Haiti Remains an Eye-Opening Experience

Three physical therapists from Santa Maria Valley Physical Therapy just returned from a two week trip to Haiti where they volunteered on behalf of Physicians for Peace. Physicians for Peace is an international nonprofit organization where healthcare professionals travel and provide assistance to individuals of undeveloped countries. The organization focuses on providing care for people within undeveloped countries and supplying each country with medical supplies.

Within the two weeks in Haiti, the three therapists were exposed to the country that has yet recovered from last year’s earthquake and the injuries people suffered from due to the incident. The therapists worked in the Hanger Orthopedic Clinic close to the nation’s capital Port-au-Prince. The clinic focuses in prosthetics where they help individuals how to walk and adapt to their new lifestyle. Overall, the trip to Haiti allowed the therapists to work with those who suffered a loss from the earthquake and several individuals with lost limbs from previous accidents.

The therapists of Physicians for Peace assisted and educated Haiti individuals with injuries, provided training for Haitian physical therapists, and donated money to the people of the country. I found this article interesting because three physical therapists dedicated their time to volunteer in a country of need and a place where the setting is completely different from what they were use to. I think the help they provided such as training Haitian physical therapists will improve the people’s health condition and improve many individual’s abilities. If you were to help this organization and give to the people of Haiti, would you prefer to travel and work directly with the people of need? Or would you like to help contribute online?

Animals Saved Because of Volunteers

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico did not just hurt the economy, the public’s trust in drilling but extremely affected the wildlife. Many non profit animal rescue organizations and volunteers ventured to south to help in any way possible. In an article in Oregon Live. com the pictures and stories from the volunteers paint a vivid picture of the destruction cause to the wild animals around the spill.

The number of animals saved and cleaned after the oil spill last spring in the Gulf Coast could never have been accomplished without the help of volunteers from all around the country. Days after one of the largest oil spills in history the stormy weather that pushed the fresh oil into the coast only made the clean up job more difficult. Animals were already being brought to rescues on Friday. Birds that would normally be white were covered beak to claws by black oil. Volunteers helped to wash the animals and keep them calm while being handled. According to Nils Warnock, a spill recovery supervisor with the California Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the University of California-Davis, their first concerns were “Oil clumps seabirds’ feathers, leaving them without insulation — and when they preen, they swallow it. Prolonged contact with the skin can cause burns. Oil swallowed by animals can cause anemia, hemorrhaging and other problems.” Other volunteers were sent out to the beaches to see the destruction first hand. Catching the animals that were covered in oil to take them to the rescue was not an easy task because they have never been handled by humans. Other animals could not be saved, like many of the deep sea marine life. The deaths of the wild animals is such a tragedy because it could have been avoided.

The hardship to the fishing community will affect their economy for many years to come. In the future hopefully volunteers and organizations will not be needed because tragedies like this will be prevented before they can occur.

Eco-Friendly Housing for International Students

Mahlum Architecture's Portland office has designed a new eco-friendly student housing facility here at Oregon State University to attract more international students. The $32 million design is equivalent to LEED Gold, and the construction manager/general contractor on the project will be Fortis Construction. This new structure is planned to begin in May and has a completion deadline before the start of Fall 2011.

The new live-learn facility for international students includes solar heated water supply, heat recovery ventilation systems, high-efficiency radian heating and an improved thermal exterior wall system. The six-story residence hall will have 350 dorms as well as 5,000 sq-ft of retail, 30,000 sq-ft of lab rooms and 150 seat auditorium.

Along with the building here at OSU, Mahlum has designed an environmentally friendly general classroom building at Blue Mountain Community College. The structure is 28,000 sq-ft and will meet LEED Silver equivalency. The new facility will manage and recycle storm water using bioswales. It also has low-flow plumbing features and high-efficiency mechanical systems.

The construction costs of this building are an estimated $6.6 million with a total project cost of $8.5 million. The city of Hermiston donated the 6.7 acres of land for the project which is scheduled for completion by the end of June.

Eco-sustainable construction is something I understand, but why is it that international students deserve such special treatment? I have never seen the student housing for people from the U.S., but through word-of-mouth, I hear they are not exactly luxurious. They say that OSU is trying to attract international students by building this fancy new living quarters, yet I would think that they would try to bring in students because of their outstanding academic programs, and the fact that a student can build a future here. I don't have anything against international students, in fact I encourage it because I enjoy the diversity, but why don't local residents receive the same treatment?

http://northwest.construction.com/northwest_construction_news/2010/0601_ORStateUniversity.asp

New Test for Concussions

A new evaluation has been found which allows physicians and athletic trainers to diagnose concussions earlier and with higher accuracy. The King-Devick test looks at the natural constant vibration of the eyes and their ability to track and focus on a special eye chart. The first half of the chart is a standard letter chart like one would find in an optometry office; however the second half staggers the letters so as to make the reader adjust their eyes vertically as well as horizontally at the same time. When taking the King-Devick test one must read through a line of letters specified by the tester as fast as possible, any kind of hesitation or inability to come up with the letter on the page can be indications of head trauma. It has proven itself in field tests where elite athletes of all contact sports administered the test before and after the event; scores on the test were significantly slower post activity than when they took it prior to their event. Though the test has been around for nearly 25 years, it has only recently been accepted as a viable way to test for concussions on the sidelines of athletic events. Cnn.com reported on the test here yesterday February 2, 2011.

This is an amazing test to have on the sidelines of athletic events to prevent injury of a player who is suspected of having a concussion but is not showing any of the typical symptoms. Until this test, sideline assessment of head trauma has largely been up to evaluators judgement with no concrete way to determine the injury without taking the athlete to the hospital for further tests. I think this test will do wonders in youth and high school athletics when the adolescent brain is still undergoing development, to administer a before and after test of every athlete may be quite daunting but hopefully in the future having a pre game evaluation will not be necessary. The only question I have with this research does not pertain to the research itself but rather the consequences it may cause down the road should the results show a significant number of kids are suffering from head trauma during athletics because that could lead to rule changes in the sports we all love.

Colgate Giving Back

In this article, Colgate shares their 2011 campaign slogan "brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride and remember to change your toothbrush regularly." A well known dental company, Colgate, aims at improving oral hygiene while still giving back to the community. This multi-faceted approach illustrates how leading dental giants fuse charity with practical habits.

Colgate will hold a toothbrush amnesty, in their 2011 campaign, working with the British Dental Association. The profit will be given to The Facial Surgery Foundation in their campaign of Saving Faces.

During the amnesty the public is asked to hand their worn toothbrushes over to Colgate in return for a free Colgate manual toothbrush. Colgate will also donate fifty pounds to The Facial Surgery Foundation for every worn toothbrush exchanged.

Giving back to the community is unselfish and often gratuitous. It gives the charitable company face value and a good name. However, how much charity from Colgate is honest goodwill and how much is solely aimed at improving their company's image?

The Enemy Inside You!

This is an article from Web MD online magazine. This article is about chronic inflammation inside the body. Most people think of knee's being inflamed and using ice to cure it but there is much more than that. One type of inflammation is called chronic inflammation: a slow silence disturbance that never shuts off. This is something that can not be tested for or seen but it is become a very hot topic. More and more research shows that chronic inflammation is involved in a heavy hitting illness. Its an underlying cause for many diseases. Scientists are still not sure how inflammation works but what they do know is this: It starts with the immune system, which is the body's first line of defense against any kind of harm, disease or virus. When you are sick, your bone marrow lets out "SWAT" teams of white blood cells to kill the infection. While they aid in curing the body, they can also be harmful. If the body sends out a faulty signal, those white blood cells delivers unnecessary first aid and instead of leaving when the infection leaves, they hang around. The problem with this is that your body is not made to accommodate that kind of unnecessary immune activity. Once this happens, the not needed white blood cells can start to damage your internal organs. They can even assult other cells that are doing their normal routine such as pushing off diseases, which then leaves the door open for more serious illnesses like cancer.

Web MD is a magazine that I have been reading for quite a while. They have all different types of articles and sometimes focus a couple magazines on one subject. I like reading the magazine because you can learn about a lot of different diseases, cures, and health tips.

The link to this article can be found here:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/chronic-inflammation

is taking medicine actually bad for you?

Well that depends. Are they antibiotics? If they are then the answer is ...maybe. According to an article in the London Daily Mail, taking antibiotics may not be as necessary of a precaution as we may have initially thought.

This article tackles some of the preconceived notions about what taking antibiotics actually does. Antibiotics are helpful in treating bacterial infections such as E.Coli, staph infections, salmonella, etc. Antibiotics are not effective in treating any viral infections. So taking antibiotics when you have the flu? Completely futile.

One of the main problems that appears to be arising is that people are taking antibiotics "just in case" as a preemptive approach to treat bacterial infections before they become a problem. The issue here is that bacteria have the tendency to become resistant. That is, they become used to the antibiotic that is supposed to be treating them and therefore become impervious to their healing powers so to speak. Do people know the difference between bacterial infections vs viral infections?

Newspaper title: Daily Mail (London)
Article title: When do you really need antibiotics?
January 20, 2009