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Six ways to fight the flu

Six ways to fight the flu

When temperatures drop, the spread of cold and flu germs rises. Start the year off healthy and be sure to rid your home of lingering germs that may be hiding in places you don’t expect. 

“I always recommend the flu shot — especially when officials are predicting a harsh flu season like this year — good nutrition and plenty of sleep, but there are other healthy habits we can all develop to help keep ourselves and those around us stay healthy during cold and flu season,” said Dr. Tanya Altmann, pediatrician, best-selling author and founder of Calabasas Pediatrics. “Vaccination is important, but there are other preventative measures that we should all keep in mind.” 

These tips from the experts at Clorox can help you prevent the spread of germs:

1. Get Vaccinated. Even though it’s well into cold and flu season, it’s still important to get a flu shot if you haven’t already. Vaccination is the first step in flu prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend a yearly flu virus vaccination — even if the vaccine’s efficacy fluctuates — for almost everyone six months and older.

2. Keep Hands Washed: Hands touch so many things throughout the day. It’s important to wash your hands often, including after using the bathroom and before preparing or serving food. Germs can spread by touching your eyes, nose or mouth after coming in contact with a contaminated surface. Those areas are common entry points to the body for germs, so try not to touch your face or eat until you wash your hands.

3. Stay Home if You’re Sick: Even though you may not want to miss work or school, it’s important to stay home to prevent the spread of illnesses to those around you. Even at home, make sure to cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue to prevent the spread of germs to your loved ones. Lastly, try your best to make good use of your time off from work or school to rest, relax, eat well and recover from illnesses.

4. Follow Health Guidelines: It’s important to eat right (fill up with fresh fruit and veggies, vitamin D and probiotics), get some exercise (at least 30 minutes a day of moderate intensity) and get plenty of sleep (at least eight hours per night) to help boost your body’s ability to fight the effects of cold and flu viruses.  

5. Be Aware of Your Environment: Be aware of illnesses going around in your community to take extra precautions to avoid them or to know when to seek medical attention if you do get sick.

6. Disinfect Hard Surfaces: Disinfection is a key step to help prevent the spread of cold and flu germs. The CDC recommends disinfecting frequently touched, hard surfaces, such as doorknobs, refrigerator handles, light switches and faucets, with an EPA-registered disinfectant like Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. They help kill 99.9 percent of germs that can live for up to 48 hours on hard, non-porous surfaces. 

Learn more about flu prevention at clorox.com/FluFOMO.
— Family Features

ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please visit https://proactivesportsrehab.com or call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Five ways to achieve your New Year’s resolution

Five ways to achieve your New Year’s resolution

Whether you want to lose weight, get in shape, read more or start playing guitar, there are thousands of New Year’s resolutions to pick from. For most people, though, their resolutions have to do with losing weight, exercising more or getting healthier. In fact, 69 percent of resolutions are about losing weight or staying healthy.

After all those cookies and belt-loosening meals of the holidays, it’s no wonder people want to get healthier.

Unfortunately, deciding on a resolution is the easy part; maintaining it is the challenge. But it’s not impossible. With the right resources and habits, there’s no reason you can’t realize your goal.

These five tips will help you do just that.

1. Set up a lot of smaller, incremental goals. In making our New Year’s resolutions, we can sometimes get a little ambitious. While it’s great to dream big, on a practical level, you need to figure out how to reach your target. Rather than have an enormous goal looming in front of you, think in terms of days or weeks. For instance, if you want to lose 25 pounds this year (which would be a significant and awesome accomplishment!) focus on losing two pounds a month. Breaking your goal into smaller increments can help you succeed in achieving that ambitious resolution.

2. Take advantage of perks. Did you know that your health insurance may have extra perks that give you an incentive to get healthier? For example, through the Blue365 health and wellness discount program, members of participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies have access to discounts on gym memberships, athletic gear, nutrition products, and vision and hearing products. To see if your BCBS company participates in this program, visit www.Blue365deals.com.

3. Make it a team effort. Instead of making your resolution an individual goal, team up with a friend or family member, and together, work toward a shared goal. Having someone to hold you accountable, who you are responsible to and who can motivate you, is huge. It creates a great dynamic and source of inspiration that can get you through those mental slouches. If you can’t find a resolution partner, be sure to tell people about what you’re doing and talk about your progress.

4. Enlist the aid of technology. You may have noticed there are a lot of people wearing thin bands around their wrists these days. These fitness trackers track your movements, monitor your heart rate, provide a record of your movements and more. They help you to hone in on your fitness goals and remind you when you need to move.

5. Be meticulous. Don’t be casual about your goals! Treat them like you would a project for work. Set up a schedule that you can follow and create specific, measurable goals. This might sound a bit rigid, but it will give you concrete steps to follow, and once you start seeing your progress, you’ll feel a new boost of energy.

You should be excited about your New Year’s resolution, and you should be excited about challenging yourself to see it through and to realize your goals. For tools and motivation to keep your efforts on track, visit www.Blue365deals.com and get ready to tackle 2018 with gusto!
— Brandpoint

ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.

Can a healthy lifestyle improve your performance at work?

Can a healthy lifestyle improve your performance at work?

With the new year just beginning and winter cold and flu season well under way, many people will remind you of the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle. And while we often think of the personal benefits of doing so, we seldom consider the impact our health has on others’ lives.

Yet caring for ourselves and for our health is beneficial for the people around us, especially for our colleagues with whom we spend the better part of our days.

Sports have proven to be one of the best gifts you can offer your brain, as physical exercise encourages blood flow and connections between neurons. A brain that is in its best shape will allow you to better concentrate and perform at the office. Sports will also help lower your stress levels, an important factor in today’s intense work culture.

Additionally, the quality of your sleep is just as important, as it helps maintain psychological balance. And good morale will positively affect your relationships with others and help you face difficulties and react to conflicts in a more positive and proactive way.

To make a change in a collective way is a lot easier and more enjoyable than doing so alone. Consider encouraging your colleagues to take charge of their health as well.

A community that supports each other makes every person better. For additional tips, please visit blog.ssq.ca/en/health.
— News Canada

ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.

Tips to safeguard your medicines are a prescription for a healthy new year

Tips to safeguard your medicines are a prescription for a healthy new year

Prescriptions and over-the-counter remedies we rely on can be dangerous to others, and not just to children. It is true that about 60,000 young children are taken to the emergency room each year because they got into medicines left within easy reach. Unfortunately, older kids and teens often experiment with drugs they find in someone else’s medicine cabinet.

A surprising number of heroin users started abusing drugs by taking opioid pain killers stolen from a family member. In fact, drug addiction crosses all age groups, and it often starts with prescription medicines.

Here are six ways to safeguard your prescription drugs — and your loved ones:

1. Keep all medicines and over-the-counter items — especially cough syrup, sleep aids and motion sickness medicine — locked up, or move them to a place where they won’t be easily found.

2. Sort through all your medicines and get rid of old or unused ones. The label will tell you how to dispose of them. Most medicine should not be flushed because it gets into creeks and rivers. Ask the pharmacy or police department about drug take-back programs for an even safer method of disposal.

3. Keep track of your medicines on a regular basis (weekly), especially opioids or other pain killers, including how many pills you should have.

4. Check around your home for old medicines. Purses, coat pockets, kitchen cupboards, bureau drawers and hall closets are common places to find old medicines.

5. If you take prescriptions with you when staying in someone else’s home, quietly ask your host or another trusted adult to lock them up or find a secure place to store them. Suitcases and purses are not safe places to keep powerful prescriptions.

6. Keep the Poison Help number handy in case of emergencies: (800) 222-1222.

More information on how to avoid becoming an unwitting supplier of prescription medications is available from the Food and Drug Administration.
— Brandpoint

ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.

Americans prefer non-drug treatment for pain, find physical therapy most effective option

Americans prefer non-drug treatment for pain, find physical therapy most effective option

Despite the nation’s alarming opioid epidemic, a new survey has found that Americans prefer a nondrug approach to pain treatment.

The research brief (Americans Prefer Drug-Free Pain Management Over Opioids), released in early September 2017, is based on data collected from February through March 2017. Of the 6,300 adults surveyed, 78 percent said they preferred nondrug alternatives to treating their “physical” pain, and 41 percent found physical therapy as the most effective nondrug option. 

Furthermore, two-thirds reported having neck or back pain great enough to seek care from a health care provider, and 54 percent reported having neck and back pain for at least five years.   

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released opioid prescribing guidelines in March 2016, urging prescribers to reduce the use of opioids in favor of safer alternatives, like physical therapy. In these guidelines, the CDC cites “high-quality evidence” supporting exercise as part of a physical therapy treatment plan for conditions such as low back pain.

Physical therapists treat pain through movement and exercise and partner with patients to improve or maintain their mobility and quality of life.

The American Physical Therapy Association launched a national campaign to raise awareness about the risks of long-term use of prescription opioids for pain and physical therapy as a safe nondrug alternative to manage pain.
— American Physical Therapy Association

ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.

Winter wellness tips

Winter wellness tips

A busy lifestyle and cooler weather can take a toll on the body, especially for those who suffer from chronic aches and pains. Whether the cause of your pain is due to injury, stress or poor sleep, there are many ways to feel better while avoiding future pain.

To stay well this season and naturally manage muscle pain, consider these tips from professional ballroom dancer Tony Dovolani, who’s no stranger to the subject of pain management.

Stretch. Stretching is not just for before or after a workout. Stretch throughout the day to keep blood flowing, particularly if you have a job that keeps you sedentary.

Eat right. Your diet should include lean protein and healthy carbs. “And I eat my vegetables, too!” says Dovolani. “Mainly spinach, string beans and broccoli.” Figure out which vegetables you like best, and be sure to incorporate them into your diet.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Water is necessary for muscle repair. Drink water throughout the day and especially when you’re active.

Apply heat. Heat is a timeless remedy, and it’s clinically proven to relieve pain associated with muscle tension and stress, helping to relax muscles and improve blood flow. The increased blood flow restores oxygen and nutrients to inflamed areas to help accelerate healing.

“After every rehearsal and performance, I use heat to soothe aches and pains and improve blood flow to my neck and shoulder muscles,” says Dovolani, whose pain relief routine includes using The Sunbeam Renue Neck Wrap. “It’s great for providing relief to the back of my head, neck and shoulders.” Because it features an adjustable neck collar that contours to the shape of the neck of the user, it can provide high-level, concentrated heat for targeted relief.

Don’t let aches and pains set you back. With a healthy, active lifestyle, you can feel your best!

— StatePoint

ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.