Sunday, September 26, 2010

Practice Nurses Tackling Obesity Epidemic

This post has been reposted by Gary Gray aka garydotgray from a blog post by Dr. Coull of Charlottetown, P.E.I. Canada

Practice Nurses Tackling Obesity Epidemic: "Canada is in the middle of a deadly obesity epidemic.

Fast food, slow death
(North America)
Healthy for life
(Denmark)
Which life do you want future generations of Canadians to have?


Obesity is classed as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30. BMI is the ratio of your weight to your height.

The Pheonix Medical Practice computer system contains the height and weight of all of our patients who have been for their initial visit with our clinical team. Each night our computer re-calculates every patient's BMI and works out what percentage of our patients have a BMI over 30.

Today, the computer says 28% of patients at the Phoenix Medical Practice are classed as obese. In 1980 that figure would have been around 10%.

Obesity is a very serious medical condition.

Obesity is a killer. It puts a strain on your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and joints. Your risk of getting diabetes goes up with your weight. The Online Nursing Programs Obesity Overview suggests that "Obesity has become one of the most important public health issues facing not only the United States but also the world."

Condemning our children to a life of sickness and early death

Basically, your chances of being sick and dying young go up with your weight. As obesity rates rise, our children face a life of ill health and short lifespan unknown since the rise of modern medicine.

It's a nightmare that is unfolding so slowly that few are noticing it even happening. Combined with the body image problems of a size zero obsessed fashion industry, we have a society that has a terminal weight problem.

What can we do about it?

The solutions are actually quite simple in theory. We build roads that give priority to cyclists and walkers, we force the food industry to reduce hidden sugar and fat, and we tax sugary and fatty foods. Of course, none of these things are going to happen any time soon in a capitalist economic system addicted to unhealthy food and big cars. That's a discussion for you to have with your politicians. Dr Jenni Zelin is hard at work doing a great job pushing for more cycle lanes in PEI

In the mean time, our Practice Nursing Team will be following the WHO advice. The WHO is urging family physician teams to intervene with healthy eating and lifestyle advice. Our team of nurses are already doing that. They have lists of patients who are obese, and they will be working through the list calling them to offer them support and advice. Our Practice Nurses can run a very successful weight management program with these patients.

The WHO wants to see this introduced nationally. It thinks 40,000 Canadians will be saved if it is. We agree. Our team is already hard at work doing this.
"

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Living A Healthy Life With Chronic Conditions

Hi to all of our readers with chronic conditions

To day, I would like to introduce you to a program that I believe will help you develop  your coping skills to manage your chronic condition.

I am a stroke survivor: I struggle with fatigue and limited ability to do just the routine tasks of daily living.

You may be working through the challenges of  any number of chronic conditions.

I found this six week course a great help in dealing with the challenges of  Stroke.

Living A Healthy Life With Chronic Conditions is provided in many Prince Edward Island Communities with a small reregistration charge of only $10.00

Each training session is led by a trained health care professional along with a trained volunteer. They work as a team to provide the needed skills for participants to manage chronic conditions on a daily basis.

"Living a Healthy Life is a fun and practical program that helps people with ongoing health conditions overcome daily challenges and maintain active, fulfilling lives.  Throughout the program, people develop the skills they need to help themselves. They gain confidence and motivation to manage their health, and feel more positive about their lives."

To learn the skills to manage your chronic condition  click here

This same program is offered in many other provinces and states throughout North America. Try typing "living a healthy life" into a search engine such as Google to find one near you.

I will post again soon and in the meantime why not learn the skills to live healthy one day at a time.

http://www.gov.pe.ca/health/index.php3?number=1034519&lang=E

Gary