June is National Safety Awareness Month

Bicycle Safety

Creating a Wheelchair a Walker Friendly Home

A Rough Day at Work - Preventing Work Related Injuries and Deaths

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Preventing Falls at Home

Each year, thousands of older Americans fall at home. Many of them are seriously injured, and some are disabled. Falls are often due to hazards that are easy to overlook but easy to fix. 

Download this checklist from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will help you find and fix those hazards in your home.

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Be Ready for the Unexpected with an Emergency Supply Kit.

Download Checklist

Through its Ready Campaign, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security educates and empowers Americans to take some simple steps to prepare for and respond to potential emergencies, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Ready asks individuals to do three key things: get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan, and be informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and their appropriate responses.

All Americans should have some basic supplies on hand in order to survive for at least three days if an emergency occurs. Following is a listing of some basic items that every emergency supply kit should include. However, it is important that individuals review this list and consider where they live and the unique needs of their family in order to create an emergency supply kit that will meet these needs. Individuals should also consider having at least two emergency supply kits, one full kit at home and smaller portable kits in their workplace, vehicle or other places they spend time.

Holiday Stress | National Handwashing Awareness Week

Let the tears roll, for crying out loud

By Chris Hammerlund

Dear Chris: The holidays always leave me an emotional wreck. I'm the one in the family who prepares all the food, gets the decorations ready, handles the Christmas tree and deals with the kids and their gifts. But instead of it making me happier, I find myself crying for no particular reason. Is that normal? Any tips so I don't always feel like a mess? Angela in Mundelein

Dear Angela: Not only is a good cry a permissible gift to yourself, science says it's a necessary way the body cleanses itself internally. Look it up. It's in all the biology books.

But even if I didn't have the research at my fingertips, just ask yourself how you feel after a big, loud, blubbery cry. Most people feel much better, and it's not just an illusion. Your body often sends you clear signals. Crying is one of them.

What makes you cry can be a thousand different stimuli - pain, grief, joy, hormones, or even genetic influences.  This uniquely-human experience is natural and necessary for biochemical cleansing - helping the body dump toxins and reset healing processes. Sobbing flushes stress hormones while prompting endorphin production - the feel-good chemical responsible for soothing raw pain, calming overstimulation, and boosting optimism.
I love those endorphins. In fact, I've often wondered if people who are more naturally and visibly “happy” with the world are that way partly because their endorphin triggers are easier to access. People who cry freely may have a big advantage in tapping endorphins.

You may be one of those people who cry at any moment - weddings, birthday parties, or your kids' school plays. Or you may be the type who can't remember when you last cried.

Either way, crying often catches everyone when or where they don't want to weep. Others might not want to watch you weep.

But sorry, Angela, they're just going to have to get over it. What sort of a family do you have anyway? The “why” of crying may seem obvious. You're happy or sad. But that's too simplistic.
 
Dr. Stephen Sideroff is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA's School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics says people cry for very complex reasons. For instance, he says, people cry in response to something of beauty. He calls it “melting.” They are letting go of their guard, and tapping into a place deep. Crying can also be a survival mechanism.

Jodi DeLuca, a neuropsychologist at Tampa General Hospital in Florida, says that crying might be a signal you need to address something. Maybe you are frustrated, overwhelmed or even just trying to get someone's attention. Maybe you are secretly angry that no one helps you at the holidays. That would certainly make me cry.

On top of that, crying may have a purging biochemical purpose. So relax.  It's just a part of being a complex physical specimen.

In any case, the last emotion you should feel about crying is that it's a bad thing that should be stifled because it makes someone else uncomfortable. Personally, I think we need a National Day of Crying.

Who am I, and why would a person listen to me? Both fair questions. I'm Christine Hammerlund and I've been a nurse for years. I have delivered babies, saved lives, and cared for hundreds of patients through their medical triumphs and tragedies. Now I run Assured Healthcare at http://www.assuredhealthcare.com.

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December 4-10th is National Handwashing Awareness Week

The 4 Principles of Hand Awareness

1. Wash your hands when they are dirty and BEFORE eating
2. DO NOT cough into your hands
3. DO NOT sneeze into your hands
4. Above all, DO NOT put your fingers into your eyes, nose or mouth

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National Safety Awareness Month | Ask the Nurse

Ask the Nurse answers: Here's how to look better guys

Ask the Nurse: Christine Hammerlund, President of Assured Healthcare Staffing and Nurse

Question: I'm a 50-year-old man and I'm starting to worry about my appearance. Where do I start? What can I do besides plastic surgery to get rid of the lines and jowls? BILL IN MUNDELEIN

Chris: So you want to stay youthful and maintain your best look, but not sure how? What if you're a middle aged man? You've had an entire life of people telling you that you shouldn't worry about aging because it's all inevitable, right? So, you're starting to look like your grandfather, but you'd rather not.

OK, so you're willing to take a little advice, but let's not go all New Age. You're a real guy who wants some real guy solutions to feeling better and looking better. So just sit back and relax. Let me do all the medical research.

1. Get some sleep.

Chronic sleep deprivation adds years to your face. Here's why: The extraocular eye muscles are exercised during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and could atrophy when not used. Use it or lose it. This may contribute to the circles beneath your eyes after a poor night's rest. If you can't sleep, then don't go low-carb at dinner. Men who consume carbohydrates before bed have significantly longer REM sleep cycles than when they ate a low-carb meal.

2. New skin.

Shaving in the morning actually stimulates the creation of new skin cells. As you age, your cell-renewal process slows. By age 50, the cycle to make new skin takes twice as long as it did when you were a kid. Your skin also gradually looses collagen, the spongy protein beneath the epidermis. That produces wrinkles and sagging, particularly around your eyes, where the skin is thinnest. Try Retin-A (tretinoin) or retinol or L'Oreal Paris Men's Expert Vita Lift Anti-Wrinkle & Firming Moisturizer. Just don't let your wife see it.

3. Lose just a little.

Don't want to lose your marbles later? Lose some calories now. Eating less can reduce markers of inflammation and insulin resistance, which are suspected risk factors for mental decline.

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June is National Safety Awareness Month

Each year, thousands of older Americans fall at home. Many of them are seriously injured, and some are disabled. Falls are often due to hazards that are easy to overlook but easy to fix. 

Download this checklist from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will help you find and fix those hazards in your home.

Ask The Nurse: Is the "5-Second-Rule" Really Safe?

Dear Nurse Chris: My husband grew up in a family that allowed the “5-second rule.” If you dropped food on the floor, but picked it up in less than five seconds, it was OK to eat. I know it’s crazy, but can I give him – and our two sons – some evidence that the “5-second rule” is terrible?  Rosa in Mundelein

Dear Rosa: The 5-second rule was not used in our house; if it fell on the floor it was tossed out. Thank goodness our bodies are made the way they are, because the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs has saved us from many an illness.
There’s good science for this view. Tell your family to listen up:  it's probably not even safe to follow a 1-second rule. The transfer of bacteria from a contaminated surface to food is almost instantaneous - or, at the very least, quicker than human reflexes.

In a recent study, Clemson University food scientist Paul Dawson and students contaminated several surfaces (ceramic tile, wood flooring, and carpet) with Salmonella. They then dropped pieces of bologna and slices of bread on the surfaces for as little as 5 seconds and as long as 60 seconds. After just 5 seconds, both foods had already picked up as many as 1,800 bacteria (more bad bugs adhered to the bologna than the bread). After 60 seconds, it was up to 18,000 bacteria!

There are 76 million cases of foodborne illness annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control - so unless you're the only family on the block that sterilizes your floors hourly, stop eating dropped food. "Let's not forget what comes into contact with floors--people bring animal feces on their shoes into their homes," Dawson said.

And don't assume that countertops are clean. Dawson's team also found that the Salmonella actually survived as long as four weeks on the test surfaces.

I am also a stickler about hand washing. Many potential illnesses can be avoided when washing hands with soap and water. Hand washing before meals, after using the restroom, after playing outside, after coughing and blowing your nose, before preparing food and after touching food (such as raw meat) are some of the ways to avoid getting sick.