The month of October is a time to think of all persons that have fought the battle against breast cancer. In the U.S., breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women. According to the American Cancer Society there are nearly 200,000 cases that are expected to arise this year alone. There are a growing number of male cases and that is expected to reach 1,910 by the end of the year. If you or a loved one is facing breast cancer educate yourself on what it is, how it develops and new treatment methods that are available.
The American Cancer Society is teaming up with the New Orleans Saints to raise awareness about breast cancer by wearing pink all month long. The items will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. Locally, this yearÔÇÖs American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer raised slightly over $150,000.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.nbcam.org/index.cfm
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=19718&pg=entry
LSUHSC Occupational Therapy faculty and students will be providing a Fall Prevention Workshop on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 from 1-4 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, 2700 Canal St. Other participants include the LSUHSC Departments of Physical Therapy, Medicine, Community Nursing, as well as the Louisiana Fall Prevention Coalition and the Office of Public Health Injury Research and Prevention Program. For more information, see the official LSUHSC press release.
Four years later, a memorandum of understanding is signed for a new public-private teaching hospital.
With reports the past weeks of daycare center closings, sidelined football players, and sniffling sorority girls, clearly Louisiana is not immune from H1N1 outbreaks. As of August 17, 2009, Louisiana reports 449 confirmed cases and 1 related death (also in New Orleans) from the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus, aka the Swine Flu.
For local & state information on influenza, visit www.FluLa.com, from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. There you will find weekly statistics and public health updates, as well as flu information for patients in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Clinicians can also access an Online Training Course on local flu preparedness, testing protocols, regional OPH offices, and info from the Louisiana Office of Public Health Lab like the Lab 96 form and instructions for swine flu testing.
For national swine flu information, the CDC is always your best bet: http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
I must admit 3 named storms popping up over this past weekend made me a bit jumpy. Here are local resources on disaster preparedness to help make sure we’re all ready in the event of a storm:
LSUHSC Information
Chancellor’s Memorandum 51: Policy on Weather Related Emergency Procedures for LSUHSC-New Orleans
LSUHSC-NO Emergency Alert System
Parish Information
Jefferson Parish & its Emergency Alert Service
New Orleans & its Emergency Alert Service
St. Bernard Parish
St. Tammany Parish
State Information
Louisiana Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness & its Evacuation Guides
NOLAReady is a service provided by the City of New Orleans Office Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness. “NOLAReady is an alert system that allows City Officials to contact you during an emergency by sending text messages to your:
* E-mail account (work, home, school, etc.)
* Cell phone, pager
* Smart phone or hand held device”
Alerts can be viewed at their webpage and you can select alerts by zipcode.
Caveats: They seem to ask for a lot of personal data and under universities neither LSUHSC or Tulane Med are listed which is odd.
Next week on Wednesday, July 1st the various schools of LSUHSC will be offering screening for high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, lung function, colorectal cancer and oral cancer, as well as vaccinations and education on a variety of health topics. The event will take place from 1 – 6 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal St. It is part of the Congressman Cao AAA Health Care Initiative. For more information, see the official LSUHSC press release.
The city of New Orleans has been chosen as one of the 100 sites for the Healthy Start Program.
According to The Gambit’s Blog of New Orleans, “Healthy Start is a federally-funded initiative that was introduced in 1991 to lower the alarmingly high rate of infant mortality in the United States by addressing the disparity in prenatal care afforded women at different economic levels.”
Take the time to learn more about this great initiative providing prenatal and postnatal care to the women and children of our city.
A new health care program was founded last year by the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation with the support of the the Lt. Governor’s office and LSU Healthcare Network. The Louisiana Cultural Economy Healthcare Initiative functions similarly to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (now in its 11th year) except that it expands coverage to all cultural workers; cultural worker areas include music, film, design, literary, historic preservation, culinary arts, performing arts, visual arts and crafts.
Bikes in the Roman Street Parking Garage. Can you guess which one is mine?
In line with National Physical Fitness Month, May is also deemed National Bike Month by the League of American Bicyclists.
Bicycle commuting is a great way to squeeze regular exercise into a hectic schedule. Commuting time can be used to stay in shape instead of sitting frustrated in traffic. Bicycle commuters get to work on time more often and are happier and more productive. 80% of people who switch from sedentary commuting to cycling improve their heart, lungs and blood vessels greatly in 6-8 weeks, so they get sick much less often.
For a 180 pound man, a 10 mile round trip bike commute burns 400 calories. For a 130-pound woman this same commute burns 300 calories. In fact, children who walk or bicycle to school have higher daily levels of physical activity and better cardiovascular fitness than do children who do not actively commute to school, according to a 2008 article from Preventing Chronic Disease.
Local Bike Links:
New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition: http://www.mbcnola.org/
Includes official bike route maps
Bikely: New Orleans bicycle routes
http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/srchkey/new+orleans/country/254/region/140
Bikely lets you map your own bike paths or search paths others have created. Here’s one for biking Uptown to the Medical district.
New Orleans Bicycle Club: http://www.neworleansbicycleclub.org/
For the local bike racing enthusiast
Rubarb bikes: http://www.rubarbike.org/
Upper 9th ward community bike shop
Plan B: http://www.bikeproject.org/
Community-run bike project that functions as an open workspace for bicycle repair
Nolacycle: http://www.nolacycle.blogspot.com/
Ongoing project aimed to create a high quality cycling map of New Orleans
Bike Polo: http://www.nolabikerace.com/
Not for the faint of heart.
If you’re attending NODA/LDA on April 3 and 4, be sure to visit the dental library booth, number 711 in the Exhibits. Come with questions about library services, searching the dental/biomedical literature in PubMed, and ordering journal articles via Loansome Doc. Searching via PubMed will be demonstrated.
Friday, February 6th is National Wear Red Day, when Americans nationwide wear red to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness.
Around town, local ladies will attend American Heart Association’s annual Go Red for Women luncheon and fashion show. Additionally, Macy’s will give all-day in-store savings & online discounts to customers wearing red February 5-8th.
In Louisiana, 35 percent of all deaths are a result of cardiovascular disease, and more women than men die from heart problems. You can find more information on heart disease in the Louisiana Health Report Card (pdf).
What is your risk for heart disease? Find out with the American Heart Association’s online heart checkup.
Everyone knows to watch out for small children and choking hazards, especially when age recommendations are not followed. As tomorrow (January 6th) is the first day of carnival, it is also the first day of the official King Cake season. Make sure you don’t choke on any plastic babies.
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene concluded their 57th annual meeting in New Orleans this week. Since Louisiana is the home for the Hansen’s Disease Center, it only makes sense that the subject of leprosy might come up. The fact that the disease is considered biblical rather than contemporary was discussed at the meeting this week; mis-diagnosis is a frequent problem which, of course, hampers treatment. The article emphasizes that we do not have an epidemic.
In honor of our unusual weather today, I checked to see if snow is a search term in MEDLINE. And it is in MeSH. Most of the articles in PubMed (when limited to Humans) deal with snow disasters (avalanches and the like). I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that.
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