INTRODUCTION

February is a month filled with all the promise of spring. Love is in the air as we think about Valentines Day, and the hope of warmer days to come. Even though the end of winter is in sight, it's a great time to be reminded how to keep kids healthy. This month's Healthcare News You Can Use is zeroing in on kids health and celebrating the opening of the new Garden City Hospital Pediatric Unit. We'd also like you to meet the newest member of the Garden City Hospital Staff, the new head of the Pediatric Unit, Dr. Todd Marcus.

One of the best ways to get kids off to a healthy start in life is to take care of mother's to be. In this issue, we want to introduce you to the Garden City Hospital's Women's Center Clinic, and some great information about Women's Health.

So, Happy Valentines Day and good health wishes from your friends at the Garden City Hospital Foundation!

   The Winter Blues: Healthy Kids During Cold Months

Now that the ground hog has seen it's shadow and the end of winter is in sight, keeping kids healthy until the sun shines again can be a challenge. After months spent indoors, kids are exposed to many more germs, and as a result more illness. More illness means more trips to the doctor and more school days missed. Here are some reminders on how to keep kids healthy until the winter blues are over.

1. Teach good hand washing habits. The number one way to prevent the spread of germs and infection is by proper hand washing. This includes warm water, soap and scrubbing for at least 15 seconds, about the time it takes to sing the Happy Birthday song. Kids should be taught to wash hands after using the bathroom, sneezing, coughing into their hands and before and after eating.
2. Dressing for the cold. Dress babies and young children in one extra layer than you typically wear outside. Several thin layers will keep them warm and dry. DON'T use a scarf, which can get caught on objects and be a strangulation hazard. Infants should be taken out in cold weather only when necessary.
3. Outside Play. If your kids are playing outside, have them come in at least every half-hour to warm up. Don't let kids play outside when it's too cold or windy - always check wind-chill, and stay inside when it is 10 degrees F or lower.
4. Winter Safety. Stay safe during outdoor activities in winter by wearing a helmet during sledding or ice-skating. Sled only with parental supervision in well-lighted areas away from trees.

Source: www.cnn.com, Health Library

   Introducing Doctor Todd Marcus, New Head of Pediatric Unit at Garden City Hospital

Dr. Todd Marcus has had many moments of fame since opening his pediatric practice in Livonia on June 13, 2005. As the doctor involved in saving a man's life at a Piston's game, to being a part of the Channel 7 Health Reporting team, Dr. Marcus has a familiar face in the community. Garden City Hospital is proud to welcome him as the head of their new pediatric unit.

"I opened my practice in June of 2005," said Dr. Marcus. "I was in private practice before that for 6 years and decided to go out on my own. We've been open for about 7 months now and have been busy ever since."

A native of West Bloomfield, Dr. Marcus attended Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills and did his undergraduate work at Michigan State. He then attended medical school in Chicago at Mid-Western University. Dr. Marcus completed his residency at Henry Ford Hospital. At his Livonia practice he..."likes to specializes in asthma and ADD." Dr. Marcus treats a full spectrum of pediatric disease, and always wanted to be a pediatrician. "Kids are fun and I play all day," he said. "For the most part it's a healthy profession."

Garden City contacted Dr. Marcus in September of 2005, hoping to bring him on board for the launching of their new pediatric unit. The unit opened two weeks ago with Dr. Marcus at the helm. The department has 12 beds with full pediatric staffing, nurses and equipment. "It's going pretty well," commented Dr. Marcus. "We do minor pediatric surgery, we will do some things on children less than a year old. There are surgeons on staff that do a lot of pediatric work. The care has defiantly improved pediatrics with the new unit. I send all my patients there."

Get connected with the unit by seeing your own pediatrician, or coming to the emergency room. There are no outpatient clinic hours at the hospital, but Dr. Marcus is available to see patients at his office at 38253 Ann Arbor Road in Livonia. For more information or to set up an appointment, call 734-464-7700.

   How Long Should Sick Kids Stay Home?

No matter how careful you are in the winter, your children will get sick. However, you can prevent the spread of illness by not sending a sick child back to school or childcare too soon. Each facility has its own rules, but most won't let children attend if they have a fever of more than 100.4 F, are vomiting or have diarrhea. In addition, some facilities require that children with strep throat or pink eye be on antibiotic therapy for 24 hours before returning.

Generally, children can return to school when they:

• Have no fever
• Can eat and drink normally
• Are rested and alert enough to pay attention in class
• Have completed any period of medically recommended isolation

During the first few years of contact with larger groups, children are more prone to illness. A child's immunity improves with time, and school-age children gradually become less susceptible to common illnesses. They also recover more quickly from the diseases they do catch.

Taken From: The Mayo Clinic

   Keeping Kids Healthy Through Immunizations

Although there are a variety of different opinions regarding childhood immunizations and their safety, immunizations are still the best way to keep your kids free from certain childhood diseases. The following is a brief overview of the most common childhood diseases children are immunized for:

Diphtheria is spread through coughing or sneezing, and can cause paralysis, breathing and heart problems, and death.

Tetanus (lockjaw) occurs when a tetanus germ, usually found in soil, dust or manure, enters the body through a cut or puncture wound. It can cause muscle spasms, breathing and heart problems, and death.

Pertussis (whooping cough) is spread through coughing or sneezing, and can cause very long spells of coughing that make it hard for a child to eat, drink, or even breathe. Pertussis can cause lung problems, seizures, brain damage and death, especially in infants less than one year of age.

Hib disease can cause meningitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord), infections of the joints, skin and blood, brain damage, and death. It is most serious in infants under one year of age.

Hepatitis A is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus. The virus is shed in the stool of infected persons. It is usually spread by close personal contact and sometimes by eating food or drinking water containing the virus.

Hepatitis B is an infection of the liver. It can be passed from an infected mother to her newborn during childbirth and from one person to another through blood or body fluids or by intimate contact. Hepatitis B can cause liver damage, liver cancer and death. It is the second most common cause of liver cancer worldwide.

Influenza is a contagious viral disease that may cause a sudden onset of fever, chills, muscle aches, cough, sore throat, headache, and may lead to severe pneumonia. Flu is spread through sneezing, coughing or direct contact with the infected individual.

Varicella (chickenpox) is a very contagious disease causing rash and fever. It is spread by coughing and sneezing or direct contact with drainage from the rash. Among children, a common complication is bacterial infection of skin lesions. Varicella is more serious in adults and persons with impaired immune systems. If a woman has this disease while pregnant, it can cause birth defects and infant death.

Measles spread from person to person very easily, through coughing, sneezing, or just talking. It causes a high fever, rash, and cold-like symptoms, and can lead to hearing loss, pneumonia, brain damage, and even death. Measles spreads so easily that a child who has not been immunized will most likely get the disease if exposed to it. In fact, the measles virus can remain in the air (and be contagious) for up to two hours after a person with the disease has left the room.

Mumps can cause headache, fever, swelling of the glands of the jaw and neck, and swelling of the testicles in adolescents and adults. It can lead to hearing loss, meningitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord) and brain damage.

Rubella (German measles) causes a slight fever and a rash on the face and neck. Pregnant women who get rubella can lose their babies, or have babies with severe birth defects such as hearing loss, heart problems and mental retardation.

Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis (swelling of the brain and spinal cord) among children ages 5 years and younger. It can also cause serious infections of the lungs (pneumonia) and the blood (bacteremia). The disease is spread from person to person through respiratory droplets.

Polio causes fever and may progress to meningitis and/or lifelong paralysis. Polio can be fatal. Persons infected with the poliovirus shed the virus in the stool and can transmit the virus to others.

Many serious childhood diseases are preventable by using vaccines. Since the introduction of these vaccines, rates of diseases have declined by 95 to 100%. Prior to immunization, hundreds of thousands of children were infected and thousands died in the U.S. each year. In under immunized populations of the world, 600,000 children die from pertussis and almost one million die from measles each year. Check with your child's doctor for the recommended immunization schedule.

Source- "Plain Talk About Childhood Immunizations", 5th Edition, Washington State Department of Health

   Garden City Hospital Foundation Introduces New Online Shopping

The Garden City Hospital Foundation is pleased to announce its new partnership with "My Fundrazor". This unique shopping experience allows shoppers to purchase everyday items through their website, providing customers with the convenience of online shopping while helping this worthy cause.

Herešs how it works: visit www.gch.myfundrazor.org and choose from a list of your favorite merchants including Home Depot, Target, and The Disney Store to name a few. For each purchase you make through the website, My Fundrazor will donate a portion of the proceeds to the Garden City Hospital Foundation.

Let "My Fundrazor" and The Garden city Hospital Foundation turn your everyday shopping into something that will make a difference for years to come. Go to www.gch.myfundrazor.org to learn more.

   New Low Fat Diet Study: It's Not What We Expected

According to a recent study, low-fat diets do not protect against heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer or colorectal cancer in older women. This contradicts widely held opinions of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. The eight-year study of nearly 50,000 women found no clear evidence that it reduced their risks.

"Based on our findings, we cannot recommend that most women should follow a low-fat diet," said Jacques Rossouw of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the $415 million project call the Women's Health Initiative.

However, experts say the findings, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, do not support a diet of steaks and milkshakes.

"These results do not suggest that people have carte blanche to eat fatty food," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, Chief of Preventive Medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital and a study co-author. "The results, of course, are somewhat disappointing. We would have liked this dietary intervention to have a major impact on health."

In the study, about 40 percent of the women reduced fat intake to 20 percent of their total calories and increased their vegetable, fruit and grain consumption. One problem with the study may have been that the women, ages 50 to 79, modified their eating later in life, and that many on the low-fat diet did not stick to the program.

"The real question is, 'When does one begin intervention?" said Dr. Marguerite Shepherd, who runs a menopause clinic in Indiana University School of Medicine. "You don't just all of a sudden get low-fat religion and everything else is wonderful."

Taken From: Star News Services, CBN News

   Women's Center at Garden City Hospital

Garden City Hospital is the place to go for a variety of services designed specifically for women. From general health to pre and post-natal care, women's health is a top priority.

The Women's Center Clinic, located at 6265 Inkster Road, is a full service clinic offering the latest in obstetric and gynecological care. The clinic is staffed by physicians and residents, and is a teaching center for the hospital. All women's healthcare and wellness needs can be met at the Women's Center.

If motherhood is in your future, the Women's Center will connect you with top-notch maternity care for you and your baby. All rooms in the Birthing Center are Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum (LDPR) Suites. This comfortable, home-like setting allows patients to remain in the same room for all aspects of baby's arrival.

Through the Birthing Center, new moms can get information on a variety of classes. Breastfeeding and infant CPR are just two of the variety of topics available to assist women as their families grow and develop.

After baby's arrival, or anytime, classes are available in the Wellness Center to help women stay fit. Yoga and Mom's on the Go fitness classes are two of many offerings to help get you back in shape or learn a new way to stay healthy.

Call the Garden City Hospitals Women's Center Clinic at 734-458-3214 or Garden City Hospital at 734-421-3300.

   Healthy Habits During Pregnancy

Being pregnant means it's more important the ever to take care of yourself. Along the way advice will come from a variety of sources, including your doctor, family and friends. But staying healthy during pregnancy depends on you. With that in mind, here are some recommendations to get your pregnancy off to a healthy start.

1. Regular Prenatal Health Care. Your first pre-natal examination should be during the first 6 to 8 weeks of your pregnancy, which is when your menstrual period is 2 to 4 weeks late. If you're healthy and there are no complicating risk factors, you can expect to see your health care provider:
   • every 4 weeks until the 28th week of pregnancy
   • then every 2 weeks until 36 weeks
   • then once a week until delivery
2. Nutrition and Supplements. When pregnant, you'll need about 300 extra calories a day, especially later when your baby grows quickly. Your health care provider will also prescribe prenatal vitamins to be sure both you and your growing baby are getting enough nutrients.
3. Fluids. It's important to drink plenty of fluids, especially water, during pregnancy. A woman's blood volume increases dramatically during pregnancy, and drinking enough water each day can help prevent common problems such as dehydration and constipation.
4. Exercise. The 2005 dietary guidelines recommend that healthy pregnant women get 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity every day. If you've been involved in an exercise program before becoming pregnant, talk to your health care provider about whether it's safe to continue.
5. Sleep. It's important to get enough sleep during your pregnancy. Your body is working hard to accommodate a new life, so you'll probably feel more tired than usual. As your baby gets bigger, it will be harder to find a comfortable position when you're trying to sleep.
6. Some Things to Avoid. When you're pregnant, what you don't put into your body is almost as important as what you do. Here are some things to avoid:
   • Alcohol - One of the most common known causes of mental and physical birth defects, alcohol produces more severe abnormalities in a developing fetus than heroin, cocaine, or marijuana.
   • Recreational Drugs - Pregnant women who use drugs may be placing their unborn babies at risk for premature birth, poor growth, birth defects, and behavior and learning problems. And their babies could also be born addicted to those drugs themselves.
   • Nicotine - Smoking during pregnancy can cause stillbirth, prematurity, low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), asthma and other respiratory problems
   • Caffeine - High caffeine consumption has been linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, so it's probably wise to limit or avoid caffeine altogether if you can.
   • Certain Foods - Avoid foods that are linked to food-borne illnesses, such as listeriosis and toxoplasmosis, which can be life-threatening to an unborn baby and may cause birth defects or miscarriage. These include: unpasteurized foods, raw eggs, raw, undercooked or processed meats. Also avoid eating certain fish: shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. These types may contain high levels of mercury, which can cause damage to the developing brain of a fetus.
   • Changing the Litter Box - An infection called toxoplasmosis can be spread through soiled cat litter boxes and can cause serious problems in pregnant women, including prematurity, poor growth, and severe eye and brain damage.
   • Over-the-Counter and Prescription Medications - Over-the-counter medications that are generally safe may be considered off-limits during pregnancy because of their potential effects on the baby. And certain prescription medications may also cause harm to the developing fetus.

If you were prescribed a medication before you became pregnant for an illness, disease, or condition you still have, consult with your health care provider, who can help you weigh potential benefits and risks of continuing your prescription.

Taken From: www.kidshealth.org

   Electrical Currents Inhibit Pre-term Labor

Researchers report that the application of a weak electrical current inhibits uterine contractions in pregnant rats and rabbits and therefore may serve as a new method of preventing preterm delivery.

Investigators note that electrical inhibition of uterine contractions offers several potential advantages over currently used medical therapies to prevent preterm birth. These electrical currents target just the uterus and can be started and stopped rapidly.

In the study, Dr. Jeffrey Karsdon, from New York Downtown Hospital, and colleagues evaluated the effects of direct or transvaginal electrical currents on uterine pressure in pregnant rats and rabbits.

They found that this therapy, when given directly, cut intrauterine pressure by 80 percent and dramatically delayed the birth of rat pups. In rabbits, electrical inhibition reduced intrauterine pressure by 48 percent. "This study supports the hypothesis that a weak electrical current can inhibit preterm and term uterine contractions," the authors state. "Whether electrical inhibition will be as effective in the human in the prevention of preterm birth remains to be seen."

Source: Reuters Health, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology December 2005.

   Calling All Golfers! Garden City Foundation Annual Golf Tournament is Coming!

Even though the weather is still cold, start warming up those golf clubs! Save the date for the 16th Annual Garden City Hospital Foundation's Golf Invitational, Monday, June 26, 2006.

Held at the beautiful Walnut Creek Country Club in South Lyon, this year's event features an 11:30 AM luncheon with a 1:00 PM shotgun start. Following the day of golfing will be a steak dinner complete with door prizes and an open bar.

Corporate sponsors are welcome and encouraged. There are also sponsorship opportunities for individuals and foursomes. Sign up early, as this event is always a sell-out. Registration begins at 11:00 a.m. and tee off time is 1:00 p.m.

Don't miss this great event! Contact the Garden City Hospital Foundation at 734-458-4331 for your reservations.

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