December 2017 - Media Tip Sheet

Listed below are story ideas, with a focus on the winter and the holiday season, from Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC). To pursue any of these stories, please call John M. Lazarou at 443-849-2126 or jlazarou@gbmc.org.

• HANDWASHING AWARENESS WEEK
• WAYS TO AVOID HOLIDAY ALLERGY TRIGGERS
• NO DOUBT ABOUT IT...YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FLU SHOT!
• PEDIATRICIAN CAN OUTLINE SCREEN TIME RULES; GOOD INFO FOR PARENTS BEFORE SCHOOLS CLOSE FOR WINTER BREAK
• MORE EDUCATION NEEDED FOR FAMILIES ON THE ISSUE OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
• HOLIDAY FOOD TIPS FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES
• OH MY ACHING BACK!
• HOW TO BEAT THE “BATTLE OF THE BULGE” AROUND THE HOLIDAYS
• CHAIRMAN OF PEDIATRICS REMINDS PARENTS THAT DECEMBER IS SAFE TOY & GIFT MONTH

HANDWASHING AWARENESS WEEK


Practicing hand hygiene is a simple yet effective way to prevent infections. Cleaning your hands can prevent the spread of germs, including those that are resistant to antibiotics and are becoming more difficult to treat. Handwashing Awareness Week, taking place from Sunday, Dec. 3 through Saturday, Dec. 9, is a good time to remind the public, healthcare workers and to encourage patients and their families to practice good hand hygiene. Laurie Hart, RN, a member of GBMC Infection Prevention Team at GBMC, can emphasize the significant role that hands play in the spread of infectious disease, discuss the importance of handwashing and proper hand hygiene, outline appropriate hand washing and hand sanitizing techniques, talk about how it can help reduce the spread of infectious disease to improve our health and address how proper handwashing plays in the health of individuals and communities. WAYS TO AVOID HOLIDAY ALLERGY TRIGGERS With the arrival of the winter holiday season, millions of Americans are decorating their homes, shopping at the stores, gathering for meals, and traveling to visit friends and relatives. If you’re setting up a Christmas tree, visiting relatives with pets, being around kids with sniffles, eating unfamiliar foods at parties or looking at outdoor displays and breathing cold dry air, you need to be prepared. Alvin Sanico, M.D., FAAAAI, GBMC’s medical director of the Asthma Sinus Allergy Program, says that for allergy and asthma sufferers, however, the holiday season presents several potential problems and that symptoms can get worse because of various triggers. Sanico can outline potential triggers and symptoms and offer proper precautions and tips on how to avoid or help keep your allergies and asthma under control this holiday season.




NO DOUBT ABOUT IT...YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FLU SHOT!


With family and friends gathering for the holidays, and influenza activity on the rise, GBMC physicians suggest that now is the time to get your flu shot if you haven’t already done so. Influenza, also known as the flu, even as a mild case can present itself with an unpleasant fever, fatigue, painful muscle/body aches, and a runny, stuffy nose. Symptoms can last from a few days to less than two weeks, but, for those with chronic illnesses including diabetes, heart disease, or in cancer treatment, the complications of influenza can be life-threatening. GBMC physicians recommend to people of all ages that getting your annual flu vaccine, even if you were diagnosed with the flu last year, is the best way to protect yourself and your family from the flu. Jeffrey P. Sternlicht, M.D., FACEP, GBMC’s chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine, can offer ways that you can avoid or at least lower the chances of getting the flu, discuss when someone should get their flu shot, with several different types of vaccine available, address which one you should get, explain what else can people do, other than getting the flu shot, to protect themselves from getting the flu and what to do if you get the flu, clarify if you can get the flu from the flu vaccine and outline differences between the flu and the common cold.




PEDIATRICIAN CAN OUTLINE SCREEN TIME RULES; GOOD INFO FOR PARENTS BEFORE SCHOOLS CLOSE FOR WINTER BREAK


The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has important screen time guidelines, with a focus on all digital media, for kids. The biggest change over the years has been the amount of recommended time children can use entertainment media. With the academic winter break, a 10-day stretch of kids having no homework, staying up late and sleeping in, the hours of exposure to video games, computers, the internet, television, phones, just around the corner, Timothy F. Doran, M.D., chairman of Pediatrics at GBMC, says that the holidays are a great time to have fun together as a family and that finding other non-electronic formats such as books, newspapers and board games, to keep kids busy are key. While Doran acknowledges that video games can teach children healthy skills for the self-care of illnesses such as asthma and diabetes, and can be a source of family fun, but, adds that too much screen time has negative long-term effects on children's physical health such as obesity. Doran can discuss the AAP media use policy for parents and offer some tips to help parents keep their children healthy, happy and entertained over the holiday break.




MORE EDUCATION NEEDED FOR FAMILIES ON THE ISSUE OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES


Most parents and teenagers would agree that the “sex discussion” is awkward and the topic of sexual assault – that’s a bit harder. But with increased awareness on the issue of sexual assaults on college campuses, these conversations may soon have a higher priority on the parents' checklists before their kids go back to college for the spring semester. Laura Clary, RN, FNE-A/P, SANE-A, CPEN, Clinical Program Manager for GBMC’s SAFE (Sexual Assault Forensic Examination) Program, can offer expert comment on how parents can address the topic of sexual assault with their children before they embark on their college education and offer reasons as to why there needs to be a continued increase in the public’s awareness of the problem of sexual assaults on college campuses.




HOLIDAY FOOD TIPS FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES


Holiday parties and dinners are full of edible temptations for anyone, but for people with diabetes, yielding to such temptations can be disastrous for glucose control. While unlimited cakes are not an option, there are some strategies which diabetics and those want to be health-conscious can use to enjoy food around the holidays without hindering their health plans. Lisa Davis, RDN, LDN, CDE, a registered and licensed dietitian with the GBMC Geckles Diabetes & Nutrition Center, can provide practical and easy suggestions to help keep your blood sugar in check and offer tips on measures diabetics can take to cut down on temptation foods and how to manage blood sugar levels at parties.




OH, MY ACHING BACK!


Before you clean out the garage, rake the leaves off the ground, or shovel that mega-pile of snow, make sure that you are kind to your back. Approximately eight in ten Americans will experience back pain at some point in their lives and that number slightly increases around the holiday season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that over 50,000 people every year sustain some sort of winter-related back injury. While 5,800 of those are holiday decorating-related, potential back problems can come from a variety of other strenuous activity— including carrying heavy purchases and the increased stress of lugging suitcases, decorations, and gifts. Bimal Rami, MD, director of Neurosurgery at GBMC, can discuss the potential causes of severe back pain and address the question of when a surgery consult is recommended and what can be done to relieve these disabling problems with and without surgery.




HOW TO BEAT THE “BATTLE OF THE BULGE” AROUND THE HOLIDAYS


Dieters and all those who want to watch their waistline will face a strong dilemma when ambushed from every direction by delectable goodies. Since food is the focus of many holiday celebrations, it can be a real challenge to a dieter's willpower. Jana Wolf, LD, RDN, director of nutrition for the GBMC Comprehensive Obesity Management Program (COMP), can offer advice on how to make smarter choices for healthier eating and cooking around the holidays.




CHAIRMAN OF PEDIATRICS REMINDS PARENTS THAT DECEMBER IS SAFE TOY & GIFT MONTH


The holiday season is a time for family, fun, and celebration, but, it can also be a time for danger. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that our nation’s hospital emergency rooms in 2014 treated over 251,000 toy-related injuries with 72% of those patients under 15 years of age. Also, toymakers recalled over 19 million toys worldwide because of safety concerns such as lead paint and small magnets. Many of these unfortunate situations can be avoided according to Timothy F. Doran, M.D., chairman of Pediatrics at GBMC. Doran stresses that it’s important for parents to educate themselves and to be diligent in their selection of toys for children. Doran can offer a few basic safety tips for parents that can enhance child safety without sacrificing the fun and can help keep all family members safe this holiday season.