B is for Bone Health

If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. --Mickey Mantle


Heredity aside, having healthy bones is really up to us and the choices we make.  Let's look at the basics for making good choices today for our bone health tomorrow.  First off, the National Osteoporosis Foundation explains that bones play many roles in the body.  They provide structure, protect organs, anchor muscles, and store calcium.  When we choose to incorporate the recommended daily allowance of calcium and weight bearing exercise into our routines, we are taking a proactive approach to maintaining our bone health.


Pardon the pun, but let's get to the bare bones about calcium.  We know calcium is important to our bodily functions and it helps build strong bones and teeth, but how does that happen and why is that important?  Calcium works to maintain normal levels of blood pressure and stomach acid.  It also aids in blood clotting, nerve function, and muscle contraction.  Our bodies are constantly using calcium, which is stored in our bones and teeth, ergo the strength of our bones (and teeth) depends upon the calcium that is stored there.  Think of your skeletal system as your body's checking account.  You deposit your calcium intake there and your body spends it to maintain normal BP and stomach acid, and so on.  If you choose not to replenish the calcium stored in your account (your bones), you will overdraw.  Just like at the bank, if we overdraw our account, we will be charged a penalty fee.  The penalty in this case is that the when body needs calcium it will absorb it from our bones.  Look at the images below to see the damage that too many overdrafts will do to our bone health.

These pictures show the effects of calcium depletion in our bones.  With this in mind think of how many times you have heard that someone fell and broke a hip.  Most times, it is not the fall that causes the break, it is the break that causes the fall.  We can see the decline in bone density so clearly here and hopefully this image is a good reminder for us not to overdraw on our calcium account.

Besides calcium intake, bone health can depend on  our activity level.  Ron Zernicke, PhD, DSc, Director of the Bone & Joint Injury Prevention & Rehabilitation Center at the University of Michigan in the July/August issue of Sports Health reports that just 20 minutes a day of walking, running, dancing, or weight lifting, et al. can be extremely effective in increasing Bone Mineral Density.  Simply put, the more dense the bone, the stronger the bone, and thus the less chance of overdrawing the calcium account.

Armed with the whys and hows of having healthy bones, it is far easier to make better choices.  Now that we know that calcium keeps our blood pressure and stomach acid in check, and that it aids in blood clotting, nerve function and muscle contraction, we realize why we need it.  We've probably always known that calcium is stored in our bones and teeth.  Now we realize that if we don't replenish our calcium stores, our bodies' need for calcium will actually feed off of its own bone mass.  While we may not be able to prevent every aspect of thinning bones, we can certainly take a proactive approach to our bone health by getting the RDA of calcium.  See the table below for more specifics.

If this is your age,	then you need this much calcium each day (mg).
0 to 6 months	210
6 to 12 months	270
1 to 3 years	500
4 to 8 years	800
9 to 18 years	1,300
18 to 50 years	1,000
Over 50 years	1,200

(A cup of milk or fortified orange juice has about 300 mg of calcium)

Excerpted from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 2004 Surgeon General's Report on Bone Health and Osteoporosis: What It Means to You. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, 2004, page 12

Remember the words of Mickey Mantle, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."  If you haven't taken care of your bones thus far, start today!  If you have an aging loved one who may be suffering from thinning or osteoporotic bones and you think that he or she may need help with regular daily activities, or if your loved one has already experienced a break and a fall and needs assistance during convalescence, Superior Health, Inc. can help.  Call 610-685-7351 and put your mind at ease knowing someone can be there to help.

A is for Alzheimer's Disease

Today starts the beginning of an alphabetical series featuring the most prevalent diseases.  We chose to explore Alzheimer's Disease as it is the most common form of dementia.  Statistics show that 4.5 million Americans have AD; 1 out of 3 families are affected by AD; 1 in 10 people over age 65 have AD; and 1 in 3 people over age 85 have AD.  The disease is degenerative and affects the brain from front to back, outside to inside.  To better understand, we need to know which part of the brain controls what.  Our brain weighs about three pounds; with the right side controlling language skills, logic, and spatial reasoning and the left side controlling creativity and emotion.  Four lobes of the brain, frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital, further divide the control.
Remember, AD affects the brain from front to back.  In the front of the brain are the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe.  The frontal lobe controls judgement, attention cognition, and personality.  The temporal lobe controls language.   AD insidiously attacks these lobes first.  Think of of it this way, AD starts as dementia, which is characterized by memory loss and changes in short term memory.  Family and friends may notice that something is not quite right.  In this first stage, the person can cover up problems.  He may become depressed due to fear or embarrassment.  He may have difficulty working with numbers, paying bills, balancing his checkbook, or even making change.  He may have trouble finding the right word or using words incorrectly.  What is frightening is that the person may begin making bad decisions, becoming easily persuaded to make purchases or make unwise financial decisions.  Sadly, it seems as though we are always hearing about elders being victimized by scam artists who prey upon the impaired judgement of the dementia sufferer.  In time the Alzheimer's patient's memory loss  increases dramatically and sleep disturbances begin.  He gets lost even in familiar places.  He needs help with activities of daily living such as bathing, house keeping, and meal preparation.  At this point the AD sufferer becomes suspicious, anxious, or has angry outbursts.  He becomes more confused about time.  It is now that disease has the control and the patient needs constant supervision.  In the last stage, the back of the brain, the parietal lobe controlling sensory perception and skilled movement, and the occipital lobe controlling visual association succumb to the disease.  Motor skills such as walking and eating are lost.  Bladder and bowel incontinence sets in.  The patient has problems swallowing.  His meaningful speech is gone and he does not recognize family or self.  AD is a slow gradual deterioration of the brain that eventually results in death because the areas of the brain that control swallowing, thirst, and breathing will be damaged.  Individuals usually die from complications such as pneumonia, heart failure, diabetes, or infections.
There is not yet a cure for Alzheimer's  Disease, but maintaining good health is important because other conditions can make the disease process worse.  For more information about AD, go to http://www.alz.org/index.asp 
Remember, if your loved one is showing early signs of AD and you need help caring for him or her, let Superior Health Inc.'s quality staff help.  For more information on our services, please go to http://www.superiorhealthinc.com/superiorhealthinc.com/Services.html

Black History Month

Americans know that February is Black History Month.  Most know that we celebrate Black History Month in February because it is the birth month of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States and issuer of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Frederick Douglass, one of the foremost leaders in the abolitionist movement.  Some may know that it was Dr. Carter G. Wilson who originated the concept in 1926 as Negro History Week, and that in early 1970's it was changed to Black History Week.  It was not until 1976 that we began observing Black History Month to recognize the African American race and to celebrate the impact it has had in history.  Superior Health, Inc. is taking pause today to honor three African American pioneers in the field of medicine.  
In chronological order, we begin with Dr. Daniel Hale Williams who in 1891 founded the first African American owned hospital.  According to Susan Robinson, author of A Day in Black History,  Dr. Williams observed that African American patients were routinely subject to second-class medical care. Also, opportunities for most Black physicians were extremely limited, and it was difficult for African Americans to gain admission to medical and nursing schools because of institutionalized racism. Dr. Williams met a young woman, Emma Reynolds, who had been refused admission by every nursing school in the area. This prompted him to launch a new venture, the first African American owned hospital in the United States. It started as a twelve-bed facility, named Provident Hospital. At Provident Hospital, Dr. Williams also opened the first nursing school for African Americans, where Emma Reynolds and six others made up the first graduating class. Dr. Williams employed African American and White doctors at Provident Hospital, emphasizing the need to provide the best available care to everyone. He required that the doctors at Provident keep abreast of the latest advances in medicine.  Two years later, in 1893, a young man named James Cornish was rushed to Provident Hospital with a stab wound to the chest. Doctors at this time did not have X-ray machines, and the doctors at Provident were unsure what to do for Mr. Cornish. His condition began to deteriorate; his pulse was getting weaker and he started to go into shock, which are signs of internal bleeding. In the operating room, Dr. Williams made the decision to open up Cornish's chest and see what could be done before he bled to death internally. The surgical team found a pierced blood vessel and a tear to the pericardium tissue around the heart. Dr. Williams sutured both of these injuries to stop the bleeding. James Cornish survived the operation. Newspaper headlines reported: "Sewed Up His Heart! Remarkable Surgical Operation on a Colored Man!" Cornish recovered and lived another twenty years. It was the first successful open heart surgery ever performed.
Our next honoree is Dr. Charles Richard Drew whose pioneer work in the field of blood transfusions led to the creation of the first Blood Bank.  Mary Bellis, in her Guide to Inventors, highlights that it was Charles Drew who during his work at Columbia University  made his discoveries relating to the preservation of blood. By separating the liquid red blood cells from the near solid plasma and freezing the two separately, he found that blood could be preserved and reconstituted at a later date.  Moreover, Charles Drew's system for the storing of blood plasma (blood bank) revolutionized the medical profession. Dr. Drew also established the American Red Cross blood bank, of which he was the first director.
Today's final honored pioneer is Dr. Alexa Canady who is credited as not only the first female, but also the first African American Neurosurgeon in the United States.  In 1976, Canady interned at New Haven Hospital, which was affiliated with Yale University, and then applied for a residency in neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota. She became the first black female to enter the field in American history. "When I got a residency in neurosurgery, I got it not because I'm smarter than somebody forty years ago, but because the politics were such that they needed a black woman and I was there and qualified," Canady said in I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed the World. "I had impeccable credentials coming out of medical school, but there was an undercurrent of, 'How can you, a black woman, have the audacity to want to do this? Don't you know that you've got a double whammy?'  Well, I came along at a time when it offered them a double positive. They could fulfill the quotas and say, 'I finished woman. I finished black, and all it took was one person instead of two.' So that became a positive for me."  From her residency at UM, Dr. Canady practiced at the University of Pennsylvania's Children's Hospital in pediatric neurosurgery.  Then in 1982 Dr. Canady moved on to practice at the Children's Hospital in Detroit, where in 1987 she became the Director of Neurosurgery.  In 2001 Dr Canady retired a legend, the first woman, the first African American to practice Neurosurgery in America.
We at SHI wish to thank Dr. Williams, Dr. Hale, and Dr. Canady for dreaming the dream and living the dream.  Let us be inspired by their ground-breaking work and their dedication to the field of medicine, as their works' impact is felt the medical community.