Kent State Interns

I have attached to this post two articles about a college freshman losing his life due to his peanut allergy.  This story cements the clinical significance of food allergies and the importance in being aware and vigilant to avoid the allergy.  Brian W. Food allergy death article 1 Food allergy death article 2

    In our Perspectives in Community Nutrition class today we were informed energy drinks,specifically, 5 hour energy have been linked to two deaths within the United States and the FDA is currently investigating these adverse event reports. On TV, 5 hour energy now has a commercial with all kinds of vegetables flowing out of the bottle's opening sending a message to consumers  these energy shots are healthy and packed with B vitamins. Symptoms associated with 5 hour energy drinks in the adverse events report include tachycardia, dyspnea, myocardial infarctions, vomiting, hyperventilation, disorientation,convulsions etc (See all symptoms in report below). http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/OfficeofFoods/CFSAN/CFSANFOIAElectronicReadingRoom/UCM328270.pdf Interestingly, a two ounce, 5 hour energy shot contains around 135-200 mg of caffeine while the FDA states 400 mg of caffeine daily is not associated with adverse effects in healthy adults. It wi...

In keeping along with our last counseling tip, here is a great blog article about mindful eating in diabetes by author Michelle May, PhD. I had the opportunity to listen to her lecture at FNCE on this same topic (Eat What You Love with Diabetes: How to Use the Mindful Eating Cycle for Self-Management) last year, and here are some key points from that lecture : There are several eating cycles, consisting of questions, "Why-->When-->What-->How-->How Much-->Where-->Why". There is the instinctive eating cycle, where one may eat what they want with the intention of eating to survive.  There is the overeating cycle, where one may eat what they want because of emotional, physical or environmental triggers such as stress, fear, boredom or because of the cost of the food.                          At this point, Michelle posed an interesting question...

An article entitled “Risk of hospitalization or death from ischemic heart disease among British vegetarians and nonvegetarians: results from the EPIC-Oxford cohort study” was recently published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.   The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were significant differences in ischemic heart disease risk between individuals consuming a vegetarian diet and those consuming a nonvegetarian diet.   The researchers conducted the study on a sample of 44,561 men and women from England and Scotland, 34% of whom were vegetarians.   Because previous studies have demonstrated that vegetarians have lower LDL-cholesterol concentrations, blood pressures, and diabetes risk, it was predicted that vegetarians would also have lower ischemic heart disease risk.   The average patient follow-up in this study was 11.6 years, and after this period, 1235 of the subjects had experienced ischemic heart disease (1066 hospit...

    Last week, I presented a power point on types of fats to a sixth grade health class for my school food service rotation. At the end of the presentation, the sixth grade teacher asked me my opinion on coconut oil. I've heard such mixed reviews in the media regarding this oil. Some unreliable blog posts state coconut oil aids in weight loss, promotes healthy hair, and can be used in the treatment of alzheimer's disease. However, mayo clinic states due to its high saturated fat content, coconut oil may lead to an atherogenic  lipid profile. Therefore, I examined this research study discussing coconut oil's effects on lipid profiles of 1,000+ women (age 35-69) in the Philippines. Mean coconut oil consumption was determined using 24 hour recalls and was found to be 9.5+/- 8.9 grams. Higher coconut oil consumption among pre menopausal participants was correlated with a beneficial lipid profile and higher HDL cholesterol levels. Coconut oil consumption was not signifi...

There was a recent article posted in Medpage Today that is calling for better safeguards for medical records of patients.   The article discussed how easy it is to hack into the EMR for hospitals that have unsecured wireless networks—which is disturbing (why are they NOT secure?).   Government auditors proved how easy it was by actually sitting in the parking lots of hospitals and hacking into patient’s medical records.   I am bringing this to our attention for when we head to our summer rotations.   We should figure out if the hospital is using a secure network. (!!)   There are some other areas we should be evaluating that I will be listing below. These are the additional recommendations from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology: Use encryption, a password or other user authentication. Ensure wiping and/or remote disabling in case a device is stolen or lost. Don't use file-sharing. Do use firewalls. Use security...

FC Dietetic Software Solutions is working to put the IDNT online as a tool for dietitians.  It is currently is beta, but they have released an app for a quick reference tools for IDNT (which is currently on the market, and for android is 2.99).   This might be a good tool for us before the start of our clinicals! The IDNT Online will be able to run on tablets and phones.  Currently, the IDNT Online allows dietitians to write electronic charts using the standardized language.  One major market is the private sector.  The aim is to allow people who are not familiar with the terminology.  They do plan on adding a monitoring and evaluation section that will allow patients to be tracked overtime.  This is being developed for the Australian market, but they are working on exporting it to our market.  -RR

The Washington Post reported on a new web-tool developed call the “Global Burden of Disease.”   Though it highlights a “bigger picture” than what we would expect clinically.  I thought it would be interesting to share—just in case any of us go to other countries, or have a client from another country.   The tool has interactive graphics that allow you to see charts and graphs of diseases in different countries.  It also allows you to compare nations to its geographic, economic, or cultural neighbors. The GBD Insight tool, gives quick information on major causes of death, leading causes of years of life lost (YLL), and leading causes of years lived with disability (YLDs). There is also a tool that allows you to put in diseases and risk factors and see how it has changed since 1990. This tool can be found at www.healthmetricandevaluation.org/gbd  -RR