Caring For Your Life

While flu season has not “officially”  arrived yet, here are some tips to help you fight the flu. The flu is a serious contagious disease. It is caused by the influenza virus. It can be spread by coughing, sneezing and nasal secretions.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggests:  “Take 3″ actions to fight the flu.

(1) Get a flu vaccine. This is the most important defense against the flu. Vaccination is especially important for those at high risk. The CDC states this includes young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions and people 65 years  or older. Ask your doctor if you should receive a flu vaccine.

(2) Take everyday preventive actions.

Wash your hands! This is the best way to stop the spread. Use soap and water and if they’re not available use alcohol-based hand rub.

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.

Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.

If you get sick, stay home!

(3) The CDC recommends taking flu antiviral drugs if your doctor  prescribes them. If you get the flu, antiviral drugs can treat this. They are prescriptions so you must see your doctor. They also work best if started within 48 hours of symptoms. If you think you have contracted the flu, call your doctor.

Here are some tips I give my patients in the Bridgeport Hospital Outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. They have all been advised to set up appointments with their doctors to get their flu shots. They fall into the chronic health condition category so are already compromised. They cannot risk a bout with the flu. Call now because it may take time to get an appointment. I also advise them to carry alcohol-based hand wash in their purse, pockets or in cars. When using tissues, throw them away after one use. Do no put them in your pocket. They carry germs. Clean shared spaces more often, phones, computer keyboards, work surfaces. If out shopping or in other public places, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Use the hand wash in the supermarket. Also avoid being around your  grandchildren if they are sick. Get enough rest, eat right, drink water and continue to exercise. Be smart! This will help you stay well during the flu season.

Follow the link for more information on seasonal influenza flu and also HINI, swine flu.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm

It never fails, whenever I get overwhelmed and or stressed out with too much on my plate, the first thing to go is the “workout.”  Following  closely behind is a reduction in the  hours and quality of  my sleep and then the  poor food choices kick in.  The cycle continues until I actively start reversing it.  I start with fitting in the workout.

My big stress0r was MY wedding, which occured on September 12th.  There was a ton of planning and preparation for the big day and I kept going to the gym and kept myself very active right up to the day before.  I think (know) that part of that motivation was that I had had dreadful dreams that on my wedding day I could not fit into my dress and had to try to find something out of my closet to wear…and nothing worked.  It was a very upsetting dream but  I think  it helped to keep my motivation for working out and keeping a close watch on my diet.  Once  the wedding was over and all the guests went home, I started back on the last year of my part-time nursing school program and returned to work full time at Bridgeport Hospital Cardiac Rehabilitation & Wellness Programs.  It is a schedule that can overwhelm me at times but I know from experience that if I sacrifice the workouts…poor sleep and bad food are not far behind.  Once I start working out, my sleep quality improves, my energy level is better and my diet naturally improves.  Tomorrow, I am back on track!

FROM FRIED OREOS TO FUNNEL CAKES, who doesn’t look forward to the yearly state fairs? Every year we can hardly wait to eat our traditional favorite fair foods, like cotton candy, fried Oreos, corn dogs, fried dough pizza, funnel cakes, etc., etc., etc. Although these foods are good, they are loaded with tons of calories and can wreak havoc with our diets. You may be surprised how many calories you can pack on during a one day visit to the fair. Most fair foods contain somewhere between 500–1,000+ calories. Listed below are some of the favorite fair foods, the number of calories they contain, and the amount of walking you will need to do to burn those calories off.

Favorite Food                       Calories                        How Long Do You Have to Walk
Fried Bloomin Onion            1320                                 Walk for 4 hours 25 minutes or 13.25 miles
Carmel Apple                           298                                    Walk for 1 hours or 3.0 miles
Cinnamon Roll                         730                                   Walk for 2 hrs 25 minutes or 7.25 miles
Deep-Fried Oreo                     98 calories each           Walk for 20 minutes or 1.0 mile
Deep-Fried Twinkies             420                                    Walk for 1 hours 25 minutes or 4.25 miles
Deep-Fried Snickers             444                                     Walk for 1 hours 30 minutes or 4.5 miles
Funnel Cakes                           760                                     Walk for 2 hours 50 minutes or 8.5 miles
Kettle Corn                               490                                     Walk for 1 hour 40 minutes or 5 miles

Since the fairs only happen once a year, you can go and enjoy your favorite foods without expanding your waistline if you plan ahead.                                                                                                   
1. For a few days leading up to the fair, eat healthy (lower the amounts of high fat foods, lower the amount of sugary foods and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and add the colors of the rainbow into your diet).
2. Stay well hydrated and drink plenty of water.
3. Don’t skip meals or starve yourself prior to going to the fair. Starving yourself before the fair may make you eat more when you arrive.
4. Exercise at least as much, or more than you normally do. Remember 1 pound = 3,500 calories.
5. On the day of the fair, get there early and walk, walk, walk.
6. Share your favorite foods with a family member or a friend. Remember that sharing your food = sharing your calories.
7. Don’t drink that large (32 oz.) soda with all that food. Drink water. A large soda contains approximately 400 calories and the equivalent of 25 teaspoons of sugar.

So enjoy the fair this weekend, but eat healthy this week, walk, walk, walk at the fair, and share your favorite foods with a friend.

On September 7th  Governor Rell signed a new bill that affects your child if he or she uses an inhaler for asthma or has the need to carry an epipen for allergies. Sue Albino and Geri Bernacki from the Connecticut Society of Respiratory Care joined Mothers of Asthmatics and Governor Jodi Rell for the signing  of SB 755, which allows students to carry their own inhalers and epipens in school.  Members of the CTSRC were involved in the authoring of this bill. Connecticut has been one of only three states without a system in place for students to self-administer their asthma inhalers, and only one of 10 without an epipen protocol. Prior to this bill the rules on use of these medications were dictated by individual school boards and  your child may have had to go to the designated person in their school, generally the school nurse, to have access to their inhalers or eipipen. This bill now sets a higher standard that is state wide. Carrying the medication on their person allows the child to self administer FAST! If your child has an asthma episode or has a reaction to something they are allergic to they can now self administer their medications. This is terrific news as time is of the essence when treating these problems. An asthma attack is a distressing and potentially life threatening experience as is exposure to foods that your child has an allergy to.

The bill reads hat children must have  written authorization from their parent or guardian along with a written order by the their physician that documents the need to carry their inhaler or epipen.

If your child has asthma it is important for him or her and for you to be educated on this disease and how to best control it so the child has fewer asthma episodes. Proper use of their inhalers is most important as only 15-20% of the medication gets into the lung with proper technique. If they do not use their inhalers correctly they may not be getting any of the medication where it matters, their lungs. 

If your child has food allergies, education is also the key to the prevention of a serious issue.  The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network is a good place to start.

The next time you see your health care provider ask him or her to review with your child the proper use of their inhaler or their epipen. Ask your school nurse or the school administrator what steps you may need to follow so your child can begin to carry an inhaler or epipen while in the classroom.

Who doesn’t love a nice dish of creamy ice cream? Yummm, it’s so delicious.  It used to be so easy to go shopping and pick out your favorite ice cream. You would walk down the ice cream aisle and you would have your choice of any Full-Fat ice cream–vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, etc. Today’s experience of walking down the ice cream aisle is totally different.  It’s like an invasion of numerous ice cream varieties. You can choose from Full-Fat, Fat-Free, Light, Smooth and Creamy, Slow Churned, Smooth and Dreamy, Overload, No Sugars Added, Fattier Super Premiums, Frozen Yogurt, Yogurt Blends, Soy, Sorbets, etc.  What is one to do?  How do you choose? 

Let’s give you some tips so you don’t get frostbite sifting through all of the labels in the ice cream freezer.

     1.  Read the Label – You better think small because the typical serving of ice cream is 1/2 cup.  How big is a 1/2 cup?  it is about the size of 2 golf balls or 8 level tablespoons.  Always read your label and look for the serving size, calories/serving, total fat calories, saturated fat calories, protein, carbohydrates, and sodium.  Don’t be shocked when you read the label on the ice cream carton.  Some ice creams may be extremely high in fat and calories such as the fattier super premiums, while others are really not that bad such as the frozen yogurts or slow churned.   

2.  Cut the Saturated Fat- Today, many of our ice creams are reduced fat.  It is easy to find ice cream with 2.5 grams of fat or less.  Try Edy’s Slow Churned, Bryers Smooth and Dreamy or the Double Churn Free, or Turkey Hill Light Recipe.  Many of these healthier varieties are actually really good, they are creamy and delicious and no longer taste like flavored ice crystals.  Did you know that some of the Fattier Super Premiums may have as much as 10 or 20 grams of fat in a 1/2 a cup.  Yikes! Read the label.

3.  Check the Calories – A 1/2 cup of the light ice cream  is about 130 calories, while some of the Full Fat or Super Premium versions may have as many as 400-600 calories in a 1/2 cup.

4.  Watch the Calcium – The majority of frozen ice creams, etc. are not high in vitamins and minerals.  Frozen yogurts typically supply 10 – 15% of the day’s daily requirements for calcium, ice creams supply 5 -  10% of the daily requirements for calcium, soy ice creams supply 0 – 4% of daily requirements for calcium and sorbets supply 0% for calcium, but sorbets such as mango sorbet  provide 20 – 30% of the daily requirements for Vitamin A and also contain some vitamin C.

5.  Caffeine – If you love coffee ice cream, remember that you will be getting a little “kick.”  Why?  Because it also contains caffeine.  The average caffeine content in coffee ice cream runs from 15 – 50 mg per 1/2 cup serving.

So, next time you walk down the ice cream aisle, choose cautiously and read your labels.  Try one of the healthier versions such as Edy’s Slow Churned, Bryers Smooth and Dreamy, Turkey Hill Light Recipe, Haagen-Dazs Frozen Yogurt or any of the other many lower fat versions of ice creams, frozen yogurts or sorbets.  Enjoy!!!

The air quality alert for today is moderate, 51-100.  What exactly does that mean and why should we pay attention?

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is an index for reporting the daily air quality. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) sets the standards for this index. You can generally get the index in the local paper or in the weather report via radio, television or Internet. The AQI lets us know how clean or polluted the air is for the day. It takes into  consideration 5 air pollutants, gound level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

The index is 0-500 and correlates to 6 categories. They are good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy and hazardous.

Over the past few weeks we saw the “unhealthy for sensitive group” category on several days regarding ozone. This means that children, people with lung disease and cardiac disease need to be careful about their exposure on these days. I tell my patients with lung disease to be very careful on these days and that too much exposure can be like getting a sunburn in your lungs. The inflammation process that occurs can cause real problems for those with lung disease, even hospitalization. Even folks with healthy lungs should reduce “prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors” (EPA) on days that the ozone alert/AQI is >100. I  limit my own outdoor exercise on these days. If you are going to exercise outdoors on these days it is recommended to do so earl y in the morning.

If the air quality reaches the unhealthy category we all need to be concerned. For more information on air quality indicators and to understand what is good ozone and bad ozone and  the effects of bad ozone on your health you can follow this link. You can sign up to  receive  emails from this site and receive the daily AQI, with explanations, in your inbox.

www.epa.gov/airnow

by Carey Vallillo, RD

Just because you are going to a picnic over the long Labor Day weekend it does not mean that you cannot still eat healthy and stay active. Below are some strategies on how to do just that.

1. Offer to bring something healthy (such as vegetable platter or fresh fruit salad) so that you know that there will be at least one healthy option to choose from.

2. Have a snack (such as carrot sticks with hummus or apple with peanut butter) prior to going to a picnic to help curb you appetite so that you are not ravenous when you get there.

3. Watch your drinks. Both alcohol and high sugar drinks (such as lemonade, soda, and kool-aid) can pack on pounds.
     Drink calorie- free, caffeine-free drinks in order to stay hydrated.

4. Try to sit away from where the food is being served so that you are not tempted to “pick” even when you are not hungry.

5. Get moving! Initiate a baseball or kickball game and get everyone moving.

6. Keep cold foods below 40 degrees F and hot foods above 140 degrees F to avoid food borne illnesses.

7. If you do overeat- Relax. Tomorrow is another day.

I am going for a walk today.  A long walk in fact.  It doesn’t get any better than this when it comes to walking weather.   I hope we have this weather for the whole month.  Going out for a walk is one of the easiest ways to get your exercise in each day,  de-stress from the day and literally smell the roses!  

 Up until last November, I used to walk my dog twice a day.  I got to know all the dog-owning neighbors and my dog, Taylor, a black standard poodle,  got to socialize with all the other dogs in the neighborhood as well.  Taylor was so smart.  She would sit right beside me when I put on my sneakers as if to say, “Don’t even think about not taking me with you.”  She always  thought it was a splendid idea, was so grateful for the experience and agreed with everything I said and thought.  Taylor passed away at 15 years of age last year, and I miss her terribly. While it is more difficult to coordinate going for a walk with my friend and neighbor, I have to admit, the conversation isn’t as one-sided! The time passes quicklyand we get to catch up on all the recent family, social, current and political events. 

The recommendation for adults looking to shed a few pounds is 10,000 steps per day.  That’s  5 miles!  Walking 5 miles  all in one shot takes well over an hour, unless you’re one of those power walkers. Considering that most of us barely average 1,000 to 3,000 steps per day, 5 miles is a lot!   If you get a pedometer, you can track your average number of steps/day to get your base.  Once you have that you can start adding 500 extra steps per day for a week and keep adding 500 steps each week until you are able to get up to 10,000 steps per day.  So…..get out there!   Fall is right around the corner!