Healthy People in a Healthy Community
Join the Movement

The Surgeon General’s Healthy People 2010 initiative aims to improve the health of all Americans, and we are all invited to participate.

For many people, exercising regularly, consistently eating a proper diet, and getting enough sleep are continually skipped on the “to do” list. As we juggle the challenges life throws at us, we may forget the importance of taking care of our minds and bodies. Even if we know what we should be doing for our health, many of us just don’t get around to doing it.

One of the goals of the Messenger is to help you take good care of yourself by giving you current information and sound advice. That’s why, in this issue, we are pleased to introduce to you a nationwide initiative to improve the health of all Americans. It’s called Healthy People 2010, and we can all participate.

Roadmap to a better, longer life
The Healthy People initiative was started by the Surgeon General more than 25 years ago and updated in 2000 with two overarching goals for the first decade of the century: to increase the quality and years of healthy life of all Americans and to eliminate disparities in health status. The initiative identifies 10 high-priority national health issues, called Leading Health Indicators, and provides a roadmap to help us make progress in those areas.

Get on board
You can be a part of the Healthy People 2010 initiative. Start with yourself—eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, avoid tobacco, and stay informed. Then involve your family—keep your children’s vaccinations up to date and support the efforts of your loved ones to stay healthy (see Health News for some specific ways to be supportive). Next, see what you can do to help your community, whether by joining an anti-meth campaign, preventing domestic violence, or financially supporting health services for low-income people.

Why Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle?
Doing all those things you know you ought to be doing will make you feel better—both physically and emotionally. For starters, regular exercise and a proper diet will lower your risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

The right combination of diet, exercise, and sleep helps us cope with stress and maintain a positive outlook. “We often don’t consider the effects of the psycho-spiritual connection in terms of healthy living,” says Daniel I. Newman, M.D., Emergency Room physician at West Valley Hospital in Dallas, “but having a good attitude is extremely important to your overall health.”

A healthy lifestyle will also help you maintain your independence as you get older. “As we age, a proper diet and regular exercise become increasingly important,” says Armande Ritter, a registered nurse and long-time fitness instructor, “because they allow us to live our lives free from pain and unhindered by inflexibility.”

If you need more reasons—or motivation—to climb aboard the Healthy People bandwagon, read on. The articles in this issue of the Messenger offer lots of ideas and inspiration that will help you finally get to those health-related items on your “to do” list. Learn more about Healthy People 2010 at www.healthypeople.gov.

Leading Health Indicators

Healthy People 2010 challenges individuals, communities, and professionals—indeed, all of us—to take specific steps to ensure that good health, as well as long life, are enjoyed by all.

To help everyone understand the most important changes we can make to improve our health as well as the health of our families and communities, the initiative identifies 10 high-priority public health issues. Why are these ten the most important? Read on...

Physical activity
Regular physical activity throughout life is important for maintaining a healthy body, enhancing psychological well-being, and preventing premature death.

Overweight and obesity
Overweight and obesity are major contributors to many preventable causes of death. On average, higher body weights are associated with higher death rates. The number of overweight children, adolescents, and adults has risen over the past four decades. Total costs (medical and lost productivity) attributable to obesity alone amounted to an estimated $99 billion in 1995.

Tobacco use
Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. Smoking results in more deaths each year in the United States than AIDS, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, homicide, suicide, motor vehicle crashes, and fires—combined.

Tobacco-related deaths number more than 430,000 per year among U.S. adults, representing more than 5 million years of potential life lost. Direct medical costs attributable to smoking total at least $50 billion per year.

Substance abuse
Alcohol and illicit drug use are associated with many of this country’s most serious problems, including violence, injury, and HIV infection. The annual economic costs to the United States from alcohol abuse were estimated to be $167 billion in 1995, and the costs from drug abuse were estimated to be $110 billion.

Responsible sexual behavior
Unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including infection with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, can result from unprotected sexual behaviors. Abstinence is the only method of complete protection. Condoms, if used correctly and consistently, can help prevent both unintended pregnancy and STDs.

Mental health
Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population is affected by mental illness during a given year, and no one is immune. Of all mental illnesses, depression is the most common disorder. More than 19 million adults in the United States experience depression. Major depression is the leading cause of disability and is the cause of more than two-thirds of suicides each year.

Injury and violence
More than 400 Americans die each day from injuries due primarily to motor vehicle crashes, firearms, poisonings, suffocation, falls, fires, and drowning. The risk of injury is so great that most people sustain a significant injury at some time during their lives.

Environmental quality
An estimated 25 percent of preventable illnesses worldwide can be attributed to poor environmental quality. In the United States, air pollution alone is estimated to be associated with 50,000 premature deaths and an estimated $40 billion to $50 billion in health-related costs annually. Two indicators of air quality are ozone (outdoors) and environmental tobacco smoke (indoors).

Immunization
Vaccines are among the greatest public-health achievements of the 20th century. Immunizations can prevent disability and death from infectious diseases for individuals and can help control the spread of infections within communities.

Access to healthcare
People with health insurance are more likely to have a primary-care provider and to receive appropriate preventative care such as a Pap test, immunization, or prenatal care. Those without insurance come to emergency rooms for their care and are sicker when they arrive, which makes it harder to treat them successfully.

Other access barriers include financial limitations (not enough insurance to cover needs or to cover costs outside benefits), inadequate number of primary-care providers or specialists, and language barriers.

Learn More
Visit www.healthypeople.gov to learn more about the Healthy People 2010 initiative and the Leading Health Indicators.

Take action and get a prize!
We’re looking for 200 people to join us in improving the health and well-being of the community or themselves. If you agree to let us know what you’re doing, and keep us posted periodically, we’ll send you a great pedometer for your effort. Contact us at cr@salemhospital.org or 503-561-5269 for details.

Get Your Daily Dose of Exercise

For Jodi Charles, a daily workout is essential to her well-being. “Exercise is something that I need on a daily basis. It’s my therapy,” says the long-time fitness enthusiast and mother, now pregnant with her second child.

Jodi Charles is a great role model for living a healthy, balanced life. She and her husband (whom she met at the gym) have made physical fitness a part of the way they live—not just a chore they have to do. “If I miss my morning workout, I’ll pick my son up, get him in the jogging stroller, and head out for a 30 -minute cardio workout that afternoon,” says Charles.

Regular physical activity is a major contributor to maintaining a healthy mind and body.
Regular exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and depression—leading causes of premature death in the United States. In addition, regular exercise is critical for maintaining a healthy psychological state.

Putting exercise into your daily life
Incorporating exercise into our daily lives like Charles has is not as challenging as many people think, according to Dave Dery, P.T., manager of Employee Health and Fitness at Salem Hospital . He suggests using free time at home to do something active with family members. “Spending quality time with the ones we love is what makes life worth living,” he says, so why not spend quality time with them and do something for your health?

Other simple ways to begin to build more physical activity into your daily routine include taking the stairs instead of using the elevator and going for a short walk on your lunch break.

Besides the physical health, mental health, and weight-maintenance benefits of regular exercise, you may be happily surprised by other effects it has on your life. “An improved quality of life is the greatest benefit of adding regular physical activity to your lifestyle. For example, you can work a full day and still have the energy to have fun,” says Dery.

Do Your Part for Public Health: GET VACCINATED!

Vaccines are among the greatest public-health advances of the 20th century. They have kept serious diseases such as measles under control and eliminated deadly conditions such as polio and smallpox from the Western Hemisphere. Immunizations help prevent disability and death from infectious diseases—for individuals and for whole communities. To protect ourselves, our children, and our friends and neighbors, it is important that we all take advantage of the vaccines that are available to us today.

According to the Surgeon General’s Healthy People 2010 report, there are currently 10 childhood diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, including measles, diphtheria, and influenza. By age 2, children should receive 12 to 16 doses of vaccine to protect against those diseases.

Keeping kids up to date
Immunizations for children are especially important because of the close social contact between kids within schools, play areas, and day-care facilities.

“Each year there is a last-minute rush in January and February to get children’s immunizations up to date so they aren’t excluded from school or day care,” says Kelly Martin, Immunization Coordinator at the Marion County Public Health Department. “Still, thousands of exclusion orders are sent out to Marion County kids who are not up to date on their shots.”

Flu and pneumonia shots: Critical for adults
Children aren’t the only ones who benefit from up-to-date immunizations. Each year an estimated 110,000 adults are hospitalized due to the flu. Combined, pneumonia and influenza are the nation’s sixth leading cause of death with approximately 36,000 adult deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kelly Martin says that keeping immunizations up to date—whether for children or adults—not only prevents infection, it also prevents long waits in doctors’ offices, missed school or work, and the other discomforts and inconveniences of being sick. Properly vaccinated children and adults live longer, stay healthier, and help build stronger, healthier communities.

Caring for Yourself and Your Partner

Leading a healthy life is about more than just eating right and being active. It requires a balanced, thoughtful approach to all aspects of life. That includes responsible sexual behavior.

“Responsible sexual behavior means caring enough about yourself and your partner to protect both of you from unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS,” says Karen Helikson, HIV prevention coordinator at the Marion County Public Health Department.

Clifton Bong, M.D., a board-certified specialist of infectious disease in Salem, says, “The best protection against unintended pregnancy and STDs is to abstain from sexual intercourse. If a person decides to be sexually active, resources at the doctor’s office,
health department, home, or school can help the person practice safe sex at all times.”

The A-B-Cs of responsibility
Helikson suggests following a simple A-B-C approach to protecting your health.

A = Abstinence is the safest choice.
B = Be faithful. If you choose to have sex, a committed monogamous relationship in which both partners have been tested for HIV and STDs can also keep you safe.
C = Use Condoms. If you have more than one partner, or your partner has not been tested for HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) and other STDs, protect yourself by using condoms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the consistent and correct use of latex condoms is highly effective in preventing the transmission of HIV and other STDs.

Being open about sexual health
Caring for yourself also means talking openly with your partner and doctors about STDs.

“STDs don’t have to be an embarrassing issue,” says Dr. Bong. “There are many avenues for people to start talking about these concerns.” In addition to your own doctor, you can usually discuss sexual health concerns with a nurse or counselor at your county public health department.

Responsible sexual behavior is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle. If you choose to be sexually active, practice safe sex, and talk about your sexual health with your partner and your physician.

Inspiration for Tobacco Users
After 30 years of smoking, Dexter Parker kicked the habit.

Editor’s Note: Reduction of tobacco use is one of the Healthy People 2010 initiative’s primary objectives. Here is one man’s story of triumph over tobacco.

Dexter Parker began smoking when he was just 15 years old. He smoked for more than 30 years. He smoked right up until his heart attack last year.

“I guess you could say I was a heavy smoker,” says Parker, 47, a long-haul trucker. “I smoked four or five packs a day and, well, I just couldn’t seem to quit.”

He’d heard the health warnings and had seen a favorite uncle who smoked die young from heart disease. He recognized his own shortness of breath, and he even understood the financial cost of smoking. “My wife figured out one day that I was spending around $9,000 a year just on cigarettes, but I guess it didn’t really make a difference to me,” he says.

It took a heart attack to get Parker to quit. So how did he do it?

Counseling helped
While he was in the hospital, he received smoking-cessation counseling from Christina Contino, a Salem Hospital respiratory therapist.

Contino explained what smoking does to the body, especially to the heart. It constricts the flow of blood through the arteries, making the heart work harder. Smoking also increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance, and increases the tendency for blood to clot, all of which increase a person’s risk for heart attack and stroke.

Contino pointed out that after two years of not smoking, his risk of heart disease would be reduced to about the level of a non-smoker.

Parker took the information to heart. “When the respiratory therapist talked to me, I made up my mind. I wanted to live, and I was going to quit. That was it—that heart attack threw a scare in me, and I’ll never smoke again.”

Today Parker is feeling good, and though he occasionally feels the urge to smoke, he doesn’t give in to it. He wants to be around for the long haul.

Home Cooking: Keep it in Your Cupboard

Experts agree that keeping healthy foods on hand is one of the first steps toward making healthier food choices. Keep your cupboard stocked with these goodies, and a healthy choice is just a reach away!

Whole oats—Grind oats in a blender and use as a flour substitute for up to 1/3 of the flour called for in recipes; eat oats for breakfast; make oatmeal cookies.

Whole-wheat crackers—Top with low-fat cheese for a healthy whole-grain snack.

Whole-wheat pasta—Add diced tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and dried herbs—delicious!

Popping corn—Air pop it yourself—it’s fun, and you will save on fat.

Wild or brown rice—Have as a side dish or add to soups.

Canned beans with low sodium—Black, kidney, pinto, butter, or garbanzo beans are a good source of fiber, folic acid, and iron. They can be added to mixed dishes and salads, or served as a side dish.

Canned tuna or salmon—Packed in water, they are a lean source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids.

Canned tomatoes (no salt added)—Use atop pasta or add to mixed dishes.

Vinegar—Apple, red wine, white wine, and balsamic vinegars make for a great alternative to heavier salad dressings. They can also be used to add flavor to dishes.

Low-sodium broths—Use for cooking vegetables instead of oil.

Olive or canola oil—Great for cooking or salad dressings, but use in moderation.

Cooking spray—A lower fat alternative to oils.

Dried prunes or other fruit—Add to oatmeal or have as a snack.

Mixed nuts in the shell—Nuts are a healthy snack, in moderation.

Dried spices—Red-pepper flakes, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, rosemary, and thyme.

Hot sauce—Spice it up!

But remember, some of the best foods don’t belong in the cupboard. Keep fresh fruit, cut veggies, light yogurt, and low-fat or nonfat milk in your refrigerator. They’ll make a great snack. When fresh produce is out of season, pack your freezer full of frozen vegetables and fruits.

Black Bean Salad
Recipe courtesy of Cathleen Gray Keane

Ingredients:

1 15.5-ounce can of black beans (low sodium)
1 15.5-ounce can of corn
1 cup canned or fresh diced tomatoes (no salt added)
1 medium red bell pepper
1 medium green bell pepper
1 small red onion
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Drain and rinse black beans and corn, drain tomatoes, and dice peppers and onion.
2. In a bowl, mix the honey, mustard, and olive oil. When thoroughly mixed, add vinegar.
3. Toss in beans, corn, tomatoes, onion, and peppers.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serving size: 1 cup. Yield: 7–8 servings.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 145 calories, 6 gm protein, 2 gm fat, 28 gm carbohydrate, 3 gm fiber.

Print This Recipe: Black Bean Salad