By: Kathy Hubbard. “As a pediatrician, I find that the typical child begins talking at about one year of age and stops around age thirteen,” Dr. Naheed Alijilani, who practices in Riverside, California, said. “At least that’s what my patients’ parents tell me, when they complain how difficult it is to get teens to open up about anything that really matters.”
By: Kathy Hubbard. People seem to use the term “on the spectrum” fairly loosely which led me to my favorite research sources. Now after reading about the signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) I’ve concluded that at one time or another we might all be described as “on the spectrum.” But most of us aren’t. ASD is a developmental disorder with symptoms that start to appear in a child sometime between birth and three years of age. The Autism Research Institute says that parents may think that the child is going through a phase and will “grow out of it.” But when the behaviors continue, they may begin to think otherwise.
By: Kathy Hubbard. It’s finally feeling like spring. And you and I both know what that means. It’s time to put away the wooly mittens and get out our gardening gloves. Here’s the dirt. Bonner General Health’s Healing Garden (just north of the hospital) is in need of volunteers to clean up the mess Mother Nature made this winter. Everyone is invited to come down on Saturday, April 12 from 9 a.m. to noon. Bring a rake, a couple of trowels, your neighbor, you know, anything that will make your job easier and don’t forget a hat, and, of course, those gloves.
By: Kathy Hubbard. It’s estimated that there are more than 78,000 alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. each year. That makes alcohol one of the leading preventable causes of death in this country. And according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), alcohol is a significant factor in deaths of those under 21, including deaths from vehicle accidents, homicides, overdoses, falls, burns, drownings, suicide, you name it.
By: Kathy Hubbard. While the rate of colorectal cancer is declining in those over 65, the astonishing news is that the number of cases is increasing at an alarming rate for Generation Z, Millennials, and Generation X people. These are young adults in their mid-20s to late 50s. And researchers are perplexed as to why. The American Cancer Society’s 2023 report, containing the latest data, tells us that colorectal cancer cases have increased from 11 percent in 1995 to 20 percent in 2019 in adults younger than 55 years old. Thanks to these statistics the ACS lowered the age for recommended colorectal cancer screening from age 50 to 45.
By: Kathy Hubbard. “I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with almond shaped eyes,” a woman named Sarah wrote on Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s website. “The doctors and nurses didn’t notice, but I did. After days of waiting and watching, we were given a diagnosis that we were expecting but were silently praying would be negative: our daughter had Down syndrome.” Down syndrome is one type of trisomy and trisomy is a genetic condition where there is an extra copy of a chromosome. Our bodies have 23 pairs of chromosomes, half we inherited from our fathers and half from our mothers, making a total of 46.
By: Kathy Hubbard. If you’ve been feeling a little grumpy, not sleeping well, and just not yourself this week, it could be because changing the clocks to Daylight Saving Time knocked your system off track for a few days. For some people it continues longer. You see, circadian rhythm disruption has affected their wake/sleep cycle.
By: Kathy Hubbard. With a goal to provide both employers and employees with important information to help keep eyes safe and healthy at work, Prevent Blindness each year declares March as Workplace Eye Wellness Month. They estimate that 20,000 workers sustain eye injuries each year, and the frightening statistic is that 90 percent of them could have been avoided with proper eye protection or precautions.
By: Kathy Hubbard. Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is a change in the sound or feel of your voice due to excessive muscle tension in and around the voice box, and globus sensation is when you feel like there’s something stuck in your throat. Muscle tension dysphonia often happens to singers, preachers and teachers. But it can happen to anyone. Johns Hopkins Medicine describes the voice as becoming rough, hoarse, gravelly, raspy, weak, breathy, airy or only a whisper.
By: Kathy Hubbard. Children often go through phases of picky eating. We’ve all been there either with our own children, a friend, or ourselves. But a person whose diet is so limited it leads to medical, nutritional, and/or psychosocial problems, might be suffering from Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).
By: Kathy Hubbard. Mike Brown’s unmistakable voice reported local news for Blue Sky Broadcasting for thirty years. I would often run into him when I was covering for an absent Bee reporter. When I heard that he and Tami Feyen, director of Bonner General Community Hospice, had talked and that Mike had agreed to let the public hear his story, I couldn’t resist asking if it could fill today’s space. This is Mike Brown’s story:
By: Kathy Hubbard. Unless you have one that isn’t functioning properly, you probably haven’t given any thought to your thyroid gland today. Well, that’s about to change because it’s Thyroid Awareness Month. The thyroid gland is butterfly-shaped and found at the front of your neck, right under your voice box. It weighs between 20 and 60 grams. It is a vital hormone producing gland and plays a major role in metabolism, growth and development of your body.
Bonner General Health is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital and healthcare network of outpatient clinics and services serving Sandpoint and the surrounding region.
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