TGIF Quote of the Week

<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the last Friday in 2013! Hope everyone is able to make it a great one!</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is the quote if the week:</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: inherit;">"It always seems impossible until it’s done."</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: inherit;">                            - Nelson Mandela</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Think back...what did you do in 2013 that you thought was impossible? Keep on accomplishing the impossible as impossible things are happening everyday! </span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcNTzPfyVGTAax2KYzqLiFlHvQ_-PCvr6vgbfezXbjd9XMeJBc2c3EYSAnoEFPZNXcBBbnPH4MIbFczdbqlzW5clwdKlhbEUIUFOztl50UpShweslC-cyfpIbPLgGX8HXUgddZDm9_p0/s1600/topOfMountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcNTzPfyVGTAax2KYzqLiFlHvQ_-PCvr6vgbfezXbjd9XMeJBc2c3EYSAnoEFPZNXcBBbnPH4MIbFczdbqlzW5clwdKlhbEUIUFOztl50UpShweslC-cyfpIbPLgGX8HXUgddZDm9_p0/s320/topOfMountain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Have a great weekend! </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>

TGIF Quote of the Week

This is the last Friday in 2013! Hope everyone is able to make it a great one! Here is the quote if the week: "It always seems impossib...

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Healthy Holidays!!

While the winter holiday season can be the most magical time of the year, it is also a time when many engage in not-so healthy behaviors. Large amounts of holiday treats, stress over holiday spending and being in large groups as cold and flu season hits can all have a negative effect on your health. The CDC has created a fun holiday song called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCebthk9b2A#t=15">"The Twelve Ways to Health" </a>, providing a great way to remember all the things we sometimes forget in the rush of the holiday season. On the CDC's page, along with the lyrics, are resources to learn more about every topic are provided. Take some time to sing along and get information about a topic you may want to know more about. When you make the holidays healthy, the happiness come naturally!<div>                 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6S2C2cHhiLD6UbAXULyMk-0NYFwMmsXPPUr8giImZPYGYamdwUHIvvtt8RkeGU7lbeq3k_aokHY9OAqpewAm5B86RoPzZ8CuIJl0mZLiyT2HgPjkuApCSir1uSBOI_MLvhmqcCx7TIFI/s1600/Candles_and_green.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6S2C2cHhiLD6UbAXULyMk-0NYFwMmsXPPUr8giImZPYGYamdwUHIvvtt8RkeGU7lbeq3k_aokHY9OAqpewAm5B86RoPzZ8CuIJl0mZLiyT2HgPjkuApCSir1uSBOI_MLvhmqcCx7TIFI/s200/Candles_and_green.gif" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsXaUr4fZ6VYNp6-0p3F3Aqz8xHbSUXQFoeES6JD1Z-tMCcXyZg1z_DhSKBI2V_Td1WtHWUJxLwz0Xbtw6zeSOkaFoj35XHV-Q_ozdkV4yaQD9Jm9dV3V1bz5NG1ktrwdLwARnookbBl4/s1600/Family-Dinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsXaUr4fZ6VYNp6-0p3F3Aqz8xHbSUXQFoeES6JD1Z-tMCcXyZg1z_DhSKBI2V_Td1WtHWUJxLwz0Xbtw6zeSOkaFoj35XHV-Q_ozdkV4yaQD9Jm9dV3V1bz5NG1ktrwdLwARnookbBl4/s200/Family-Dinner.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u><b>Links: </b></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u><b><br /></b></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/family/holiday/12ways.htm">Twelve Days of Health Lyrics and Resource Page</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/family/holiday/12waysSong.htm"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/family/holiday/12waysSong.htm">Twelve Days of Health song/video</a></div></div></div>

Healthy Holidays!!

While the winter holiday season can be the most magical time of the year, it is also a time when many engage in not-so healthy behaviors. La...

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TGIF Quote of the week!

<span style="font-family: inherit;">Happy Friday everyone! Have a relaxing weekend! hopefully you are or soon will be having a holiday break! Here is our quote of the week, which is especially good for this time of year. While many are looking for holiday cheer; the stress of shopping, cooking and get-togethers can make people the opposite of what you would expect from this time of the year: </span><br /><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.</span></span>-Tom Stoppard </span></div><div><span style="color: purple;"><br /></span></div><div>Choose the healthy attitude....you many be the one to spread it!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEive38qwcTIp2FxXjZNYB_M8QD6kGFB_lswjFK6IK8xlrBYEWJRGxg7HexAObtbxK-gkcGJfm5Vz54qNcB_x2l0tK1mnTpzmOg_EyLtpoDCw7PUjEUMfO6nSDJoyNWJiLCpAEV8JcLXvhA/s1600/helping-others-ws3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEive38qwcTIp2FxXjZNYB_M8QD6kGFB_lswjFK6IK8xlrBYEWJRGxg7HexAObtbxK-gkcGJfm5Vz54qNcB_x2l0tK1mnTpzmOg_EyLtpoDCw7PUjEUMfO6nSDJoyNWJiLCpAEV8JcLXvhA/s320/helping-others-ws3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>

TGIF Quote of the week!

Happy Friday everyone! Have a relaxing weekend! hopefully you are or soon will be having a holiday break! Here is our quote of the week, whi...

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Using Advertising to Improve Diet

<span style="font-size: large;">The post for today was written, by me, as an exercise for a class I am taking to improve my writing.  I chose the study for blog relevance and personal interest, but it may seem more formal than my usual, opinion- infused posts.  Now you know why :)</span><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the United States, obesity rates have risen over the past 40 years <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(Ogden & Carroll, 2010)</span>, and many health professionals consider the disease to be epidemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The suggested causes of obesity are numerous, interconnected and multi-level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Because individual level prevention programs are expensive and generally ineffective, researchers have begun testing environmental or societal level strategies that can affect whole populations <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(Swinburn, Egger, & Raza, 1999)</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>For example, Rusmevichientong, Streletskaya, Amatyakul and Kaiser <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(2014)</span>recently conducted a laboratory experiment to compare the effect of 4 types of food advertising on lunch purchases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The researchers expected that limiting unhealthy food advertising, increasing healthy food advertising and airing anti-obesity messages would each lead to the purchase of items with less calories, fat, sugar and sodium.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">If advertisement manipulation is effective in reducing over consumption in the short term, public health advocates will have evidence to promote advertising interventions or policies, which may lead to a reduction in obesity rates over the long term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Rusmevichientong and colleagues offer some evidence in this regard.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rusmevichientong and colleagues randomly assigned 182 adult college students into one of 4 treatment conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>All participants watched TV for about 16 minutes. In all but one group (the control), the participants viewed four, five or six, 30 to 60 second advertisements in one of the following categories: unhealthy food advertisements (unhealthy foods were defined as items high in sugar, fat and sodium), healthy food advertisements (ones promoting the consumption of fruits and vegetables), anti-obesity messages, and a mixture of all three types. Before and after the TV viewing, each participant chose a lunch meal from a computerized menu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The researchers provided $10 meal vouchers, but participants had to pay the difference if their order was more than $10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The researchers compared the food orders before and after the TV viewing (within participants) and the changes between the groups, including the control. The research design (different in difference) allowed the researchers to compare the magnitude of difference between ad types.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">In this laboratory experiment; exposure to the healthy food messages, anti-obesity messages and a mixture of unhealthy, healthy, and anti-obesity messages, led to an increase in healthy food purchases and a decrease in number of calories purchased. The healthy food messages produced the greatest decrease in calories purchased (134) compared to anti-obesity messages (93) or mixed messages (90). There was also some reduction in the fat and sodium content in the meals purchased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>In addition, Rusmevichientong and colleagues found a positive association between these 3 advertisement conditions and ‘becoming healthier,’ which they defined as purchasing a greater number of healthy foods at time 2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The researchers suggest using anti-obesity ads judiciously and thoughtfully (i.e., ones that are not stigmatizing or fear producing) and healthy food advertising to reduce the over consumption of calories in the US adult population.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Rusmevichientong and colleagues results are important because most research suggesting a relationship between both anti-obesity messages and reduced caloric consumption, and healthy food ads and reduced caloric consumption is based on cross sectional surveys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Experimental studies allow researchers to claim causal inference, e.g., healthy food ads change behavior. However, this particular study was small, took place outside of a natural setting and used a homogenous set of participants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Policy advocates may present this evidence along with evidence produced from representative, field based, cross-sectional or longitudinal studies to make a case for new advertising polices.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Citations </span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ogden, C. L., & Carroll, M. D. (2010). Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and extreme obesity among adults: United States, trends 1960–1962 through 2007–2008. <i>NCHS Health and Stats</i>. </span></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Rusmevichientong, P., Streletskaya, N. A., Amatyakul, W., & Kaiser, H. M. (2014). The impact of food advertisements on changing eating behaviors: An experimental study. <i>Food Policy, 44</i>(0), 59-67. doi: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.10.011">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.10.011</a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Swinburn, B., Egger, G., & Raza, F. (1999). Dissecting obesogenic environments: The development and application of a framework for identifying and prioritizing environmental interventions for obesity. <i>Preventive Medicine, 29</i>(6), 563 - 570. doi: 10.1006/pmed.1999.0585</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: small;">  </span></span>

Using Advertising to Improve Diet

The post for today was written, by me, as an exercise for a class I am taking to improve my writing.  I chose the study for blog relevance a...

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Rheumatoid arthritis

<div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">By Justine Shum, MSIV</span></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivVihjnZ4VWfXaPyR7YnDtk0Hm5Q6EhgBK3M0ls88yjjdIblIDbytpg_hAGfCx3ml3yoRqa-4Ji_kduVDFRDDwX6YhCFpge3J7Uy-jqSFn5BJ_NNiPWwo2XqTtt5_kdzYwTQvc6I2VK5E/s1600/knee_pain_man_holding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivVihjnZ4VWfXaPyR7YnDtk0Hm5Q6EhgBK3M0ls88yjjdIblIDbytpg_hAGfCx3ml3yoRqa-4Ji_kduVDFRDDwX6YhCFpge3J7Uy-jqSFn5BJ_NNiPWwo2XqTtt5_kdzYwTQvc6I2VK5E/s200/knee_pain_man_holding.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that most commonly presents as an inflammatory arthritis affecting the joints. Like many other autoimmune diseases, RA affects more women than men -- about 3x as many women have the disease. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><br /></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">RA is a chronic disease that cannot be cured, but there are now many medications that are effective in reducing symptoms and slowing the progression of the disease. These medications are classified as disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and can further be separated into conventional DMARDs such as methotrexate and sulfasalazine, and biologic DMARDs such as rituximab and adalimumab. Because of DMARD use, the severe RA that results in crippling joint deformities is fortunately becoming more rare. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><br /></div><div class="FreeForm"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyzksVaZP2gkzl5ThIPuEL2NL6vpgxahAV0fwbnSvfp05udeg3xgPE2ACwpUj-sds6dOfD8-G9aeYC78bPGqAQa7fU3jgNAW-Kbmu7_DseleT-MfsaHSCYo8yYtVFJa2oP8_QexrDjJk4/s1600/woman_and_doctor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyzksVaZP2gkzl5ThIPuEL2NL6vpgxahAV0fwbnSvfp05udeg3xgPE2ACwpUj-sds6dOfD8-G9aeYC78bPGqAQa7fU3jgNAW-Kbmu7_DseleT-MfsaHSCYo8yYtVFJa2oP8_QexrDjJk4/s200/woman_and_doctor.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Current recommendations call for treatment with DMARDs to begin once a diagnosis of RA is made. Many patients wish to delay treatment, however, recent studies have shown that early and immediate treatment of RA results in lower disease activity in patients. These studies also show that at 2 years following diagnosis, patients who received immediate treatment were less likely to have joint damage and resultant disability. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><br /></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Patient education of the disease course of rheumatoid arthritis and the consequences of delaying treatment will likely make the difference in patients who are wavering on initiating DMARDs. See the links below for some basic patient education material provided by the American College of Rheumatology. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><br /></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial Bold","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Links: </span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial Bold","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.hss.edu/newsroom_timely-treatment-reduces-ra-disability.asp">http://www.hss.edu/newsroom_timely-treatment-reduces-ra-disability.asp</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial Bold","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Patient education (English): <span style="color: #000099;"><a href="http://www.rheumatology.org/Practice/Clinical/Patients/Diseases_And_Conditions/Rheumatoid_Arthritis/">http://www.rheumatology.org/Practice/Clinical/Patients/Diseases_And_Conditions/Rheumatoid_Arthritis/</a></span></span></div><br /><div class="FreeForm"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Patient education (Espanol): <a href="http://www.rheumatology.org/Practice/Clinical/Patients/Diseases_And_Conditions/Artritis_Reumatoidea_(Espa%C3%B1ol)/"><span style="color: #000099;">http://www.rheumatology.org/Practice/Clinical/Patients/Diseases_And_Conditions/Artritis_Reumatoidea_(Espa%C3%B1ol)/</span></a></span><span lang="en-US" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: #0400; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: #0400;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>

Rheumatoid arthritis

By Justine Shum, MSIV Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that most commonly presents as an inflammatory arthritis affecting ...

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Will you really burn off those extra calories?

<span style="font-size: large;">In a recent Nutrition Notes Daily, published by the American Society for Nutrition, a professor from UCLA School of Medicine was quoted as saying, "it takes a lot of exercise to make up for a little dietary indiscretion."  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">A vast body of research supports his assertion. Even so, many of us believe that an extra 30 minute walk will erase the damage of a 500 calorie donut, piece of cake or holiday cookies.  It is not so.  In this <a href="http://yourhealtheducator.blogspot.com/search?q=METs" target="_blank">past post</a>, I introduced the MET or metabolic equivalent as one way to determine how many calories you might burn doing a certain activity at a certain intensity for a certain amount of time.  For example, I found that I burned less than 500 calories by running at a ten minute per mile pace for just over an hour.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">In a more recent post, I talked about the belief we have in the self control of our future self.  For example, the belief that tomorrow you will walk twice as long as usual in order to burn off the extra calories you ate today.  Often tomorrow comes and well, its today, so there you are... pinning your hopes on the next tomorrow. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">This is especially important from Thanksgiving to New Years.  One or two days of indulgence can be self corrected, four to six weeks of eating more calories than you need, will lead to weight gain and extra weight is hard to lose. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">(And when you start seeing weight loss ads in January remember that the only way to lose weight or to maintain a weight that is healthy for you, is to make a change that you can stick with - forever.  A short term plan will get you a short term fix and whatever trick you try will only work as long as you use it.) </span>

Will you really burn off those extra calories?

In a recent Nutrition Notes Daily, published by the American Society for Nutrition, a professor from UCLA School of Medicine was quoted as s...

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