Need Egg Recall/Safety Information?

For quick links with up-to-date information on the recall and tips for cooking eggs  safely anytime, a good starting place is FoodSafety.gov . Under the picture of eggs in a green carton, there are 3 links: Get Answers, Check Egg Cartons, or Reduce your Risk.  The most complete details on buying, storing, and cooking eggs, plus phone numbers for additional questions, can be found at the Reduce your Risk link.

If you’re curious about what information companies that market eggs are providing for the public, go to the United Egg Producers home page. For a run-of-the-pantry or refrigerator-foods safety question, here’s a place to find information about foods that you’re not sure about using. It allows you to enter any food in a search box and receive shelf life and storage information.

The Long and Short of Health Histories

Family get-togethers can be small or large

Summertime is often a time for family get-togethers. A time for fun, food, and sharing of family news. It can also be an opportune time to promote family health by starting a family health history. To get started, read why it’s important to communicate with your family about shared health concerns.  After you read about the process you may then choose one of the print or web-based tools to organize your family’s information, depending on your preference. If you’d rather go directly to a web-based tool, here’s one from the Surgeon General (“My Family Health Portrait”).

That’s the long term picture. An important piece of information for your everyday short term health history is a list of prescription drugs and nutritional supplements you are taking. You should have one with you for all visits with physicians, and often people choose to carry them in their wallet or purse. Here’s a link to help you create one.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes.  Risk factors for it include low activity level, poor diet, excess body weight (especially around the waist) and age greater than 45. Considering that last risk factor, it’s no surprise that it usually occurs gradually. If you are concerned that it might be sneaking up on you, there is good news. Lifestyle interventions can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in individuals with prediabetes. Research has found that lifestyle interventions are more cost-effective than medications.

Plus, many people with type 2 diabetes can control their blood glucose by following a healthy meal plan and exercise program, losing excess weight, and taking oral medication.

Here are some books from our collection to give you more information:

Type 2 diabetes : your healthy living guide : tips, techniques, and practical advice for living well with diabetes

Preventing type 2 diabetes : beyond diet and exercise 

American Diabetes Association guide to insulin & type 2 diabetes

The type 2 diabetes sourcebook

Type 2 diabetes cookbook / recipes

The Type 2 diabetes cookbook: simple and delicious low-sugar, low-fat, and low-cholesterol recipes

A choice link if you’d like to see information on the worldwide web is this video that offers tips to stay diabetes free considering your personal risk factors. Prefer to read prevention tips?  Here’s a web page.

To help you in putting together a plan for grocery shopping, try these:  an overview of diabetes meal planning and an overview plus a recipe booklet.

Research Today … Vision Tomorrow

Having trouble reading the bottom line? (Well, of course you are! The chart shown here is so much smaller than the one you would encounter in the doctor’s office.) But seriously, if recently you’ve experienced eyestrain or some other vision problem and want to explore more info about it, click on over to Prevent Blindness America  or the National Eye Institute site .

Even if you don’t need to research a particular condition, you can take an online inside look at vision research and eye health monthly. June’s a great month to do so, as it’s Vision Research Month.

May Is Skin Cancer Awareness Month

Even though the month is about half gone, it’s not too late to communicate your concern about safe sun habits to your friends. One way is to send them this brightly- colored e-card reminder. Only half of the story is told here, as the e-card opens up to show four sun-safety tips and a link to more information. Health e-cards are available on many more topics on this site sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control. 

Looking for more information? The American Academy of Dermatology site has a calendar for May with 31 links to informational tips.

Much more information can be linked to from the MedlinePlus.gov page entitled “Skin Cancer“. If your concern is “Skin Aging”, there is a comprehensive set of  links to more information on MedlinePlus.gov too.

National Nurses Week: May 6 – 12

A wonderful time to tell any and all nurses you know how much you appreciate their dedication to the nursing profession and their commitment to caring for others.

Florence Nightingale 1820-1910

The week ends on the 190th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of the nursing profession as we know it today.  After the British Secretary of War asked her to take charge of nursing the troops who had been sent to battle in the Crimean War, she sailed to Turkey with 38 other nurses.

They had the seemingly impossible job of caring for the neglected wounded in abominable conditions. Read about their experiences and her life in books from our collection.

Need a gift idea for a nurse in your life? Maybe Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul by Jack Canfield would work. You can preview one of our copies of the 2001 first edition, and consider buying it, and/or the 2007 Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul: Second Dose: More Stories to Honor and Inspire Nurses. They’re both still in print.

Thank you for your continuing support of our mission

All of us at Akron-Summit County Public Library thank you, Summit County voters, for your support!

3 Good Reasons to Have Your Blood Pressure Checked…

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is known as a “silent killer”, because people who have the disease, often do not experience symptoms.

High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, so if yours is high, you won’t know unless you have it checked.

High blood pressure is the biggest risk factor for stroke.

High blood pressure can also lead to heart failure, heart attack, and kidney failure.

Click here for an interactive tutorial about blood pressure, here to learn more about what stroke is as well as reducing your risk for it, and here to read about warning signs for stroke and heart attack.

May is National Stroke Awareness Month. Please use at least one of its 31 days to remind your friends about having their blood pressure checked. It’s an important way to show you care about them.

Notable New Books in the Health Information Center

First Aid: A Complete Illustrated Guide is here just in time for outdoor activity ailments like insect bites or poison ivy.  It includes comprehensive coverage of more serious emergencies like CPR, AED, ingested poisons, or head injury too.

Just in time for summer travel!  A new edition of American Diabetes
Association’s Guide to Healthy Fast-Food Eating. Learn to navigate the menus of the big chain restaurants to minimize the damage done to your healthy eating plan.

Perhaps air travel’s on your agenda and causing you or a fellow traveler anxiety. Borrow Flying Without Fear: Effective Strategies To Get You Where You Need To Go. Author Duane Brown, a former lead trainer for American Airlines’ AAir Born program, helps anxious flyers and would-be flyers understand the reasons and physiology of their fears, and presents a program for coping with anxieties, both before flights and while in the air.

If generalized stress or anxiety is more your concern than just the stress of flying,  you might try the exercises in Yoga for Anxiety: Meditations and Practices for Calming the Body and Mind. The authors combine their experiences in psychotherapy, yoga teaching, and meditation teaching to offer self-healing practices that include, among others, meditation, self-inquiry exercises, yoga poses, and mindfulness exercises. Regular practice of these techniques may calm stress, reduce the symptoms of anxiety, and enhance concentration. 

 

 

 

 

April is Alcohol Awareness Month

Internet-savvy teens should click here to enjoy games, videos and quizzes about alcohol and drugs created just for them, plus a chance to post photos and an Ask the Doc feature.

For teens or parents who need some informative links about using alcohol wisely, try this page from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, or try this GetFit page for confidential and anonymous self-help tests designed to help you understand how alcohol may be affecting the way you work, live, or even your finances.

Alcohol awareness is well covered in your library’s Teen Health & Wellness database. Whether you need to write a report or are just interested in the topic, you can find info about physiological effects of alcohol, legal problems such as drinking and driving, how to deal with friends or family who drink too much, the dangers of binge drinking, and much more.