Portion Plates

Hey everyone! Vinny had the following question: Is anyone using portion plates as part of their teaching? If so we are looking for a resource to possibly order some in English and Spanish for our Healthy Weight clinic. Please feel free to utilize this space to discuss!

Penny

New urban camp fighting obesity

Is your television safe? :Advertisements may be contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/BeautySecrets/story?id=4568813&page=1

Obesity Linked to Gum Disease

Los Angeles wants to take bite out of fast food

What a great time we had in Holyoke! Deirdre and I were invited to celebrate an exciting new program. A local farm (http://www.nuestras-raices.org/) has partnered with the YMCA, the Holyoke Health Center, and other community partners to bring local youth to the farm in two week sessions throughout the summer. The kids are getting a chance to be outside, participate in work around the farm, learn about where their food comes from, and basically have a blast! These partners held a press conference yesterday (I will post links to articles as they are published) at the farm with the kids in attendance, who spoke very candidly about junk food, eating fruits and veggies, and how to steer a canoe. The Healthy Weight Team had a great HWC poster and flyers. We always welcome the opportunity to visit participating clinics and see more of your work first-hand.

In line with my last few blog entries, I have also compiled some resources on Hypertension and Children including screening guidelines as well as some related articles. Please feel free to let me know if there are other topics you would like me to research or if have any other suggestions about what would be helpful to you!

Penny

Blood Pressure Tables for Children and Adolescents, NHLBI

Hypertension in Children and Adolescents: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20060501/1558.html

Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Sequelae in Hypertensive Children: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/2/214

NHLBI HIN Health Action e-Bulletin

Overweight, Ethnicity, and the Prevalence of Hypertension in School-Aged Children: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/3/475

Diabetes Screening Guidelines/ Articles/ Blogs

Good afternoon, All!

Shikha thought diabetes screening guidelines would be helpful for folks to have, so here they are with some accompanying blogs, articles, and otherwise helpful materials around the issue of type 2 diabetes. Hope all is well!

Penny

diabetes screening guidelines:
http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/fsl/Documents/LQA_Docs/Diabetes.pdf
http://www.diabetesinmichigan.org/EdHandout/PDF/ADAscreenguidelinesmedsetting.pdf

article on possible genetic link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6342855.stm

NDEP Diabetes in Children and Adolescents Fact Sheet

Diabetes Cure Blog

National Study Reveals Doubling in Type 2 Diabetes Prescriptions in Children: http://www.feedsfarm.com/article/dff175756f97debc9c530848be9f9a92abf042ca.html

Diabetes Watch Blog: From MedicineWorld.Org

http://www.sugarshockblog.com/2007/05/complications_d.html

Future Medicine - Future Lipidology - 3(2):123 - Full Text

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-research/summaries/huerta-magnesium.jsp

Ongoing discussion

Hey Team!

I just wanted to respond to the ongoing discussions of the Collaborative conference call. The clinics are going so great and are gaining momentum. Definitely some great successes! I appreciate people taking the time to learn about our ongoing forays into technology: speaking of which the address for the HWI wiki is http://healthyfamilywiki.org/. Feel free to check it out and get acquainted. More information will be added as we move forward. If there are questions or folks would like additional help around the wiki please contact me and we will be happy to be of assistance. Thanks for taking the time to fill out surveys: hopefully they aren't too onerous. We will put all information to good use to help us assist you in your important work. I added some new links about the ongoing debate about prescribing statins for children. Hope you find them useful! There are some interesting blogs with some great conversations around this issue.

Penny

http://www.blogher.com/childhood-obesity-should-we-give-children-cholesterol-lowering-

http://iht.com/articles/2008/07/10/healthscience/snchol.php

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/cholesterol-drugs-for-kids/

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/cholesterol-my-thoughts-on-giving-children-cholesterol-drugs.html

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/07/07/cholesterol_drugs_for_kids_pharma_quo_vadis.htm

Doctors Averse to Cholesterol Drugs for Kids : NPR

Great Start!

June has been a great month for the Healthy Weight Initiative with clinics up and running. We are getting a lot of great feedback that will help us improve. There has been a fair amount of feedback on the paper form and we will be be assessing over the next couple of months what permanent changes will be made. The clinics sound like they are running great with some wonderful creative ideas and incentives, from jump ropes to farmer's market coupons. People are really going out of their way to get patients to buy-in and get excited. Thanks to the case managers and all who completed the survey that was sent out. We really appreciate the time spent to get our resource mapping project underway! Thanks for hanging in there as our technology gets up and running. Our technology team is working feverishly to make the web data entry system operational. There were some interesting articles in the last month so please check out the links below. Please be aware these links are intended as information only to further discussion on current issues/strategies related to overweight/obesity. The Healthy Weight Initiative does not endorse the below articles/information.

Cholesterol drugs recommended for some 8-year-olds

Scientists identify variants of gene that boost the risk of obesity

The Future of Children - Issue

BlubberBusters: Overweight kids site - for children and teens

Overweight Kids: College Less Likely - TIME

Looking for Solutions to Childhood Obesity