Health

by Jeff Wright

More than a hundred healthcare workers at Hermann Area District Hospital are taking charge of their personal health through a year-long Workplace of Wellness program designed to help employees achieve their fitness goals.

Hospital exercise physiologist Stevyn Guinnip, MSEd. oversees the program, which started at the end of January.  On a quarterly basis, she evaluates employees in areas such as body fat, body mass index or body weight, waist girth, blood pressure, and other health risk factors

Washington D.C. – The County Health Rankings — the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states—were released today by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a briefing in Washington, D.C and on www.countyhealthrankings.org. The 50 state reports help public health and community leaders, policy-makers, consumers and others to see how healthy their county is, compare it with others within their state and find ways to improve the health of their community.

by Jeff Wright

Americans who reduce their salt intake by half a teaspoon daily or about three grams would suffer fewer heart attacks and strokes and achieve the same health benefits as quitting smoking, according to a study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.

by Jeff Wright

To help Missourians reduce their risk of high blood pressure, the American Heart Association and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services have partnered to make available a health risk calculator to determine a person’s risk for chronic heart disease.