League
has had to contend with a growing incidence of CTE, Scientific American
noted.
In 2011, former NFL safety
Dave Duerson committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest and left
instructions that his brain be used for research on CTE.
No reports have emerged so
far that Seau suffered from dementia-like symptoms. Tests will be needed to
determine if he had CTE, Scientific American reported.
Health Tip: Make TV Time Exercise Time
You don't have to give up
television watching just to lead a more active lifestyle.
The American Council on
Exercise suggests these ways to exercise while you're watching TV:
·
Don't use your remote.
Instead, get up off the couch to change the channel.
·
During commercial breaks,
walk up and down the stairs, or walk around the room.
·
Work out using a resistance
band.
·
Invest in a treadmill, so
you can work out while you watch.
·
Iron your clothes while
watching.
·
Instead of lounging on the
couch, sit on a stability ball.
Health Tip: Managing a Hammertoe
A hammertoe occurs when the
toe muscle bends the toe at the first joint, making the side view of the toe
resemble an upside down "v".
The American Podiatric
Medical Association suggests how to relieve the pain and discomfort of a
hammertoe:
·
Apply a non-medicated
hammertoe pad on the bony area.
·
Wear loose-fitting shoes
with plenty of room in the toes.
·
Place an ice pack several
times a day on the toe.
·
Don't wear heels that are
taller than 2 inches.
·
Visit a podiatrist if your
hammertoe still causes pain.
High Blood Pressure Risk Factors That
May Surprise You
Keep blood pressure in the normal range to prevent strokes,
experts say.
Managing your blood
pressure is the most important thing you can do to help lower your risk of
stroke, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, experts say.
Yet many people don't
realize they're at risk of having high blood pressure, according to the
American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
As part of American Stroke
Month in May, heart and stroke experts outline the top risk factors for high
blood pressure.
Family history. If your parents or a close relative had high blood pressure,
you're also at risk for the condition. It's a good idea to research your
family's medical history in order to find out if high blood pressure runs in
the family.
Advanced age. As people age, they're at increased risk for high blood pressure
and cardiovascular disease. This is because blood vessels lose flexibility with
aging, which leads to increasing pressure on the cardiovascular system.
Gender. Men are more likely than women to have high blood pressure until
age 45. Between ages 45 to 50 and 55 to 64, the risk for high blood pressure is
about the same for men and women. After age 64, women are much more likely than
men to have high blood pressure.
Being inactive. Sitting at your desk or on your couch too much increases your
risk of having high blood pressure. Getting regular exercise is a natural way
to lower it.
Too much salt. Salt keeps excess fluid in the body that can add to the burden
on the heart, increasing high blood pressure risk. Keep your sodium intake to
less than 1,500 milligrams per day.
Being overweight or obese. Watch your weight. If you are overweight, losing as little as 10
to 20 pounds can help lower blood pressure.
Drinking too much. Heavy and regular alcohol consumption can lead to a dramatic
increase in blood pressure and also cause heart failure, stroke, and irregular
heartbeats. If you drink alcohol, limit your consumption to no more than two
drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.
More information
(SOURCE: American Heart
Association/American Stroke Association, news release, May 1, 2012)
Joggers Live Longer, Study Says
Slow pace best for longevity, researchers report.
Jogging regularly could add
about six years to your life, a new Danish study suggests.
"The results of our
research allow us to definitively answer the question of whether jogging is
good for your health," Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist of the long-term
Copenhagen City Heart Study, said in a news release from the European Society
of Cardiology. "We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases
longevity. The good news is that you don't actually need to do that much to
reap the benefits."
In conducting the study,
the researchers compared the mortality of joggers and non-joggers who took part
in the population study of 20,000 people aged 20 to 93 that began in 1976. In
making their comparison, they asked 1,116 male joggers and 762 women joggers
about their jogging routine, including how fast and how long they jogged
weekly.
"With participants
having such a wide age span we felt that a subjective scale of intensity was
the most appropriate approach," explained Schnohr, who is based at
Bispebjerg University Hospital, in Copenhagen.
In the follow-up period of
up to 35 years, the study found that 10,158 non-joggers and 122 joggers died.
The researchers noted this was a 44 percent drop in the risk of death for male
and female joggers.
The researchers found that
male joggers can extend their life by 6.2 years, and women by 5.6 years.
Jogging at a slow pace for
one to two and a half hours weekly provided the most significant benefits.
"You should aim to
feel a little breathless, but not very breathless," said Schnohr.
"The relationship appears much like alcohol intakes. Mortality is lower in
people reporting moderate jogging, than in non-joggers or those undertaking
extreme levels of exercise."
The study's authors noted
there are several health benefits of jogging that contribute to increased life
expectancy, including improvements in:
·
Oxygen uptake
·
Insulin sensitivity
·
Lipid profiles (raising
"good" HDL cholesterol and lowering triglycerides)
·
Heart function
·
Bone density
·
Immune function
·
Psychological function
The improved psychological
well-being may be due to the fact that people have more social interactions
when they're out jogging, explained Schnohr.
The researchers added that
jogging also helps lower blood pressure, reduce platelet aggregation and
prevent obesity.
The study was slated for
presentation Thursday at a meeting of the European Association for
Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, called EuroPRevent2012, in
Dublin.
Data and conclusions
presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a
peer-reviewed medical journal.
More information
The U.S. National
Institutes of Health provides more information on the health benefits of exercise
.
(SOURCE: European Society
of Cardiology, news release, May 3, 2012)
Older Lung Cancer Patients Less Likely
to Be Treated
Researchers say doctors shouldn't be so quick to write off older
people.A study of seniors with non-small cell lung cancer found that older patients are less likely to receive treatment than younger patients, regardless of their overall health and prognosis.
Non-small cell lung cancer
is the most common type of lung cancer.
For this study, U.S.
researchers looked at data from more than 20,000 lung cancer patients aged 65
and older in the VA Central Cancer Registry between 2003 and 2008 and found
that, for all stages of lung cancer, younger, sicker patients were more likely
to receive treatment than otherwise healthy older patients.
That may not be best for
patients, the researchers said. Previous research has shown that older lung
cancer patients who are otherwise healthy can benefit from treatment, while
those with other illnesses are more vulnerable to the toxicity of cancer
treatments.
"It's clear that, as
human beings and physicians, we fixate on age in deciding whether to pursue
cancer treatments, including lung cancer treatments. Instead, we should be
looking at our patients' overall state of health," lead author Dr. Sunny
Wang, a physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and an assistant
clinical professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco,
said in a university news release.
The study was published May
1 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Patients aged 65 to 74 who
were severely ill from other illnesses -- and thus less likely to benefit from
and more likely to be harmed by cancer treatment -- received treatment at about
the same rate as patients in the same age range with no other illnesses.
These patients were more
likely to receive treatment than patients aged 75 to 84 who had no other
illnesses and better prognoses.
"The message here is,
don't base cancer treatment strictly on age," Wang said. "Don't write
off an otherwise healthy 75-year-old, and don't automatically decide to treat a
really ill 65-year-old without carefully assessing the risks and benefits for
that patient."
More information
(SOURCE: University of
California, San Francisco, news release, May 1, 2012)
Positive Thinking, Persistence Pay Off
in Job Search: Study
Staying focused on finding employment is most important factor,
researchers say.
A study that followed
recently unemployed people for five months -- or until they landed a new job --
found that staying positive and being persistent helped people find work
sooner.
"It's very, very
tough," said study co-author Ruth Kanfer, a professor of psychology at the
Georgia Institute of Technology. "It's not like learning a skill, where
maintaining a positive attitude can be easier as you see improvement with your
effort. You submit resumes, but get almost no feedback on how you're doing or
what you could do to improve your chances of finding a job."
Not surprisingly, those
with a positive, go-getter outlook did better than those who were more fearful
and anxious. But personality traits were secondary to self-management in terms
of success. From week to week, those who did the most to develop routines, seek
support and keep self-defeating thoughts in check were those who put in the
most hours on their search.
The findings are published
in the April issue of the Academy of Management Journal.
The study took place
between January and July 2008. During that time, 128 of the 177 people (72
percent) found new jobs.
In early 2008, the U.S.
unemployment rate ranged from 4.9 percent to 5.6 percent, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. In March 2012, the unemployment rate was 8.2
percent.
Eva Parsons is an executive
coach. "Over the years, especially in the last few years, I have talked to
quite a few executives who have been laid-off or downsized in an
organization," she said.
Parsons recalled one
client: "He was a pretty senior executive in a global company and he was
laid off. And he went right to work and he said, 'I'm approaching this as if
this is my job now.' He was at his desk every day and he had a list of things
he wanted to accomplish. Mostly networking initially, but also revisiting his
resume or his CV and making sure that everything was current."
Study participants had not
been fired or quit, but were laid off, downsized or otherwise let go. All
received Minnesota unemployment benefits, were between the ages of 25 and 50,
and had at least a bachelor's degree. Most were white. Sixty percent had
recently lost professional, technical or managerial jobs; the rest were in
clerical, sales or other fields.
On average, they put in 17
hours searching for a job each week, but that dipped to 14 hours toward the
study's end. Mental health gradually rose, and then declined slightly with a
final uptick.
Weekly online assessments
of participants uncovered either an "approach" attitude -- striving
for personal growth, developing skills and energetically pursuing goals -- or
one of avoidance.
"Avoiders" had a
more defensive posture and were most concerned with avoiding failure and
emotional disruption. They were also more sensitive to criticism.
Kanfer said self-defeating
thinking includes: "'I can't do this'; 'I'm not likely to find a job'; 'I
keep getting nos'; 'No leads,' allowing those thoughts to dominate you."
Parsons said job seekers
"have to do the usual things that people do to stay healthy and to keep
their spirits up: eat properly, get enough sleep, exercise, all the things you
normally do to manage stress."
She added: "When they
feel like they've been hit in the gut and they've gotten this sort of bad news
-- a lot of people's initial reaction is to want to curl up and go hide in the
corner. People need to do the opposite: Reach out to friends. Keep making that
part of the discipline."
If a job search drags on,
Parsons recommended finding or starting a support group, "so that you can
have other people to share your strategy with and touch base with on a weekly
or biweekly basis, and compare notes and keep each other motivated. If it's too
solitary a process, it can be really hard for people."
More information
(SOURCES: Ruth Kanfer,
Ph.D., professor, psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; Eva J.
Parsons, executive coach, Eva Parsons Executive Development; April 2012, Academy
of Management Journal)
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