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Upcoming Events
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February 12-14
Events across Maine!
March 29, 7-9 PM
The Frontier Cafe
Free, RSVP Required
March 31, 8-5
SNHU, Brunswick
Free! Registration required!
FMI: 373-6927
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Page of the Month!
February 12-14, 2016
Find an event near you!
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Recipe of the Month
from MeatlessMonday.com
"These quinoa chili fries skip the meat and cheese in favor of nutrient-packed quinoa and beans, which pack in both fiber and protein. Baking the potatoes leaves them crispy and delicious while using less oil than frying."
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Access Health
Access Health
works with communities to encourage and support healthy and happy lives, with a focus on:
- Physical Activity
- Healthy Eating
- Tobacco Prevention & Cessation
- Reduction of Second Hand Smoke
- Substance Abuse Prevention
- Mental Health Awareness
Find out more!
Mid Coast Hospital is the lead agency for Access Health.
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Access Health
Board Members
Anthony Anderson,
BIW
Andree App
el,
Oasis Clinic
Mary Booth, MSAD 75
Marla Davis,
Sagadahoc County Board
of Health
Mattie Daughtry,
Legislator
Jaki Ellis,
Brunswick Champion
Deb King,
Brunswick
Downtown Association
Don Kniseley,
Thornton Oaks
Pam LeDuc,
Topsham Parks &
Recreation
Joel Merry,
Sagadahoc County
Sheriff
Karen O'Rourke,
UNE
Jim Peavey,
United Way
Craig Phillips,
Tedford Shelter
Kelly Howard,
YMCA
Emily Rines, Parent
Steve Trockman,
Mid Coast-Parkview Health
Karen Tucker,
Mid Coast Hunger Prevention
Samantha Ricker,
Bath Champion
Stacy Frizzle,
People Plus
Kristi Hatrick,
First Parish Church
Katherine Swan,
Martin's Point
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| From the Director's Desk |
February is American Heart Month.
Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease.
The good news? You can make healthy changes to lower your risk of developing heart disease. Controlling and preventing risk factors is also important for people who already have heart disease. To lower your risk:
- Watch your weight.
- Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke.
- Control your cholesterol and blood pressure.
- If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation.
- Get active and eat healthy.
Our February newsletter is full of tips to help you. Spread the word!
Melissa Fochesato, Director
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Healthy Schools, Healthy Kids
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How Many Colors Do You Eat in a Day?
Jennah Godo, MS
This month,
MSAD #75, RSU #1 and Brunswick Schools
are once again celebrating Colors Week! During the week long event, schools will highlight eating the rainbow, support local produce, learn the benefits of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables every day, and many students will have a chance to try something new
. Students are encouraged to wear the featured "color of the day" that will match the food sample. This fun initiative reinforces the 5-2-1-0 Let's Go! messaging and efforts that exist in the schools already.
Set a goal for your family dinner plate to look like a rainbow and if that seems like too much, make a rainbow of foods throughout the day, with at least one new color at every meal. You can do it!
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| Harriet Beecher Stowe Champions! |
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| Celebrating Purple at Woolwich Central |
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Keeping Your Home Safe and Healthy As You Age
Terry Sherman
Aging in one's own home is the ideal situation for many, but as we age, our home may require modifications to make it more comfortable and safe. Aging can bring challenges to the tasks that were once easy and routine. Reduced vision, strength, and mobility can increase the risk of falls. Proper lighting, grab handles in the shower, eliminating area rugs and changing knobs on cabinets and drawers can make it easier to age in the home. For more information, tips, and resources check out the home assessment checklist from
SeniorResource.com
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Healthy Eating
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New Dietary Guidelines
Tasha Gerken, MS, RD
SNAP-Ed Nutrition Educator
The USDA recently released updated
Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2015-2020
. The guidelines look similar to those issued 5 years ago, with a few updates that carry important, but sometimes confusing messages. Here's what you need to know:
- Follow a healthy eating pattern: Do not think of it as a "diet" that focuses on a single meal or even a day or week, but as a combination of foods that keep your body healthy over your entire lifetime.
- Eat a variety of foods: Eat across all food groups: fruits, veggies, whole grains, protein, and dairy.
- Choose mostly nutrient dense foods: Nutrient dense foods are foods that provide vitamins, minerals and other healthy nutrients like fiber, without a lot of excess calories (think whole fruit, fresh/frozen veggies, oatmeal, almonds, low fat dairy, and other foods in their most natural state.
- Limit foods high in sugar, sodium, refined flour, butter, shortening, and excess oils: If you enjoy foods like cakes, cookies, fried foods, fast foods, and sugary beverages, make them "occasional" choices, since they don't fall into the five main food groups.
- Shift: Make small changes to healthier food and beverage choices. Add fruits and veggies to your favorite recipes. DON'T avoid eating your favorite macaroni and cheese. DO consider adding zucchini, peas, green beans, cauliflower or broccoli to the recipe.
- Drink water! Plain and simple. Your body will thank you.
- Mix up your protein: Eat more legumes/beans, nuts, and seeds, and even seafood. Maybe give Meatless Monday a try - they share great recipes using alternatives to red meat, poultry, and pork.
The guidelines aren't alarmist, nor do they share any "new" messages. They focus on the big picture instead of minute details and diet trends. They guide us to make small changes that fit our unique lives. Think about the big picture, enjoy making healthful choices, and be well!
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Risks to Non Smokers' Hearts
Linda Christie
Tobacco users are generally very familiar with the health effects on their own health, but are not always fully aware of how secondhand smoke can affect a nonsmoker's heart health.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that breathing secondhand smoke interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of having a heart attack. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can damage the lining of blood vessels and cause your blood platelets to become stickier, which can cause a deadly heart attack.
Secondhand smoke causes nearly 34,000 premature deaths from heart disease and more than 8,000 deaths from stroke each year in the United States among nonsmokers
People who already have heart disease are at especially high risk of suffering adverse effects from breathing secondhand smoke and should take special precautions to avoid even brief exposure.
If you're regularly around smokers, encourage them quit. If they are not ready to quit then ask them to smoke outdoors to reduce your exposure to secondhand smoke. This is especially important if you have had a previous heart attack or have been diagnosed with heart disease.
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| Dear Me: A message from a mom, on her reasons for quitting |
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Colleen Fuller, MPH
Many people know that getting at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week is important for maintaining health, but how do you know if you are working out at the correct intensity? Are you working out too hard or hardly working out at all?
 Calculating your target heart rate will allow you to know if you are doing too much or not enough. For moderate intensity, your target heart should be 50 to 70% of your maximum heart rate. Maximum heart rates are found by subtracting your age from 220. For high intensity, your target heart rate range would be 70 to 85% of your maximum heart rate. For example, a 45 year old woman would have a maximum heart rate of 175 beats per minute and a target heart rate range, for moderate physical activity, of 88 to 149 beats per minute.
People who are starting a new physical activity routine or who are new to being active in general should aim for the lower end of their target heart rate zone, or 50% of their maximum heart rate, to start. Aiming for the lower end of the target heart rate zone will help protect the hearts of those who are not used to frequent or intense physical activity.
When determining your target heart range while exercising, follow these steps:
- Take your pulse on the inside of your wrist, on the thumb side.
- Use the tips of your index and middle fingers to press lightly over the blood vessels on your wrist or side of your neck, next to your windpipe.
- Count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to find your beats per minute.
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Promoting Resilience in Adolescents
Elizabeth Munsey, LCPC-c
As the end of the first semester wraps up, it is easy for adolescents to fall into negative thinking. Perhaps mid-terms did not go as well as planned, grades were not competitive enough for the college of choice, even the winter blues can cast a dim shadow on their optimistic thinking, but there is always a chance to turn the negative into the positive. A little modification in the thought process can help adolescents to realize that things are not always as bad as they seem. With spring right around the corner, the opportunity for redemption, combined with a little bit of resilience, can turn any negative into a positive.
Teaching our children to "hunt for the good stuff" and "put it in perspective" can do wonders to increase resiliency and decrease behavioral health concerns. Taking the time to journal the good things that happen each day and reflecting on the positive aspect of life, is a great way to increase resiliency. Another way for adolescents to build their resiliency skills is to put it in perspective. By listing out the worst case scenario, best case scenario, most likely scenario, and developing a plan to help accomplish the most likely scenario will allow adolescents to see that their current negative situation does not have to result in a catastrophe.
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Substance Abuse
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Alcohol and Your Heart: How much is too much?
Andrea Saniuk-Gove
If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation to keep your heart as healthy as possible. One standard drink is considered one 12 oz. beer, a 5 oz. glass of wine, or a 1.5 oz. shot of liquor. There are many health risks that can arise from drinking too much alcohol over time.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) defines low-risk drinking guidelines as: no more than 3 drinks in a single day or no more than 7 drinks per week for women, and no more than 4 drinks in a single day or no more than 14 drinks per week for men.
Consuming alcohol within the low risk guidelines will help you avoid health risks from excessive drinking and keep your heart healthy. Heavy drinking, over time, increases your risk of the following health
problems:
- High blood pressure
- Obesity
- Stroke
- Breast Cancer
- Suicide
- Accidents
Additionally, consuming alcohol excessively can hurt your heart and lead to diseases of the heart muscle, called
cardiomyopathy
. Binge drinking (drinking 5 or more drinks in one day) can cause irregular heart rhythms called arrhythmias. As always, anyone can have health problems for drinking alcohol too quickly or if they have other pre-existing health issues.
Keep your heart healthy by drinking less alcohol or simply not drinking alcohol at all. Making better lifestyle choices such as this will certainly lower your risk of heart disease and many other health problems.
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Access Health
66 Baribeau Drive, Suite 7
Brunswick, ME 04011
Phone: 207-373-6957
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