Health

Holiday weekend safety in the Mid-South

Submitted by Lindsey Brown on Friday, September 2nd, 2:50 pm

Labor Day weekend means many people will hit the roads to soak up the last days of summer. The Red Cross has released a list of tips to keep in mind while traveling or just enjoying a backyard cook out.

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Government rules women can get birth control without co-pays

Submitted by Joan Carr, Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region

Friday, August 26th, 2011, 3:13pm

Government rules women can get birth control without co-pays

On August 1, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced that beginning next August, women who have health insurance will be able to get birth control and other preventative health services with no co-pays or deductibles.

The move to make contraception available at no additional cost is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—the health care reform law passed by Congress last year.

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Research Provides New Insights into Immune System Biology

Submitted by Lyle Bontrager on Tuesday, July 19th, 12:21 pm

Scientists at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, have identified a key immune system regulator, a protein that serves as a gatekeeper in the white blood cells that produce the "troops" to battle specific infections, according to a report from the Institute. Loss of that protein was associated with a reduction in the number of certain immune cells and a weaker immune response.

The work by Dr. Hongbo Chi, assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology, and first author Dr. Kai Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in Chi's laboratory, appears in the July 17 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Immunology. For a more detailed explanation of this discovery, click here http://tinyurl.com/3k5g6gn.

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Luncheon to unite women in fight against multiple sclerosis

Submitted by Kym Clark on Friday, July 15th, 9:51 am

The National Mutliple Sclerosis Society Mid South Chapter will hold the 5th Annual Women Against MS (WAMS) Luncheon on Wednesday, July 27. The luncheon will be held at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are $50 or $500 for a table of 10.

All proceeds from the luncheon will go toward funding for local client programs and national research focused on finding a cure for MS. The luncheon is designed to give women the opportunity to support other women in the fight against MS and encourage women philanthropists in the area to become better acquainted with the work of the National MS Society. Nationwide, more than 400,000 people have been diagnosed with MS and the Mid South Chapter supports more than 8,800 of these individuals and their families.As women are affected by MS more than twice as often as men, the WAMS luncheon was started as a way to bring concerned women together to support the mission of the National MS Society.

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Oxford chef teaches campers about local farming

Submitted by Kristin Williams on Wednesday, July 6th, 3:38 pm

Joel Miller may be best known as the chef at Oxford’s Ravine restaurant. However, recently Miller has stepped out of the kitchen to teach some lucky kids where food comes from at Ravine’s first Farm Camp.

Chef Joel teaches children about the importance of locally grown foods. He explains that the benefits include higher nutritive value and a positive impact on the local economy. Miller also preaches the importance of some other eco-friendly practices such as composting and beekeeping.

Miller can be seen pulling purple potatoes from the ground and leading campers through local farms like Yokna Bottoms Farms, showing them how fruit and vegetables grow. He fixes snacks for campers using the freshly picked produce. Some are a hit like purple potato chips and others like the beet-and-honey smoothies don’t go over so well.

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Time to Register for the St. Jude Marathon or Half-Marathon

Submitted by Brooke Barrett, Action news 5 producer

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011, 10:57am

Registration is now open for the 2011 St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend races to be held Saturday, Dec. 3.

Participants can register online at www.stjudemarathon.org for any of the four races: St. Jude Memphis Marathon, St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon, the Memphis Grizzlies House 5K and the St. Jude Memphis Family Race and Kids Marathon.

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1 in 3 Mid-Southerners are obese

Submitted by Drew Smith on Monday, April 4th, 10:15 am

Late last week, new county health rankings came down from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, and it isn’t good news for the Mid-South. Shelby County ranks 82 out of the 95 counties in Tennessee when it comes to the percentage of obese residents.

In Shelby County, 34% of people? are obese. In Crittenden County, it’s 35%. In DeSoto County, it’s 32%, but in Tunica and Quitman Counties, it reaches up to 42%. Throughout our area (including Missouri), there isn’t a single county that falls below 30% obesity. That means at least one out of every three people in our community is obese.

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