Lifestyle - Health & Wellness Articles

Lifestyles: Parents talk about managing marriage, multiples

By MELINDA MAWDSLEY .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_GsdVfDTRfM').innerHTML = output; //]]> After their twins were born, Darrell and Dorie Charlesworth learned backpacks can be used for more than hauling textbooks. While coaching their son Connor’s T-ball team 11 years ago, the Charlesworths ...

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Officials bracing for reinvigorated H1N1 virus in fall

By LE ROY STANDISH Health care professionals are anticipating another, more powerful outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall. Thursday, health professionals from 54 states, tribes and territories met with White House officials at the H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. “Over the course of coming weeks and months, we will move aggressively to prepare the nation for the possibility of a more severe outbreak of the H1N1 virus,” ...

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Briefs: Health Briefs July 07, 2009

Latimer House director given award • Jackie Sievers, Hilltop’s Latimer House program director, received the Purple Ribbon Award from Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The award is presented to program directors who show leadership that helps to end domestic violence by creating a sustainable community vision against violence, someone who provides positive mentoring and who makes a lasting contribution. Sievers has worked in her role for the past four years and for ...

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Study touts cancer-fighting benefits of vegetable diet

By AMY HAMILTON .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_wHHF8wMDNn').innerHTML = output; //]]> Grand Junction resident Lory Pounder never liked the way eating meat made her stomach hurt. By age 12, Pounder became a vegetarian, and by carefully monitoring her diet, she feels great not eating meat but makes ...

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E. Coli shuts down lake

The lake at James M. Robb Colorado River State Park is closed for the summer because of the presence of Escherichia Coli, park personnel said Tuesday. The lake has been closed to swimmers for the past two summers due to E. coli exceeding minimum levels, according to Sentinel archives. Goose excrement swept into the lake by rain has been the culprit for E. coli contamination at the park in the past.  ...

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E. Coli shuts down lake

The lake at James M. Robb Colorado River State Park is closed for the summer because of the presence of Escherichia Coli, park personnel said Tuesday. The lake has been closed to swimmers for the past two summers due to E. coli exceeding minimum levels, according to Sentinel archives. Goose excrement swept into the lake by rain has been the culprit for E. coli contamination at the park in the past.  ...

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Briefs: Health briefs June 30, 2009

Blood donors get cholesterol screenings • The prospect of saving a life is a good enough reason to donate blood. And during the month of July, blood donors also can receive a free cholesterol screening at the St. Mary’s Blood Center. Donors are welcome at the Blood Center in St. Mary’s Advanced Medicine Pavilion, 750 Wellington Ave., from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each weekday and from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays. The city of Grand Junction is sponsoring a blood drive July 22 at ...

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The earlier, the better

New mothers who breast-feed their infants nearly immediately after a child’s birth tend to breast-feed their children for a longer duration, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. A newborn infant is often alert and ready to eat, and breast-feeding a baby right away can improve a mother’s chances of success with breast-feeding, said registered nurse Wanda Respress, a lactation educator at St. Mary’s Hospital Center for Infant ...

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Mental health center to get $900K grant for lease on building

Financially struggling Colorado West Mental Health is getting help from some deep pockets. Mesa County is using a $900,000 Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant to obtain a 40-year lease for one building, a hospital facility known as building D, on Colorado West’s campus on 28 1/4 Road, north of North Avenue. The Mesa County Commission was told last week about the recently struck deal. An official contract is expected to be approved by the commission at its next public ...

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The mosquitoes are biting,  but West Nile not in Mesa County ... yet

The bad news is mosquitoes are coming out in full force in the Grand Valley right now. The good news is those mosquitoes aren’t the kind that carry West Nile virus, said Steve DeFeyter, environmental health director at the Mesa County Health Department. “Overall, our mosquito numbers are climbing,” DeFeyter said. “We’ve seen a lot of the floodwater variety mosquitoes. We call them nuisance mosquitoes.” Indeed, a run of wet weather this spring has ...

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Briefs: Health Briefs June 23, 2009

Meeting addresses signs of child abuse • Detecting and reporting child abuse is an important step in helping rein in the problem. A free, informational meeting aims to educate residents on how to spot the signs of child abuse and how to report it. Speakers at the meeting will explain what happens after abuse is reported. Professionals who are mandated by law to report child abuse are encouraged to attend. Certificates of completion are available. The training is at 5:30 p.m. ...

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After helping in fundraising, Grand Junction couple makes personal donation

No one who knows Ken Leis or Kathy Hall was surprised when the Grand Junction couple gave $500,000 to Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Colorado. Leis is a member of Hospice’s board of directors, and Hall is on the executive committee of the foundation’s board. But Kathy O’Shea, vice president of development at Hospice, still screamed with joy when she discovered they donated half a million dollars. It was the largest noncorporate cash contribution ever made to ...

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Briefs: Health briefs June 16, 2009

Open house mixes vision loss, cooking • Living with vision loss doesn’t mean you can’t cook. A Low Vision Open House from 9–11:30 a.m. July 8 at the Retina Center, 2478 Patterson Road, No. 7, aims to teach participants how to navigate the kitchen and learn to cook favorite foods again. The open house also will include demonstrations of magnifiers, new technology and information. For information, call vision rehabilitation specialist Carol Inglis at ...

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Local program called Transitions offered through Hospice

When Roger Swingle’s first wife, Linda, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2000, the two couldn’t have imagined the maze of medical treatments or the gravity of each decision that would follow. Every two years after her diagnosis and before she died in August 2005, Linda fought the disease with chemotherapy treatments. But six months before her battle with cancer ended, the couple discovered a little known local program called Transitions offered through Hospice & ...

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New treatment for lung cancer shows promise

Once a frightening monolith of a disease, lung cancer slowly is being recognized as not a single ailment, but several. With the finding that lung cancer isn’t a single disease, it also turns out some varieties are more treatable than others. Such is the case with one variety of lung cancer that turns out to be far more treatable — though not curable — than others. Investigators don’t know how many of the nation’s lung cancer cases are susceptible to the ...

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First confirmed case of swine flu in county

Mesa County Health Department officials confirmed Thursday the first case of the H1N1 flu virus in Mesa County. A young adult tested positive for the virus after attending a wedding at Powderhorn Resort on Grand Mesa last weekend. More than 200 guests attended the wedding, including a few guests from Utah who were carrying the virus, commonly referred to as swine flu, Health Department Director Dr. Michael Aduddell said. Other guests also felt sick in the days after the wedding, he ...

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Effects of unprotected exposure to sun add up over a lifetime

An 18-year-old son of a friend of Debra Hesse for years put off having doctors check out a mole on his leg. As the mole grew and started to change shape, the young man finally got it checked out. But it was too late. His skin cancer was in Stage 4, and Hesse’s friend lost her son months later. “She was devastated,” said Hesse, coordinator of cancer survivor programs at St. Mary’s Hospital. Nearly everyone knows someone who has died, been diagnosed or is a ...

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Briefs: Health Briefs June 09, 2009

Convention covers variety of topics • The 19th annual Colorado Association for Health Care Documentation Integrity Convention (AHDI-CO) runs Friday and Saturday at Grand Vista Hotel in Grand Junction. Presentations will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Topics include deafness and cochlear implants, the pill cam, ergonomics, lupus and alternative medicine. Participants can attend either or both days. To register, call Rashell Coleman at 241-029 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to ...

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Clinic to serve vets in Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin counties

A new Veterans Affairs Medical Telehealth Outreach Clinic will serve vets in Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin counties and use modern technology to save them time and travel expenses for some care. Currently, veterans from the three counties must go to the Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center for even minor medical needs. U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., announced plans for the facility Wednesday. Altogether, more than $7 million in new federal funding has been designated for ...

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Local health care in national spotlight

Three decades ago, local doctors Edward L. Ellinwood, Gilbert Madison, Ward Studt and Charlie Wilson couldn’t have fathomed that the health care model they designed for Mesa County would today be in the national spotlight, sought by policy makers as a shining example of potential health care reform. Local doctors merely wanted the working poor, an under-served segment of the population, to have the same access to health care available to the rich and to the indigent. By cultivating ...

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