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Impending Hurricane Gustav

Those of you who  know me, know that I am from New Orleans and live in Covington, LA.  Right now my whole family, with the exception of my brother, Mike Ginart, have all evacuated to different areas to escape the wrath of Gustav.  My brother cannot leave due to his position on the parish council in St Bernard Parish.  I am currently staying in Dallas until we can safely return home.  I would really appreciate your prayers for my entire family to be safe and be able to return home to houses that are livable when we come back.

 All of us are still remembering Katrina which was exactly 3 yrs ago this very weekend. In Katrina, we lost our Uncle Red, a Catholic Priest that would not leave his church and my brother and my 2 sisters ALL lost their homes.  All of them have rebuilt and were trying to get some sort of normalcy back in their lives.  My children, my mother and Bart and I live North of New Orleans and were spared any material losses, but watched the rest of our family lose everything they’d ever had.  The fear of the same or worse happening again is not something we can even fathom! 

I hope to be able to report all is well in just a few days!  Right now we’re just preparing for the worse, and praying for the best!  I’ll be in touch!

Pet Emergency Course: CPR

By: Renae Hamrick, RVT

CPR

In the event of an emergency, your pet’s life may depend on your quick recognition of the situation, your knowledge of pet first aid, and the way in which you respond to the emergency.

CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is the act of artificially circulating blood and oxygen throughout the body during cardiac and respiratory arrest. Minutes without blood and oxygen can cause irreversible damage to the tissues and organs of the body; therefore, quick reaction is crucial.

Cardiopulmonary arrest, or the cessation of breathing and heartbeat, can be caused by many traumas, diseases, and disorders. If you feel an animal is in cardiopulmonary arrest, confirm this by speaking to the pet, touching him, and trying to arouse him. If you begin CPR on an animal that is not in arrest, you could become injured. Watch for the rise and fall of the animal’s chest to determine if he is breathing. If there are no breaths for 10 seconds, STAY CALM and begin CPR.
ABC’s of CPR

Airway, breathing, and circulation are the ABC’s of CPR. These three building blocks of resuscitation are to be established in this order. If possible, have two or three people available to perform CPR.

Airway

Before giving artificial respirations, check the pet’s airway (mouth and throat) to determine that it is open and clean. Lay the pet on his side, extend his head, open his mouth, and pull out the tongue. Check the airway for any obstructions (e.g. a ball, stick, meat chunk, vomit, etc.).

If anything is seen or if the airway is too dark to visualize, perform a finger sweep. Run your index finger into the pet’s mouth along the cheek and across the back of the throat. Deep in the throat is a structure called the hyoid bone, which you are unlikely to encounter. You should be aware of this though, and do not pull on it.

If an object is lodged in the throat, you can perform 5-10 abdominal thrusts (as in the Heimlich maneuver performed on humans) to try to dislodge the foreign body. If this works, the pet may regain consciousness on his own, or CPR may still need to be administered.
It is also possible that the airway can become blocked due to swelling. In this case, the pet needs to be treated by a veterinarian immediately.

Breathing

When the airway is free and clear, artificial respirations can be started if the animal is still not breathing. With the animal lying on his right side, extend the neck, pull out the tongue, and hold the mouth closed tightly over the tongue.

Place your mouth around the animal’s nose, or nose and mouth, depending on the size of the patient. Create a seal with your lips and/or hand. Give two breaths, watching for the chest to rise and the lungs to expand fully. Be careful not to overinflate, especially in small animals. Expiration (or breathing out) is a passive process; allow this to occur after each breath.

After two breaths, watch for the pet to begin breathing on his own. If there is no response from the pet, continue artificial respirations at a rate of 12-20 breaths per minute for large pets and 20-25 times per minute for small pets. While watching for breaths, you should also feel the pet’s chest near his left elbow to check for a heartbeat. If the heartbeat is absent, cardiac compressions should begin.

Circulation

In pets under 10 pounds, use your dominant hand to grasp the pet around his chest (thumb on one side, 4 fingers on the other) and squeeze 100-150 times per minute. You can also use the ball of your hand to compress the chest of a small pet that is more than 10 pounds, while using your non-dominant hand to support the pet’s back and prevent him from sliding with compressions. Compress the chest by about 25-33% of its diameter.

In medium and large dogs, use one or two hands (depending on patient and rescuer size) to compress the widest part of the chest by 25-33% of its diameter. Do this 80 -120 times per minute. Lean over the dog, and compress with your elbow(s) locked to deliver optimal force.
If preferred, compressions can also be performed on medium and large dogs with the patient on his back. In this case, deliver compressions over the sternum (or breastbone).

Coordinating Artificial Respirations and Chest Compressions
If there is only one rescuer available to resuscitate the patient, give two breaths after every 15 compressions. If multiple rescuers are available, breaths should be administered during compressions at a rate of one breath during every second or third compression.

Veterinary Care

If possible, the pet should be transported to a veterinarian during CPR. If the patient recovers with your resuscitation efforts, he should still be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible, as follow-up care may be needed.

Legal Disclaimer

If your pet is showing any signs of distress or you suspect your pet is seriously ill, CONTACT YOUR VETERINARIAN immediately.
All of the information presented on this website was developed by Intelligent Content Corporation staff members and is the sole responsibility of Intelligent Content Corporation.
See the legal terms on the website for additional legal terms.

DIET MYTHS

Unfortunately, there are a lot of myths around about weight loss,
exercise and nutrition.  Borrowed from http://WeightLossEver.com

Here are just 3 of them:
1. Carbohydrates are fattening.
There are a lot of people avoiding foods like breads and pastas at the
moment because they believe that because they are high sources of
carbohydrates that they are fatting. The truth is that anything is
fattening if you eat more of it than you bodyneeds. Even lettuce can
be stored as fat. Any food or drink which contains calories can be
stored as body fat if it causes your blood sugar levels to exceed what
the body needs at that time. Natural breads and pastas are great
sources of complex carbohydrate which help fuel your body and keep you
feeling full and satisfied for longer. The key is how much you eat and
when you eat it.

2. Lack of exercise makes you fat.
The truth is you don’t gain body fat because of a lack of exercise.
You gain it because your blood sugar levels exceed what you are using.
Basically, you are eating too many calories. Exercising everyday has
many health benefits and can help you burn excess calories. But if you
eat far more than you need, exercise alone will not make you slimmer.
No matter what you hear about weight loss, the simplest rule to
remember is this; if you take in more calories than you burn, your
body will store those calories as fat and you’ll gain weight.

3. Eating after 7pm makes you fat.
This isn’t true. Eating at any time will make you fat if your body
doesn’t need the food you eat. Eating after 7pm is OK if your body
needs the amount of calories you consume at that time. Remember, your
body is burning calories 24 hours a day, it just burns them at
different rates throughout the day and you should try to feed your
body at those times when it needs the calories most.

Changing your Eating Habits:
Changing our eating behavior is one of the critical lifestyle changes
necessary to successfully lose weight and keep it off. For many
people, changing old eating habits is one of the hardest things
they’ll ever do, as anybody who has failed at dieting can attest. If
you’ve tried to change your eating habits before and have failed, or
if you’re about to embark on a weight loss plan that involves a change
towards healthier eating, the tips in this article may help you
succeed.

First things first:
One of the reasons most people fail to stick to a diet is that they
take the wrong first step. There are broadly two ways to change your
eating habits in order to help you lose weight:
1. Change what you eat
2. Change how much you eat

Ideally, in order to maximize weight loss over the LONG TERM we need
to change both. But it’s not a good idea to change both at once. This
is where most people make mistakes. They try to change both at once or
if they only change one, they change the wrong one first. When faced
with the above two options, most people take option 1 first when the
best first option to take to help you lose weight is typically option
2.

Why? The reason is actually quite simple. It is far easier for most of
us to go from eating 3 to 2 pieces of friedchicken for dinner than it
is to go from 3 pieces of fried chicken to a garden salad. Sure,
eating the salad will help us lose more weight than forgoing only one
piece of fried chicken, but permanent weight loss is a long term
process and going down to 2 pieces of chicken forever is far better
than eating a garden salad for dinner for 1 week and then going back
to 3 pieces of chicken for the rest of our life.

Tips On How To Reduce Your In-Take
Here are some tips to help you reduce the amount you eat: Making small
permanent changes are better than radical changes that you won’t be
able to live with.
1.1 Don’t worry about falling back to your old behavior for a day or
two, only the long term counts.

1.2 Use portion controlled packaged foods to help you (prepackaged
frozen meals and single serve snack packs for example).

1.3 Use smaller plates than usual to serve your meals.

1.4 Eat small amounts of food every couple of hours so you’re not
starving at main meal times.

1.5 Drink plenty of water throughout the day –most people mistake
thirst for hunger.

1.6 Eat slowly and concentrate on your meal –don’t watch TV while
you’re eating for example.

1.7 Gradually reduce your serving sizes over time until they reach the
ideal size.

1.8 Be the last one at the table to start eating.

1.9 Place leftover food in small, single serve containers.

2.0 Have soup or a salad with low calorie dressing to begin a meal.

2.1 As soon as you begin to feel full, stop eating.

Another step
OK, you’ve gradually started to reduce the amount of food you eat and
are starting to slowly (but surely) lose weight. If you haven’t
already, now is the time to start to become more active to improve
your general level of fitness, increase your energy levels and of
course speed up the weight loss process. Now that these habits are
well established, it’s time to start thinking about making minor
positive adjustments to what we eat.

Instead of eating a piece of fried chicken for dinner for example
(we’ve migrated from 3 down to 2 and now down to 1) maybe we can have
a piece of fried chicken without the skin or a piece of grilled or
broiled chicken instead. And maybe we can replace half of the chips
that accompany our chicken with a corn cob or a handful of your
favorite steamed vegetables. See how we’re making small positive
changes that we can live with? While changing what we eat is often
more difficult that slowly but gradually reducing how much we eat,
there are things that we can do to make sure that when we do begin to
change this aspect of our behavior that we are successful.
                 http://www.weightlossever.com

I need to lose some weight!

I was on vacation all of last week (July 28-Aug 1), then went to Houston for a Breast Health Seminar that 445 invitations were sent out for.  As you may already know, a little storm called EDOUARD also decided to visit the Houston area that same night!

Needless to say, only 2 people came out, and I sure do thank them for being there! Many of the invitees were nurses, and were called out to the hospital that night “just in case!” and others probably had the good sense to stay home and make precautions for the impending storm!

It still was a nice visit with my Aunt Carol, her husband, Bob, and my cousin Rebecca, that I hadn’t seen in 17 years! So all was not lost!

What I wanted to talk about today is Toxicity and its link to Obesity and Cancers in all forms. I used a nutritional cleansing program, that allows your body to cleanse away impurities and replaces them with pure, organic grade nutrition. I had lost 37 pounds with this program last year. Needless to say, over the past 10 months, I put on every pound back without the cleansing program.

I ordered a program, and  cleansed this week. I’ve already lost 7 pounds and 6 inches. I’ve only been doing it since I returned on Tuesday night! I forgot how great it feels to have lost a few pounds in a couple of days, and WOW! I sure did miss that! With my past history of breast tumors and my ovarian cysts, that was why I got started with cleansing in the first place!

Toxicity affects many aspects of our bodies, minds and outlook! I look forward to sharing more with you in the future! Debbie Mormino, The Breast Diva! H(985)892-5858 or C(985)237-3360

Obesity Linked to Poor Prognosis for Some Breast Cancer Patients

Content provided by Health Day FRIDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) — Women who are overweight or obese when diagnosed with locally advanced breast cancer face a higher chance of recurrence and a shorter life expectancy than either normal or underweight patients, a new study suggests.

The researchers also found that obese patients are more likely than overweight, normal or underweight patients to be diagnosed with a rare, aggressive and deadly form of locally advanced breast cancer, known as inflammatory breast cancer (IBC).

“We already know that obesity is a risk factor for many diseases, and now we’re showing that women who are obese or overweight essentially face a higher risk for getting a more aggressive form of breast cancer, and progress faster and die faster from their disease,” said study senior author Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli. He is an associate professor in the department of breast medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The findings are published in the March 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC), which is cancer that has spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes, accounts for about 5 percent of all breast cancers in the United States. In medically underserved parts in the country and the developing world, about half of all breast cancer cases are LABC, the researchers said.

The even more lethal IBC form of breast cancer strikes between 1 percent and 2 percent of U.S. breast cancer patients.

Noting that six in 10 Americans are obese or overweight, Cristofanilli and his colleagues explored possible weight-cancer connections by analyzing data on 606 women who had received similar care for stage III locally advanced breast cancer at M.D. Anderson between 1974 and 2000.

Records of body-mass index revealed that two-thirds of the patients were either overweight or obese at diagnosis. Slightly more than 80 percent of the patients had standard locally advanced breast cancer, while 18 percent had the more deadly IBC disease.

Comparing weight records with disease statistics, the researchers found that a greater proportion of obese patients were diagnosed with IBC compared with either overweight or normal/underweight patients.

Among all patients with locally advanced breast cancer, overweight or obese women were more likely to have a higher grade of breast cancer at diagnosis, followed by more disease recurrence and shorter survival times.

Cristofanilli and his colleagues noted that they tracked BMI status only at diagnosis, not during subsequent treatment. Still, they concluded that obese and overweight women coping with locally advanced breast cancer could benefit from the inclusion of a dietary component in their treatment regimen.

“Obesity is a major issue for our society, and it raises the possibility that perhaps if we reduce excess weight, we might reduce the incidence of breast cancer in the first place,” said Cristofanilli. “And for those already diagnosed, lifestyle modification and weight control — and probably more aggressive follow-up — might be needed in addition to chemotherapy and other standard treatments.”

But Dr. Harold J. Burstein, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, cautioned that the evidence suggesting a link between obesity and poor breast cancer outcomes is “less than overwhelming.”

“There’s a lot of suggestive data, but there’s nothing that’s absolutely definitive,” he said. “That is not to say that there is anything to suggest that it is risky for breast cancer patients to make an effort to maintain their weight through food control and exercise. And it can certainly help strengthen bones and lower the risk for diabetes and heart disease, which is all the better.”

“But it really must be said that there are women who torment themselves if they are obese at diagnosis or gain weight afterwards, because they believe they are jeopardizing their outcome, Burstein said. “Yet the honest assessment is that we don’t really understand yet whether there is a relationship between obesity and breast cancer outcomes, or how strong the relationship is.”

More information

For more on the connection between obesity and cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.