health

The Lamar Community College Nursing department celebrated the accomplishments of their graduates with the time-honored tradition of the Nurse Pinning earlier this month.

The Nurse Pinning ceremony is a traditional rite of passage that each nursing student completes before entering the profession.  53 students were pinned including 20 from the Level I (Practical Nursing) and 33 from the Level II (Associate Degree in Nursing/Registered Nurse) programs.

Interventions can be the difference between life and death for a drug addict or an alcoholic. Not every person in need of rehabilitation readily accepts the opportunity to get clean and handle the issues that drove them to addiction. While some addicts or alcoholics have been so badly beaten and battered by their lifestyle that they grasp at the first opportunity to deal with their problems, others need an external influence and viewpoint in order to seek help.

Have you considered altering your diet in order to add more Turmeric?  There seem to be a number of individuals who have questions about this perennial flowering plant of the ginger family that contribute so greatly to our health.  Turmeric is usually consumed in a powder form or used as a spice.

Dear Dietitian,

I have a problem with constipation for the last year, and I am tired of taking laxatives.  Recently, I read that I should be eating 35 grams of fiber per day!  That seems impossible!

Sarah

Dear Sarah,

Skin cancer is a disease that affects people of every age, gender and ethnicity. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70; in fact, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year in the U.S. than all other cancers combined. 

Dear Dietitian,

My daughter, who is 18, recently changed from a vegetarian Diet to a vegan Diet.  When she was eating vegetarian, she did eat chicken for protein.  But everything else she ate was considered junk food to us.  Chips, candy, sodas.  Now that she is vegan she is still not eating nearly as enough vegetables or protein in order to maintain good health.   I have tried to help with this by giving her a daily multivitamin and she has been taking iron supplements because she was told she was low in iron. 

As spring cleaning gets underway, the state health department reminds Coloradans to take steps to avoid hantavirus, a rare but potentially fatal respiratory disease from a virus carried by deer mice.

People are most likely to get hantavirus by breathing in dirt and dust contaminated with deer mouse urine, droppings or saliva. More people get hantavirus in the spring and summer, often while cleaning up homes, yards and sheds.

Dear Readers,

We Americans eat a lot of sugar. Why? Because it tastes good. The American Heart Association recommends 6 added teaspoons a day for women and 8 teaspoons per day for men. While most Americans' consumption of sugar comes from soda pop, there is also hidden sugar in many foods.

What do vegetables, olive oil, red wine, fish, and whole grains all have in common? They are all key foods in the Mediterranean diet. 

The Mediterranean diet has been, and still is, a well-researched and popular topic in nutrition. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines lists this diet as one of three recommended healthy eating patterns.