Health Subject Guide

On Thursday, February 28, 2013, Gari Melchers Home and Studio will host the first of four free lectures on children’s health topics provided by staff from the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU.  Dr. Jose Muñoz from the Division of Infectious Diseases will discuss steps to prevent Lyme disease and the signs, symptoms and treatment options for this tick-borne illness.

Other topics include:

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Childhood Obesity: Where Do We Currently Stand?

The problem of childhood obesity in the United States has grown considerably in recent years. Children who are overweight have an increased risk of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis. Join Dr. Edmond “Trey” Wickham III, from the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, as he highlights the many causes, health impact, treatment, and prevention options for pediatric and adolescent obesity.

A lot of “natural” or complementary medicines and practices sound more appealing to patients than drugs with fancy chemical names.  But the question is—do they do any good? Do they, perhaps, rather do harm? Even seemingly harmless ingredients (grapefruit juice, green coffee extract) can have dangerous effects when combined with other necessary medications or complicating conditions. And then there’s the placebo effect, the often-studied quandary that any medicine or technique, if the patient is told it will be effective, will be for a certain percentage of the time.

The database Natural Standard (available to CRRL cardholders at www.librarypoint.org/research) takes on this dilemma and provides additional helpful information besides. According to its site’s statement, Natural Standard is impartial—not supported by any interest group, professional organization or product manufacturer. 

Do any of these situations sound familiar to you?

-The phone rings at 10 p.m. notifying you that your father has fallen and rushed to the hospital with a probable broken hip.

-You call your mother several times one afternoon and evening without any answer.

-Your aunt’s neighbor calls you to tell you that the papers are piling up on the front doorstep over the past week and she is not answering the door.

Whether you live an hour away or across the country, long-distance caregiving can be a challenge for many families.

MediCorp Health System
MediCorp Health System, located in Fredericksburg, includes Mary Washington Hospital, the Stafford hospital, a mobile health program, mental health facilities at Snowden, home health care services, hospice and outpatient surgery.
 

Rappahannock Health District
Clinic locations, services and hours for Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties and the City of Fredericksburg. Also includes the location of Rappahannock Area Health District headquarters office and Child Development Clinic.  Services may include maternity care, well child care, women, infant and children (WIC) program, family planning, dental services for ages 3 - 21 at school sites and environmental health services. Part of the Virginia Department of Health.


Rappahannock United Way: Health
Our United Way connects people in need with agencies that may be able to help them: food bank, free clinic, disability resources, counseling, HIV/AIDS, .mental health, substance abuse, and pharmaceutical assistance.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Topics include healthy living, travelers’ health, vaccines and immunizations, workplace safety and health, environmental health, first aid, emergency preparedness and response, infectious diseases, and chronic diseases.

A Guide to Citizen Preparedness
"…provides a step-by-step outline on how to prepare a disaster supply kit, emergency planning for people with disabilities, how to locate and evacuate to a shelter, and even contingency planning for family pets. Man-made threats from hazardous materials and terrorism are also treated in detail." Created by: Federal Emergency Management Agency


OSHA
Fact sheets on health and safety topics related to the workplace such as hazardous materials fact sheets and advice for particular industries.

Lab Tests Online
Search the site by test description, or by disease or condition. Additional information includes screening guides, news, and in-depth articles. Created by: American Association for Clinical Chemistry

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
From the National Institutes of Health, find fact sheets, current research and clinical trial opportunities, a guide to finding a qualified complementary and alternative medical healthcare practioner, a toll-free number for information by telephone, and more.

Needy Meds
Search for special programs that assist people who can't afford to buy the drugs or health equipment they need. Find contact information for each program, with its special requirements and procedures.
 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Consumer Drug Information
Detailed information sheets on newly approved prescription drugs, some of which may not be commercially available as yet. Includes links to other pages from the Center for Drug Evaluation, such as Public Health Alerts, Clinical Trials, and Drug Preparedness and Bioterrism Response, and a page on questions to ask your health care provider before taking a new medication.
 

Virginia State Bureau of Insurance
Includes consumer information from the agency that "licenses, regulates, investigates and examines insurance companies, agencies and agents on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia."

ABMS Certified Doctor
Allows the public to verify free of charge the board certification status, location by city and state, and specialty of any physician certified by one of the member boards of ABMS. You can also use the locator service to find a doctor near you. Doctors are in this second database by subscription so use the aforementioned certified doctor verification service database to find an ABMS certified doctor by name. Created by: American Board of Medical Specialties

License Lookup:  Virginia Department of Health Professions
Check the status of licensed health professionals in Virginia. Seach by occupation (includes physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and more), name, professional license number, state, zip code, social security number, or license status.

Virginia Board of Practitioner Information
Provides information on Doctors of Medicine, Osteopathy, and Podiatry, as required by law to be made public, as well as practioner profile self-reported information. Search the database of approximately 31,000 practioners by name, locale, area of specialty, or Virginia hospital affiliation. Find general practice information, certification, education, honors, academic appointments, Virginia Board Notices and Orders, claims paid, and more. Created by: Virginia Board of Medicine

Blue Ridge Poison Center (Poison Help: 1-800-222-1222)
The Blue Ridge Poison Center (BRPC) provides general poison information and poison management advice to residents in Central and Western Virginia, and Virginia Beach. They are waiting for your call. Click on the link for Education to learn about poisons, first aid for poisoning, facts sheets on poison hazards for adults and teens, and a learning activity sheet for children. Created by: University of Virginia Health System
 

healthfinder
Hand-picked health information from A to Z — prevention & wellness, diseases & conditions, and alternative medicine; selected health topics organized for men and women, by age from kids to seniors, by race and ethnicity; information about doctors, dentists, public clinics, hospitals, long term care, nursing homes, health insurance, prescriptions, health fraud, Medicare, Medicaid, and medical privacy; news; and over 50 online “checkups” – quizzes and self-assessments. Also in Spanish. Created by: National Health Information Center, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
 

MayoClinic.com
This site’s mission “is to empower people to manage their health” by giving “access to the experience and knowledge of the more than 2,000 physicians and scientists of Mayo Clinic.” This rich site provides easy to access, easy to understand, up-to-date health information on diseases and conditions, drugs, healthy lifestyles, and tools such as calculators, quizzes, self-assessments, slide shows, and videos. Created by: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

MEDLINEplus
Interactive tutorials on over 150 topics, clinical trial studies, the latest health news, medical encyclopedias and dictionaries, directories for finding doctors, dentists, and hospitals, drug information, and over 650 topics regarding diseases, conditions, and wellness, on this “goldmine of good health information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine.” Updated daily. Also in Spanish. Created by: U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
By a "nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization," this site not only provides information on mental illnesses and treatments, but gives contact information for local affiliates, support groups, and referrals. Also highlights public policy updates and research initiatives.


Rappahannock Health District
Clinic locations, services and hours for Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties and the City of Fredericksburg. Also includes the location of Rappahannock Area Health District headquarters office and Child Development Clinic.  Services may include maternity care, well child care, women, infant and children (WIC) program, family planning, dental services for ages 3 - 21 at school sites and environmental health services. Part of the Virginia Department of Health.

SeniorNavigator.com: Virginia's Resource for Health and Aging
An excellent site for discovering what services are available for seniors. Housing, day care, health and legal issues are among the many topics. The site includes a zip code search to target what services are available in your area. Free registration is required to use the My Library and Ask an Expert sections. Created by: The Virginia Health Care Foundation

Virginia Health Information Project
"Provides state and national resources organized by age as well as a broad range of reliable health information from  government and non-profit agencies -  information on diseases, drugs, surgical and diagnostic procedures, a huge list of Hotlines, a medical dictionary for kids, actual videos of surgical procedures, alternative medicine information, and much more."

Just because you're older doesn't mean you can't have fun while staying in shape. Porter Library's Awesome Seniors Exercise Class meets most every Thursday from 9:30 to 10:30. This free class is for people 55+. Exercises are done with the help of a chair.

Check them out!
The library has books and videos for older adults who want to keep moving to keep healthy.

Q: Which of the following are types of complementary or alternative medicine?

a. St. John’s Wort
b. Echinacea
c. Tai Chi
d. Chiropractic Procedures
e. All of the above

A: If you answered “E” to the question above, you already have an idea of what complementary and alternative medicine is.