Dose of DMU blog » Uncategorized

15 May

Memorial Day: picnic season’s official start

While our DMU campus is buzzing with commencement and the festivities of celebrating the work of our faculty and students, there is another holiday that falls at the end of the month: Memorial Day. And for many families, Memorial Day is the official start of picnic season.

Keep picnic guests happy and healthy.

What’s the best way to take perishable foods to a picnic site or family get-together? Let’s begin by thinking about the ending: leftovers. Often we plan how to take food to a gathering safely, but after a long day of fun and sun, we don’t have a safe plan for getting the leftovers home, and it’s the leftovers that can pose a larger health risk of food-borne illness. The best advice is to plan enough food for the event so there will not be any left over.

5 Apr

Reproductive and sexual health

by Barb Boose

Today is day 4 of National Public Health Week 2012! Our awesome Master of Public Health Student Club (MPHSC) members have a number of activities in the works – see below – to promote health across communities and population. MPHSC members offer information below on today’s theme, reproductive and sexual health.

Why focus on reproductive and sexual health?

Nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended. Risks associated with these unintended pregnancies include low birth weight, postpartum depression, and family stress.
The rate of preterm birth has risen more than 20% in the last 20 years. These preterm infants are more likely to suffer complications such as respiratory distress, infant mortality, cerebral palsy, and learning disabilities.

13 Jan

Friday recipe: high-protein torte

by Barb Boose

I love recipes with secret ingredients – components that no one would suspect. I once surprised my workmates with a batch of pork and bean bars that indeed contained an entire can of Van Camp’s but tasted like lusciously moist pumpkin bars (don’t look for the recipe here; those bars definitely don’t fit in the “healthy cooking” category).

Another favorite mystery-ingredient concoction is USA Weekend columnist Jean Carper’s high-protein torte, perfect for adding legumes to your diet, pleasing people who eat gluten-free, and for tricking kids and other finicky eaters to consume garbanzos in happy oblivion. You can moderate the calories by using Splenda instead of sugar and non-fat cream cheese for the icing, or substitute the icing with light whipped cream.

13 Dec

Satisfied?

by Barb Boose

I’d like to believe health care professionals are committed to patient satisfaction, but going forward the level of “care quality” will take on greater importance: Starting in October 2012, according to Healthcare.gov, Medicare will reward hospitals “that provide high quality care for their patients through the new Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program…for the first time, hospitals across the country will be paid for inpatient acute care services based on care quality, not just the quantity of services they provide.”

The program will use quality measures relating to reductions in length of patient stays, occurrence of preventable illness or injury in the facility, and errors in hospital care. These issues add to patient suffering and lead to significant unnecessary health care spending.

5 Dec

What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

by Barb Boose

This time of year, I love talking with family and friends about their favorite holiday traditions. My daughter, for example, loves that initial excavation of holiday decorations from the depths of a basement closet (although she’s less fond of putting them all away after the holidays – imagine that!). My son loves the December production of holiday goodies, much of which we give as gifts (but don’t worry, we get our own fair share of peanut butter balls, white chocolate-covered pretzels and saltine candy, which we irreverently refer to as “crack”).