Happy Father's Day from HealthPro!

If you're still in the market for a good Father's Day gift, don't worry, you have time. These healthy ideas will help you figure out the perfect present to get your active Papa. And even if your Dad isn't an exercise-goer, treat him to one of these gifts to inspire him to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Because nothing says 'I love you Dad' like the gift of health and wellness.

1. His own personal glam squad

Boston spa and salon G2O is offering deals and celebrating Dad all month long. From men's haircuts to 'sports manicures', your father can indulge during the month of June. Want to really make Pop feel pampered? Treat him to a men’s conditioning facial and sports pedicure for the ultimate gift.

2. So he looks cool at the gym

While Dad might go to the gym, he may not look as sharp as he could. Help him look and feel his coolest with a new set of headphones so he can jam out to his favorite tunes. Skullcandy has come out with a variety of shapes and sizes to keep Dad the most comfortable during his gym sessions as well as stylish.

3. To track all of his activity ... or lack there of

What better way to get your Dad to workout more efficiently (or motivate him to workout) than with a fun fitness gadget. Wellness trackers such as the FitBit, Shine and Nike+ are all great gear options this Father's Day.
From tracking his calories to measuring his daily step count, all of these tools will help Dad live a longer and strong life — one workout at a time.

4. For the cyclist

Does your Father like to bike? Grab him the Satechi RideMate Smartphone Bike Mount so he can ride in style and map his route at the same time.
Not only is this portable mount great for the leisurely weekend workout, it is perfect for setting up a GPS and taking an adventure. Because, what Dad doesn't like a tech compatible product?

5. To keep him healthy

If your Dad is like mine, he loves his snacks. This year, ditch the box of Cheez-Its and give him a healthy gift that keeps on giving. Monthly subscriptions such as Nature Box will deliver both sweet and savory snacks right to his doorstep. Not sure he'll enjoy the selection? Pick up some Krave Jerky for a healthy snack that comes in a variety of flavors.
I mean, what man doesn't like dried meat?
Source: BostInno.com
Happy Father's Day from HealthPro!

CPR Training for High School Graduates

CPR training now required to graduate high school in Louisiana

Published: 3:41 pm CDT, June 10, 2014

Louisiana has become the 17^th state to pass a law requiring all high school students to take CPR training, adding to the more than 1 million graduates who will be equipped with this lifesaving skill every year.
The legislation was passed unanimously by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday. It takes effect in the 2014-2015 school year.
“Too few people in our community are trained in CPR to respond in these emergency situations. But this law will change that,” said Kay Eddleman, volunteer chair of the American Heart Association’s Louisiana Advocacy Committee.
Louisiana had a law in place that required that CPR be taught, but not a practice requirement that went along with it, said Coletta Barrett, R.N., vice president of mission for Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“For someone to know they’re supposed to do CPR but not know how to do it could be frustrating,” said Barrett, also past chairman of the board of the American Heart Association. “We wanted to add this to the current law to make it clear we would give students the skills to practice what they’re supposed to do.”
The AHA and other organizations are pushing state legislatures across the country to pass bills requiring CPR and automated external defibrillator training for high school students.
No one knows for sure where and when a sudden cardiac arrest may strike, so training more people increases the odds someone will be prepared to give CPR. School-based CPR training is one of the most effective ways to get large numbers trained in this simple, lifesaving skill.
Bystander CPR can double or triple survival rates from cardiac arrest. However, many people do not get help from bystanders who could provide CPR if they knew how.
Of the roughly 424,000 Americans who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital each year, only 40 percent get CPR from a bystander and only about 10 percent survive. Most people don’t know how to use AEDs, which deliver an electric shock to stop cardiac arrest, although they’re becoming more widely available.
Source: AHA
Align your Training Site with HealthPro today! Contact us at hpec.org or call 951-279-6110 for more information.   

Living with Heart Disease

Mary Leah Coco’s Story

Cardiomyopathy Survivor, Age 33, Baton Rouge, LA

Mary Leah's Story

While most women wouldn’t say they are thankful for having a family history of heart disease, Mary Leah Coco believes knowing her family history and taking it seriously are the only reasons she’s actually alive today.
Mary Leah’s grandfather died of cardiomyopathy in the late 1970s, before she was born. Then, in 2008, her mother went into atrial fibrillation and was diagnosed with a hole in her heart at age 53. Mary Leah knew she should see a cardiologist too, but she was about to give birth at the time. She promised herself she would do it once she got through the pregnancy. For now, she was just relieved her mother was going to be ok and able to see her granddaughter grow up.
“I cried when my mom was diagnosed because I couldn’t imagine raising my daughter without her here,” she says. “As scary as it was, that hole in my mom’s heart became my saving grace because I actually took time to think about my own health and whether this same thing could happen to me one day.”
Two years later, at age 30, Mary Leah finally made good on her promise and visited her mom’s doctor. She’d had a few symptoms like lightheadedness, heart palpitations and nausea, but she had assumed these were the result of her busy lifestyle. She was working full time, finishing her Ph.D. and taking care of a toddler, after all. Following several normal results for weight, blood pressure and cholesterol, a test revealed that her heart was enlarged and was only functioning at 10 percent.
“My doctor handed me a tissue before he told me the news,” Mary Leah says. “I knew it was very serious.”
But this was not the worst news she would receive. After seven months of treatment, she learned that her heart condition had hardly improved. Surgeons implanted a dual chamber defibrillator, or as Mary Leah calls them, “jumper cables for the heart.” The defibrillator will restart her heart if necessary, but won’t improve the underlying condition. At this point, a heart transplant is inevitable.
Despite her condition – or perhaps because of it – Mary Leah maintains a full and productive life. She completed her Ph.D. six months after her diagnosis and currently teaches at Louisiana State University and is a training director for the State of Louisiana. A long-time athlete, she can’t do the intense exercise she used to enjoy, but has found swimming to be a safer activity she can do with her entire family. Her husband, a chef, has changed the way the family eats, preparing only healthy meals that are low in fat and sodium. These changes not only help Mary Leah, but have also helped her husband keep his own cholesterol in check.
“Even though I have this specific condition, I always remind people that you must take care of yourself because most forms of heart disease are preventable,” Mary Leah says.
In addition to improving her lifestyle, Mary Leah’s time is now focused on her 4-year-old daughter, Annie. She takes life a little slower these days and makes time to talk with Annie in the car, share her favorite movies and relish every dirty fingerprint on her windows because she was around to see them.
“I am very focused on making memories right now,” she says. “Everyone has a terminal condition called life, but for me it’s a different timeframe if I don’t get a new heart. Women need to learn that if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t have the opportunity to make memories with your family.”
The fact that each generation of Mary Leah’s family has suffered from heart disease makes her extra cautious when it comes to her daughter, and she takes her for a cardiac check-up every year.
“I want to be sure she leads as healthy a life as possible starting now,” Mary Leah says. “I’m working to create a legacy for her and others because I am alive and not a statistic.”
Read more from Mary Leah on her blog post on the Ad Council’s AdLibbing site.
Source: AHA
HealthPro's classes are filling up...register for your class today at hpec.org or give us a call at 951-279-6110 to sign up.

SAVE A LIFE!

National CPR/AED Awareness Week

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the U.S.   Everyone should know how to perform CPR in an emergency.   Immediate, effective CPR could more than double a victim's chance of survival.   Push on the chest at a rate of at least 100 beats per minute.   Push to the beat of "Stayin' Alive" and you could save a life. For more information on Hands-Only CPR.    SOURCE: AHA HealthPro offers elearning courses - sign up at hpec.org or give us a call at 951-279-6110.

Happy CPR Awareness Week

STORIES FROM THE HEART: Lifting a 3,500-pound car was only the start to saving her dad’s life; knowing CPR made a difference, too
One summer afternoon, 22-year-old Lauren Kornacki arrived home from her job as a lifeguard with hopes of borrowing the family car to go visit her best friend.
The car was in the garage being worked on by her dad, Alec Kornacki. He was trying to fix a brake problem.
When Lauren went in the garage, she discovered something horrific. The jack had slipped out of position, pinning her dad underneath the nearly 3,500-pound vehicle.
“All I could think was my dad wasn’t OK,” Lauren said. “I just knew I had to get him out of harm’s way.”

***

Lauren’s scream brought her mother, Liz, and younger sister Allison to the garage. She shouted at them to call 9-1-1 and began throwing herself at the car, eventually pulling her dad free.
Once he was out, Lauren realized her father wasn’t breathing, so she began to administer CPR.
Her fast work paid off. By the time the EMTs arrived, Alec had resumed breathing, although he wasn’t yet conscious.
She still wonders what made it possible for her to lift the car, a 1995 BMW.
“Adrenaline? Luck? I don’t know what it was,” she said. “I’m just happy I was able to save my dad.”
Alec’s arm was draped across his chest when the car fell on him, which may have spared him worse injuries. He lost feeling in the arm for three months due to nerve damage, fractured four vertebrae and had five broken ribs.
A triathlete at the time, Alec recovered relatively quickly, in part, doctors told the family, because he was so fit.

***

An incident at Lauren’s job a week earlier may have helped her readiness.
A boy hit his head on the bottom of the pool, and Lauren sprang into action, stabilizing his spine and calling for an ambulance. The boy turned out to be OK and didn’t need CPR, but pool officials considered it a good reason to hold a CPR refresher class for its employees.
“Everything was fresh in my mind,” said Lauren, who’d been trained in CPR for six years. “None of my other family members would have been able to do it. Fortunately, I had the CPR training that was so important for us.”

***

The accident galvanized the Kornacki family, who live in Richmond, Va., to become ardent advocates for CPR training.
“I hope no one has to go through the situation we did, but I hope that if they do, they’ll be trained in what to do,” Lauren said.
Now 24, Lauren continues to share her story at community events and with cardiac survivors. She also volunteers at American Heart Association events such as the Heart Walk and promoting Hands-Only CPR kits.
Lauren and Alec appeared on the television show “The Doctors” to share their story and promote Hands-Only CPR.
The American Heart Association helped pioneer CPR more than 50 years ago, and continues to refine this lifesaving technique. The organization trains over 14 million people each year in 60-plus countries. Even without formal training, anyone can be a lifesaver by remembering the steps to “Hands-Only CPR” – call 9-1-1, then push hard and fast in the center of the chest, preferably to the beat of the classic disco song, “Stayin’ Alive” until help arrives. This is a great time to learn the lifesaving skill, as the first week in June is CPR Awareness Week.
Bystanders play a critical role in emergency situations, but as many as 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to respond because they either don’t know how to administer CPR or their training has lapsed.
“It’s really important to me,” Lauren said. “There’s no reason not to know CPR.”
Source: AHA
Have you checked out HealthPro's June calendar?  Sign up for a class today at hpec.org.  If you can't find what you're looking for, give us a call at 951-279-6110 so we can set up a custom class to suit your needs!

A Happy Heart = A Healthy Heart

Optimism could be a tool in heart failure prevention

Published: 6:00 am CDT, May 21, 2014

A happy heart may be a healthy heart, at least for older people at the risk of developing heart failure.

Researchers followed 6,808 people enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative study of older U.S adults, for four years.

According to their study released Tuesday in Circulation: Heart Failure, higher optimism was associated with a 26 percent lower risk of incident heart failure throughout the follow-up period. Optimism was assessed with a 6-item scoring system looking at how one expects positive outcomes.

In fact, as optimism increased, the risk of developing heart failure decreased. Those with the highest optimism were nearly half as likely to have heart failure as those who were most pessimistic.

A July, 2011, study in Stroke — also using data from the Health and Retirement Study — found a similar effect on reducing the risk of stroke.

“These findings, the first to assess the relationship between optimism-pessimism and heart failure, add to a remarkably consistent recent literature that has linked optimism-pessimism to other cardiovascular outcomes, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiac death,”  according to an editorial by Dr. Alan Rozanski that accompanied the most-recent study.. “These observations provide conclusive evidence for the health benefits of optimism.”

Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition when the heart muscle can’t keep up with its workload to pump enough blood through the body. More than 5.1 million Americans are living with heart failure. Healthcare costs related to the condition are more than $30.7 billion annually. Those numbers are expected to rise considerably, due in part to an aging population and because the risk of heart failure increases with age.

For more information:

• Heart failure
• Heart failure animation
• Managing stress

SOURCE: AHA

Check out HealthPro's June and July class schedule....courses are filling up...sign up to reserve your spot today at hpec.org or give us a call at 951-279-6110.

Stayin' Alive

Save a Life Playlist

If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, call
9-1-1 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of the disco song "Stayin' Alive".

 

Source: AHA

 

HealthPro has a great course schedule lined up this June.  Check out our calendar at hpec.org or give us a call at 951-279-6110.