Rio Grande Campus Rm. A118 · 831-4144 · [email protected] · www.epcc.edu/health
October 2006, Vol. 1, Issue 10
October 2006
OPTC Announcement
At last! The 20/20 Optical Clinic will open on
Mondays, starting October 02, 2006.
The clinic is open to all EPCC students, faculty,
staff, and family members.
Hours: Mondays 11:00 to 2:30 PM
RG B09
Phone: 831 - 4607
A current eyeglass prescription is required. Low
prices are available for selected lens type and power
ranges. Over 500 frames displayed. All types of
lenses and lens materials can be ordered. No rush
orders please.
Examples: Frames 10 - 70 dollars. Regular plastic
lenses 10.00. Anti-Reflective coated single-vision
polycarbonate lenses 30.00 dollars. Sun Sensors at
50.00 dollars. All payments will be presented at the
RG cashiers office.
Health Tip:
Halloween Precautions
Halloween is finally here and just around the
corner. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
has offered some safety tips to keep in mind after
accompanying your children on this special night
of Trick or Treating. Here’s the list of the safety
tips:
• Children shouldn’t accept or eat candy that
isn’t commercially wrapped.
• They should wait until they get home to eat
their candy.
• Parents should dispose of homemade items
form their child’s goodie bag, as well as small
items that may be a choking hazard.
• Inspect candy, for suspicious markings,
tampering and discard.
• Ensure that juice served at parties is
pasteurized to kill bacteria.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
It is difficult and time consuming to explain all our
prices over the phone so it is requested that you
visit and ask all those questions. Please remember
that Ophthalmic Technology Program students will
be attending to you the customer. Be courteous and
patient with the students and they in turn will
respond in the same manner.
Inside This Issue:
OPTC Announcement.........1
Health Tip:
Halloween Precautions......1
Halloween Tips for
Parents & Kids...................2
The Origins of Halloween......3
The Great Pumpkin ...............3
Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease
(COPD)..................................4
(...yes, it’s a cake)
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Rio Grande Campus Rm. A118 · 831-4144 · [email protected] · www.epcc.edu/health
October 2006, Vol. 1, Issue 10
Halloween Tips for
Parents & Kids
Halloween is a time for many families to
celebrate by dressing up as witches, ghosts, and
globins. Candy, trick or treating, and parties are
all part of the Halloween celebration. However,
Halloween can present some entirely different
issues for the families living with Diabetes.
The parents of children living with Diabetes
may be wondering whether their child can
participate in the Halloween activities that
surround the month of October.
There is no reason why Diabetes should
interfere with having some Halloween fun.
Here are a few tips for a safe and happy
Halloween for the families living with
Diabetes.
The best part of Halloween is the “dressing
up”. Put extra effort into your child’s
costume. Get the whole family involved.
• Plan a party on Halloween night. That way,
friends and family can get together and you
can plan a healthy menu.
• Go to a Halloween activity in the community
such as a haunted house, hayride or bonfire.
There’s no reason not to allow your child with
diabetes to go trick-or-treating. Just take some
age appropriate measures to ensure their safety.
Younger children should always trick-or-treat
with a parent. Older kids can often go with
friends or siblings, depending on where you
live. If you think your older child might need to
check their blood glucose while they are out,
remind them before they go or ask them to take
a cell phone or pager. (Their testing supplies
may not “wear well” with their costume and
you may want to make arrangements to meet
them for a quick check en route.)
•
• Kids with Diabetes can have treats. Of course,
the rule is moderation with foods high in
carbohydrates (including sweets and starches).
Suggest that your child select a few favorite
treats and trade the rest in for a present to
money.
• If your children do eat candy, remember to
check the carbohydrate in their meal plan,
check their blood glucose and plan for more
activity to help counteract any elevated blood
glucose levels. Checking blood glucose levels
helps to teach the lesson that candy causes
elevations in blood glucose. Remember kids
need to have blood glucose numbers within
normal range. They will feel better!
• A little extra physical activity on Halloween
and the following days may allow your child to
have some Halloween treat without taking extra
insulin. Talk to your doctor, diabetes educator,
or dietitian about how to work these treats into
her meal plan safely.
• Substitute candy with treat lower in
carbohydrate. At home, you can pass out toys
and trinkets, like false teeth, super-balls (fake
eyeballs), “slime”, necklaces, temporary tattoos
etc. Kids often like these more than candy
anyway. Visit your local dollar store or go to an
online toy vendor to stock up.
• Remember that candy has a long shelf-life. You
can keep some of your child’s favorites for
them to enjoy at other times. Put some in the
freezer or refrigerator too.
• Treats low in fat can be used to treat lows
throughout the year. Chocolate and other
higher-fat treats don’t work well for treating
lows, though, as the fat slows the progress of
glucose into the blood stream. Stick to hard
candies, gum drops, lollipops instead.
• Most important have a safe and happy
Halloween!
Source: American Diabetes Association
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Rio Grande Campus Rm. A118 · 831-4144 · [email protected] · www.epcc.edu/health
October 2006, Vol. 1, Issue 10
The Origins of Halloween
The name Halloween means the evening before
All Hallows or All Saints Day. The tradition of
dressing in costume for Halloween has both
European and Celtic roots. On Halloween, it was
believed that ghosts came back to the earthly
world and that they would encounter ghosts if
they left their homes. The practice of dressing
up in costume begging for food goes back to the
pagan New Year’s Feast. During the feast, it
was believed that the ghosts hung around the
tables of food. So as soon as the feast was over,
to avoid being recognized by these ghosts the
people would dress up in costumes and masks so
that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow
spirits. In order to keep the ghosts away from
their houses on Halloween, people would also
place bowls of food outside their homes to ease
and prevent the ghosts from entering. The
history of the “Trick-or-Treat” probably relates
to Mischief Night. A night where it is believed
that ghosts and fairies roamed the roads on
Halloween night curdling milk and doing
mischievous things. Today, Halloween is
celebrated by many as a national holiday with
no religious significance or any evil doings. It is
a holiday merely of fun and treats for children to
simply enjoy. Many children all over the U.S.
dress up in both silly and scary costumes and go
door to door trick-or-treating asking for candy in
return.
Source: The History Channel
The Great Pumpkin
Here is everything you ever wanted to know
about pumpkins and more!
• Pumpkins are fruits. A pumpkin is a type of
squash and is a member of the gourd family
(cucurbitacae), which also includes squash,
cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.
• The largest pumpkin pie ever baked was in
2003 and weighed 418 pounds.
• Pumpkins have been grown in North
America for five thousand years. They are
indigenous to the western hemisphere.
• In 1584, after French explorer Jacques
Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of
North America, he reported finding “gros
melons.” The name was translated into
English as “pompions,” which has since
evolved into the modern “pumpkin.”
• Pumpkins are low in calories, fat, sodium,
and a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin
B, potassium, protein, and iron.
• The largest pumpkin ever grown was 1,337
pounds. It was grown by Charles Houghton
of New Boston, New Hampshire.
• Pumpkin seeds should be planted between
the last week of May and the middle of
June. They take between 90 and 120 days
to grow and are picked in October when
they are bright orange in color. Their seeds
can be saved to grow new pumpkins the
next year.
Source: The History Channel
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Rio Grande Campus Rm. A118 · 831-4144 · [email protected] · www.epcc.edu/health
October 2006, Vol. 1, Issue 10
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a
chronic lung disease including two major illnesses.
The two major illnesses are chronic bronchitis and
emphysema. There is no cure for this disease. The
chronic bronchitis part of the disease is when the
lining of the bronchial tube gets lined with mucous
and very red. This mucous lining makes it hard to
breathe and blocks the entrance of air into the
alveoli. The emphysema part of the disease occurs
when the alveoli are irritated. They become stiff and
aren’t able to hold much air. This makes it hard for
your lungs to get oxygen into your blood and carbon
dioxide out of your blood.
This disease develops over the accumulation of
many years, and about 14 million people in the
United States have this illness. It is almost always
seen in people that are cigarette smokers. So to be
able to prevent to avoid this illness is to either quit
smoking or never start.
The common symptoms of this disease are a chronic
cough and shortness of breathe. Talk to your doctor
if you have these symptoms. The doctor will give
you a test to see how your lungs are working. The
test is one that we are all familiar with when you
blow into a machine. The machine is to measure
how deeply you breathe, and how fast the air moves
in and out of your lungs. A chest x-ray is also
sometimes done. This will also show signs of the
disease.
21096-F21096
P.O. Box 20500
El Paso, TX 79998-0500
If you do have this disease the most first and
foremost thing you should do is stop smoking.
This can slow down or even stop the damage
that the disease will do on the lungs. If you are
able to quit smoking soon the chance is better
that you will live longer. The doctor can
prescribe medications that will help you feel
better and help you breathe easily. The
medications might be inhalant medications. You
might also have to take antibiotics and steroids
in case of an infection in the lungs. Advanced
cases of COPD are usually in need of oxygen.
You breathe in the oxygen through tubes in your
nose or a mask that you wear around your face.
If these treatments have not worked, surgery to
reduce the lung or a lung transplant are other
options.
People with COPD are more likely to get colds
and the flu. The heart is also under a lot of strain
so the heart will get enlarged. High blood
pressure in the vessels that bring blood to your
lungs is also common. Flu and pneumonia shots
are recommended. Rehabilitation and exercise
programs may also be helpful.
Source: familydoctor.org
Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
El Paso, Texas
Permit No. 2121
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