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.