American Heart Association Names Flex-Med First Start! Fit-Friendly Company in Lafayette

Lafayette — The American Heart Association recently recognized its first Start! Fit-Friendly Company in Lafayette, LA who has promoted physical activity and health in the workplace.

The association also released a policy statement in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association that shows worksite wellness programs are proven to prevent the major modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. These include smoking, overweight, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Nationally, the association recognized more than 1,200 companies in 2009 — an all-time high. More than 2 million employees participated in the programs.

Start! Fit-Friendly Companies reach Gold level status by implementing various activities and programs to encourage physical activity, nutrition and culture enhancements such as on-site walking routes, healthy food choices in cafeterias and vending machines, annual employee health risk assessments and online tracking tools.

Companies that achieve Platinum recognition — the highest tier — take the program a step further by measuring the outcomes of their wellness efforts.

Flex Med Inc. takes pride in their employees and being in the healthcare field looks for ways to make a difference in people’s life each day. This is why they started at home to develop the health and wellness of their employees by implemented gym memberships for employees to keep up their physical activity and having healthy snacks around the office for a nutritional break during the day.

The American Heart Association also champions worksite wellness programs in its healthcare reform efforts, supporting an amendment that will be offered in a U.S. House Energy and Commerce bill to provide grants for qualified workplace wellness programs.

To view the complete list of the 2009 Start! Fit-Friendly Companies, or to apply for recognition, visit startwalkingnow.org. Applications are available to download and should be completed before the Jan. 31, 2010 deadline.

Start! is sponsored nationally by SUBWAY® restaurants, Healthy Choice® and AstraZeneca ®.

Lourdes Opens First Burn Center In Southwest Louisiana

LAFAYETTE- Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center officially opened the Grossman Burn Center, the first of its kind in Southwest Louisiana. The new 6 bed intensive care unit for both adult and pediatric burn patients, opened in partnership with the world renowned burn care experts of The Grossman Burn Centers (GBC) based in Sherman Oaks, California.

In addition to the ICU, the center will provide an outpatient burn clinic, the latest in hydrotherapy and hyperbaric therapy for routine burns a-nd the continued recovery of severely injured patients. The bum unit is also outfitted with state-of-the-art telemedicine equipment that will allow Lourdes doctors to consult in real time with other physicians on highly unusual or complicated burn cases.

The unit will be Under the direction of GBC Medical Director Dr. Peter Grossman, and will be managed on-site by r. Stephen Delatte, an accomplished plastic surgeon trained in restorative burn care. Surgeons, Dr. Joey Barrios and Dr. Louis Corne will provide regional coverage for bum injured patients and have also trained alongside GBC physicians in California.

Sugary Cola Drinks Linked For 1st Time To Higher Risk Of Gestational Diabetes

New Orleans — Researchers from LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, have found for the first time that drinking more than 5 servings of sugar- sweetened cola a week prior to pregnancy appears to significantly elevate the risk of developing diabetes during pregnancy. Liwei Chen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, is the lead author of the paper, A Prospective Study of Pre-Gravid Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and the Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, that will be published in the December 2009 issue of Diabetes Care and is available online now at http://diabetes.org/diabetescare.

The research team studied a group of 13,475 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II. During 10 years of follow-up, 860 incident GDM cases were identified. After adjustment for known risk factors for GDM including age, family history of diabetes, parity, physical activity, smoking status, sugar-sweetened beverage intake, alcohol intake, prepregnancy BMI, and Western dietary pattern, intake of sugar-sweetened cola was positively associated with the risk of GDM. No significant association was found for other sugar-sweetened beverages or diet beverages.

“Compared with women who consumed less than 1 serving per month, those who consumed more than 5 servings per week of sugar-sweetened cola had a 22% greater GDM risk,” notes Dr. Chen.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), defined as glucose intolerance beginning during pregnancy, is one of the most common pregnancy complications. Women with GDM are at increased risk for complications and illness during pregnancy and delivery, as well as post-pregnancy type 2 diabetes. Children of mothers with GDM are at increased risk for obesity, glucose intolerance, and early onset diabetes.

Although the underlying mechanism remains unclear, available evidence suggests that the main defect in the development of GDM is relatively diminished insulin secretion coupled with pregnancy-induced insulin resistance. The researchers discuss a number of explanations of their findings. Consuming a large amount of sugar-sweetened beverages could contribute to a high glycemic load (GL) by providing a large amount of rapidly absorbable sugars. High-GL foods induce a greater plasma glucose response after eating which can result in insulin resistance and impaired beta cell function. (Pancreatic beta cells make insulin.) In addition, higher sugar intake itself may lead to impaired pancreatic cell function.

“We don’t know why significant association was only found in sugar-sweetened cola, but not other types of sugar-sweetened beverages – fruit drinks, other soft drinks, etc.,” says Dr. Chen. “One of the explanations could be the tremendous popularity of cola in the US.”

“This is the first study on the impact of sugar-sweetened beverages on GDM risk,” notes Dr. Chen. “This finding is important because sugar-sweetened beverages are the leading source of added sugars in the American diet, particularly in the age group most likely to conceive. Cutting down sugary drinks is clearly an important way to reduce this common pregnancy complication.”

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2001, from 1977 to 2001, soft drink intake increased from 4.1% to 9.8% for 19- to 39-year-olds. In percentage terms, soft drink intake was highest among this age group in comparison to other ages.

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and part of the work was done when Dr. Chen received an Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship under Dr. Cuilin Zhang (senior author) at the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research at the NICHD.

Dr. Christopher Lee Surek, F.O.C.O.O., Joins Baton Rouge General’s Community of Caring

Baton Rouge — Dr. Christopher Lee Surek, F.O.C.O.O. (Fellow of the Osteopathic College of Ophthalmology and in Otorhinolaryngology) has joined Baton Rouge General ENT, a clinic affiliated with Baton Rouge General’s Community Caring.

Dr. Surek is a Summa cum Laude graduate of Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed residencies in General Surgery at St. Joseph Hospital in Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck, Facial, and Plastic Reconstructive Surgery at Northwestern University Medical Center, both in Chicago.

Dr. Surek is certified in Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck, Facial, and Plastic Reconstructive Surgery by the American Osteopathic Board of Opthamology/ Otorhinolaryngology and by the National Osteopathic Board of Examiners.

In addition to Baton Rouge General ENT, Dr. Surek also retains a practice in Zachary, La.

Our Lady of the Lake College Nurse Educators Help Establish National League for Nursing Affiliate in Louisiana

Exemplifying the College’s highly committed and community-minded faculty, Dean Melanie H. Green and Associate Dean Jennifer Beck of the Our Lady of the Lake College School of Nursing have been elected to help develop the new Louisiana League for Nursing (LLN). Dr. Green, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.E., will serve as the Louisiana League for Nursing’s first president, and Dr. Beck, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.E., will serve as the secretary.

Bringing to 22 the number of active constituent leagues around the US, the Louisiana League for Nursing is the latest group of state-based nurse educators to join forces to support the mission of the National League for Nursing (NLN).