Author: St. Elizabeth Healthcare

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are thinking pink. If you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to schedule a mammogram and encourage other women in your life to do the same.  St. Elizabeth’s Digital Mobile Mammography Unit will even bring their mammography technology right to your community center or workplace. You can find upcoming dates for the month of October here. More information is also available here or you can call 877-424-5750 to schedule a visit. Figured out when and where you’re going for a mammogram? Good! Then you can take a little break and try this…

OK, you know you’re supposed to exercise every day. But it’s time-consuming. And it can be expensive, if you have to pay for a gym membership or fancy shoes or equipment. Or maybe you feel intimidated or you don’t like sweating in public or you haven’t quite worked your way up to a formal exercise routine. The American Diabetes Association has some suggestions for incorporating more physical activity into our day that don’t require new shoes or a gym membership, but will help you burn a few calories and keep your blood sugar levels under control. At work Take the…

If you or your family is looking for a great way to spend some time together outdoors, while also picking delicious, nutritious fruit, then apple-picking is the way to go. The Tri-State region has a lot of great orchards, which means there is sure to be one near you. Check them out: Hidden Valley Fruit Farm The Hidden Valley Fruit Farm is hosting an Apple Cider Festival this weekend, which means there will be hayride tours,  live music, train rides and a bounce house for the kids, a  7-acre corn maze and food and craft vendors. Apples are  $25 per…

When it comes to making Mexican cuisine at home, one of the main staples is the tortilla. Most people grab their favorite brand or whichever one is on sale, but rarely stop to look at the ingredients or the nutrition facts. In fact, some tortilla shells are cooked in lard and others don’t contain enough fiber to keep your energy up. Karah Stanley, RD, St. Elizabeth Physicians Weight Management Center, has advice for everyone prepping for taco night in the video below:

Hospitals across the U.S. often overestimate how quickly they administer clot-busting drugs to stroke patients, according to new research. Stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. For the study, researchers surveyed data on more than 48,000 stroke patients treated at 141 hospitals in 2009 and 2010. They found that hospital staff members’ perceptions of how quickly they administered the IV drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) did not match up with actual stroke care performance. The study appears in the July 22 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers compared patient data, including onset of…

October is right around the corner, which means we’re thinking pink! A recent study found that women who began the Mediterranean Diet (and therefore increased their intake of extra virgin olive oil)  had a 62 percent lower risk of breast cancer over the next five years. We learned about the Spanish study’s findings on the Today show. Because the 4,282 women  who participated in the study were  randomly assigned different diets, the findings are considered particularly strong. It accounts for the possibility that people who choose to follow a certain healthy diet pattern may do other things differently, too (i.e.…

People with diabetes work hard to keep their blood sugar levels steady throughout the day by balancing diet, physical activity and medication like insulin. But for children with Type 1 diabetes, several factors can affect their blood sugar levels, and they and their parents need to plan accordingly, say the experts at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. Those issues include: Physical activity: School or youth league sports, physical education and playtime all burn calories and may lower blood sugar levels. The impact varies day-to-day, depending on how active kids are. Kids may be less active when learning a new game,…

We came up with a pretty tough quiz to test your seasonal health knowledge. Let’s see how you do: [mlw_quizmaster quiz=9]

Adults older than 50 who have long-term depression symptoms have double the risk of stroke as adults who don’t show signs of the mood disorder, new research shows. And the increased stroke risk remains, even after the depression symptoms ease, especially for women, say researchers led by Paola Gilsanz, a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School for Public Health in Boston. “This is the first study evaluating how changes in depressive symptoms predict changes in stroke risk,” Gilsanz said in a university news release. “If replicated, these findings suggest that clinicians should seek to identify and treat…

If you, like many others, are dreading the fall season and the colder weather because of impending illnesses like the common cold, maybe you should hit the hay a little earlier tonight. A recent study published in the journal Sleep  recorded the sleep patterns of 164 men and women purposely infected with a common cold virus. The results? The people who were sleeping 5-6 hours a night were four times more likely to actually catch a cold versus the people who were sleeping  at least seven hours per night. “There’s evidence that people who don’t get enough sleep show higher…