Un-Sparktacular Celebration

Fireworks and celebrations go together. Remember, fireworks can cause serious burn and eye injuries. Find out how to prevent these injuries.

Please watch this video: http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Newsroom/Multimedia/?vid=65304

Although fireworks are a fun and exciting way to celebrate our nation’s freedom, they can also be harmful or even deadly if not used properly. According to Fireworksafety.com, malfunction and careless use of fireworks result in nearly 10,000 injuries every year. More than 65 percent of all fireworks-related injuries occur during the month of July. Of those, more than half are to the hands, fingers, and eyes. The most common fireworks that cause injury are firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, fountains, and sparklers that are legal in many states.

This year let’s bring down that number of injuries by following these safety tips:

1. Never use fireworks in your home. Always set them off outside on a driveway or sidewalk.
2. Obey local laws. If fireworks are not legal where you live, do not use them.
3. Always have water handy. (A hose or bucket).
4. Be aware of other people around you and make sure they are out of range of the firework you are using.
5. Never point or shoot fireworks at another person.
6. Use common sense. Spectators should keep a safe distance from the shooter and the shooter should wear safety glasses.
7. Do not try to re-ignite a “dud” as it could explode near your hands or face.
8. Only light one at a time.
9. Do not try to make your own fireworks.
10. NEVER drink and use fireworks at the same time!

Remember to make smart decisions when using fireworks and to take proper precautions as indicated on the labels. If you or someone with you is injured due to fireworks, seek immediate help or dial 911. Fireworks safety is in your hands, and it is your responsibility as a Soldier to not risk injury. Let us make it through this Independence Day weekend with no injuries to our Soldiers!

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, “June is National Fireworks Safety Month” http://www.cdc/ website. Accessed February 4, 2016. http://www.army.mil/article/58519/June_is_National_Fireworks_Safety_Month/

© Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This content is strictly for informational purposes and although experts have prepared it, the reader should not substitute this information for professional insurance advice. If you have any questions, please consult your insurance professional before acting on any information presented. Read more.

Dear Valued Customer,

June is National Fireworks Safety Month. According to Fireworksafety.com, malfunction and careless use of fireworks result in nearly 10,000 injuries every year. In this issue of the “———————-“ we’re focused on providing some safety tips so can bring down that number of injuries.

The thrill of fireworks can also bring pain. 230 people on average go the emergency room every day with fireworks-related injuries in the month around the July 4th holiday.

Remember to make smart decisions when using fireworks and to take proper precautions as indicated on the labels. If you or someone with you is injured due to fireworks, seek immediate help or dial 9-1-1. Read on for more important information.

We appreciate your continued business and look forward to serving you.

Kind regards,

You can help prevent stroke by making healthy lifestyle choices. A healthy lifestyle includes the following:

• Eating a healthy diet.
• Maintaining a healthy weight.
• Getting enough exercise.
• Not smoking.
• Limiting alcohol use.

Healthy Diet

Choosing healthy meal and snack options can help you avoid stroke and its complications. Be sure to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Eating foods low in saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol and high in fiber can help prevent high cholesterol. Limiting salt (sodium) in your diet also can lower your blood pressure.

For more information on healthy diet and nutrition, see CDC’s Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Program Web site.

Healthy Weight

Being overweight or obese increases your risk for stroke. To determine whether your weight is in a healthy range, doctors often calculate your body mass index (BMI). If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI at CDC’s Assessing Your Weight Web site. Doctors sometimes also use waist and hip measurements to measure excess body fat.

Physical Activity

Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure levels. For adults, the Surgeon General recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, like brisk walking or bicycling, every week. Children and adolescents should get 1 hour of physical activity every day.

For more information, see CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Web site.

No Smoking

Cigarette smoking greatly increases your risk for stroke. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, quitting will lower your risk for stroke. Your doctor can suggest ways to help you quit.

For more information about tobacco use and quitting, see CDC’s Smoking & Tobacco Use Web site.

Limited Alcohol

Avoid drinking too much alcohol, which can raise your blood pressure. Men should have no more than 2 drinks per day, and women only 1. For more information, visit CDC’s Alcohol and Public Health Web site.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Preventing Stroke: Healthy Living ” http://www.cdc/ website. Accessed February 3, 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/stroke_awareness_month.htm

© Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This content is strictly for informational purposes and although experts have prepared it, the reader should not substitute this information for professional insurance advice. If you have any questions, please consult your insurance professional before acting on any information presented. Read more.

F.A.S.T. is an easy way to remember the sudden signs of stroke. When you can spot the signs, you’ll know that you need to call 9-1-1 for help right away. F.A.S.T. is:

F: Face Drooping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person’s smile uneven?

A: Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

S: Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred? Is the person unable to speak or hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence, like “The sky is blue.” Is the sentence repeated correctly?

T: Time to call 9-1-1 – If someone shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get the person to the hospital immediately. Check the time so you’ll know when the first symptoms appeared.

The F-A-S-T concept if from the American Heart Association, Inc.

© Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This content is strictly for informational purposes and although experts have prepared it, the reader should not substitute this information for professional insurance advice. If you have any questions, please consult your insurance professional before acting on any information presented. Read more.

Strokes can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. Learn how to safeguard yourself against stroke.

Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke. In 2008 alone, more than 133,000 Americans died from stroke—or one person every four minutes—died from stroke, making it the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

A stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, occurs when a blockage stops the flow of blood to the brain or when a blood vessel in or around the brain bursts. Although many people think of stroke as a condition that affects only older adults, strokes can and do occur in people of all ages. In fact, nearly a quarter of all strokes occur in people younger than age 65.

Each year, almost 800,000 strokes occur in the United States. Strokes often lead to serious, life-changing complications that include

• Paralysis or weakness on one side of the body.
• Problems with thinking, awareness, attention, learning, judgment, and memory.
• Problems understanding or forming speech.
• Difficulty controlling or expressing emotions.
• Numbness or strange sensations.
• Pain in the hands and feet.
• Depression.

To help protect yourself and your loved ones, learn what steps you can take to prevent a stroke and how to spot a stroke if one occurs.

Lowering Your Risk for Stroke

Demographic factors such as family history, age, sex, and race/ethnicity can all play a role in an individual’s stroke risk. Regardless of your background, however, there are several things you can do to lower your chances of having a stroke.

For example, cigarette smoking contributes to one in every five strokes in the United States. Smoking—and even exposure to second-hand smoke—can thicken the blood and make it more likely to clot. Thicker blood flow can lead to increased plaque buildup in your arteries and damage to the blood vessels leading to the brain, which can cause or worsen a stroke. So, quit smoking—or better yet, don’t start.

In 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Million Hearts™ initiative to prevent a million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. A primary focus is on the ABCS to prevent cardiovascular disease, including stroke, and contribute to overall health:

• Know your ABCS of health:
  • Appropriate Aspirin therapy: Ask your doctor if taking aspirin is right for you.
  • Blood pressure control: Keeping your blood pressure under control reduces your risk of heart attack and stroke. More than half of the world’s stroke deaths are caused by elevated blood pressure levels.
  • Cholesterol management: Get your cholesterol checked regularly and manage it with diet and physical activity or with medication, if needed.
  • Smoking cessation: Get help at 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
• Exercise regularly.
• Eat a healthy diet that’s low in sodium.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Prevent or control diabetes.
• Limit your alcohol intake (fewer than two drinks per day for men, or one drink per day for women).

Recognizing the Signs of Stroke

When responding to a stroke, every minute counts. The sooner a patient receives medical treatment, the lower the risk for death or disability. If you or someone you know exhibits the following signs or symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately.

• Numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding.
• Trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance and coordination.
• Severe headache with no known cause.

Remember, getting immediate medical attention for stroke is crucial to preventing disability and death, so don’t delay—dial 9-1-1.

To learn more about reducing your risk for stroke, visit Million Hearts™ , a national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes over 5 years.

Publications

• 2008 Atlas of Stroke Hospitalizations Among Medicare Beneficiaries
• Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke Among American Indians and Alaska Natives
• Awareness of Stroke Warning Symptoms—13 States and the District of Columbia, 2005
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 2008;57:481–485.
• QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Death Rates from Stroke for Persons Aged >18 Years—United States, 2007–2009
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 2011
• QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Death Rate from Stroke, by All Races, White or Black Race, and Sex—United States, 1999–2008
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 2011
• Successful Business Strategies to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke Toolkit
• Use of a Registry to Improve Acute Stroke Care—Seven States, 2005−2009
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 2011

Podcasts Related to Heart Disease and Stroke

• Tips from Former Smokers—Suzy
  Avid traveler Suzy discusses how her smoking habit contributed to her stroke and how her resulting disability has changed her life.
  Date released: 3/15/2012
• A Cup of Health with CDC: Maintain Your Brain
  Dr. Amy Valderrama discusses what causes strokes and what can be done to help prevent them.
  Date released: 11/3/2011
• A Cup of Health with CDC: Step Away from Tobacco
  Tobacco use is a major contributing cause of stroke. In this podcast, Dr. Judy Kruger discusses the dangers of tobacco use and provides advice on how to quit.
  Date released: 5/26/2011
• CDC: Heart Disease and Stroke in Women
  This podcast focuses on heart disease and stroke’s impact on women and discusses how these conditions can be prevented.
  Date released: 5/11/2009

Other Resources Related to Stroke

• The Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry
• American Heart Association
• American Stroke Association
• Brain Attack Coalition
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• National Stroke Association

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, “May is National Stroke Awareness Month” http://www.cdc/ website. Accessed February 3, 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/stroke_awareness_month.htm

© Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This content is strictly for informational purposes and although experts have prepared it, the reader should not substitute this information for professional insurance advice. If you have any questions, please consult your insurance professional before acting on any information presented. Read more.

Dear Valued Customer,

May is National Stroke Awareness Month. During this month we recognize that strokes are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

Each year, almost 800,000 strokes occur in the United States. Strokes often lead to serious, life-changing complications. We are focusing this issue of “———————-“ on providing more information about how to safeguard yourself and your loved ones.

Please remember that when responding to a stroke, every minute counts. The sooner a patient receives medical treatment, the lower the risk for death or disability. If you or someone you know exhibits the following signs or symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately. Please read on for more important information.

We appreciate your continued business and look forward to serving you.

Kind regards,

March is National Nutrition Month. Read about a National Center of Environmental Health study that measured trans fatty acids in blood.

CDC study shows notable decrease in the levels of trans-fatty acids in the blood.

To reduce your intake of trans fatty acids, choose foods with either no trans fats or the lowest amounts of trans fats.

As the old saying goes, you are what you eat. The problem is that sometimes the things we eat can increase the levels of trans-fatty acids we have in our bloodstreams. Trans-fatty acids can increase a person’s “bad” cholesterol levels, or LDL. Researchers indicate higher LDL, or “bad” cholesterol can lead to cardiovascular disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed and used a new method to measure the levels of trans-fatty acids in our blood. Dr. Hubert Vesper, a research chemist in CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), led the development of the new method.

Vesper published results from a study using the new method in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February 2012. In the study, Vesper and his team found a 58% drop from 2000 to 2009 in the trans-fatty acids levels in the blood levels of participants

“It’s the first study of its kind,” Vesper says. Vesper says he and his team measured four types of trans-fatty acids: elaidic acids, vaccenic acids, linoelaidic acids and palmitelaidic acids. He says the results indicate progress that’s been made in recent years to educate the public on the health risks of trans fats.

The new method to measure trans-fatty acids was used in the JAMA-published study of the blood samples of fasting white adults who participated in CDC’s 2000 and 2009 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Vesper says that state health departments have taken steps to reduce the amount of trans fats in foods and to distribute information on the health risks. These increased efforts coincide with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2003 mandate that requires food and dietary supplement manufacturers to list the amount of trans-fatty acids that are in their products on the nutrition information labels.

“The decrease in trans-fatty acids in the blood could be related to the ongoing efforts to educate the public about trans fats,” Vesper says.

Vesper says more trans-fatty acid studies using the new method are coming with participants from other population segments, including ethnic groups, young children, and adolescents.

According to FDA, trans fat is a specific type of fat that is formed when liquid oils are turned into solid fats, such as shortening or stick margarine. During this process—called hydrogenation—manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil to increase the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. The result of the process is trans fat.

Trans fat can be found in many of the same foods as saturated fat. These can include crackers, cookies, cakes, frozen pies, and other baked goods, snack foods (such as microwave popcorn), frozen pizza, fast food, vegetable shortenings, and stick margarines, coffee creamer, refrigerated dough products (such as biscuits and cinnamon rolls), and ready-to-use frostings.

March is National Nutrition Month. To find out if Americans are getting enough nutrients, NCEH’s Division of Laboratory Sciences tested blood and urine samples collected by CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The results may surprise you.

CDC’S Second Nutrition Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition found 9 out of 10 people in the U.S. are indeed getting enough of some important vitamins and nutrients. These include vitamins such as folate (important for brain and spine development during pregnancy) and vitamin D (needed for good bone health); and trace elements like iron (important to avoid anemia) and iodine (important for brain development during pregnancy). The report presents nutrition data by age, sex, and race/ethnicity to see if certain population groups have poorer nutrition status than others.

CDC’s Division of Laboratory Sciences in the National Center for Environmental Health measured 58 nutrition indicators in blood and urine samples collected from people who took part in CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The report includes data from 1999-2006. These measurements are vital because they show whether the total intake of nutrients from food and vitamin supplements is too low, too high, or enough. The findings don’t necessarily suggest that people have healthy and balanced diets.

While the CDC report provides a favorable snapshot of the nation’s overall nutrition status, some groups still need to get more vitamin D, iron, and iodine. For instance, over 30 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have low levels of Vitamin D; women age 20 to 39 – those most likely to become pregnant – have lower iodine levels than any age group; and Mexican-American and non-Hispanic black women are two times more likely to have low levels of iron than non-Hispanic white women.

“Research suggests that good nutrition can help lower people’s risk for many chronic diseases. But the deficiency rates in some age and race/ethnic groups are a concern and need additional attention,” said Christine Pfeiffer, Ph.D., a lead researcher in the Division of Laboratory Sciences.

CDC/NCEH has completed an infographic to highlight the findings of the report and provide continual awareness to the population groups needing to improve vitamin and nutrient levels.

In 2013, The Journal of Nutrition also offered a special supplement on the initial and additional findings from the report.

CDC’s report is the second in a series of publications that provide an ongoing assessment of the U.S. population’s nutrition status.

For more information and materials on the Second Nutrition Report or to listen to the At-A-Glance podcast, visit DLS Nutrition Report webpage.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, “May is National Stroke Awareness Month” http://www.cdc/ website. Accessed February 3, 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/stroke_awareness_month.htm

© Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This content is strictly for informational purposes and although experts have prepared it, the reader should not substitute this information for professional insurance advice. If you have any questions, please consult your insurance professional before acting on any information presented. Read more.