- Men's Health, Senior Care, Women's Health, UncategorizedGeneral Page Tier 3BlogThe American Lung Association reports chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) claims nearly 135,000 American lives annually, making it the third deadliest disease after heart disease and cancer. COPD, characterized by shortness of breath, chronic cough, and chronic mucus production, is not curable, nor can you reverse lung damage linked to COPD. You can, however, treat and maintain the disease with these proactive steps. Medication Adherence “In the short term, medications help decrease COPD exacerbations. But there are long-term benefits, too,” explains Keith Goulet, DO, a critical care medicine and pulmonary disease specialist at Anne Arundel Medical Center. “Exacerbations increase lung damage. So every flare-up you prevent today slows down future disease progression.” Consult a Pulmonologist Typically, your primary care physician is the first doctor to assess symptoms associated with COPD. The next step is to consult a pulmonologist, a physician with advanced knowledge and skill in the diagnosis and treatment of lung conditions and diseases. “You need to make sure your COPD diagnosis is accurate and you’re on the right medications,” says Dr. Goulet. “Ask your doctor questions if you have them. COPD can be a scary disease because it’s not curable. But it is treatable. Learning everything you can about the disease often calms those fears, and ultimately improves your quality of life.” Be Your Own Advocate Anne Arundel Medical Center offers free classes and support groups to help people with COPD better understand disease symptoms, drug administration, lifestyle adjustments, and coping strategies. COPD 101 is a 90-minute class held monthly in the fall, winter and spring. The Better Breathers Club, a support group held every other month, emphasizes lifestyle changes, such as how to travel with COPD and how nutrition plays into COPD management. Visit AAMCevents.org or call 443-481-5555 for more information or to register. Quit Smoking Smoking is not the sole cause of COPD, but it is estimated that 80 percent of those diagnosed with COPD are either current or past smokers. Specific to COPD, cigarette smoke contains toxins that irritate the lungs and trigger symptoms. Take our pledge to love your lungs, and be entered to win a $50 Visa gift card! Stay Active For COPD patients, every breath taxes the breathing muscles. To keep these muscles in good shape, it’s essential that you stay active to the best of your ability and always follow your doctor’s recommendations. Author By Keith Goulet, DO, a critical care medicine and pulmonary disease specialist at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He can be reached at 410-266-1644. Originally published Sept. 24, 2015. Last updated Nov. 11, 2019.0
- News & Press ReleasesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogAnne Arundel Medical Center and Doctors Community Hospital, part of the newly formed Luminis Health system, are meeting the highest safety standards in the U.S., according to The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Grade report out this November. Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades are assigned to over 2,600 general acute-care hospitals across the nation twice annually. The grade is becoming the gold standard measure of patient safety. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and other supplemental data sources to produce a single letter grade. The grade represents a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. Its methodology has been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety. With the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, The Leapfrog Group aims to educate and encourage consumers to consider safety when selecting a hospital for themselves or their families. The report provides data and research to help patients make informed decisions about a critical aspect of their hospital stay – safety. For details and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.0
- Men's Health, Orthopedics, Weight Loss, Women's Health, Wellness, Heart CareGeneral Page Tier 3Blog‘Tis the season to be jolly… and healthy! When you think of the holidays and health, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps it’s all the food you intend on eating with your family. Or finally getting that gym membership you’ve been putting off. Or, maybe you don’t think these two terms go hand-in-hand at all. Well, they can. And they should! The holiday season is a great time to enjoy time with family and friends, celebrate life, be grateful and take a moment to reflect on what’s important to you. It’s also a time to appreciate the gift of health. As this year ends and the next one begins, we encourage you to think about health and how you can help others make this essential part of life a priority. Health is described as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” If you could take that sentence, put it in a box and wrap it as a gift to give to someone you love or care about, would you? Brighten this holiday season by giving the gift of health to loved ones. How? We asked our experts for their ideas on how you can accomplish this and here’s what they had to say: Together time. Especially for our older population, giving the gift of time and ensuring you schedule dates to see them can bring them a great deal of joy (more than you know). Go pay a visit to your grandparents, uncles or check out nearby nursing homes. Bring along young children or pets (if appropriate) when you visit. Health-tech gadgets. In an age where everything revolves around technology, this might just be one of the best gifts to give this holiday season. There’s an endless supply of devices on the market that you can give to a person you know who has been concerned about their health. Whether they’ve been experiencing heart palpitations, poor sleep or fatigue, capturing these episodes can help their doctor make a diagnosis. For example, think of a Fitbit, Apple Watch or an AliveCor Kardia heart monitor. Gym membership or sessions with a trainer. No more excuses! It’s time to make that one stop you’ve been postponing for months. The gym has all the necessary equipment for getting in shape. As we get older, weight training becomes important. But, if you’d rather do cardio, there are plenty of other options. The elliptical, stationary bike and rowing machine mitigate the amount of repetitive forces on the knees that come with long distance running, even on a treadmill. Training sessions, on the other hand, are helpful in that they are an appointment – you have someone expecting you to be there and have allotted a certain amount of time to a given task. Sign up for a heart-healthy cooking class. This is certainly a more creative option. You can prevent, or even essentially cure, many of the chronic diseases present in society today, including heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, through appropriate diet. A heart-healthy cooking class can show people how to make delicious and healthy foods on a budget. Get your own equipment. Don’t like the gym? Think about purchasing TRX straps, an ab mat or even a bike. These relatively low cost options still can give you a great workout while using just your body weight. Adopt (not buy) a dog! The benefits of having a pet, especially a dog, are myriad. There are benefits to blood pressure and stress levels. From an activity standpoint, a responsible dog owner will make sure his or her pooch gets enough exercise and in turn will get some exercise himself or herself. In this case, you are improving and saving two lives – yours and your new pal’s! When thinking of what to get family, friends and loved ones this year, prioritize their wellbeing. You’re providing them with the gift that keeps on giving – good health. Authors Baran Kilical, MD, cardiologist and electrophysiologist with Luminis Health Cardiology. Lil Banchero, senior director of the Institute for Healthy Aging at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center.0
- Cancer Care, Men's Health, Women's HealthGeneral Page Tier 3BlogLung cancer remains the most common cancer in the world. According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women — about one out of four cancer deaths are from lung cancer. While a small number of people who have lung cancer have never smoked, the biggest risk factor is smoking. Other risk factors are having an immediate family member with lung cancer, and exposure to radon, asbestos, and other chemicals that are harmful to your lungs. If lung cancer is found early, before a person has any symptoms such as coughing up blood, chest pain, difficulty breathing or unexplained weight loss, there is a better chance of curing the disease. In the past, only 16 percent of lung cancers were found early and often by accident. That is changing quickly, thanks to the results of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Take our pledge to love your lungs, and be entered to win a $50 Visa gift card! The NLST showed that having a low dose chest CT scan every year was more helpful than a chest x-ray in finding early lung cancers. Because of this, men and women between the ages of 55 and 80 who have a heavy smoking history, and currently smoke or have quit within the last 15 years, are recommended to have a low dose chest CT scan. It is important to have the CT scan every year because lung cancer can develop at any time. We began our lung cancer screening program here at Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) in 2012. For the past several years, we have worked hard to educate the public and medical providers on the importance of lung cancer screening. The biggest difficulty has been spreading the word about how important screening is for high risk people. As with any new test or treatment, it can take a while for both healthcare providers and community members to get used to the idea. To decrease your risk of lung cancer, the most important decision is to try to quit smoking. Those who have already quit have overcome a major hurdle. November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a time to come together and stand up to the leading cancer killer. Join us in preventing a death by spreading the word to those who may be at risk. Lung cancer doesn’t have to claim so many lives. If you think you are at risk or know someone who is, talk to your doctor. You can also contact the AAMC Lung Screening Program at 443-481-5838. If you are making the decision to quit smoking, help is readily available. Contact AAMC’s smoking cessation program at 443-481-5366. Author Stephen Cattaneo, MD is a thoracic surgeon and medical director of thoracic oncology at Anne Arundel Medical Center. Originally published Nov. 6, 2017. Last updated Nov. 18, 2019.0
- Weight LossGeneral Page Tier 3BlogDid you know that eating more often could help you in your weight loss journey? Now, please notice, we said eating more often, not more in quantity. Losing weight and keeping it off is by no means an easy task. By some estimates, 20 percent of overweight individuals are successful in keeping off at least 10 percent of their initial body weight for a year or longer. What is their secret? We looked at initiatives like the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) and have some tips to share with you to help you along your weight loss efforts. The NWCR identifies and investigates the characteristics of individuals who have succeeded at long-term weight loss. Here are a few key behaviors reported that led to their ongoing success: Follow a low calorie diet. Participants consume a low calorie (1,300 to 1,700 per day), low fat diet. They also successfully lose weight and maintain the loss by being consistent. This means they don’t start and stop a diet, like many dieters do. Eat more often. Participants eat four to five small meals daily. Their food intake is also consistent day to day. By making consistent food choices, this encourages self-control, minimizes unplanned food temptations, fosters self-discipline and increases your ability to keep with your diet routine. Do not skip breakfast. Participants consistently eat breakfast. Including this meal in the daily routine suppresses midmorning hunger, promotes better glucose control and reduces excessive eating later in the day. Even if it’s a piece of fruit or a small bowl of oatmeal, don’t skip your first meal of the day! Being active is a must. Participants who are successful with long-term weight loss make physical activity mandatory. The average person in the NWCR database exercises anywhere between 60 and 90 minutes per day at a moderate intensity. Daily physical activity is important for both weight management and health improvement. Finding a sustainable activity that fits your lifestyle, and making it a priority, is essential for long-term success. Track your progress. Participants weigh themselves frequently. This provides a form of accountability and self-monitoring. Limit sedentary activities. Research has connected successful weight loss over an extended period with minimal amounts of time spent watching TV. The national average time for watching TV is 28 hours per week or four hours per day. This is too much sedentary time. Ideally, try to limit TV viewing to less than 10 hours per week. Take corrective action when weight is regained. Participants did not allow even a small amount of weight gain to occur without corrective action. Obesity research shows that preventing people from regaining weight is one of the most difficult dilemmas that dieters face. Health improvement that results from weight loss and maintenance is a commendable goal that is worth the effort required to accomplish it. Don’t know where to begin? If you’re ready to start your diet plan but don’t know where to begin, we have a few suggestions that might help you kick off your weight loss journey with a few quick, easy and healthy meals. Breakfast Oatmeal toppings without the added sugar. Fruited buckwheat pancakes. Baked apples with oat toppings. Lunch Veggie stir-fry. Avocado feta salad. Lentil soup. Dinner Alaska salmon cakes with yogurt dill sauce. Stuffed acorn squash. Ginger carrots with golden raisins and lemon. Authors Ann Caldwell and Maureen Shackelford are nutritionists and registered dietitians at Anne Arundel Medical Center. To reach them, call 443-481-5555. Originally published Dec. 7, 2018. Last updated Nov. 4, 2019.0
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