Staying Well. Connected. Blog
Fostering the exchange of community health information.

Dealing with medical emergencies and life threatening conditions puts great pressure on the decision-making process, but a living will can help take the immense pressure off of family members who are contending with the health issues of a loved one.   Craig Klugman, clinical ethicist and assistant director at the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio has developed a bilingual web site, TexasLivingWill.org ,that provides advance directive forms and instructions on filling them out.   “Our goal is to help people give a gift that enables families to know what loved ones would have wanted and to take away any guilt about making a wrong decision”, says Dr. Klugman.

Two articles by Mark Trainer in the current (6/23) Washington Post highlight dental care for children. The first article, “Toys, Games Ease Kids Into the Dentist’s Chair” discusses the efforts of dentist to make children comfortable during their visits with toys, books, DVDs, stickers, and balloons and provides recommendations for dental care: select a pediatric dentist, who has additional training in working with children and is likely to have a very child-friendly office, and start visits when the child is about one year old. The second article, “Brush. Floss. Repeat for Years,” discusses good tooth brushing habits for children.

Lara teaching SAAF staff members

Eight staff members from the San Antonio AIDS Foundation (SAAF) joined UT HSC librarians Linda Levy and Lara Sapp on Wednesday, June 17 to learn about reliable Web sites for health information, with a focus on HIV/AIDS information. They staff members were interested in sites that they could share with patients for health education, sites that they would be able to use to find ideas for community prevention and education programs, and sites that would offer information for case management activities such as insurance or Social Security eligibility. The librarians started with a brief overview of how to evaluate the quality of health information sites on the Web and then demonstrated sites such as Partners for Information Access for Public Health Professionals (PH Partners), MedlinePlus, AIDSInfo, Clinicaltrials.gov, the National Cancer Institute, and PubMed. A bibliography of additional sites was included as well. Staff members told us about their favorite sites (like thebody.com and avert.org), too, so it was a joint learning experience!

A study published in the June 2009 issue of Journal of the American Dietetic Association shows Hispanic children get a mixed review when it comes to good nutrition.  In general, they receive adequate amounts of most nutrients, but they also take in more than the recommended daily amounts of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and added sugar and salt.  Due to a diet that includes sodas, fruit juices, burgers and pizza, there is also a lack of fruits and vegetables in their diets, as well as other key nutrients.  Factors, such as having parents who are overweight and of lower education and income levels, may also contribute to placing the children at risk for obesity.

The study was conducted in Houston, TX with normal and overweight children of low socioeconomic status.

Officials at the Texas Department of State Health Services have confirmed that a 33-year old woman from Harlingen is the first Texas resident with H1N1 flu to die.  Judy Dominguez Trunnell, a teacher in the Mercedes Independent School District, originally tested negative for H1N1 flu, but a follow-up test conducted by the CDC later confirmed that she indeed had contracted the H1N1 virus.  Health officials have emphasized that Trunnell had  “chronic underlying health conditions” that complicated the virus, leading to her death.

For more on this story, please visit: http://www.valleymorningstar.com/articles/flu-51582-swine-health.html