Health & Wellness

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is teaming up with the Family Resource Center to present Suicide Prevention Awareness and Mental Health 101" entirely in Spanish on Tuesday, September 12 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the Unites States among ages 15-34 and third leading cause of death for those ages 10-14. Four our of every five that die by suicide are male.

"Our hearts go out to the family's who lost loved ones to suicide in the Latino Community this past quarter," said Jeanne Nelson of NAMI-El Dorado.

Barton Health is holding a free lecture, The Signs of Suicide, on Wednesday, September 6 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Lake Tahoe Community College Board Room in South Lake Tahoe.

Alisa Merino of the Suicide Prevention Network will be presenting this important subject during Suicide Prevention Month.

Learn how to identify people who may have thoughts of suicide. Be able to ask directly about the possibility of suicide. Connect people to life-saving resources.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

As children get ready to go back to school, I understand bullying is one of the last things parents want to worry about. However, bullying is a salient and, unfortunately, common occurrence. It can take place on school grounds, after school, and through electronics (cyberbullying).

Back problems can be severe. A natural alarm in the body signals a sudden, debilitating onset of gripping back pain. It not only hurts, but interferes with your ability to work, play, and participate in your daily activities.

Most adult Americans, between 80 and 100 percent, will experience severe lower back pain at least once in their adult lives. Fortunately, only a small percentage will need attention from a spine surgeon. Below are options to address lower back prior to considering surgery.

A South Tahoe High graduate has come back to the South Shore community to become the new spine specialist at the Tahoe Center for Orthopedics and Tahoe Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.

Zachary Child, MD, a 1991 graduate of STHS, is a board certified orthopedic spine surgeon and musculoskeletal oncologist. He is skilled in addressing back pain and finding surgical and non-surgical options that help patients reach optimal spine health.

Mental noise can affect ability to concentrate and often contributes to anxiety. This continuous inner conversation in your head can be particularly bothersome at bedtime or when waking in the middle of the night.

Here are a couple tricks to calm or turn off mental noise when trying to sleep.

1. Plan ahead. Before going to bed, grab a pad of paper and write down anything that is bothering you right then or that you think may be of concern if you wake in the middle of the night. Even the smallest things seem out of proportion at 3 a.m. as you toss and turn.

By the time you watch the movie clip in this story, one individual will have ended their life by suicide because they think they have no other choice. According to the World Health Organization, a massive 800,000 people take their lives every year—one death every 40 seconds. That’s over 2,000 a day.

A free showing of the movie "EXIT: The Appeal of Suicide" will be shown on the South Shore on Saturday, July 15 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m at Tahoe Community Church in Stateline. There will be a question and answer period Q & A after the movie.

Right now there are 1.25 million people, in America alone, balancing their own chance at life with Type 1 Diabetes every day—I am one of them. There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease where a person’s pancreas stops doing its job and producing insulin. Insulin is a hormone that converts food into energy. Without insulin humans cannot survive. Type 2 Diabetes is a different condition where a person’s body still produces insulin, but the body is not making use of the insulin, also known as insulin resistance.

Location

The UCCE Master Gardeners of South Lake Tahoe are having part one (vegetables only) of their 4th annual Plant Sale this Friday, June 9 at the Ski Run Farmers Market from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., or until they sell out of plants. The sale is being held jointly with the Sierra House Elementary School who will be selling student crafted garden art.

As an active leader in the South Lake Tahoe chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, I work closely with family members who have loved ones with mental health issues. For many, one of the hardest times was learning about their child, partner, or friend’s diagnosis and not knowing what do next. Some were shamed for not addressing their loved one’s needs sooner and others were told they were too protective or doing too much.

Free sports physicals for boys and girls are being offered by Barton Health at South Tahoe High School on June 5.

All high school, middle school, and Pop Warner athletes from South Tahoe area are eligible to attend the June 5 event at South Tahoe High School. Physicals are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. for South Tahoe athletes, 6:00 p.m. for Pop Warner football players, and 6:30 p.m. for Whittell athletes.

Any parent will tell you raising teenagers is a stressful time! Are you in that stage? Talk to your teenager about it. Your stress may be similar stress for your teen.

Eleven youth detained at the Juvenile Treatment Center (JTC) in South Lake Tahoe recently received two certifications: American Heart Association Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Automatic External Defibrillator (AED).

This was the first time the course was offered to the youth housed at the facility, and not only did they get these important certifications but they also earned school credits.

Law enforcement agencies and volunteers around the country participated in Drug Take Back Day on April 29, taking tons of medications off of the streets.

Both Douglas County and the City of South Lake Tahoe took part. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office had their Citizen Patrol volunteers staff five locations both at the lake and in the valley. They didn't measure the drugs in pounds, but in box fulls.

Staff was able to turn in 18 boxes of medications, which was more than last October’s collection.

A free clinic with medical, dental and vision services will be in South Lake Tahoe on Monday, May 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Heavenly Valley Seventh-Day Adventist church.

Does it just seem like we need more than 24 hours in a day? I often think if I had eight more hours in a day that I could get so much more done. I realize this is an illusion and, in reality, the items on my list are never-ending. But for some reason the cultural message is that we are superhumans. We can do it all, get everything done, and look good while doing it.

Therapist Jennifer Golick has one piece of advice for young people who want to try marijuana: “Just wait.”

The teen brain isn’t just an adult brain with fewer miles on it, doctors and scientists say. It’s a beta version, still under construction.

So external influences — say, daily bong hits — can have a much greater long-term impact on a teen brain than they would on the brain of a 25-year-old grad student, 45-year-old professional or 65-year-old retiree.

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. – This week the Leap Frog Group, a nonprofit organization committed to driving quality, safety, and transparency in the U.S. health care system, released the new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. Hospitals nationwide are assigned an A, B, C, D or F letter grade. Barton Memorial Hospital was one of 823 hospitals to receive an “A” for its commitment to reducing errors, infections, and accidents. This is the third consecutive “A” Barton Hospital has received.

The Republican Party’s decision on March 24 to pull the vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was met with disappointment and relief. While backers of the newly proposed legislation were disappointed that they could not find sufficient support, residents who depend on the Affordable Care Act’s medical protections and insurance options felt relief. Hope continues for a broad bipartisan approach to change this complex legislation resulting in improved coverage balanced with affordability for our citizens.

Women of all ages can experience health and wellness activities that unite the body and mind at the sixth annual Ladies’ Morning Out on Saturday, April 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Lake Tahoe Community College.

“Ladies’ Morning Out is an opportunity for women to take time out for themselves,” says Natasha Schue, Barton’s Community Relations Coordinator. “The event celebrates health and wellness through fitness, pampering, and connecting with others.”

South Lake Tahoe, CA – The votes have been counted and Lance Orr, MD has been named Barton Health’s Doctor of the Year.

Dr. Orr is a board-certified emergency physician and medical director at Barton Hospital’s Emergency Department. He is considered a “physician of all trades” and is currently acting as Barton Health’s interim Chief Medical Officer.

Sometimes in life, events occur that fracture the very foundation on which we stand. Life, as we have known it, is forever changed and we find ourselves in an unexpected struggle, first just to survive and then to move forward.

The Suicide Prevention Network has formed a new Survivors of Suicide loss support group that will meet at 6:00 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month at the Barton Health Public Relations office located at 2092 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Suite 400 in South Lake Tahoe.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - Palliative Care is a new medical specialty focusing more broadly on improving life and providing comfort to people of all ages with serious, chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

Learn more about it during the next Barton Health lecture on February 1 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Lake Tahoe Community College Board Room located at One College Drive in South Lake Tahoe.

Each February since 2012, people around the globe have been participating in "One Billion Rising" events to bring human trafficking and violence against women and children to the forefront, and South Lake Tahoe has joined them.

Experts say one in three women across the planet will be beater or raped during her lifetime, which equals one billion women.

South Lake Tahoe will again join towns in hundreds of countries to express support through dance, joy and community to celebrate the fact that they have not been defeated by this violence.