….MORE GOOD ADVICE FROM AUNT MARY

This week, Shayne is on assignment in Puerto Viagra, Mexico, where the beaches are full of warm white sand, the margaritas are flowing and just about now he’s putting up a table with a sign that reads “free blood pressure readings.” His dedication is inspiring.

Sitting in for Shayne is popular Bay Area health and fitness expert Joanie Greggains. Most of you in the San Francisco Bay Area know Joanie as the popular host of The Joanie Greggains Show on KGO Radio for 25 years, the #1 weekend health and fitness show. She is also known for her long-running TV exercise show, Morning Stretch. And now she is under Nurse Talk house arrest and does a weekly feature called “Fit Happens.”

Casey and Joanie visit with RN and CNA Presidents Council Member, Zenei Cortez about the “CNA Nursing Angels Family Fund” established by the California Nurses Association for the victims of the horrible limousine fire that occurred on the San Mateo Bridge here in Northern California. The news of the death of two RNs and three other caregivers in the tragic limousine fire brought deep sadness to everyone. Read more…

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Fitness Flops Part One

Fitness was once considered a fad. While fitness is no longer considered a fad, there have been many fitness products that have been sold to consumers wishing to get into shape quickly.

It can be hard to tell the difference between fitness products that work and fitness products that flop.

Today, I’m going to talk about fitness products that did not live up to their promises.

Fitness Flop 1: Electronic Muscle Stimulators/The Electronic Ab Toner.  Cost $50-$250.00

This is a machine that sends electric currents to your abs, making them contract and release. This peroduct is supposed to cause you to burn off body fat.  Losing body fat requires a combination of cardio exercise and a reduced calorie diet. You can’t lose weight or fat by spot reducing or without moving your muscles. The only way to lose fat is to do the work yourself.

Fitness Flop 2: Ab Lounge/Ab Rocker.  Cost-$129-$179.00

The Ab Rocker and Ab Lounge are both a portable piece of exercise equipment that resemble a lounge chair. They claim to work the upper, lower abs and obliques, all while you rock back and forth in front of your television. When a product’s claims sound too good to be true they usually are. Read more…

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Listen to our guest this week RN Jeff Breslin of the Michigan Nurses Association on The Safe Patient Care Act “Every Michigan resident deserves to receive safe care at every hospital, every time. Michigan’s nurses are simply asking for our leaders’ support to make that happen.” Jeff will talk with us about this important initiative that is sweeping the country.

And later, a fierce leader, and one of our favorite guests, Healthcare and Human Rights Advocate Donna Smith, will join us. As some of you know, Donna has been leading the charge for the past 8 years for a universal healthcare system in our country. Donna was featured in Michael Moore’s film “Sicko.” For the past 5 years she worked as the Legislative Coordinator for National Nurses United. She is now the Executive Director of Healthcare for All Colorado. We’ll talk with Donna about all things healthcare, a little politics, the effects of the sequester – particularly the ones you don’t hear about — and more. For more information about Healthcare for All Colorado, visit healthcareforallcolorado.org.

And don’t forget, our resident health and fitness expert Joanie Greggains with another edition of “Fit Happens.” We’ll also tend to email questions and a few “off-the-grid” jokes that only nurses can tell and insist they aren’t going to be bleeped! Read more…

Who didn’t love the amazing Jonathan Winters? He was the master of improvisational comedy.

As we celebrate National Nurses Week, Casey and Shayne found some interesting gestures of generosity toward those in their profession. One in particular stood out:

It happened in Kearney, Nebraska. A beauty salon (that shall remain nameless) gave nurses free makeovers if they showed up in their scrubs!  Just what you want to do? Lets see…

“Hey Mary, my 12 hour shift is over and I heard X salon was giving nurses FREE makeovers. I think I’ll just swing by and get one.”

“Don’t forget to wear those dirty bloody scrubs you have on or they won’t give it to you!”

As they say, it’s really the thought that counts…

Listen to our guest this week RN Jeff Breslin of the Michigan Nurses Association on The Safe Patient Care Act. “Every Michigan resident deserves to receive safe care at every hospital, every time. Michigan’s nurses are simply asking for our leaders’ support to make that happen.” Jeff will talk with us about this important initiative that is sweeping the country.

And later, a fierce leader, and one of our favorite guests, Healthcare and Human Rights Advocate Donna Smith, will join us. Read more…

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THE TOP 10 FITNESS MYTHS

OK, I don’t care if you’ve been hitting the gym and working out for years, chances are you’ve fallen for a few fitness myths. While some myths may contain half truths, many of these exercise induced myths have largely been debunked by current research, but surprisingly the following 10 are still in circulation.

MYTH ONE: YOU CAN SPOT REDUCE.
No matter how many crunches you do, it’s not possible to melt fat off just your midsection. You have to work the whole body–weights for muscle strength and endurance, cardio to utilize fat as fuel combined with healthy diet is the only way.

MYTH TWO: AEROBIC WORKOUTS BOOST YOUR METABOLISM FOR HOURS AFTER YOU STOP.
The myth that working out in the morning will keep your body burning calories at a higher rate all day is only partially true. You do end up burning more calories after you get off the treadmill, but only about 20 over the course of the day, not the several hundred extra many people seem to expect.

MYTH THREE: TREADMILLS ARE BETTER FOR YOUR KNEES.
People with knee problems may have been told that running on a treadmill gives you more cushion than running on pavement. Read more…

As part of their tribute to wasting time, Casey and Shayne tell stories about their childhood. Although not particularly newsworthy or medically related, they are none-the-less rather funny. Casey shares about the time she was hit by a car (not hurt) and ran home and tried to hide it from her mother. Unfortunately, the gentleman that hit her found her phone number in one of the school books she dropped while fleeing the scene. Find out what happened when Casey’s mother finds out. 

And Shayne…well growing up as an only child in rural Oklahoma was not exactly eventful. He shares about the time he made Jello salad with his mom.

Good show this week! RN Betty Sparks  joins us. Betty is a nurse at Newton Wellesley Hospital and is trained to provide care and treatment in the wake of all types of disasters.

Betty, who was on the ground to help victims after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti after the devastating earthquake, was working at the medical tent at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. She was there to respond and care for the victims when the bombs exploded. She is trained to do this and she has seen horrific scenes before, but this time it was different; she knew her son was at the finish line with a camera getting ready to photograph her daughter-in-law as she finished the race. Read more…

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As part of their tribute to wasting time, Casey and Shayne tell stories about their childhood. Although not particularly newsworthy or medically related, they are none-the-less rather funny. Casey shares about the time she was hit by a car (not hurt) and ran home and tried to hide it from her mother. Unfortunately, the gentleman that hit her found her phone number in one of the school books she dropped while fleeing the scene. Find out what happened when Casey’s mother finds out. 

And Shayne…well growing up as an only child in rural Oklahoma was not exactly eventful. He shares about the time he made Jello salad with his mom.

Good show this week! RN Betty Sparks joins us. Betty is a nurse at Newton Wellesley Hospital and is trained to provide care and treatment in the wake of all types of disasters. 

Betty, who was on the ground to help victims after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti after the devastating earthquake, was working at the medical tent at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. She was there to respond and care for the victims when the bombs exploded. She is trained to do this and she has seen horrific scenes before, but this time it was different; she knew her son was at the finish line with a camera getting ready to photograph her daughter-in-law as she finished the race. Read more…

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Fat Holds The Key To Your Health.

Everyone has stubborn fat you just can’t shift, whether its love handles or back fat. Maybe you obsess over bingo wings, or know your stomach will never be flat, no matter how much you diet and exercise.

Until recently, it was thought our body shape and fat deposits were due to our genetic makeup – turns out this is only part of the story. According to new research, the way fat accumulates around our body reveals far more about our health and diet than we thought, and the key to getting rid of those wobbly parts forever is to understand why you pile on the pounds in certain places.

The wrong foods, hormonal imbalances, stress and toxins can also determine where we store fat. Weight doesn’t go on evenly all over, and while it’s largely genetic there are certain lifestyle factors that determine where fat is deposited.

The Problem: Stomach Fat
The Cause: Stress
Stomach Fat has been linked to stress levels. When we’re stressed cortisol is released from our adrenal glands and this causes the body to lay down fat around the stomach. A recent study at Yale University found that even slim women are more likely to have excess abdominal fat if they regularly feel stressed. Read more…

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First of all, the concept of vibration to help you lose weight is not a new one. Vibration machines have been around for decades. Dr. John Kellog (of corn flake fame) designed some of the earliest mechanical vibration massage machines. These “Vibro-Therapy” contraptions included a mechanical massage bed and a wooden vibrating chair which Kellog claimed could clear out the intestines, dissolve backaches and improve muscle tone.

Even though people think of vibrating belt machines as products of the 50′s, they were first introduced in 1928 by Dr. Kellog at his health facility in Michigan. Women wanting to lose weight hoped to vibrate their fat away. Vibrating belt machines became even more popular after World War II. Women put away their work clothes and tried to look more like the glamourous actresses of the times by shaking their fat off.

When vibration wasn’t enough, women turned to the next logical step: electric shock. The Relax-a-Cizor first introduced in 1949, promised to zap the fat off. More than 400,000 were sold before they were taken off the market in 1970 due to many unpleasant side effects.

Vibration type fitness machines have made a 21st Century comeback. Unlike the shaking belts of the 1950s, this time the vibration is focused on the entire body. Read more…

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Bay Area health and fitness expert Joanie Greggains joins Casey and Shayne this week on Nurse Talk. Joanie is now a regular on Nurse Talk with her weekly segment “Fit Happens” and her monthly house calls to the Nurse Talk studio to answer listener questions. Wow, does she know what she’s talking about! In just the 45 minutes she was with us I learned so much, including that if I don’t trim down it’s not only bad for my health (of course we all know that), but soon my airline tickets will cost more because they are starting to charge by the pound! Can you imagine?
“Well, sister, I am so sorry I can’t make it to the family reunion this year but my airfare would be over $5k one-way!”

And….a little combination of world news with an oh-so-slight medical twist. While Kim Jong Un, the 28-year-old petulant third generation dictator of North Korea, struggles to find his “inner and outer” power, our crack research team at Nurse Talk decided to check into his country’s healthcare system. Universal Healthcare???? Yip, universally horrifying healthcare. Not a surprise.

But this is very interesting – at least to us…Have you ever wondered about what a business or an organization has to provide in order to acquire and keep a not-for-profit (aka nonprofit) status? Read more…