CPR.COM

Infant CPR Training in Brooklyn and New York City

tim — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 06:03:59 +0000

Common Sense CPR provides infant, child, and adult CPR training classes every month in Brooklyn and New York City. Administering CPR to infants and children is similar to adult CPR with some key differences.

Infant CPR training is offered monthly in Park Slope in Brooklyn and the Upper East Side in New York City for $85 per person.

Zombie Video Promotes CPR Training

tim — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:32:29 +0000

This new Halloween-themed public service video, called The Undeading and produced the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canada, features zombies to promote to use of hands only CPR.

The video demonstrates that hands only CPR is so simple, that even a zombie could do it. (While the clip shows the victim ‘waking up’ after zombies apply hands-only CPR, typically the procedures keeps the blood pumping to the brain until defibrillation restarts the heart.) The video has a clever twist and closes with the message that “CPR Makes You Undead”.

Effective CPR applied by a bystander provided immediately after cardiac arrest can improve a victim’s chances of survival by 2 to 3 times, but only 32% of victims get CPR from a bystander.

This zombie video promotes the foundation’s effort to break the Guinness World Record for CPR training at the end of October.

Companies that Support Proposition 37 in California

tim — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:34:24 +0000

While most industrial food producers have campaigned against it, the following companies have come out in support Proposition 37 in California. Proposition 37, also known as The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, mandates that labeling must indicate whether food is produced using genetic engineering.

Genetically modified (GMO) corn has been engineered to produce pesticide. While it’s regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an insecticide, GMO corn is sold unlabeled to consumers. Prop 37 is intended to address this gap.

Are GMOs Safe?

No one knows – and scientists have not yet proven – whether GMOs are safe to eat and the presence of GMO crops have been documented to affect biodiversity, caused the emergence of “super weeds” that are resistant to existing pesticides, and contaminated non-GMO crops and plants.

Prop 37 Supporters

These food producers have come out in favor of Proposition 37. (You can also see which companies are funding the opposition.) Shoppers in favor of GMO labeling – and why wouldn’t you want to know what’s in the food you buy – should certainly consider spending their money on products by food producers and companies that support California’s Proposition 37. I hope, in the same way that California led the way in auto efficiency and safety, that this proposition is the first step towards national GMO labeling requirements.

American Natural & Organic Spices
Amy’s Kitchen
Ancient Organics
Annie’s, Inc.
B-Alive Natural Foods
Beanfields Snacks
Beanitos, The Original Bean Chips
Bear River Valley Beef
Blackbird Naturals
Brad’s Raw Chips
Bucha Live Kombucha
Bumble Bee Health Foods
Cal-Stevia
Cazadero Winery
Chappellet Winery
Charcoal Companion Inc.
Clif Bar & Company
Cyanotech
Davidsons Organic Teas
Earth Balance
Earthbeam Natural Foods
Earthbound Honey Ltd
Eden Foods
Edward & Sons
Elemental Superfood
Energy Essentials Whole Plant Food Manufacturing Company
Foothill Organic Growers
Four Elements Organics
Foxy Treats
Funnel Mill
Glee’s Baking and Milling Company
Glutino Food Group
Good Earth Natural Foods
Grain Place Foods, Inc.
Granny Lulu’s Gluten-Free Gourmet Sandwiches
Greenville Organic Foods Organization
Guayaki
Gum Tree Inc.
Hail Merry Snacks
Hawaiian Ola
Health-Ade
Healthforce Nutritionals
Heartsong Pasta
Hoa’s Vegetarian & Vegan Spring Rolls
Humboldt Hot Sauce
J&H Produce, Inc.
Kona Coffee Farmer’s Association
Las Hermanas Organics
Late July Organic Snacks
Little Bee Pops
Lopino Foods
Lundberg Family Farms
M2 Ingredients, Inc.
Majestic Chili
Mary’s Gone Crackers
Merton’s Maple Syrup
Mt. Eden Organics
Naturally Yours Organics
Nature’s Express
Nature’s Kitchen
Nature’s Path Foods
New Chapter
Numi Organic Tea
Nutiva
Organic Valley
Organicville
Pacific Foods
Passport Dinners
Pines International, Inc.
Purely Organic, Ltd.
Rudi’s Organic Bakery
Rumiano Cheese Co.
Sambazon
Scenario International LLC
Simpli
Sky Island Organics
SlantShack Jerky
Staff of Life Natural Foods
Starbars™
Stonyfield Farm
Straus Family Creamery
Sue’s Organics
SunRidge Farms
Sun Warrior
Sunfood
Sunshine Natural Health Foods
Tasty Brand, Inc.
The California Olive
The Grove Certified Organic California Produce
Turtle Island
Udi’s Gluten Free Foods
Uncle Matt’s Organic
United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI)
Via Organica
Vivapura
Wallaby Yogurt Company
Whole Living Naturals
Whole Soy Company

Infant and Child CPR Class in Brooklyn

tim — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:20:11 +0000

Madison Rose, a shop in Brooklyn, NY that sells used maternity and kids’ clothes, is offering an infant and child CPR training class on Monday, Sept 10th at 6PM. The class promises to provide instruction on the following:

Provide CPR to infants and children
Hands-only CPR
Heimlich maneuver
What do to in case of poisoning, drowning, SIDS, allergies, and other serious injuries.

The syllabus doesn’t mention if they’ll provide CPR certification, however given that they don’t mention AED training I don’t see that certification is possible. Training classes for infant CPR is a great idea, though, as the neighborhood is growing with new, young families.

Read more about the class (and store) at the great local blog, Pardon Me for Asking.

Registration for the infant and child CPR class at their Brooklyn storefront costs $80 for individuals and $150 per couple, and is open now. Madison Rose is located at 313 Court Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Getting Started with Flexitarian Cooking

tim — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:42:10 +0000

I just got started with week 1 of the flexitarian meal plan, and am cooking up some pretty tasty vegetarian dishes from the Flexitarian Diet Book.

The idea behind Flexitarianism is to reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, the amount of meat in one’s diet. Meat-based diets have been linked to heart disease, cancer, and weight gain. I’ve almost always been a meat eater, but during the last 8-9 months have greatly reduced the amount that I eat by reducing the portion of meat on my plate. Due to recent surgery, I also put on an extra 10 pounds that I want to get rid of.

The Flexitarian Diet provides five weeks of meal plans and shopping lists. You can get the hang of it quickly so that it’s not necessary to follow it to the letter; its meals emphasize whole grains, green vegetables, and healthy proteins, along with the occasional starchy sweet potato, whole grain pasta, and brown rice.

The recipes are relatively uncomplicated, and getting started with cooking the Flexitarian way is pretty easy. My first dinner was pan-fried firm tofu with BBQ sauce, sautéed kale, and a sweet potato with maple syrup, took about 20 minutes for me to prepare, and was quite delicious.

I’ll continue to provide infrequent updates as I get through the meal plan. Here’s a link to the book on Amazon.

Running for Beginners

tim — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:29:07 +0000

Salty Running features articles by and for women looking to improve their training and performance, and offers a free “Running for Beginners” program that can provide anyone with a good, simple introduction to the sport.

Running is my favorite heart-healthy exercise, and is demonstrated to lower cholesterol levels, improve longevity, increase bone mass, and improve mental acuity of those who run on a regular basis. To get the most benefit from running, one must maintain a regular heartbeat within a specific range, and maintain it for a period of time.

Many beginners are put off due to preconceived notions about having to run fast or cover a lot of distance. Really, the first step is to get used to moving your feet, even if it’s walking or alternated run/walks, for 30 minutes, and then, as you increase your running time, get your heart rate up by maintaining your speed for longer periods of time.

To properly manage your heart rate, you will need a heart rate monitor, which include a strap that goes around your chest and a watch. Garmin makes the FR-70, a decent, cheap time keeper with heart rate monitor for US $130 list price.

Many ultramarathon runners take a similar approach to the Running for Beginners program when preparing for their long races. Elite ultramarathoner Glen Redpath employs very long walks on hiking trails as part of his training regimen as an interesting, fun way to be active and on his feet all day. During training and even on their race day, many long distance runners will alternate between a few minutes of running and a minute of walking, to help manage their energy and save their muscles for what could be a very long race. Running beginners can use these same approaches for their training, even though the time on their feet will be 30 minutes instead of several hours.

Follow this link to find out more about Salty Running’s program to progress to 30 minutes of running in 8 weeks.

(Photo credit: migroveruk)

Where Are You on the BBC’s Global Fat Scale?

tim — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 05:16:17 +0000

The BBC in the UK offers a calculator that takes your age, height and weight to help you figure out where you are on the global fat scale.

How the Calculator Works

The calculator uses population and weight data from WHO and the UN to calculate not only what your Body Mass Index (BMI) is, but how your BMI compares to people your age and gender in every country, and in which country you represent the average.

Implications of Global Weight Gain

Researchers see that the implications on world heath and resources of global weight gain are a bigger threat than population growth.

Looking at the Results

My own BMI is below average in the United States, (and Tonga, Croatia, Somoa, and Kuwait), and, of course, above average compared to most of the world’s population. The app finds that I am most like someone from South Korea!

Summary

This is a pretty neat app; it’s interesting to find out where your BMI is on the BBC’s global fat scale.

Bystander Uses CPR to Save Runner

tim — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 04:52:55 +0000

As if to prove that CPR training really works, a bystander used CPR to save a runner who had collapsed while running the Market Square Day 10K race in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Seacoast Online reported that a runner competing in the Market Square Day 10K had collapsed on the road and was unresponsive. An unidentified bystander provided CPR to the runner, until firefighters arrived to continue recovery. By the time the victim arrived at the emergency room, he had a “strong heartbeat and was breathing on his own”.

This is reminiscent of the Boston Athletic Associations efforts this year to provide Boston Marathon runners and volunteers with hands-only CPR training, with the goal of increasing the availability of trained responders along the course. They produced an informative instructional video that was shown to participants in the week before the big race.

This one bystander, whose only training may have been one of these instructional videos, was able to use CPR to keep one runner alive long enough to save him. This is a real life example where someone’s CPR knowledge, applied during the critical minutes between when someone becomes unresponsive and professional medical help arrives, made the difference between life and death.

Flexitarianism: Meal Plans and Diet

tim — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:15:26 +0000

More and more people who are concerned with losing weight, reducing the risk of heart disease, or who simply want to eat better and healthy are incorporating Flexitarianism in their meal plans and diet. Flexitarian advocates eat a primarily vegetarian diet; meat may be included occasionally – say, in social situations or when it’s otherwise inconvenient to be meat-free. Over time, Flexitarians eat less meat, but are not obligated or expected to go completely vegetarian, but rather maintain flexibility. Adopting a Flexitarian diet doesn’t mean that you have to become vegan (no animal products at all) or vegetarian (no meat); it allows you to have the best of both worlds, still eating meat when you want to, but eating less than you used to.

Flexitarianism is similar to the Mediterranean Diet, which emphasizes whole grains, fruit and vegetables, nuts and ‘good oils’, and fish. My own diet is Flexitarian, although I didn’t realize it had a name when I wrote about how I reduced meat in my diet.

How to Go Flexitarian

Plant-based foods are the mainstay of a Flexitarian diet; animal protein becomes an occasional side-dish. The best way to implement a Flexitarian diet, as with any diet change, is to start small, by gradually going meatless from a couple of meals a week and, for your meat-ful meals, replacing some of the meat you would usually include in your recipes with a protein-ful vegetable substitute (for example, replace half the meat in a taco or stir fry with tofu, black beans, or similar protein-rich non-meat alternative).

Health Benefits of Flexitarianism

Meat is associated with weight gain, heart disease (including increasing your risk of heart attack), and cancer. A long-running study by Harvard researchers found that a daily increase of 3 oz of meat increased the likelihood by 16% of by cardiac arrest and 10% by cancer. Processed meats, including ham, bacon, sausage, and hot dogs, increase the risk of death by heart attack (21%) and cancer (16%) even more. Studies show that people who follow a plant-based diets can lower their cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI; reduce their risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart attack; and increase intake of antioxidants, which helps cells heal from exercise-related stress.

Flexitarian Recipes, Meal Plans and Books

To help migrate to a mostly-plant-based diet, there are more and more Flexitarian resources for recipes and meal plans in bookstores and online.

The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Blatner is the best book on Flexitarianism, with lots of recipes, a five week meal plan, and suggestions on substituting vegetables for meats (and vice versa).
Although Meatless Monday advocates an ultimately vegetarian lifestyle, they recommend that you eat meat free one day a week, and, more importantly for Flexitarians, offer some great recipes for every meal, and for cooking in bulk for the week.
Meal Plan Site offers a simple Flexitarian meal plan, to give you an idea of what a typical day’s menu would look like.

Using a Scale

Food scales are cheap and small, and a necessary tool you must use to be successful with any diet, including Flexitarianism. Flexitarian diets require that you measure meat protein when you substitute a plant protein with meat; to see the benefits of Flexitarianism, you have 3-4 oz of meat, not the 12 or 16 oz in a typical steak. Using a scale allows you to control your portions, something that is impossible to accurately do visually.

Flexitarianism is, as the name suggests, a way to flexibly reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, meat from your diet and improve your health; there are plenty of good recipes and meal plans available to you online and at Amazon.
(Photo by Dmitry Fedoseev)

Do Brain Trainer Games Work?

tim — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:37:58 +0000

A friend has looked for ways to improve his memory capacity and cognitive response, and thought that brain trainer games and software might work. As we get older, our brains decline in operating speed and performance. He’s been playing brain trainer games at Lumosity, which advertise that their subscription game service will “improve your brain health and performance”.

Brain Trainer Games Study Results

Scientific American covered a 2009 review of brain trainer games Brown University of 20 software studies that the results “underwhelming”. The most highly reviewed paper by the Mayo Clinic tested the Brain Fitness Program by Posit Science. While the 8-week brain trainer program worked, improving working memory and processing speed, the result was a mere 4% better than the control group that just watched educational documentaries.

Activity and Diet are the Best Brain Trainer Games

The article concludes that the best brain trainer is physical health and social activity are the best brain trainers. Several studies have shown a link between physical activity and cognition. An 8 year study of older women at the University of California found that the most active women had a 30% lower risk of cognitive decline, and that the amount of physical activity, not speed, was related to cognition. The study’s author concluded that, regarding activity, “a little was good but even more was better“.

Diet and Cognitive Function

Several studies have shown how diet affects cognitive function. Two studies linked a Mediterranean diet, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables, grains, olive oil, beans and nuts, water, some seafood and wine, and less dairy, meat and sweets, and, in the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, also includes being physically active and social dining, with a lower rate of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Finally, a UCLA study linked traditional brain games, like crossword puzzles and brainteasers, may play a role along with fitness, diet and stress reduction. Unfortunately, this study doesn’t appear to have included a group that only did behavior modification to establish whether brain trainer games worked in this case.

(Photo: A Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ann Larie Valentine‘s photo stream)