Commonwealth Conversations: Public Health

Liven Up Your Next Barbeque!

  Kara Ryan, Department of Public Heath

 

Kara Ryan is a Nutrition Education Specialist at DPH

When you think about it, the traditional barbeque is not very colorful—hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, chips—kind of boring huh? When you add colors to your barbeque, not only is it more lively it is actually much healthier too!

Flip something other than burgers. How about chicken breast marinated in light Italian dressing or a lemon pepper seasoning? If burgers are a must, try ground turkey instead of ground beef. If you are hesitant to go all turkey, you can also mix ground turkey in with lean ground beef. There are other options as well such as veggie burgers or grilled marinated Portobello mushrooms that are great served in a bun! Add some veggies to your burger such as tomatoes and lettuce for some color.

Turn over something other than hot dogs. Try chicken sausage kabobs with colorful red peppers, yellow squash, green zucchini, and onions. Chicken sausage comes in a variety of flavors such as roasted pepper and garlic or sun dried tomato and basil. Yum.

Add seafood to your next barbeque. Salmon, halibut and shrimp cook up nicely for a family gathering. All you need to do is marinate the seafood in some olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper and you are good to go.

Instead of pasta or potato salad, try serving a green salad. Anything can go into a green salad such as grapes, diced avocados, or walnuts. Top it off with some balsamic vinegar to avoid the extra fat that is found in salad dressings.

End the day with a fresh fruit salad—watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, blueberries—sweet and colorful! And if you haven’t gotten enough of the BBQ, you can even grill up pineapple, bananas or peaches for a unique desert.

Surprise your guests at your next barbeque with delicious, colorful, and lively foods! It is sure to be a hit!

Do you have any colorful and healthy barbeque ideas? We’d love to hear from you!

State's Second H1N1 Flu-Related Death Announced.

The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health today announced the state's second death linked to H1N1 flu (swine flu).  A statement released by BPHC said that the 84 year-old Boston was hospitalized on June 12 and died six days later, on June 18. Today, his test results came back positive for novel H1N1 flu.  The patient had several serious underlying health conditions which placed him at high risk of complications from the flu. 

"While we have seen recent evidence of flu-like illness decreasing in Massachusetts, this tragic case underscores that we are still seeing person-to-person spread of the virus," said DPH Commissioner John Auerbach.  "That is why it is so important for everyone to practice the prevention measures that we know can reduce the spread of illness."

Certain groups are at higher risk of complications from the flu.  These groups include children under the age of 2, adults over 65, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, and heart disease.  These people should call their doctor immediately to discuss appropriate treatment if they develop a fever with a cough, sore throat, or runny nose.

Massachusetts residents are reminded to take the following steps to reduce their risk of illness:

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, or cough into your inner elbow and not into your hands.
• If you are sick stay home from work, and if your child is sick keep them home from school for 7 days, or 24 hours after symptoms resolve -- whichever is longer.
• Stay informed about the latest developments on the H1N1 flu by visiting www.mass.gov/dph.

Prediabetes: La oportunidad de mantenerte saludable

Posted by:
Terri Mendoza, Department of Public Health

 

Terri es la Directora del Programa para la prevención y el control de la diabetes.

¿Un poco de azúcar?  ¿Casi diabético?  ¿Tu médico te ha dicho que tienes algo de esto? De ser así, lo más probable es que tengas prediabetes.  Pero hay buenas noticias: puedes hacer algunos cambios simples ya mismo para dilatar o evitar completamente el desarrollo de la diabetes.

Lo que debes saber:
 
¿Qué es la prediabetes?
La prediabetes ocurre cuando el nivel de azúcar en la sangre está alto, pero no lo suficientemente alto para recibir un diagnóstico de diabetes. 
 
¿Por qué me debe preocupar la prediabetes?
Porque las personas que tienen prediabetes son más propensas a tener diabetes en un periodo de 10 años y tienen más probabilidades de tener ataques de corazón o ataques cerebrales.
 
¿Cómo saber si tienes prediabetes?
Las personas con prediabetes típicamente no tienen síntomas.  Sólo puedes saber si tienes prediabetes por medio de un análisis de sangre. Si tienes 45 años o más, debes hacerte la prueba para saber si tiene prediabetes. Si tienes menos de 45 años y tienes sobrepeso o eres obeso, y tienes uno de los siguientes factores de riesgo, pídele a tu médico que te haga un examen para la diabetes:
 

• Haces actividad física menos de tres veces por semana.
• Tienes la presión alta (hipertensión).
• Tu nivel de colesterol no es normal [un nivel del colesterol bueno (HDL) mayor que 35 mg/dL o un nivel de triglicéridos más bajo que 250 mg/dL].
• Eres latino, de origen africano, nativo de América, asiático o isleño del pacifico.
• Tienes padres o hermanos diabéticos.
• Diste a luz a un bebé que pesó más de nueve libras o tuviste diabetes gestacional (diabetes que apareció durante tu embarazo pero tal vez desapareció después de que diste a luz).
• Has tenido niveles altos de azúcar en la sangre en el pasado.
• Tienes ciertos problemas de salud, como problemas en los vasos sanguíneos, Síndrome de Ovario Poliquístico (SOP o PCOS, por sus siglas en inglés) o acantosis nigricans.

Lo que puedes hacer:
 
Cuidar tu peso:
Si tienes sobrepeso, bajar de 5 a 7 por ciento de tu peso corporal puede ayudar.  Por ejemplo, una persona de 200 libras puede reducir su riesgo de contraer diabetes bajando de 10 a 14 libras.  Comer una variedad de frutas y vegetales, carnes sin grasa, productos lácteos descremados y cereales integrales te ayudará a perder esas libras de forma segura.
 
Moverte más:
Hacer 150 minutos de actividad física por semana, o 30 minutos diariamente por 5 días cada semana, te puede ayudar a bajar de peso y mantenerte saludable. Ahora con el clima cálido es agradable salir a dar una vuelta, andar en bicicleta, jugar fútbol o béisbol, nadar, bailar, patinar… en fin, ¡puedes hacer un montón de cosas! 
 
Seguir chequeando:
Es importante controlar tu nivel de azúcar en sangre. Si tienes prediabetes, pídele a tu médico que te haga un control anual para certificarse de que tu nivel de azúcar no esté aumentando.

Weekly Report on Novel H1N1 Influenza (swine flu) as of June 25, 2009. Influenza-like Illness Appears to be Ebbing in Baystate.

This Week’s Developments:
Perhaps the biggest development of the week is that many schools in Massachusetts have completed the year and have let out for summer break.  Given that school-aged children are disproportionately impacted by H1N1 flu, schools felt the brunt of this outbreak and did a very admirable job of managing its impact, while at the same time staying focused on the educational needs of their students.

Now that school has let out, the focus on prevention and limiting the spread of illness will shift to community settings, and places where school-age children will spend their time this summer.  We continue to update guidance documents, such as recommendations to camp professionals, to ensure that camps have all the information that they need to reduce the risk of illness in campers and staff.  We do expect that there will be cases identified at camps and plan to work closely with them to minimize the spread of illness.  

Update on Massachusetts:
For the first time since this outbreak began, we are seeing indications in our surveillance data that the number of people seeking care for influenza-like-illness is dropping in Massachusetts.  The CDC has reported that the New England Region and the New York regions continue to see elevated influenza-like illness activity.  In our state, although we see a trend downward, we continue to see person-to-person spread of the H1N1 flu virus, and the level of influenza activity is still higher than normal for this time of year.

Advocating for Active Living in Your Community, Part 2

Posted by:
Maya Mohan, Department of Public Health

Maya is the Physical Activity Coordinator for DPH.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about how our environment can either help or hinder our ability to be active or eat healthfully.  Today, I want to talk about two things you can do right now to assess your own environment:  check out how “walkable” and “bikeable” they are. 

“Walkability” and “bikeability” are phrases that refer to how safe, appealing and connected a neighborhood is for walking and biking, respectively. Safety and appeal are pretty self-explanatory, but let me explain what I mean by “connected.” It’s important that the roads and paths we walk and bike on are connected to public transportation, grocery stores, schools, parks, and places we do our everyday business, like the dry cleaners, post office, and banks, just to name a few. 

Think about this…  If you could walk or bike to get your kids to school (get them on their bikes too!), go to work, and run your errands instead of driving, you’d lower your carbon footprint, save money on gas/parking/tickets/other car related stuff, AND sneak in some good ole’ activity!  In other words, a thoughtfully designed walkable and bikeable neighborhood not only impacts our health for the better, but can have positive economic and environmental effects as well.   

Of course, there are whole career tracks and professions designed around making communities easier to walk and bike in, but there are a couple of really easy, informal audits that you and your family can do right in your own neighborhood.  Today, even.   

Check out these walkability and bikeability checklists.  They are really easy to fill out - just 5 questions for the walkability one, and 7 for the bikeability list!  After you fill out the checklist, you’ll see some steps that you can take right now to improve those conditions, and some steps that will take a little bit longer than “right now.”  Get a bunch of friends together to do a few of these audits in different areas of your neighborhood.  Then, try some of the short-, and long-term action steps listed at the end of the audits.  And voila!  You, my friend, are now becoming a walking and bicycling advocate in your own community!      

WalkBoston and MassBike are two organizations that work hard to make sure our communities are walkable and bikeable.  But they can’t do it alone.  If each one of us took a small piece of our neighborhood, did one of these quick checklists and tried just one of the action steps… well, image the changes we could collectively make!      

So, I urge you to pick a route that you walk or bike on a regular basis, take a friend along with you, and try one (or both!) of the checklists.  Oh, and don’t forget to let me know how it goes!     

Share on Facebook.

 

Public Health Advisory: FDA & CDC Warn Consumers Not to Eat Nestle Toll House Prepackaged, Refrigerated Cookie Dough

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) are warning consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a type of bacteria that causes food borne illness).   Nestlé USA’s Baking Division initiated a voluntary recall of Nestlé® TOLL HOUSE® refrigerated cookie dough products on June 19, 2009 http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm167954.htm.

The FDA advises that consumers should throw away any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their home.  Cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces.

The warning is based on an ongoing epidemiological study conducted by the CDC and several state and local health departments. Since March 2009 there have been 65 reports of illness across 28 states. Four cases have been reported in Massachusetts.

These four cases range in age from 15 to 25 years, and reported becoming ill between 4/26/09 and 5/29/09. The cases occurred in Middlesex, Essex and Worcester counties. Two of the four cases reported eating the recalled product during their incubation period. Interviews with the remaining two cases are ongoing. All four cases were hospitalized but have fully recovered.

E. coli O157:H7 is a type of bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, the elderly and persons with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness.

Anyone with signs or symptoms of foodborne illness should consult their health care provider, local board of health, the DPH Epidemiology Program at 617-983-6800 or the DPH Food Protection Program at 617-983-6712.

For a complete list of recalled Nestle products, click HERE.

Click here for the DPH Factsheet on E. coli O157:H7.

Here's an ABC News report on the recall: Download Transcript of ABC News report

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This blog is not meant to provide an exhaustive list of recalls for food or consumer products.  For a more comprehensive list visit www.recalls.gov.

Weekly Report on Novel H1N1 Influenza (swine flu) as of June 18, 2009.

This Week’s Developments:
A very sad development this week was the announcement on Monday of the state's first H1N1-related death, a Boston resident in her thirties.  As of today, the CDC has reported 44 deaths and more than 17,000 confirmed cases of H1N1. 

Any death related to the flu is tragic, especially when it involves a young person.  While the vast majority of patients affected by H1N1 flu have recovered after mild illness, this death is a reminder of how serious any case of influenza can be for some people (see the list below for high risk populations).

Pregnant women are a group of people that are at higher risk of complications from the flu.  To underscore that fact, DPH today issued a clinical advisory reminding health care providers throughout the state to be especially vigilant in their diagnosis and treatment of pregnant patients.  The advisory stressed the importance of early treatment with antiviral therapy of pregnant women who seek care because of influenza-like illness.

Boston anuncia la primera muerte relacionada con la influenza H1N1 en el Estado

La Comisión de Salud Pública de Boston (BPHC, por sus siglas en inglés) junto al Departamento de Salud Pública de Massachusetts anunció ayer la primera muerte relacionada con la influenza H1N1 (gripe porcina). Un enunciado emitido por BPHC afirmó que la persona falleció el domingo, tenía 30 años de edad y era residente de Boston. Descargue el documento “2009_06-15 First H1N1 Death in Boston”.

Hasta el 11 de junio había 1153 casos confirmados de influenza H1N1 en Massachusetts, y 80 personas en el Estado habían sido hospitalizadas desde el inicio del brote. Pese a que la mayoría de los casos de la gripe H1N1 en Massachusetts ha sido menos severo, este es un evento trágico que nos recuerda la seriedad de la influenza para algunas personas.

Ciertas personas corren mayor riesgo de tener complicaciones como consecuencia de la gripe: Los niños menores de 2 años de edad, los adultos mayores de 65 años, las embarazadas y las personas que padecen enfermedades crónicas como asma, diabetes y enfermedades de corazón. Estas personas deberían llamar a su médico inmediatamente ante síntomas como fiebre acompañada de tos, dolor de garganta o goteo nasal.

Les recordamos a los todos los residentes del Estado que tomen las precauciones siguientes:

• Lavarse las manos con frecuencia con agua y jabón o usar un desinfectante para manos a base de alcohol
• Cubrirse la boca al toser o estornudar con el antebrazo o con un pañuelo desechable, no con la mano
• Si se enferma, no vaya al trabajo. Si su niño se enferma, no lo mande a la escuela. Déjelo en casa por 7 días o por 24 hrs tras haberse aliviado sus síntomas –cualquiera de las dos opciones que sea más larga.
• Manténgase informado sobre la información más reciente sobre la influenza H1N1 visitando www.mass.gov/dph.

 

FDA advierte a consumidores sobre el uso de ciertos tipos de remedios para la gripe marca Zicam

La Administración de Fármacos y Alimentos de Estados Unidos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) emitió hoy, 6 de junio, un aviso instando a consumidores a no tomar ciertos remedios para la gripe y el resfrío marca Zicam. Haga clic en el siguiente enlace para ver el aviso:  http://tinyurl.com/mjbygd.

La agencia informa que ha recibido más de 130 informes de personas que dicen haber perdido el sentido del olfato con relación al uso de tres líneas del popular producto de venta sin receta. En el aviso que publicó la FDA se puede encontrar un formulario en línea, para quejas para que consumidores y profesionales de la salud informen reacciones adversas al uso de estos productos.

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Este blog no tiene como objetivo proveer una lista completa de productos o alimentos retirados del mercado. Para obtener una lista más completa, visite www.recalls.gov.

FDA advises consumers not to use certain Zicam cold remedies

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an advisory telling consumers not to use certain Zicam cold remedies.  The FDA advisory issued today (6/16) can be found by clicking this link:  http://tinyurl.com/mjbygd

The agency says that it has received more than 130 reports of loss of sense of smell associated with three product lines of the popular over-the-counter remedy.  In its advisory, the FDA also provides an online complaint form for consumers and health care providers to report adverse reactions to the use of these products. 

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This blog is not meant to provide an exhaustive list of recalls for food or consumer products.  For a more comprehensive list visit www.recalls.gov.