It’s the new year and many of you will be on the road to stopping smoking already. Many more of you will have made tentative attempts at the start of the new year but have reverted to smoking again.
Regular readers of this blog will know that several of our staff tried to stop smoking using Champix, with mixed results. While we would never advocate smoking, we know how hard it is to admit defeat when you try and fail to quit the weed.
Enter researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with some timely insights into smoking that will help you feel less guilty. They have discovered that quitting smoking may actually raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately it doesn’t let smokers who try and fail off the hook entirely though.
The increased risk is only in the short term and is linked with increased weight. Reading between the lines our take on this is….
If you stop smoking and start eating tons of chocolate and sweets instead you are at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
If you stop smoking and your waist size increases by 1 and 1/4 inches then you have a 42% higher risk of developing diabetes - over 9 years.
Still, Diabetes is a lot more palatable than cancer or heart disease. Also, if you allow your weight to balloon slightly when you first quit, then by losing it again within a reasonably short time frame you should negate most of the risk.
You could always kill two birds with one stone and join a gym at the same time as stopping smoking! (it is necessary to actually go to the gym too - just joining up does not work)
According to VHI Chief Executive Jimmy Tolan, 2009 has not been a good year for the VHI. The loss of 120,00 customers and losses of €80 million are not the sum total of the beleaguered Healthcare Insurance company.
The year ends with the VHI having more customers over the age of 60 than it did at the start of the year. Mr Tolan also ascertains that €170 million will be lost by the end of the year in servicing the needs of those customers who are over 60.
The health insurance industry in general has had a hard time, 40,000 less customers than this time last year. This is not surprising given the economic situation, with so many people no longer able to afford private health insurance.
What it does point out though is that the VHI are losing ground badly to their competitors. Even if every customer lost to the industry as a whole had been with VHI, the figures suggest that the VHI would still be hemorrhaging a whopping 80,000 customers to their competitors. This figure must be significantly higher, since not all the 40,000 who are no longer insured privately were with VHI.
2010 does not look promising. With more people forced to abandon their policies, and a further bleeding of the customer base to competitors, the situation looks bleak for the VHI.
What the figures show is that younger people have been attracted away to competing Health insurers. This gives them a competitive advantage, with younger age profiles costing less than older profiles.
We were being serious in an earlier post this week about the need for Santa to also be vaccinated for the H1N1 as he is at serious risk.
Imagine the amount of children who will be sitting on his knee this year?
In hot stuffy shopping centres across the country with queues a mile long!
The Swine Flu is highly contagious and can be passed by touch and contact.
Although Santa normally wears gloves, he may remove them when hot.
The H1N1 vaccinations take 3-4 weeks and it is less then 4 weeks now to Christmas.
We have appealed to Mary Harney - Minister for Health to help this Santa appeal to protect our children and him.
With all the tragic stories of flooding, economic downturn and looming budget, please don’t let anything happen to Santa.
We have just started a facebook petition. If you have children who will be in contact with Santa this year sign up! All you have to do is click on the “become a fan” button on the Immunise Santa Facebook page.
Santa protesting that he should be immunised againse swine flu
Santa has made a good case for being classed as a priority for swine flu vaccination.
He cited the fact that he comes into close contact with millions of children in the run up to Christmas in grottos all over the world, and added that he personally handles all the presents he delivers on Christmas Eve.
Santa has also made a plea that his elves also be immunised against Swine Flu as a matter of urgency.
The H1N1 swine flu virus is extremely contagious. Given that children are already classified as an at risk group it makes sense that Santa and his helpers be immunised as a matter of urgency.
Jackie Brown Medical are calling on Minister of Health Mary Harney to address this situation immediately.
There is hard evidence all around us currently of the effects of stress -
Insomnia
Sore neck
Back pain
Bad posture
Marriage break ups
Headache
Nausea
Suicide
The list is endless and all of us know someone or are falling victim ourselves of this stress spreading across our lives.
I have tried many methods of therapy for back pain and stress relief, being a Nurse and now a Business owner, stress is a part of my daily life.
None of the methods I have tried are complete, life changing or inexpensive.
There is one method I have recently been exposed to which I would highly reccommend for a longer lasting and inexpensive dramatic change to stress management -
This is not something you need to attend every week that will cost an arm and a leg - it can be a one off class followed up with a home based training session via the DVD -
It’s Friday and the weekend is near - a psychological avantage for those in the Corporate sector - but do remember, no matter how fast your fast lane is, do not underestimate the important of ‘Time out’.
Time out is something we do little of these days as the economic decline increases the pessimism and negativity all around us.
Everyone is worried about the up and coming budget and still reeling from the effects of the last one.
Common questions - how do I meet my deadlines, pay the bills, feed the kids - is my job safe?
We all suffer from bad Time Management and as we can’t find the ‘time’ to do things, how do we find the ‘time’ to have ‘time out’?
Allocate it - it is more important then anything else.
We all need to quickly learn to get out of the fast lane and slow down - even if it is 5 minutes a day.
This is a reality check on today’s society and can become all consuming, if we do not take the important step of having some ‘Time out’, we could get very swallowed up by all the doom and gloom.
It is a well known cliché, if you do not look after yourself, you will be no good for anyone else you look after.
Be it a walk with the dog, a trip in the car, a latté with friends or a good auld chin wag, it has to be done as stress is a killer and builds up tension slowly and dangerously.
Right now there are 1.4 million people worldwide suffering from Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI’s).
What is a HAI? Healtcare Associated Infections are infections that are picked up while receiving treatment for some other condition. This is usually in a hospital setting, but is not confined to hospitals alone. Doctors Surgeries, Nursing and Care homes and Clinics are all prone to spreading infectious diseases.
You will be familiar with the names of Healthcare Associated Infections.
MRSA
VRSA
C.Diff
Pneumonia (VAP - Ventilator Associated Pneumonia)
What they all have in common is that they can be picked up in Healthcare settings and are difficult to treat.
They are also relatively easy to prevent. It all comes down to Hygiene. Top of the Hygiene list is Hand Washing. It is such a simple thing, but a lack of proper hand washing by patients, relatives and healthcare professionals is attributed to a high percentage of HAI cases.
The above handwashing demo is aimed at kids. What it pointed out to me is that there really is no excuse for us growed ups to be spreading HAI’s as a result of improper hand washing.
Are Healthcare Associated Infections really that serious? Well in 2002 98,987 people died from them in the United States. Here in Ireland we do not have good or accurate figures. So yes, it is an extremely serious.
Kimberly-Clark have started a campaign called “Not on My Watch“, which is a prevention and education campaign. Follow the link and I will update this post when I have more details about the campaign in Ireland.
Time and good time keeping is crucial! In todays employment market where being on time and meeting people who have even less time than you is a trait not to be underestimated or undervalued. Your next prospective employer may decide on meeting you again at second interview purely on the basis of your ability to meet at the agreed interview time. If you can’t do that what else can you not do?
Stephen Hawking wrote a Brief History of Time; if you get your time keeping wrong in todays employment climate your career prospects could be even briefer.
