Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Family/Health section. To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Lee Eldrige
The Athlete Tribe
- Dr. Michelle Wright
Dr Michelle Wright is a British-trained General Practitioner and Director of HealthFirst, providing physical First Aid training and Mental Health First Aid training, as well as Health Education, throughout Switzerland (www.healthfirst.ch). She also has a regular radio show about health on World Radio Switzerland. Believing that prevention is better than cure and that we should be treating the root cause of illness, Dr Michelle is also a Lifestyle Medicine enthusiast. - Birgit Suess is a Swiss-American who grew up between the US and Switzerland and speaks English, German and Swiss-German. Because of a worldwide shortage of Speech Therapists, she uses technology to connect special needs students around the world with English speaking Speech Therapists. With almost 20 years of experience as a Speech Therapist and 10 years experience with Teletherapy, she is a pioneer in the Teletherapy world. Her personal specialty is working on social language with high functioning children on the Autism Spectrum. Her passion is finding new and innovative ways to help children with special needs.
- Dr. Irina Schurov is a Nutritional Neuroscientist with a PhD from Cambridge University (UK) and over 20 years’ experience in science and health-providing services. She created and founded LiveRight, an initiative to help others through nutrition and wellbeing strategies. By building an educational platform around healthy eating habits, by restoring the relationships between people and food, by supporting your individual circumstances and through personalized coaching in nutrition, she wants to help you and your family achieve the optimal balance between help and life.
- Dr. Penny Fraser
Dr Penny is a British-trained Emergency Medicine doctor, who lives in Geneva. She is also the mother of two busy little skiers aged 7 and 8. Along with Dr Michelle Wright and her other colleagues at HealthFirst, she has a passion for delivering health education and First Aid training to the English-speaking community in Switzerland
At school? When you were in Scouts? Perhaps when you were training to be a life-guard? Perhaps it wasn’t even called CPR then – ‘Cardiac Massage’, ‘The Kiss of Life?’
One of the most frequent comments that we receive from our First Aid course participants who are updating their skills, is just how much the protocol has changed since they last learnt CPR. For example, did you know that the new chest compression to rescue breath ratio is now 30:2?
Maybe it’s time for YOU to update what you learnt all those years ago on our upcoming CPR or First Aid for the Swiss Driver’s licence courses... Fortunately, we are not using these skills every day and so slowly we forget what to do in the case of an emergency. Doctors and nurses have to be regularly updated too. I recently attended my update course, over three days. In fact, I got a red mark on my hand from performing so many chest compressions! (don’t worry – you won’t get this from a 3 ½ hour course).
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
A simple and effective approach to start eating more healthy is to switch to healthier alternatives of foods you commonly consume.
Here are my top five healthier switches.
1. Regular salt -> Unrefined salt such as sea salt, Himalayan salt or Celtic salt
Regular salt is refined and stripped of plenty of beneficial minerals that are naturally found in salt. Switch to unrefined salt which is a little grey or pink in color rather than white. Using an unrefined salt is much more important than trying to limit the amount you use since unrefined salt is an essential part of a healthy diet.
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
Do you often crave something sweet after a meal?
I have the perfect healthy treat for you!
Sweetened with dates, these Sweet Spiced Balls also contain minerals and vitamins such as iron, potassium, calcium, manganese, copper and dietary fiber. Make sure you have a good food processor (S-blade) to grind dates into a paste though as they can get stuck in blenders.
Always buy the best quality you can find, preferably the Medjool variety. They are bigger and softer than other dates and work very well as a paste.
It was very upsetting to hear about Michael Schumacher’s recent accident on the slopes of Méribel, France and our thoughts are with him and his family.
Since the accident happened, there has been a lot of discussion in the media about helmets for winter sports. Should helmets be compulsory for everyone? Do they really protect against head injuries? After all, Schumacher was wearing one yet he still sustained a serious head injury. In fact, the doctors looking after Schumacher have said that if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, he would likely have died on the slope where he was injured.
Wearing a helmet is certainly becoming more popular. In Europe, people in the lift queues NOT wearing a helmet are the ones starting to stand out. Taking Switzerland as an example, according to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention, 87% of skiers and snowboarders wore a helmet on the Swiss pistes during the season 2012/13. This is compared to just 16% 10 years ago.
The absolute risk of sustaining an injury whilst skiing or snowboarding remains very low. There are somewhere between 2-4 injuries for every 1000 days spent on the slopes. This means that happily, most of us will enjoy skiing all of our lives and not sustain any significant injury.
Head injuries make up between 10-15% of skiing related injuries. But serious head injuries, like those sustained by Schumacher are rare. Children have a higher risk of head injury than adults because of their smaller size with a comparatively heavier head, as well as having a more delicate brain.
There is growing evidence about the protective effects of helmets. In 2010, a meta-analysis of the research was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal and it concluded that skiers and snowboarders wearing a helmet were 35% less likely than those without a helmet to sustain a head injury (i.e. to have bleeding or bruising to the brain if they fall and knock their head).1 However, remember that helmets can’t make a person invincible! Nothing can offer complete protection against high speed impacts – not even the most expensive helmet in the world can reduce the risk of death in such cases.
Previous arguments have been put forward that wearing a helmet increases the risk of significant neck injury, particularly in children who have a higher head to body weight ratio, but recent evidence has shown that this is not the case.1,2 There have also been worries that helmets can affect your hearing and your field of vision. There hasn’t been much research into this but one study showed that warning shouts can still be heard when a helmet is worn3 and another showed no differences in reaction time between people wearing a ski helmet and people wearing a hat.4
So, even though your overall risk of head injury is small when you ski, wearing a helmet on the slopes definitely seems to be a very good habit for all ages and for all ski abilities….and they keep your head warm on a cold day!
Always make sure the helmet fits well, the chin straps are always fastened snugly and that it meets an accepted standard for that particular snow sport. Look for the European Norm type EN 1077 for skiing and snowboarding helmets. Remember that any helmet that has suffered a significant impact needs to be replaced.
If you would like to know more about head injuries and how YOU can help. Why not come on one of our interactive First Aid Course. Take a look on http://www.healthfirst.ch/home/ to find out more and to book online.
Enjoy this winter season and stay safe on the slopes.
This blog was written in conjunction with Dr Michelle Wright - Dr Penny's colleague and co-founder of HealthFirst.
References:
1. Russel K, Christie J, Hagel BE. The effects of helmets on the risk of head and neck injuries among skiers and snowboarders: a meta-analysis. CMAJ2010;182:333-40.
2. Hagel BE, Russel K, Goulet C, Nettel-Aguirre A, Pless IB. Helmet use and risk of neck injury in skiers and snowboarders. Am J Epidemiol2010;171:1334-43.
3. Tudor A, Ruzic L, Bencic I, Sestan B, Bonifacic M. Ski helmets could attenuate the sounds of danger. Clin J Sport Med2010;20:173-8.
4. Ruedl G, Herzog S, Schöpf S, Anewanter P, Geiger A, Burtscher M, et al. Do ski helmets affect reaction time to peripheral stimuli? Wilderness Environ Med
Author's bio
Dr Penny Fraser MB BS BSc(HONS) MRCS(ENG)
Dr Penny is a British-trained Emergency Medicine doctor, who lives in Geneva. She is also the mother of two busy little skiers aged 7 and 8. Along with Dr Michelle Wright and her other colleagues at HealthFirst, she has a passion for delivering health education and First Aid training to the English-speaking community in Switzerland.
HealthFirst provides a range of practical, interactive First Aid courses including a unique Mountain First Aid Course and a First Aid course, obligatory for the Swiss Driver’s Licence, and suitable for anyone from the age of 14.
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
This is my go-to recipe on days when I don't feel like cooking, especially in winter.
It is a very versatile recipe that uses lentils, your choice of vegetables, tomato sauce and a mix of herbs such as rosemary, thyme and oregano. I also add in some more umami taste to enhance the flavor with some blended dried tomatoes (you can buy them without the oil) as well as a dash of red wine vinegar just before serving. In many traditional lentil recipes you will see lemon or vinegar added at the end of the preparation because it really 'lifts' the flavor while making the lentils easier to digest. Also, make sure you never salt lentil until they are cooked.
I usually use green or brown lentils as they don't become mushy, which I prefer for this stew. Lentils are a great source of protein, fiber, folate, potassium and magnesium while being quite easy and quick to prepare since they don't need soaking like beans.
