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           Thanks to catnipintoxicating for permission to use this Photo.

To estimate your daily calorie requirement, you can follow these steps:

• Estimate your resting metabolic rate, the amount of calories you need simply to breathe, pump blood, and be alive, by multiplying your healthy weight by 10 calories per pound.  If you are significantly overweight, use an adjusted weight halfway between your current weight and desired weight.
• Add more calories for daily activity apart from your purposeful exercise.
• Add more calories for purposeful exercise.
• To lose weight, subtract 20 percent of your total calories needs.

Carla Hardy MS, CSCS
Fitness and Exercise Instructor
Ashworth University

 
                   Thanks to Joey for permission to use this Photo.

We have a running debate chez Freberg regarding the best diet strategies. Mr. F dines on absolutely the same Jenny Craig options every day (Complete Start Cereal, Turkeyburger, Meatloaf, and Chocolate Cake). His motto for dieting has always been “Boring is Good.” I like variety, and order a bit of this and a bit of that for my weekly menus.

Caroline Goukens and her colleagues may have shed some light on our differences [1]. They demonstrate that hungry people react differently to menu choices than satiated people. In their experiments, hungry people (who hadn’t eaten for four hours before being tested) were more likely to crave variety in their snack choices than satiated people (who ate a piece of cake at the beginning of the experiment).  So does this mean that I’m hungrier most of the time than Mr. F? (more…)

                 Thanks to J. Parks for permission to use this Photo. 

In a series of posts, each titled Calorie Learning: [something], I’m going to use a blog to communicate self-experimentation. To see the whole series, look in the category Calorie Learning (under Self-Experimentation).This research will be about how we (or at least I) learn to associate flavors with calories — more precisely, smells with calories. This learning is at the heart of the Shangri-La Diet, which derives from a theory that says the flavors of your food increase your set point if they are associated with calories. The stronger the association, the bigger the increase. Why study this?

1. Maybe I can improve the diet.

2. It matters. It happens with every bit of food you eat. It controls what you eat and your appearance (assuming my theory is right).

3. Little is known about it. As I wrote in the appendix to The Shangri-La Diet, Anthony Sclafani has studied this learning extensively in rats. No one has studied it extensively in people.

4. The experiments can be simple and easy — or at least that’s what I think now.

A few weeks ago, a friend told me how much she liked those cellophane-wrapped white-bread sandwiches sold in delis and bodegas. Egg salad sandwiches, for example. They were addictive, she said. That sounded about right: White bread (and bread in general) is digested very fast, witness its very high glycemic index. Fast digestion means the calorie signal it generates in the brain overlaps a great deal with the flavor signal it generates in the brain. The more overlap of the two signals, the stronger the association created. The stronger a flavor’s association with calories, the more you like it. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Greg_Reser

Google announced the launch of a pilot project in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic to provide select patients access to their medical record using the Google health platform.

According to the Associated Press, Google will:

begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that’s likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.

The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google’s new service, which won’t be open to the general public.

Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that’s also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools. (more…)

              Thanks to Tahoe Sunsets for permission to use this Photo.

The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states that was scheduled for publication in July 2007.

The report, which pointed to elevated rates of lung, colon, and breast cancer; low birth weight; and infant mortality in several of the geographical areas of concern has not yet been made public. A few days before the report was slated to be released, it was pulled. Meanwhile, at precisely the same time, its lead author, Christopher De Rosa, has been removed from the position he held since 1992.  The Center for Public Integrity is asking why.

The study, “Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern” was developed by the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent U.S-Canadian organization that monitors and advises both governments on the use and quality of boundary waters. The CDC report brings together two sets of data: environmental data on known “areas of concern” — including superfund sites and hazardous waste dumps — and separate health data collected by county or, in some cases, smaller geographical regions. The study does not try to prove cause and effect. Instead, it outlines areas for further study and data collection on the link between pollution and health.”Let’s say we have a superfund site and we also find elevated risk of leukemia in the county — is that related? We don’t know, but people living in the area can logically argue that we ought to find out,” Dr. Peter Orris, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and one of the peer reviewers of the study told Oneworld.net. (more…)

 
             Thanks to Scarlett Q  for permission to use this Photo.

Many physicians have the medical assistant write out the prescription, and then the physician signs it.  This practice places a significant responsibility on the medical assistant.  My opinion is that it is not good policy to have the medical assistant write out prescriptions.  If the physician in your office does follow this procedure, be absolutely sure that the physician reads what you have written prior to signing the prescription.  This applies especially to prescriptions that are called into the pharmacy.  If the physician has not reviewed the prescription and signed it, then you have just prescribed medications on your own.  Such a situation would have drastic legal and ethical implications for both you and the physician.  Always follow procedures carefully.  If you have concerns about procedures in your office, discuss them with your physician. 

Loretta Maples
Medical Office Assisting Instructor
Ashworth University

                 Thanks to Rinux for permission to use this Photo.

A Kaiser Permanente study released today virtually confirms the link between high caffeine intake during the pregnancy period and an increased risk of miscarriage.  This link has often been suspected by researchers, but past studies have proven inconclusive due to a lack of testing control over pregnancy symptoms such as nausea, which made it difficult to directly measure caffeine’s precise impact.  Although the conclusions of this study are troubling, mothers should also feel empowered to make healthier decisions regarding their consumption of caffeine.  Furthermore, the study provides expectant mothers with some practical advice to help balance their need for extra energy, i.e. switch to sources of natural energy such as walks, yoga, and dried fruits.  This is a must read article for all of our mothers to be out there.  Keep your Ashworth Health Care community updated if you begin to make some positive lifestyle changes in this area.  Take care! 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

                 Thanks to Corey for permission to use this Photo.

At one point in time, a long time ago (around 2000), I wondered if centralized, government maintained electronic health records was the way to go.  In defense of this position, my arguments revolved around the notions of efficiency and control, in that it was easier for systems to be monitored, maintained, and updated if they were all in one place.  But, as anyone with a technical background could point out, there are significant technical issues behind such a strategy.  It would seem that some people agree: “German doctors say no to centrally stored patient records“.

What I find interesting is the proposed “counter” solution:

As an alternative, the German private doctors’ body is suggesting the use of encrypted USB-sticks. These could be handed over to patients and would carry all relevant patient data, including digital images such as radiographs or CT-scansWow.  I haven’t heard a call for the use of physical based media in quite some time.  Personally, I thought that this line of thinking was disappearing as the feasibility of cloud computing increases and slowly becomes a realistic option.  In all fairness, there are a few other very interesting points raised by the group representing the German physicians. 

Allow hackers to try to and crack the USB system in order to prove that it can be made safe.

Make patients more aware of what information is collected and stored. (more…)