Pamphlet: Staying Smoke Free After Your Baby Is Born

Remember reasons for not smoking such as, I want to take care of my baby, I want to save money, I want to protect my baby from smoke.  Avoid temptations.  Triggers can be friends, locations, a cup of coffee or alcohol.  Keep cigarettes out of the house.  Find healthy ways to deal with stress and "baby blues."  Ideas could be to take a walk, calla friend, join a parent support group.  If the "blues" become such that you can't take care of your baby, or the "blues" won't go away, you may want to talk to a doctor.    Other ways to avoid smoking is to ask family and friends for support, or call a smoke free hot-line like 1-800-NOBUTTS, or 1-800 QUIT-NOW.

Pamphlet review: 10 Best Reasons Not to Smoke While You're Pregnant

A summary of the 10 reasons
1. You can do it, many women stop smoking before pregnancy or after getting pregnant.
2. If you quit, your baby does too!  The chemicals from cigarettes get to the baby.  Stopping allows more oxygen and nutrients to get to your baby.
3. You'll have a healthier pregnancy.  Women who smoke have higher incidence of miscarriage, bleeding and premature birth.
4. Your pregnancy may be easier.  Quitting means you can breathe easier, will have more energy, and better taste.
5. You baby will be a healthier weight.  If you quite your baby will more likely be healthy.
6. Risk of SIDS will be lower.  Not smoking during pregnancy decreases the risk of SIDS after the baby is born, and of stillborn birth.
7. Your breast milk will be free of chemicals.  Chemicals from cigarettes in breast milk can cause restlessness, vomiting, diarrhea.  It can also reduce the supply of breast milk.
8. You'll protect your baby from second hand smoke.  Quitting means your baby will be less likely to get sick, less likely to have colds, bronchitis, ear infections and asthma.
9. You'll live to see your child grow.  Quitting will reduce your own risk of cancer, hear disease and other illnesses.
10. Tips for quitting: throw out cigarettes, pick a day, drink more water, keep your hands busy.  If you can't stop, cut back.  Think of your baby.  Remember 1-800-NOBUTTS.

**Like a Broken Vessel

This is a presentation based on the talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland a few years back dealing with hope and depression.  It presents about ten individuals telling their stories of depression.  However it is also a message of hope.  There is hope in jesus Christ for a better life, things will get better.  One warning, in watching the video several people present their stories.  The first part can be depressive.  Watch to the end where the message of hope dominates.

How Tobacco Hurts Our World

This is a pamphlet dealing with societal ills from tobacco.  It lists plenty"
Tobacco hurts smokers.
Tobacco hurts non smokers.
Tobacco makes toxic trash.
Tobacco hurts pets.
Tobacco hurts the earth.  (This is a stretch because they talk about deforestation to raise tobacco.  It also mentions chemicals used in the growth.)
Tobacco hurst workers.  (I guess tobacco workers absorb nicotine too.)
Tobacco takes space that could be sued to grow food.  (I guess farmers grow what pays the most money.)
The cost of smoking hurts us all.  (I had hoped for a total cost, but it just says billions in terms of medical bills and lost work.)

Smoking Relapse

This pamphlet from Journeyworks Publishing gives ten ideas of what to do when you relapse:
1. Learn from the relapse.
2. Don't wast time feeling bad.  (Forgive yourself and move on.)
3. Prepare to quit again.
4. Remember your reasons for quitting (financial and health are two good ones.)
5. Remember the health risks are real.
6. Figure out your triggers.
7. Outsmart your urge to smoke again.
8. Remember what helped you quit last time.
9. Build on what worked before.
10. Pick your new quit date and go for it.

Violence Free: We All Play a Role

Co-Occurring Populations (Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health)

I attended a recent training on the clinical supervision of clinicians working with Co-Occurring Populations.  The training was well done, but wanted to share a few things about the effects of drugs on people.
Mouse Party is a program developed by the University of Utah to look at the physical effects of drugs on the brain.  Drugs can be so addictive because the effect the inner workings of the brain.  It is interesting to see the explanations of how the drug effects the brain which is where the pleasure is sensed and the addiction happens.

Risk of Type II Diabetes

No matter how I look at this I am scoring an eight.  Five or above shows risk of diabetes.   Those things that increase risk are age, being a man, if a woman having had gestational diabetes, mother, father or siblings with diabetes, high blood pressure, physically active and weight is the big one.

Tobacco and your Body

 ON the left you see healthy lungs, and on the right smoker's lungs.  The good thing is the lungs start to clean themselves when you stop smoking. Tobacco contains more than 1000 chemicals.  This include nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide carcinogens and poisons.  Some of the poisons are highlighted in this picture.

 You can imagine what effect these things have on your body.  Nicotine causes addiction.  The cardiovascular system is greatly effected.  This can include blood clots, pneumonia, heart attack stroke, chest pain, high blood pressure, etc  Also the addiction results in withdrawal symptoms.  Risk of cancer is increased, most often in the lungs but also in the esophagus pancreas and other organs.  The reproductive system is also effected.  However, as mentioned above, quitting tobacco can result in almost immediate benefits.

**Tobacco-free

This reminder from Public Health Santa Clara County reminds us that being tobacco-free carries a lot of rewards.  Life is better without tobacco.  This is on a bag I was given at the recent health fair at work.

**Elija la salud. Tome agua

Rating drinks by which have the most Sugar
El nivel de azucar en las bebidas

 Only water has no sugar.

**Rethink Your Drink Campaign: Choose Health. Drink Water.

I little graphic from the Rethink Your Drink Campaign.  The healthiest drink of course is water.

The graphic shows that water by far has the least amount of sugar.  Some drinks have as much as 17 teaspoons of sugar.  For me with diabetes, who per meal should not have more than 45 grams of carbohydrates, I would have to distribute this much sugar between many meals.  Soda has 14 teaspoons, but juice drinks have 17.  Even energy drinks have lots of sugar.  Sheri has purchased some sugar free additives for water if you must have sugar.  Milk has about one teaspoon of sugar in a cup size serving.  The sugar is all natural lactose.

**Candy Flavored Tobacco?

This is a pamphlet I picked up at the Health Fair for employees of Valley Medical Center.  I am not sure which booth this was from, but it is published by Journeyworks Publishing.

 Making tobacco look like candy, or adding flavors deemed to be "cool" does not make nicotine any less deadly.  Much of this business has to do with making tobacco seem more appealing.  IN the end tobacco is a very addictive product, and this type of marketing targets those who are most vulnerable. These are things to avoid at all costs, don't be fooled

All tobacco products have nicotine, nicotine is a drug, it effects your body and causes you to crave more.  addiction to nicotine will cause you to want it all the time.  

**Rattlesnake First Aid and Safety

The first part of rattlesnake first aid is to not get bit.  Don't hike with open toed shoes, avoid tall grass and clear your yard, look in crevices, seal gaps under doors, keep rodent populations low and fill in holes.  Rattling is not always an indicator of a snake.  Some snakes, especially young snakes, don't rattle,  Snakes will even bite after they are dead through reflex action.
What to do if you are bit by a rattle snake:
Stay calm, or calm the victim, keep the bitten part still, remove rings and other constrictive items and keep the bit area above the heart, clean the wound and apply a clean dry bandage, get victim to emergency facility, don't apply a tourniquet, don't pack in ice or apply a cold press, don't cut the bite site, don't suck the venom out with your mouth, don't let the victim eat, drink alcohol or take drugs.  This handout was provided by Santa Clara County Vector Control.

**Get Fit: State of Wellness: Santa Clara County

I threw this up in my office when I received it.  It is magnetized.  I was looking at it today, and I am seeing that I am halfway there, the upper half.  I really didn't pay much attention closely.  So I have down 30 minutes of walking five days a week.  I guess walking isn't cardio, but it's what I can do.  However the lower half says two times a week do strength building exercises in three areas, Upper, core and lower, and do 1-3 reps in each area.  I haven't been doing this at all.  So some adjustment is needed.