Straight Talk By Dr Allen Weiss

October 29, 2009

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

We all search for heroes to emulate in our lives. We are fortunate at NCH Healthcare Systems to have 600 such “heroes” in our midst—the members of our medical staff, whose life’s work is dedicated to serving the community. In 2001, Judge Christine Greider, who was co-chair of the NCH Hospital Ball Committee, came up with the idea of recognizing a Physician of the Year. And so, for the past eight years, our physicians have nominated potential recipients of this coveted award which recognizes all that is noble about the medical profession.

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Trans Fats Are Bad Fats

July 28, 2009

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death as people age. One of the chief contributing factors remains high levels of blood fats. As society has become aware of this, there has been a slight decrease in blood cholesterol levels in the U.S. since the late 1980s, however, consumption of saturated and trans fats remains above recommended levels. Only one-quarter of U.S. adults with high cholesterol levels have it under control. About 24 million U.S. adults are on cholesterol lowering medications. Therefore controlling dietary fat intake is extremely important, but changing society’s nutrition-related behaviors is a major challenge.

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Skin Tears And Fragile Skin

As a result of multiple factors, superficial skin tears are very common as people get older. They can often be caused by minor trauma such as bumping against something (the edge of the dishwasher is all too common), a fall or even someone grabbing an arm too vigorously. With age the skin loses some of its’ supportive structures and strength. The underlying capillaries and blood vessels also become more fragile and as a result break more easily causing bleeding and bruising. Past sun exposure and smoking are additional factors that aggravate skin problems like this. We recommend the following when people sustain a skin tear

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