Author: St. Elizabeth Healthcare

February is American Heart Month in which organizations across the country come together to save lives and beat heart disease. St. Elizabeth Healthcare is committed to reducing heart-related deaths in Northern Kentucky by 25 percent before 2025. One of the most important health and wellness choices you can make is to be a partner in your own healthcare. The era of the physician being fully responsible for our healthcare is past. We now have “some skin in the game” and are key players in the disease prevention portion of our own optimal functioning.   Here are key numbers to know…

Whether it’s an insurance commercial trying to “pump you up” or visions of burly guys spending hours in the gym, most people think of lifting weights only as a way to gain mass. During the past few years, weight lifting started growing in popularity with women ““ and we aren’t doing it to get big biceps. I can’t scroll through my Facebook news feed without seeing a woman who picked up body building or Crossfit sharing selfies every chance she gets. This makes me wonder about the health benefits beyond a self-confidence boost. And, what about the myth that muscle…

We may not have been directly hit by #Blizzard2015 this week, but that doesn’t mean we can’t cuddle up with someone for a warm hug here in the Midwest. It turns out warm hugs may not only help keep the frigidness of a wintry blizzard away, but they may also have positive health benefits, both mentally and physically. Anyone who has ever experienced positivity emitted through a good, warm hug can attest to this. Researchers wanted to determine whether this phenomenon is founded in science, and explained the results of a recent study, which you can read on WCPO.com. For…

Full disclosure: I am a devoted McDee’s fan. I know it’s bad for me, so I don’t eat there every day, but it is my guilty pleasure food. I know plenty of people who hate McDonald’s, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard how bad it is to eat under those golden arches. Every time I take a trip through the drive-thru, my friends’ scolding voices haunt me” “You know there are zero nutrients in that cheeseburger.” “Those fries are just filled with calories, fat and sodium.” It’s all true. McDonald’s lays out the nutritional information on…

Think about your childhood – do you remember feeling incredibly guilty about small mistakes? A new study suggests that feeling of extreme guilt as a child could be an early warning sign of  mental disorders  developing later in life. The important words here are “extreme guilt.” The study cited  in The Atlantic indicates the area of the brain that controls those guilty feelings – the anterior insula – is linked to depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder. But, as with all studies, let’s take a minute before jumping to any conclusions about our own parenting styles, or those…

You’re casually walking through the grocery store, then you hear something calling to you from the soda section. As you’re lured down the aisle, the colorful soda packaging sucks you in, and before you know it, a bottle is in your hand – and in your cart. Okay, maybe it doesn’t work quite like that, but we do know products are packaged to catch your attention and entice you into purchasing them. New York Magazine suggests this subliminal messaging goes deeper than colorful labels and bright signs. In fact, the way an item is packaged may encourage you to purchase…

Snacking is probably one of the most common fixes for your mid-afternoon, post-lunch coma. But, if you load up on soda, coffee or sweets, you aren’t helping yourself stay alert. Sugary snacks and caffeine give you an instant buzz, but beware of the crash coming later. Instead, Buzzfeed has a few healthier suggestions to keep you feeling full without causing a late-afternoon slump. Pack your salad in a mason jar so you can shake it up. They’re also great for portability! Wrap a sliced apple in a rubber band to keep it fresh and transport it with ease. Microwave scrambled…

Do you feel like you’re chained to your desk? If so, it could have an impact on how much you drink. A new study found people  who work longer hours (48 hours each week or more) are more likely to engage in risky drinking. For the purposes of this study, “risky drinking” was defined as woman consuming more than  seven  drinks in one week, and men consuming more than 14 drinks in the same time period. Employees who work longer hours were almost 13 percent more likely to drink in excess than those who work only 35-40 hours each week.…

Whether you’re in your 20s or your 40s, you likely remember a Disney movie that was a must-watch for you and your friends. Yet, even as I think of the many Disney films released in my childhood, I can’t remember one that maintained its popularity ““ or reached such a frenzy ““ as Frozen. According to the Washington Post, no one expected Frozen to be more popular than other Disney princess films. But as of the beginning of 2015, Frozen is still playing in theaters around the world and has become the only animated film from the princess genre to…

Older adults who commit minor crimes ““ petty theft or minor trespassing, for example ““ could be showing warning signs of a type of dementia, new research shows. A study in the Jan. 5 edition of JAMA Neurology says that the behavior is usually seen in adults with a subtype of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Frontotemporal dementia affects the regions of the brain located behind the forehead and behind the ears, and it accounts for 10 to 15 percent of all dementia cases, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Older adults with Alzheimer’s disease were less likely to demonstrate “criminal” behavior, the…