Jefferson County
Public Health held its annual Wear Red Day photo opportunity February 3 in the
atrium of the Jefferson County Courts and Administration Building, 100
Jefferson County Parkway in Golden. The event, a local commemoration of the national
observance to raise awareness for cardiovascular health, was a success.
Two Jefferson County
Commissioners, along with county employees and Public Health staff,
participated and the photos turned out great. Thanks to all the JCPH partners
throughout the county who helped promote cardiovascular health and this event.
February is
Random Acts of Kindness Month, and Jefferson County Public Health is joining Jefferson
County Department of Human Services in encouraging you to be kind in
whatever ways you can in an effort to improve mental health and happiness.
Research shows
that people who perform acts of kindness feel positive emotions — as do the
recipients.
Some ideas for
random acts of kindness, according to andthenwesaved.com, are to:
Every year, more than 30,700 women and men are affected by
a cancer caused by HPV — that’s about one new case every 20 minutes.
Despite the fact that HPV vaccine
prevents cancer, only 7 percent of youth ages 11 and 12 in the Denver Metro
area are fully covered by this important vaccine. To increase awareness and
adoption of HPV vaccine uptake, the Metro Denver Alliance for HPV Prevention —
a collaborative group of five local public health departments and partners,
including Jefferson County Public Health — has launched a campaign to educate
parents about this important cancer-preventing vaccine and to encourage them to
talk to their child’s doctor for more information.
The launch coincides with National Cancer Prevention Month. It
includes a mix of radio, digital and out-of-home advertisements that will run
from February through September 2017. Social media posts will feature the hashtag
#HPVFreeCO. For more information, visitHPVFreeCo.org.
The Denver Metro Alliance for HPV
Prevention is also seeking health care providers for an innovative project
to increase practice’s HPV vaccination rates. Participating providers may
earn FREE Maintenance of Certification and CME
credits along with access to campaign materials such as posters and rack cards.
You can view program details here.
In addition to ensuring they’ve
received the HPV vaccine, another important step individuals can take to manage
their risk for cervical cancer is getting regular screenings. The CDC
recommends women between the ages of 21 and 65 be regularly screened for
cervical cancer.
There are two screenings/tests that can help detect cervical cancer early:
The
Pap test (or Pap smear) looks for precancers, which are cell changes on the
cervix that might become cervical cancer if they are not treated appropriately.
The HPV test looks for the virus that can cause these cell changes.
Recently, a study out of Johns
Hopkins University found that deaths in the U.S. from cervical cancer may be
underestimated, according to a release fromMedlinePlus. The current projections say about three white women of
every 100,000 and six black women of every 100,000 will die of cervical cancer.
The new estimates, which don’t include women who’ve had a hysterectomy in the
total population, a methodology deemed more accurate by researchers, project
five white women of every 100,000 and 10 black women of every 100,000 will die
of cervical cancer.
“This is a preventable disease
and women should not be getting it, let alone dying from it,” study leader Anne
Rositch said in the release. “These data tell us that as long as a woman
retains her cervix, it is important that she continue to obtain recommended
screening for cervical cancer since the risk of death from the disease remains
significant well into older age.
That’s why prevention — including
vaccination, screenings and accurate research — is so important, researchers
said.
Public health professionals
recommend women start getting Pap tests regularly at age 21. If you are 30
years of age or older, you may choose to have an HPV test along with the
Pap test. Both tests can be performed by your healthcare provider at the same
time.
If you have
questions or would like to schedule a Pap test or a HPV vaccination, call the
JCPH clinic at303-239-7078.
This February, make your children’s teeth a priority for National
Children’s Dental Health Month.
According to the American Dental Association, an easy way to keep teeth
healthy is to drink fluoridated tap water. An optimal level of fluoride in
community tap water prevents tooth decay by at least 25 percent. Fluoridation
in tap water was named one of the top 10 greatest public health achievements of
the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other steps that can prevent cavities and tooth decay in children are:
·Reducing the number of sugary beverages your children drink can also help
protect their teeth. To learn more about steps you can take to limit sugary
beverages, go to www.healthyjeffco.com/healthy-beverages.
Throughout January, flu activity continued to
increase across the state of Colorado.
So far this flu season, which started Oct. 2, 2016,
1,041 people in Colorado have been hospitalized with confirmed cases of
influenza. More than half of those cases occurred
in January. Jefferson
County accounts for 110 of the state’s 1,041 lab-confirmed flu cases this
year, about one-tenth.
Be
a Flu Fighter
It is not too late to
protect you and your loved ones from the flu. JCPH offers regular immunization
clinics at 645 Parfet Street in Lakewood. Please call 303-239-7078 and make an
appointment today.
It was 10 o’clock on an April night. The 9 p.m. news had just
finished, and Andrew Aldrich’s face felt
funny.
He looked in the bathroom mirror and started talking to himself.
Aldrich was stumbling, his mouth and tongue not forming the words the way his
brain was telling them to. His wife, Patricia, came to the bathroom door and
asked him who he was talking to. He told her, the words like mush in his mouth
and the dread like ice on his back, that it was time to go to the
hospital.
At Porter Adventist Hospital, just a short distance from
his home, doctors told Aldrich he’d suffered a stroke. Four weeks later, he
underwent aortic valve replacement.
When he was in the hospital, he was visited by
a volunteer for Mended Hearts, an organization that aims to soothe cardiac
patients by pairing them with others who have recovered from heart procedures
or events. Two years later, he started volunteering with the organization. He
began visiting scared patients and their families who, just like he did, need
to hear five words:
Aldrich is now the president of the Denver chapter of Mended
Hearts. In the Metro Area, about a dozen regular volunteers, all former heart
surgery patients, now visit six area hospitals: Porter Adventist Hospital,
Saint Joseph Hospital, Medical Center of Aurora, Swedish Medical Center,
University of Colorado Medical Center and Lutheran Medical Center.
There’s no one better
for heart patients to hear it from than someone who’s been there, Aldrich said.
And he’s been the one on the operating table and in the
waiting room. His wife, Patricia, had the same aortic procedure done two years
earlier.
Both Patricia and Aldrich’s parents had heart trouble, so they
chose to live healthy lifestyles. They were active. They ate well. Neither one
of them smoked. Patricia’s valve problem was strictly genetic. Aldrich’s was a
mystery — he had no blockages, no known damage — until the stroke.
Non-modifiable risk factors such as age, sex, genetics, race or ethnicity are causes
we cannot change. These are also risk factors that determine only about 30
percent of our overall health.
However, modifiable risk factors, such as individual behaviors, our physical
environment, our social surroundings and our access to healthcare, determine 70
percent of our health.
Poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking and diabetes are some of
the leading risk factors for cardiac problems.
For most suffering from cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke),
which is the No. 1 killer in Colorado, it's these modifiable risk factors
that public health focuses on helping people to change.
When Aldrich visits hospitals, he too focuses on something people can do to
help prevent heart disease, he gives them the piece of advice that helped him
the most during his recovery.
Walk every day.
“The best thing you
can do is walk,” Aldrich said.
Now, both he and Patricia, both seniors, try to stay as active
as they can.
Aldrich visits Porter
Adventist once a week, where he makes his rounds to meet with patients and
their families.
Mended Hearts
To learn more about Mended Hearts, including how to get
involved, go tomendedhearts.org.
Many parents and caregivers are not aware of the hidden sugar
in many of the beverages that they give to their children. That’s why the Healthy
Beverage Partnership in conjunction with Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH)
is promoting a new campaign aimed at educating parents and caregivers about the
harmful effects of sugar and informing them of the high sugar content in many
of the beverages they may be giving to their kids.
Sugary beverages are the single largest contributor of
calories to our diet. By drinking just one sugary drink a day, a child has 25
percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, 55 percent greater risk
of being overweight or obese, and 150 percent greater risk of developing fat
deposits in their liver, contributing to diabetes and heart disease. “The ‘Hidden Sugar’ campaign was designed to
bring to light the many surprising places where sugar can hide,” said Allison
Wilson, JCPH Healthy Beverage and Food Specialist. “You would never give your
child 10 cookies for breakfast, but that’s exactly what you’re doing when you
give them a 10 ounce bottle of fruit punch. And most parents don’t realize
that.” Through simple graphics, the Hidden Sugar
campaign compares the sugar levels of sugary drinks like juice drinks, sports
drinks, and soda to the sugar levels found in sugary foods and desserts, such
as cookies, donuts, popsicles, and more. The campaign also promotes healthier
options including tap or fruit infused water.
Andrea Perez signs the Hidden Sugar pledge. Photo by Christy Steadman
A full story about the Hidden Sugar Campaign
recently ran in 17 newspapers around the Metro Area — see it here — and featured information about a pledge parents
can take, in which they pledge to serve fewer sugary drinks to their family for
the next 30 days. Anyone who takes the pledge will be entered to win some
amazing passes to family-friendly places in the metro Denver area.
Details on the Hidden Sugar campaign can be
found atHidden-Sugar.org. For further information on the local Sip
Smart Coalition or the Healthy Beverage Partnership you can contact Allison
Wilson at Jefferson County Public Healthat 303-239-7007 or via email at awilson@jeffco.us.
Jefferson County
Public Health held its annual Wear Red Day photo opportunity February 3 in the
atrium of the Jefferson County Courts and Administration Building, 100
Jefferson County Parkway in Golden. The event, a local commemoration of the national
observance to raise awareness for cardiovascular health, was a success.
