Tag Archives: health

Eating Traditional is Healthy!

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Asian Americans who grew up in the U.S. have been influenced over their lifetime of how to eat healthy. The American diet is shown in a food pyramid that doesn’t really represent or incorporate foods from other cultures. Many people choose to mix in both diet and switch other things. But did you know that many Asian cultures actually have a healthy diet too? Here’s an example of what many Asian foods consist of.

health asian food

So what are the main differences between the two diets?

1. One difference between Western and Eastern diet is at the bottom of the pyramid. Westerns tend to eat more grains, oats, and more. While the Eastern diet consist majorly of rice, noodles, and tofu. A great change to make in your diet is to eat 100% whole grain/wheat breads and switching from white rice to brown rice can be a healthier choice.

2. In many Asian dishes, there is usually vegetables/fruits mixed in or as side dishes. In Japan, even fruits can be seen as deserts and served to children after dinner. Western dishes don’t usually include side dishes and whenever there is some, they are usually considered a full entree plate. It’s just more common for Asians to eat vegetables and fruits on a daily basis due to the different types of cuisines and culture.

3. Some people eat meat daily, rarely, and sometimes, always. The point is that everyone eats meat differently and at a different rate. In many cultures, meat was perceived as a luxury food and only available to the middle to rich classes. But in these days, it is something that everyone can have easy access to and it has become affordable.

4. One of the biggest differences between the American diet compared to Eastern diet is that the Eastern diet consist less processed food than the American diet. It could because of culture differences since America was built upon the slogan of ‘bigger and faster things can produce, the better’. In the U.S., it is much harder to find organic or fresh produces that are not being sent of to large groceries or being very expensive. In Eastern cultures, foods are usually home cooked with organic or local produces from their markets. It could because that they do have better access to fresh produces like fruits, veggies, fishes, and more.

Trauma Information

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Trauma can be defined as a physical injury or a painful experience. It can be a factor that can cause serious damage to someone’s mental and physical health. Trauma comes in different types and forms so people experience them differently. It’s important to be informed about this issue because understanding how trauma can impact people will allow us to better understand how it changes them. Here are some factors that can cause trauma:

  • Violence that is found in a home, a relationship, and outsiders such as friends, bullies, etc.
  • Physical damage/abuse to someone’s body that have a lasting after effect such as rape, a car accident, etc.
  • Death of a loved one
  • Natural disasters that can destroy people’s home and as a result, people have to be relocated

Being able to recognized if someone is traumatized by their experience will help them solve/confront their problems. Of course, it doesn’t mean everyone is able to do that so easily or quickly. It often takes time, consultation, and maybe the help of others like medications, programs, and professional help. How you will know if someone is going through their emotional state and behavior act such as:

  • Mood swings, temper, denial, and responses to daily actives/conversations
  • Anxiety
  • Having a hard time concentrating
  • Sleep disorders such as excessive nightmares and loss of sleep
  • Eating less/more than usual

It is important to treat people with trauma to ensure that they will recover through the process sooner. It may take weeks to months to years for people to overcome their traumas. But we should always try to help others cope with their traumas so they can also return to their usual life.

Here is another great source to check out for more information about trauma.

Mental Health in Youths

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Mental health in youths is an important part of development and understanding the world around them. It impacts youths on how they adapt to new situations and perceive life. Different situations allows youth to develop in self improvement, morals, sense of justice, and more. Remember that it is important to take care of your psychological health because it directly impact your feelings, moods, physical body, responses, actions, and more.

According to http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/, youths that are able to develop their mental health in positive ways can help:

  • navigate successfully the complexities of life
  • develop fulfilling relationships
  • adapt to change
  • utilize appropriate coping mechanisms to achieve well-being without discrimination
  • realize their potential
  • have their needs met
  • develop skills that help them navigate the different environments they inhabit

If you are going through or know someone who may need the extra support and understanding, make sure to reach out for help. There are so many ways to help guide someone or yourself to have a healthier mentality. Another source to look at with many information about this topic is here.

Today’s Health Topic: Diarrhea

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According to www.mayoclinic.com, diarrhea is a “loose, watery stools that occur more frequently than usual”. In the old days, diarrhea was known to be able to cause death of people due to dehydration. But nowadays, it is a common health issue that is less threatening under normal conditions. Diarrhea could result because of many reasonings such as :

  • Expired food/food poisoning that may require your body to force out impurities and waste
  • Diet that could cause a imbalance in your digestive system
  • Medications/surgery/bacteria/virus/sickness/parasites that may cause you to have diarrhea as a side effect

Here are the symptoms of diarrhea:

  • Experience of multiple of watery loose stools (little waste to water)
  • Stomach bloating/pain/cramps
  • Dehydration
  • Sweating
  • Fever usually can accompany it or/and cause it to occur more

At this point, diarrhea would eventually go away in a day. If the symptoms worsen and last to the second day such as:

  • Vomiting
  • Severe sweating
  • Blood in stool
  • Fever with high body temperature of 102 F (39 C)

Make sure to contact for emergency help because it could be serious concern. Afterwards, remember to monitor what you eat after experiencing diarrhea so that it doesn’t reoccur. If you had mild diarrhea, drink water/sports water (contain salt and sugar, which your body flushed out) and snack or have smaller meals. If you had mild to severe diarrhea, make sure to drink water little by little and stick to a bland diet that contains no dairy, alcohol, high food saturated, artificial flavors/food dye, non-processed, non-organic, and hard to digest food.

 

 

Today’s Health Topic: Coronary Artery Disease

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The most common type of heart disease in the U.S. is coronary artery disease where cholesterol leaves deposit of plaque and it contributes to plaque build up over a period of time. Most people don’t know that they may have this disease unless there is a heart attack or possible early signs.

atherosclerosis_2011

www.nhlbi.nih.gov

Being aware of the symptoms can give people more information on how to identify if they may have this heart disease:

  • Chest pain that could frequently occur in your upper body and back
  • Short breaths where your body is leaving lacking oxygen due to the slow or very little blood flow from your heart
  • Heart attack which means that your arteries are blocked and cause your body to be deprived of oxygen

Call for emergency help if you think that you may be experiencing some of these symptoms. So what can cause this heart disease or add more stress to the heart:

  • Lifestyle/diet is a huge factor that affects your body. If people are not active enough or/and have a bad diet, they are more likely to develop heart diseases.
  • Smoking/drugs that could another stress to the heart and affect other organs besides your heart like the lungs, stomach, liver, and more.
  • Diabetes or insulin resistance
  • High blood pressure that may be genetics, kidney problems, thyroid problems

Resource: www.mayoclinic.org

 

Push for No More Tobacco

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tobacco-figure1

From http://www.hhs.gov./

Source: Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2014). Monitoring the Future national survey results on adolescent drug use, 1975-2013: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.

Over the last 40 years, the use of tobacco has steadily decreased due to many enforcement of laws, regulations, government and local support, and established health awareness programs. But the concern is now focused on teens and adults who are still buying and using tobacco in different forms. Once someone has used tobacco, they could eventually or become immediately addicted to nicotine.

So what are the trends of using tobacco besides smoking tobacco:

  • Oral tobacco products that dissolves in the user’s mouth; they still contain tobacco properties that puts the user’s health at risk and they can come in different forms and flavors.
  • Hookah is a mouth piece smoking pipe that is commonly popular among teens and is used among groups where they pass it on to each other. Not only is it not sanitary of bodily fluids, it is technically like smoking a cigarette where the toxins are released and inhaled into the body.
  • Smokeless tobacco is in the form where tobacco can be sniffed and chewed. “For smokeless tobacco use, the highest rates of initiation are in the seventh through 11th grades. Although approximately equal proportions of male and female adolescents smoke cigarettes, users of smokeless tobacco products are nearly all males.” – http://www.hhs.gov/
  • E-cigarette is a cigarette that can be used electronically to vaporized a liquid that gives off the feeling that one is smoking tobacco. Although e-cigarettes has no tobacco, they still contain nicotine.

Sometimes, people don’t understand the consequences of using tobacco. The fact that tobacco was scientifically proven to lead to other cancer diseases and cause the user to have other health related problems is already a concern. We can’t stop the production of tobacco, but at least try to educate the public what tobacco can do to the body.

  • Increases the risk of almost every organ disease such as the mouth, bladder, stomach, lung, heart, kidney, and more.
  • Worsen asthma symptoms
  • Nicotine is scientifically proven to be a addictive stimulant and can cause people to rely on it for temporarily relaxation
  • Affects the body’s sexual, thyroid, pituitary, and adrenal hormones
  • Affects the production and sensitivity of insulin that could lead to type 2 diabetes and other potential health issues
  • Trying to quit smoking tobacco can cause physical reactions such as strong cravings for the substance, an increased appetite, insomnia and sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal problems and mood-related complaints including anxiety, anger and frustration, depression, irritability and restlessness. –  [source: MayoClinic]” – http://science.howstuffworks.com

So before using tobacco in any way of any form, think about how it could affect you, your body, and your health in the long term.

 

What causes obesity?

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What causes obesity?

According to www.cdc.gov, obesity and/or overweight are labels for ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height.

So what exactly can contribute to obesity within people? Here is the quick guide about what factors that may be lead to obesity.

  1. Lifestyle

The way we live affects our body’s health and it can sometimes show through our weight, skin, eyes, hair, and more. If we tend to have little physical activities it will or may become a habit. Or it could be the choices of foods or our eating habit. It could cause a problem with our body because there is an unbalance between intake of calories and output of energy. So balance is the very key to keeping our body healthy so that our body doesn’t take in more calories than needed for our daily activities.

  1. Genes

Genetics can be a reason why some people have more difficult time maintaining their weight or was born and struggled with being over-weighted. Having a family history in obesity can be concern and often times, it could lead to other health related problems; therefore, one should consult with their doctor for any weight concerns and questions.

  1. Outside factors

Sometimes, there are things that we take in or do that may affect our body. For example, a taking a type of drug or medicine could increase or decrease your weight. If you are on a form of birth control or using a drug for something, it is required to consult with your doctor because no one knows entirely how it may affect your body.

  1. Environment

Depending on where we live, our surrounding environment is one of the main factors that affects our physical activities. For example, one person may live in a neighborhood that does not have proper walking conditions and no walking or bicycling trails nearby. It could be a possibly reason why they would avoid going outside or not being as motivated to be more active in their environment. So our environment does an impact on how we chose to be more active and interact with out surroundings.

 

 

Laotian American Community Overview

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According to the 2010 U.S. Census the eight largest Asian American populations in Minnesota are the Hmong, Asian Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Laotian, and Cambodian community. Specifically, 27 percent of the total population identify themselves as Hmong, 15.5 percent are Asian Indian, 11.7 percent are Chinese, 11.1 percent are Vietnamese, 4.9 percent are Laotians, and 3.9 percent are Cambodians (See Figure 2).

Minnesota is home to over 40 different Asian Pacific Minnesotan immigrant and refugee communities. Each community has its own strengths and challenges that may be unique to that ethnic community. The following is an overview of how the Laotian community is faring in Minnesota.

Following a similar path as other AAPI refugees displaced by the Vietnam War, the Laotian community arrived in Minnesota in the late 1970s and 1980s to rebuild their lives.[i] Approximately 12,000 Laotians live in mostly urban counties in the Twin Cities and earn a median income of $40,000, which is the lowest income range among all eight AAPI ethnic communities. Laotian Americans have high unemployment rates at 12.7 percent. Over 40 percent of the Laotian population earned less than a high school diploma.i  APA ComMNet REACH CORE project staff and volunteers met with Laotian American community members and leaders throughout the Twin Cities to understand the community’s strengths, challenges and other social and environmental factors affecting its overall health and wellbeing.

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Laotian American Community Strengths

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Laotian Americans who participated in this project stated that their strong family and community connections are important in improving the health and wellbeing of their community. Family members rely on each other for support and often visit with one another to talk about issues affecting their family or community. Sunny Chanthanouvong, Executive Director of the Lao Assistance Center, stated in his key informant interview that health information is usually spread using family and community network. Knowledge about diseases and preventive health practices are often communicated through storytelling and discussions during small get-togethers or at large community events. “We talk about sickness and health, we talk about the need for people to get exercise and eat healthy,” said Sunny Chanthanouvong who added that good as well as bad experiences of community members when dealing with health issues are often shared with one another.

Laotian American Community Challenges

Laotian Americans indicated that many in their community live in distressed neighborhoods and physical exercise as well as healthy eating habits may sometimes be difficult for members of the community. Due to their relatively recent introduction to the American health care system, some Laotian Americans may not be familiar with preventive practices to deter diseases or how certain disease can spread through different channels. Sunny Chanthanouvong explained how his organization attempts to educate Laotian Americans on flu prevention.

speehc

“It’s very important to help the community to truly understand the concept – where it’s coming from. People say that you have to save money for retirement, but what does that really mean? When there’s flu going around, they tell us, wash your hands to keep flu away but they still shake hands with someone who is sick. There is something behind just washing the hands, you have to tell the purpose for it, it’s not going to help much…we need deeper education.”

– Sunny Chanthanouvong, Executive Director of the Lao Assistance Center on educating the Lao American community about infectious diseases

In addition, APA ComMNet Health survey results show that the Laotian American community exhibited high tobacco use with nearly 30 percent of Laotian Americans stating that they frequently smoked cigarettes (Figure 3). Anecdotally, Laotian Americans also indicated that alcohol use was prevalent in the community especially during family and community celebrations despite the lack of evidence from this study affirming this notion. Laotian Americans added that smoking and drinking are common practices in Laos and young Laotian Americans who were raised in the U.S. often see their parents drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes leading many Laotian American youth to believe that such behaviors are normal and adopt their parents’ addictive habits as their own.

[i] Minnesota Historical Society, 2013. “Becoming Minnesotan: Stories of Recent Immigrants and Refugees.” St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved January 8, 2013 (http://education.mnhs.org/immigration/)

 

 

Holiday Eating

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It is that time of the year again! We all will stuff ourselves on Thanksgiving and Christmas because we all love food. But there are some ways to avoid becoming stuffed turkeys ourselves. Becoming unhealthy after holidays is not the best outcome. It’s all about that balance between your eating habits and your life style choices.

So here are some things to remember when you are enjoying the holiday:

1. Eat a little bit of everything. Although there will be very great food provided, it is best to sample everything you like. Instead of eating a lot of some food, try to enjoy bits and bits from here to there. It’ll give you more chances to try varieties of delicious dishes.

2. Eat a bit now, a bit later; the point is to enjoy the foods. Along with the first tip, enjoy a dish now, enjoy another later. The food won’t run away so take your time. It’ll make you appreciate their flavors and tastes more.

3. Balance out your diet. We all have our guilty pleasure foods such as sweets or friend foods. We can enjoy those of course and no one will blame us. But it doesn’t hurt to eat some fruits and vegetables too. It does help a little to ease your cravings.

4. Drink lots of water! Try to avoid sugary and calories filled drinks because that’s where most of your calories will come from. So let’s not waste them on pop and sugary drinks, but instead yummy foods!

5. Dress comfortably. You may want to have more space to expand your tummy and relax. So dress in clothes that will allow you to stretch because the last thing we want to struggle with is fussing with our tight clothes.

All in all, enjoy your holidays and eat well! Happy holidays!

Sparking a Generation of Drug-Free Youth‏

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There are many things we can do to make the world a better place. One of them is to prevent youths from drug use and substance abuse. It is a parent’s concern as well as society’s problem because it does affect everyone.

According to www.cdc.gov, in the U.S. 66.2% of teens has had at least one drink of alcohol in their life. It is not surprising because teens are influenced by peer pressures and social expectations. About 40.7% of teens had use marijuana once or more during their life. This statistic could be so high due to the fact that many people perceived marijuana as ‘safe’ to use. Also, 22.1% of teens has been offered, sold, or given illegal drugs on school property. Drug and substance use for many people and teens are easy way out of situations like dealing with stress, making a reputation, developing their image, trying to find their place in life, etc.

pastyearvariousdrugshttp://www.drugabuse.gov

Most of the time drugs, alcohol, tobacco, etc., are not sought out by teens, but they receive or are introduced to them through a friend or a family member. It is those connections that we can’t stop because it is up to the individuals to accept or decline the offer. It is not about whether what is safer to use and what are the ‘acceptable’ risks. What we want is to prevent any possible harm that come onto the user’s health and others as well.