Health And Fitness
What is prenatal care and why is it important?
Having a healthy pregnancy is one of the best ways to promote a healthy birth. Getting early and regular prenatal care improves the chances of a healthy pregnancy. This care can begin even before pregnancy with a preconception care visit to a health care provider.
Preconception Care
A preconception care visit can help women take steps for a safe and healthy pregnancy before they get pregnant.
Protect Babies from Whooping Cough (Pertussis)
Babies need protection from whooping cough because this disease can make them very sick and is very contagious. You can protect babies from whooping cough by getting your vaccine and making sure your baby gets his vaccines.
Whooping cough is very contagious and most severe for babies. People with whooping cough usually spread the disease by coughing or sneezing while in close contact with others, who then breathe in the bacteria that cause the disease.
Stop the Spread of Superbugs: Help Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria
For nearly a century, bacteria-fighting drugs known as antibiotics have helped to control and destroy many of the harmful bacteria that can make us sick. But in recent decades, antibiotics have been losing their punch against some types of bacteria. In fact, certain bacteria are now unbeatable with today’s medicines. Sadly, the way we’ve been using antibiotics is helping to create new drug-resistant “superbugs.
Help boost the local blood supply
The winter months can often impact the local blood supply, but this winter has been especially harsh. The brutal temperatures along with winter storms have created many challenges for blood donors to get out and give a donation. Now, blood donors are needed to help boost the blood supply so that hospital patients in need of life-saving blood products receive them the moment they need them.
U.S. News and World Report Honors VGH with 5 Star Nursing Home Award
For the second time in as many months Virginia Gay Hospital and Clinics (Nursing & Rehab Department) has been recognized as providing exceptional care, this time by U.S. News and World Report earning a 5 Star Nursing Home Award.
How do U.S. News and World Report determine 5 Star Nursing Home? They state, “An estimated 3.3 million Americans will live in the nation's nearly 16,000 nursing homes during 2013. MARCH into Spring
MARCH into spring armed with habits that help you become your healthiest self. Consider these tips:
MOVE EVERY DAY – Get at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily for better blood pressure, stress reduction, and weight control. This can include three 10-minute bouts of physical activity throughout the day. Choose activities you enjoy, raise your heart rate, build strength, and increase flexibility.
Safe Home Food Preservation
Interest in home food preservation has increased due to the popularity of local foods and gardening. With more people preserving food, there is concern about whether the resulting food products are safe to eat. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report the most common cause of foodborne botulism in the United States is from home-canned vegetables because proper procedures were not followed.
Diet Beverages and Body Weight
Note: February is National Hearth Month and Virginia Gay Hospital and Clinics is celebrating by showcasing the Cardio-Pulmonary Rehab Department on Friday, February 14th (10am-2pm) open house. Current and former patients, interested community members are encouraged to visit.
Overweight and obese adults who drink diet beverages consume significantly more solid-food calories—particularly from snacks—than those who drink sugary beverages.
New cardio equipment featured in Friday Open House at VGH
It’s like no other exercise facility in town, rather this room on the main floor of the Virginia Gay Hospital has all the traditional wares of a gym or exercise center but differs in a significant way: two caring healthcare professionals guide patients through a cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation process after a heart or respiratory event.
Coleen Long, RN and Mason Hoffman, RT (Respiratory Therapist) work under the supervision of Dr. Take Aim on Childhood Obesity
Kids face a lot of challenges as they grow up: Learning how to make and keep friends, get homework done and have fun while staying safe. But children today are now confronting a growing, oversized problem that puts them at risk for a host of lifelong medical conditions. That problem is childhood obesity.
Kids won’t be able to tackle this one on their own.