Guest Blogs
Knowitall.ch often invites local experts in their field to contribute to their own blogs on our site. This means not only you will benefit from the useful recommendations that we make on our News pages, but you can also profit from some of the great advice and tips that these experts have to make on their favorite subjects. Whilst each of these bloggers has been recommended to us at some point during the evolution of Know-it-all passport and knowitall.ch, obviously we are not able to test out all the suggestions they make on their blogs, nor do we necessarily agree with all their opinions. So if you do find one of their tips useful (or not!), do let us know!
To make these blogs more accessible to you, we have now decided to group them altogether in one section, entitled Guest Blogs, accessible from our main menu bar. We will also post the most recent blogs on the home page of our site in the right hand column.
We are still building up this area of the site, and are looking for bloggers in a number of sections, including Your Home, Travel, and Leisure, so if you feel you have a useful contribution to make in either of these areas, and have the time to submit blog entries approximately every month, then please get in touch!
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.
This year my blog is dedicated to interviewing leaders and subject matter experts to help promote healthier work-life balance. With any luck this will enable us to create better relationships, productivity and performance. I am convinced that this is an idea that needs to reverberate from the top and therefore will devote this year focusing on just that …. With a little help from my friends!
This month, I have been lucky enough to interview John Purkiss, who is a headhunter. He is also the co-author of Brand You, How to be Headhunted and Ken Purkiss – 50 Photos.
I really hope you enjoy his interview as much as I did.
Best wishes,
Sunita
Sunita Sehmi: How did you get to where you are today?
John Purkiss: I had a conventional type of upbringing: school, university, work. For the first few years I got everything I wanted in life through intelligence and hard work. I had the perfect CV. Then, at the age of 26, I was diagnosed with clinical depression. Like many people, I was suicidal before I was diagnosed. The doctors did their best, but the treatment of depression is very patchy, so I had to figure out most of the cure for myself. Then at the age of 35 I was running a business in Paris, which I had to close down. Despite all my cleverness and hard work, I was clearly missing something. Gradually I realised that, if I wanted my life to change, then I had to change. One reason for writing the latest book is that I have discovered how to help myself and am doing my best to help others. That’s how Change From Within was born.
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.
By Denise Nickerson, Educational Consultant
Are you a parent of a teenager or a high school student? Do you find the thought of applying to universities stressful? It shouldn't be! It can be an exciting and fun experience for your whole family. If you are an international person, knowing how to begin the process is the key. How do you create a reasonable list of universities from literally thousands of global choices? What are the first steps? Some families decide on a country first, others let ambition guide them. I suggest a long first list, including many options that can be investigated - if you have the luxury of time. This info-graphic is designed to help you narrow down your choices without limiting yourself. You will find some tips about circumstantial parameters that ultimately make the choice easier. Enjoy, and give me a call if you'd like more guidance on the way to the right choice for you.
Click on the image if you would like to see a larger version.
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.
