National Gun Violence Awareness Day

Wear orange on June 2: National Gun Violence Awareness Day
                                     

On most days, we associate the color orange with joy, sunshine and fun, but on Thursday, June 2nd, to me and many across the US, orange will signify the public health crisis due to gun violence. On that day, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, I will wear orange to show my solidarity with families of my patients who have lost a family member to gun violence, solidarity with communities across America that are torn apart by bloodshed and fear. On that day, I will stop and reflect on the fact that every year, an average of nearly 17,500 children and teens are shot each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I will also wear orange to signify hope that there can be a brighter tomorrow. It is not inevitable that we live in violence.  Look at other developed countries.  A study published earlier this year in The American Journal of Medicine found that when compared to the US, gun homicide rates in other developed countries were 25 times lower and that the vast majority of child deaths from firearms in developed countries are in the US: 91 percent of firearm deaths for children 14 and younger; 92 percent from youth aged 15 to 24 years. What is different?  Our per capita firearm ownership rate is higher than that of any of these other countries. We can do better for our communities and our children by finding solutions (perhaps by learning from our other developed countries) on ways to reduce the number of guns and our excessive exposure to gun violence.

So, what can you do today? Statistics indicate that up to one in three US homes report having a firearm. So even if you do not own a gun, there is a good chance that your child’s friend or classmate may have a gun in their home. Parents should be aware of the homes in which their children are playing and how children comprehend (or fail to comprehend) the dangers of firearms as they mature developmentally. If you own a gun, make smart decisions around safe storage – or removing guns from the home entirely.

There is a role for all of us in protecting children and adolescents against gun violence. Events will be held around the country on Thursday for National Gun Violence Awareness Day, including here in Philadelphia. Supporters are also encouraged to “Wear Orange” in solidarity, and use the #WearOrange hashtag on social media

                                                                                                                                           Meet the Queens of Eta Sigma Delta SL Sorority Blog Team: Three ladies that I call ( Our Elements )    EARTH - WIND - AND FIRE ~~~~~                                                                                                    

Destiny Ashland - EARTH!

Wear Orange was inspired by friends of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago high school student killed by gunfire, who decided to honor her life by wearing orange – the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others. On June 2, 2015, what would have been Hadiya’s 18th birthday, more than 200 organizations and influencers asked people nationwide to join them by wearing orange to honor her life, the lives of the more than 90 Americans killed by gun violence and the hundreds more who are injured every day. President Obama, Julianne Moore, Russell Simmons, Sarah Silverman, the New York Mets, MTV, Cosmopolitan, Motown Records, Michael J. Fox, Questlove and Katie Couric are just a few of those who answered the call last year, helping the #WearOrange message reach more than 220 million people in a single day.                                                                   

Risa Marquez - WIND!  

n the months since the launch of Wear Orange and the first-ever National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 2, 2015, the effort has reached millions of Americans. On December 14, 2015, as part of the commemoration of the three-year mark since the Sandy Hook shooting and in response to the San Bernardino shooting, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, hosted “Orange Walks” to help amplify the gun safety movement. The Orange Walks, which took place in over 100 cities nationwide, were the biggest offline event in the organization to date. Additionally, orange carpets replaced the traditional red carpet at Spike Lee’s New York City premiere of Chi-Raq and at the Sundance Film Festival’s debut of Katie Couric’s documentary Under the Gun.                                                                                                                                                                Egypt A. Xaris - FIRE!                                                       

 Voices of Orange Competition: Wear Orange is partnering with Street-Level Youth Media to sponsor the first-ever “Voices of Orange” talent competition. Wear Orange was created by Chicago teens who were determined to make themselves heard. Now, the Wear Orange coalition is offering Chicago youth ages 15 to 22 another opportunity to lift their voices and take the stage with rap, song or spoken-word poetry. Entries will be accepted through April 4, 2016. Special consideration will be given to submissions about peace, nonviolence or reducing gun violence. The winner will receive $3,000 and have his or her work heard by “Voices of Orange” celebrity judges Andra Day, Malik Yusef and Andrew Bird. The winner will get the opportunity to perform for the crowd, which will include record label executives, at Chicago’s Party for Peace on National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 2, 2016. More information about the competition and entry requirements is available at VoicesOfOrange.org.                                                                        “What started as a ripple of hope at a high school on the South Side of Chicago has quickly grown into a national movement,” said Jason Rzepka, director of cultural engagement at Everytown for Gun Safety, a Wear Orange partner organization. “The early success of Wear Orange is a testament to the brilliance of the young people who started it, but also a very public demonstration of the millions of Americans who believe there’s more we all can do to save lives from gun violence. As the campaign multiplies in its second year, many more people will have the opportunity to get involved with the scores of Wear Orange partners who do the hard work of saving lives every day.”                                                                                                               

WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO: 

1) Wear Orange on Thursday, June 2nd!!

2) Share with your networks on social media: take a picture while wearing orange and post using the hashtag #WearingOrange 

3) Visit the partner campaign site for additional information: http://bit.ly/1sIGnyJ

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• Send to friend

           

                                                                   

MAY IS PREECLAMPSIA AWARENESS MONTH

pre·e·clamp·si·a

ˌprēəˈklampsēə/

noun

1. a condition in pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure, sometimes with fluid retention and proteinuria.

What Is Preeclampsia?

Formerly called toxemia, preeclampsia is a condition that pregnant women develop. It is marked by high blood pressure in women who have previously not experienced high blood pressure before. Preeclamptic women will have a high level of protein in their urine and often also have swelling in the feet, legs, and hands. This condition usually appears late in pregnancy, generally after the 20 week mark, although it can occur earlier.

If undiagnosed, preeclampsia can lead to eclampsia, a serious condition that can put you and your baby at risk, and in rare cases, cause death. Women with preeclampsia who have seizures are considered to have eclampsia.

There's no way to cure preeclampsia, and that can be a scary prospect for moms-to-be. But you can help protect yourself by learning the symptoms of preeclampsia and by seeing your doctor for regular prenatal care. When preeclampsia is caught early, it's easier to manage.

What Causes Preeclampsia?

The exact causes of preeclampsia and eclampsia -- a result of a placenta that doesn't function properly -- are not known, although some researchers suspect poor nutrition or high body fat are possible causes. Insufficient blood flow to the uterus could be associated. Genetics plays a role, as well.

Who Is at Risk for Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is most often seen in first-time pregnancies, in pregnantteens, and in women over 40. While it is defined as occurring in women have never had high blood pressure before, other risk factors include:

• A history of high blood pressure prior to pregnancy
• A history of preeclampsia
• Having a mother or sister who had preeclampsia
• A history of obesity
• Carrying more than one baby
• History of diabetes, kidney disease, lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis. 

   

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Preeclampsia?

In addition to swelling, protein in the urine, and high blood pressure,preeclampsia symptoms can include:

• Rapid weight gain caused by a significant increase in bodily fluid
• Abdominal pain
• Severe headaches
• Change in reflexes
• Reduced urine or no urine output
• Dizziness
• Excessive vomiting and nausea
• Vision changes

You should seek care right away if you have:

• Sudden and new swelling in your face, hands, and eyes (some feet and ankle swelling is normal during pregnancy.)
• Blood pressure greater than 140/90.
• Sudden weight gain over 1 or 2 days
• Abdominal pain, especially in the upper right side
• Severe headaches
• A decrease in urine
• Blurry vision, flashing lights, and floaters

You can also have preeclampsia and not have any symptoms. That's why it's so important to see your doctor for regular blood pressure checks and urine tests.                                     

How Can Preeclampsia Affect My Baby and Me?

Preeclampsia can prevent the placenta from receiving enoughblood, which can cause your baby to be born very small. It is also one of the leading causes of premature births, and the complications that can follow, including learning disabilities, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, hearing and vision problems.

In moms-to-be, preeclampsia can cause rare but serious complications that include:

• Stroke
• Seizure
• Water in the lungs
• Heart failure
• Reversible blindness
• Bleeding from the liver
• Bleeding after you've given birth

Preeclampsia can also cause the placenta to suddenly separate from the uterus, which is called placental abruption. This can cause stillbirth.

How Can I Prevent Preeclampsia and Eclampsia?

Preeclampsia is a potentially dangerous condition in which a pregnantwoman develops high blood pressure -- or her hypertensionworsens -- threatening the health of her unborn child and herself. Preeclampsia, which may develop into eclampsia, may interfere with the placenta's ability to deliver oxygen and nutrition to the fetus. Your baby may be born weighing less than normal, may have other health problems, and may need to be delivered early.

Because no one knows what causes preeclampsia, it is very difficult to know how to prevent it. However, aspirin has been shown to have a protective effect in women with risk factors for preeclampsia. If you have significant risk factors and a history of preeclampsia, your health care provider may recommend that you take a low dose of aspirin daily.

What Is the Treatment for Preeclampsia and Eclampsia?

The only cure for preeclampsia and eclampsia is to deliver your baby. Your doctor will talk with you about when to deliver based on how far along your baby is, how well your baby is doing in your womb, and the severity of your preeclampsia.

If your baby has developed enough, usually by 37 weeks or later, your doctor may want to induce labor or perform a cesarean section. This is will keep preeclampsia from getting worse.

If your baby is not close to term, you and your doctor may be able to treat preeclampsia until your baby has developed enough to be safely delivered. The closer the birth is to your due date, the better for your baby.

If you have mild preeclampsia - also known as preclampsia with and without severe features, your doctor may prescribe:

• Bed rest either at home or in the hospital; you'll be asked to rest mostly on your left side.
• Careful observation with a fetal heart rate monitor and frequent ultrasounds
• Medicines to lower your blood pressure
• Blood and urine tests

Your doctor also may recommend that you stay in the hospital for closer monitoring. In the hospital you may be given:

• Medicine to help prevent seizures, lower your blood pressure, and prevent other problems
• Steroid injections to help your baby's lungs develop more quickly

Other treatments include:

• Magnesium can be injected into the veins to prevent eclampsia-related seizures
• Hydralazine or another antihypertensive drug to manage severe blood pressure elevations
• Monitoring fluid intake and urine output.   For more information about Preeclampsia and Eclampsia: http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/preeclampsia-eclampsia                                                                              

                                                                                           

GLOBAL YOUTH TRAFFIC SAFETY MONTH – A FOCUS ON SAVING TEEN LIVES

May is Global Youth Traffic Safety Month, a time where communities come together to bring more awareness to safety issues impacting teens on the road. GYTSM, which began as National Youth Traffic Safety Month, was expanded to support the United Nations’ 2007 Global Road Safety Week, because teen driving crashes are a worldwide safety problem, requiring global solutions.

Motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of death in the United States for 15- to 20-year olds. Nearly 1,700 young drivers died and 177,000 more were injured in motor vehicles crashes in 2013.

And, if that data weren’t dramatic enough, consider this: while drivers age 16–24 make up only 6 percent of the total number of licensed drivers, they are involved in 9 percent of all fatal crashes and 13 percent of all crashes.

Clearly, all of us – government, youth organizations, communities, parents, and individual citizens – must work harder to protect our youth. And GYTSM is the perfect time to refocus our efforts!

Doing our part, the NTSB will join the National Organizations for Youth Safety; Students Against Destructive Decisions; the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America; and students atFreedom High School in Virginia to bring the message of teen safe driving to their school and community. We will share best practices and lessons learned from the crashes we have seen. We will be using a live satellite feed and a Twitter chat to interact with students across the country to learn how they are promoting safe driving behaviors. The event will also feature special guest speaker Fletcher Cleaves, who was paralyzed in a distracted driving accident.

If you have a teen driver in your family, are close to teen drivers in your community, or simply want to know how to help prevent teen driver crashes, we encourage you to join us May 2 at 1:00 p.m. EST via Twitter @NTSB or follow the conversation by searching the hashtags #1goodchoice and #TrafficSafeYouth.

Young drivers are facing a public health crisis – death and injury in motor vehicle crashes. Parents and communities must work together to educate young drivers about good driving habits and increase their awareness about the dangers on the roadways.

For more information on this event, contact Stephanie Shaw at stephanie.shaw@ntsb.gov.

National Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month

Happy National Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month, although those that suffer from Asthma and/or Allergies knows that happy is not what you would describe it as. 

I was born with Asthma but did not develop heavy allergies until I was in my teens when I had a horrible allergy episode. It was not fun and has not been fun ever since. Suffering from Asthma is hard enough but when you have a double dose (Asthma & Allergies), life is down right miserable especially during allergy season. Unfortunately I passed that burden onto my son is also suffers from both. The only upside in that is, because I go through it, I can help him through it.. Let's first discuss Asthma...

There is no cure for asthma and allergies, and many deaths are preventable with proper treatment and care. Ten people a day die from asthma. Asthma affects 24 million Americans. And 6.3 million children under the age of 18 suffer from asthma. 

Asthma Symptoms

Asthma symptoms are different for everyone and depend on the severity of the disease. Below are a few of the most common symptoms of asthma:

• Coughing, especially at night or when exercising
• Wheezing – a squeaky or whistling sound when you breathe
• Trouble breathing
• A tight feeling in the chest

Sometimes symptoms can be mild, whereas other times they can be serious enough to cause you to have to stop what you are doing. In very severe cases, asthma symptoms can be life threatening. During severe asthma attacks, the airways can narrow so much that not enough oxygen can get into the blood traveling to vital organs.

For me, at times I would get the coughing and most times I would get the tight feeling in my chest and back. Over the years I have learned how my body work and knows when it is time for a treatment or my Asthma pump.

Physical activity can trigger symptoms in most people with asthma. Symptoms may occur either during or right after being active. However, regular physical activity is important for your health. Many doctors recommend that most people, including people with asthma, get at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week. If asthma is under control, exercise should not be a problem. If you or your child experience asthma symptoms when participating in physical activity, you should work with your doctor to adjust your asthma treatment program.

Regardless of the severity of your asthma, it's important to remember that asthma inflammation is always present, whether you or your child is experiencing symptoms or not.

Environmental Asthma Triggers

• Air pollution
• Dust mites
• Mold (indoor and outdoor)
• Animal dander, saliva and urine
• Cockroach allergen
• Smoke from tobacco or burning wood or grass

Seasonal Asthma Triggers

• Tree, grass and weed pollen
• Extreme changes in air temperature
• Ozone alert days, which occur when temperatures pass 90 degrees and winds are less than 10 miles per hour
• 
  

Airway inflammation can cause people with asthma to have persistent symptoms of coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. They may also experience a flare-up or asthma "attack."

While asthma is commonly known to affect the large airways, many recent asthma studies have shown how inflammation of the small airways contributes to asthma symptoms too. If a long-term control medicine does not reach or treat both the large and small airways, underlying chronic inflammation may persist.

There are many irritants in the air, like bacteria, pollen and dust. People with asthma can be more sensitive to these irritants, or triggers, and their immune systems can overreact by releasing different cells and chemicals into the airways causing inflammation.

There are different ways to control Asthma and the above picture tells the different ways. Also be in mind that if you are asthmatic and get a bad cold it is best to NOT take over the counters drugs for colds because it does not help only hinders your health. I learned that the hard way. Finally a doctor informed me that the best medication is the asthma breathing treatment because it breaks down the mucous and opens up your airways. Try it next time, you will see it works wonders.

They go hand in hand.

Allergies are one of the most common chronic diseases. A chronic disease lasts a long time or occurs often. An allergy occurs when the body’s immune system sees a substance as harmful and overreacts to it. The substances that cause allergic reactions are allergens. When someone has allergies, their immune system makes an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE). These antibodies respond to allergens. The symptoms that result are an allergic reaction.

• 38 percent of adults with seasonal allergies felt that their symptoms were becoming more severe.
• Almost three out of four (74%) allergy sufferers had an idea what over-the-counter treatment options were available, but many didn't know what prescriptions were available (55%), what their allergy triggers were (37%), or how to help their allergy symptoms (36%).
• Only 47% of adults surveyed visited a doctor for advice or got a prescription for an allergy treatment from a doctor before allergy season.
• A large majority of parents of children with seasonal allergies (nearly nine-in-ten parents) worried about a severe allergy season more than their child's report card.

What Are the Types of Allergens?

• Drug (medicine)
• Food
• Insects that sting (bee, wasp, fire ant); bite (mosquito, tick); or are household pests (cockroach and dust mite)
• Latex
• Mold
• Pet (dog or cat urine, saliva and dander)
• Pollen

Good allergy treatment is based on your medical history and the severity of your symptoms. It can include three different treatment strategies: avoidance of allergens, medication options and/or immunotherapy (a treatment to train your immune system not to overreact).

The best way to prevent an allergic reaction is to avoid your allergens. It sounds so easy, but you can’t always avoid them. For example, it’s not possible to avoid all outdoor activities if you’re allergic to bees and wasps. But there are steps you can take to reduce your chances of being stung and you can carry the medicine you will need if you are stung. It is important to prepare and have an allergy action plan.

In closing, each year if you suffer from Asthma or Allergies or both please be sure to pay attention to your symptoms and your body and take care of you. Both can be very much life threatening. 

~ Destiny Ashland

Big Sister On Point

Information obtained from - http://www.getsmartaboutasthma.com/

http://www.allergiesarentfunny.com/

and http://www.aafa.org/