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Selecting Frozen Fruits and Vegetables: Dr. Galati Explains

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Dr. Galati in this video Blog discusses the proper selection of frozen vegetables and frozen fruits.

Click here to visit the blog.

29-Jan-12 12:00 PM

BeachBody 10-Minute Trainer

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Look at Dr. Galati's video review of a new DVD based home work-out program called the 10-Minute Trainer.

22-Jan-12 2:00 PM

Breakfast Tips by Dan Campolieta

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Dan Campolieta explains in this video the benefits of stating the day with a nutritious breakfast.

22-Jan-12 2:00 PM

Understanding Delirium: Malaz Boustani, M.D.

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

This week, Dr. Malaz Boustani from Indiana University will be joining Dr. Joe Galati to discuss recent advances in the understanding and management of delirium.

At least seven million hospitalized Americans suffer from delirium each year, however the condition goes unrecognized in more than 60 percent of patients. Even if diagnosed, there is no effective way to treat the condition, which is a growing concern to medical professionals

Delirium is a state of confusion in which the individual has undergone a sudden alteration of mental status. Delirium is not dementia, but individuals with dementia are more susceptible to developing delirium during hospitalization than individuals without dementia.

Many drugs frequently prescribed to older adults for a variety of common medical conditions including allergies, hypertension, asthma and cardiovascular disease appear to negatively affect the aging brain causing delirium.

"Having delirium prolongs the length of a hospital stay, increases the risk of post-hospitalization transfer to a nursing home, doubles the risk of death, and increases the vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease. We as a scientific community need to commit our research effort to protect the brains of older adults from the burden of delirium and set a goal of reducing the delirium burden by half within the next two decades," said Dr. Malaz Boustani, Regenstrief Institute investigator and IU School of Medicine associate professor of medicine.

Get more information on delirium here:

NY Times: Preventing Delirium

Delirium: PubMed Health

Delirium: Mayo Clinic

Moving to Hospital Isolation increases Delirium

8-Jan-12 9:00 AM

Joseph Rogers, M.D. Duke University Cardiologist: Heart Health Christmas

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

With the Christmas Season upon us, Dr. Joseph Rogers from Duke University will be joining Dr. Joe Galati this weekend to discuss ways to keep yopur heart healthy during this season. With all of the opportunities to eat and drink to excess, Dr. Rogers and Galati will set you straight.

These select links will provide additional help for everyone. Look at them and share them with your friends and family.

Seasonal Heart Healthy Foods

11-Dec-11 6:00 PM

Cari Shoemate and Carrie Barnhart: Bombshell Bootcamp Houston

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:00:00 GMT

The obesity epidemic in America is out of control. More adults than ever meet the criteria for obesity, and we are now finding that our children are growing into an obese lifestyle similar to their parents. Obesity is related to a number of factors which include poor dietary choices with the intake of foods high in fat, salt, and sugar, as well as a lack of vigorous physical activity. We are at a point now in our country, where the cost of dealing with obesity related medical conditions is enough to bankrupt our healthcare system. The health care costs associated with the management and treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, and the orthopedic problems related to

obesity are staggering. Every week, we stressed the importance of developing good dietary habits as well as the need to increase our physical activity.

This week, Dr. Galati he will be joined by Cari Shoemake and Carrie Barnhart who are experts in the field of physical training. They both run Bombshell Bootcamp, located in Houston Texas. They will discuss on the program various strategies to increase your physical activity through a variety of routine. Over the past decade, there had been more choices for individuals to participate in some form of regular physical activity with a numerous health club and workout facilities that seemed to be on every street corner. Personal trainer's, once thought of for only the wealthy, is now much more common place. At home workout routine found on the Internet or on DVD's, are equally popular.

4-Dec-11 4:00 PM

Irving Fishman, M.D. Discusses Current Urology Issues in Men and Women

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Irving Fishman, M.D., a Urologist in the Texas Medical Center, will be joining Dr. Galati tonight to discuss a wide range of topics related to the urologic system. Within this surgical speciality, conditions such as prostate cancer, male infertility, urinary track stones, urinary incontinence, pelvic outlet relaxation disorders, erectile dysfunction, and cancer of the bladder and kidney are just a few of the conditions urologists and Dr. Fishman treat.

Topics of interest and further information can be obtained from the following links.

Benign Prostatic Hypertplasia

Erectile Dysfunction

Incontinence

Prostate Cancer (overview American Cancer Society)

Prostatitis

Cystoscopy

30-Oct-11 10:00 AM

What to Know About Plastic Surgery: Neal R. Reisman, M.D., J.D.

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This week, Dr. Neal Reisman will be joining Dr. Galati, to discuss plastic surgery. Dr. Reisman is a well know plastic surgeon in Houston. He is the Chief of Plastic Surgery at St. Luke's Hospital, Houston.

Dr. Reisman will discuss with Dr. Galati a wide range of topics related to plastic surgery, including recent trends in plastic surgery, new surgical techniques, safety, and how to be a better consumer of plastic surgery related care.

Links of interest are posted below.

Plastic Surgery Statistics

Five Top Procedures

National Trends of Plastic Surgery

Breast Implants: FDA

28-Aug-11 4:00 PM

Jim Murphy, Golf Professional: Golf as Exercise

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Tonight, J im Murphy, one of Golf Magazines Top 100 Instructors, will be joining Dr. Galati in a discussion of why golf should be considered to be part of your regular exercise routine. While not always considered exercise in the traditional sense, golf is a tremendously physical game, and can be part of a regular exercise program.

Jim has had the fortune of being around the greatest instructors in the game from the first time he touched a golf club. Growing up in Chicago Illinois his father was a member of Exmoor Country Club where Jim Hardy was the Head Golf Professional and introduced Jim to the game. Jim learned a tremendous amount from Hardy and another junior member at Exmoor Hank Haney, who quickly became a good friends and mentors to him. Hardy and Haney were involved with John Jacobs, the great teacher from England, and Murphy was very fortunate to watch Jacobs fix ball flighter faster than anyone he had ever seen.

With these influences on his game and his life Jim’s game quickly improved to a point where he was competitive on the junior and amateur levels.

Golf links to share are posted below.

5 Health Benefits of Golf

Walking the Course

Health Benefits

Golf and Health

For more on Jim Murphy:

Facebook

Twitter

Jim Murphy Golf

28-Aug-11 4:00 PM

Grandma Galati: Feeding Your Kids Breakfast Before School

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT

No stranger to Your Health First, my mother will be joining us tonight to discuss her lifelong passion of feeding her family. The perfect Italian Grandmother, she will share with our listeners the tips to see that your children are well fed as the leave the house for school each morning. The medical research has shown over the past 25 years that well fed children in the morning do better is school, have better behavior, and have better control of their weight. Breakfast is the King of all meals.

Select web sites are listed below. With all topics related to nutrition, for both children and adults, there must be planning of the meals, so that you are not rushing last second to find healthy foods. Avoid all temptation to serve your

children sweet sugary foods, that seem convenient to prepare. The vast majority of breakfast cereals and other foods are high in fat, salt and sugar. As parents, it is your obligation to feed your children a nutritious breakfast.

Breakfast Ideas

Flexible Breakfast Ideas

9 Breakfast Ideas

Smart Breakfast Recommendations

Teen Nutrition

Quick Breakfast Ideas

Food Network: Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast Sandwich

Quaker Oats: Old Fashion

21-Aug-11 3:00 PM

Grandma Galati: Feeding Your Kids Breakfast Before School

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Breakfast Ideas

Flexible Breakfast Ideas

9 Breakfast Ideas

Smart Breakfast Recommendations

Teen Nutrition

Quick Breakfast Ideas

Food Network: Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast Sandwich

Quaker Oats: Old Fashion

21-Aug-11 3:00 PM

Teen Drug Use: Back to School Primer

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Becky Vance with the Partnership for a Drug Free America will be joining Dr. Galati this week to talk about drug abuse and prevention in teens. As the new school year is starting this week, the possibility of drug exposure and pressure to use increases for school age children. Having parents understand the climate in schools, and how to talk with their children, is a first step in battling drug abuse.

Links below are valuable and should be shared with your teen.

Prevent Drug Use

Intervene

Does Your Teen Have a Drug or Alcohol Problem?

Teen Prescription Drug Abuse

Understanding Teens

13-Aug-11 7:00 PM

Judith J. Prochaska, Ph.D.: Smoking and Mental Illness

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Dr. Judith Prochaska will be joining Dr. Galati this evening on Your Health First to discuss her recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, titled "Smoking and Mental Illness-Breaking the Link", as well as rest of her research on smoking and its impact on health and wellness.

Dr. Prochaska is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been published widely on the topic of smoking.

An excerpt from the article is posted below:

Five prevailing myths have contributed to continuing tobacco use among people with mental illness. The first is that tobacco is necessary self-medication for the mentally ill. The tobacco industry has fostered this belief by funding research and presentations on the self-medication hypothesis, supporting opposition to the JCAHO smoking ban, publishing articles in the lay press, and marketing cigarettes to people with mental illness.

Nicotine is a powerful reinforcing drug that transiently enhances concentration and attention, regardless of the smoker’s mental health status. But it has proved ineffective as an adjunctive treatment for mental disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit disorder), possibly because of the rapid decrease in drug response with repeated exposure. The reality is that tobacco is another problem, not a solution.

Myth number two is that people with mental illness are not interested in quitting smoking. Research argues otherwise: studies involving patients recruited from outpatient and inpatient psychiatric settings suggest that they are about as likely as the general population to want to quit smoking.1 In the United States, 20 to 25% of smokers report that they intend to quit smoking in the next 30 days, and another 40% say they intend to do so in the next 6 months. Furthermore, among smokers with mental illness, readiness to quit appears to be unrelated to the psychiatric diagnosis, the severity of symptoms, or the coexistence of substance use.

The third myth is that mentally ill people cannot quit smoking. Although treating tobacco dependence is challenging, several randomized treatment trials and systematic reviews involving smokers with mental illness have documented that success is possible. With a stepped-care intervention tailored to depressed smokers’ readiness to quit, a 25% abstinence rate at 18-month follow-up was achieved — a rate significantly higher than that in the group that received usual care (advice to quit and referrals for help doing so) and similar to cessation rates in the general population. A cessation intervention integrated into treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) doubled patients’ odds of quitting. And a meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials involving smokers with schizophrenia revealed a nearly threefold increase in abstinence rates 6 months after treatment among those who used bupropion.

Fourth, many people believe that quitting smoking interferes with recovery from mental illness, eliminating a coping strategy and leading to decompensation in mental health functioning. Five randomized tobacco-treatment trials in patients concurrently receiving mental health treatment have found that smoking cessation did not exacerbate depression or PTSD symptoms or lead to psychiatric hospitalization or increased use of alcohol or illicit drugs.

Finally, some argue that smoking, which is perceived as having distal effects, is the lowest-priority concern for patients with acute psychiatric symptoms. Yet people with psychiatric disorders are far more likely to die from tobacco-related diseases than from mental illness. Smokers know tobacco use has deadly consequences and expect health care professionals to intervene. Indeed, raising the issue of tobacco use with patients enhances the rapport between patients and clinicians.

24-Jul-11 11:00 AM

Melinda Beck/Wall Street Journal: How Real is that Pain?

Joseph Galati, M.D. - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Melinda Beck will join Dr. Galati this week to discuss her most recent Wall Street Journal article discussing pain this is discussed in the doctors office. Her column, Health Journal, published this article on July 5, 2011.

A patient walks into the examining room and says, "Doctor, my back hurts and nothing works—except my Percocet." Now, the physician must decide: Is this pain for real?

Despite decades of research, doctors have few tools to measure pain objectively. Generally, they ask patients to rate it themselves from one to 10, or point to the cartoon face on the wall chart whose expression best matches how they feel.

"We don't have a pain-o-meter," says Joel Saper, director of the Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, which draws about 10,000 patients a year, including some of the nation's toughest migraine cases.

Dr. Saper estimates that 15% to 20% of them are faking—or at least, aren't as incapacitated as they say. Some are dependent on painkillers or seeking to resell them, he says. Some want a doctor to certify that they'll never be able to work again and deserve disability payments. Some, he thinks, don't really want to get well because they subconsciously find power in their pain.

Even when pain is real, it's highly subjective. "Two people can have the same nerve compression, but one guy will be bedridden and the other guy will be saying, 'Nah, I'm fine,' " says David Kloth, an anesthesiologist and past president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

Evaluating patients' pain is posing a greater dilemma than ever for doctors, given two colliding health-care trends.

10-Jul-11 7:00 AM

Jen Murphy/Wall Street Journal: Nordic Walking

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Jen Murphy with the Wall Street Journal, who writes the "What's Your Workout" column for the WSJ, has produced yet another great topic to read and consider-Nordic Walking. This workout provides a full-body exercise, burning more calories than walking, and less impact on the joints. The article in its entirety can be read here.

One of the most effective activities for burning calories and building cardio-vascular fitness is cross-country skiing because both large upper and lower body muscles are fully engaged. Imagine learning a technique, for all fitness levels, where you can achieve similar benefits year round, without snow, and without increased perceived exertion! Nordic Walking is regular walking made up to 40% more effective by the use of specifically designed hand-held Nordic Walker poles.

With the correct Nordic Walker technique, you can:

Benefits of Nordic Walking vs regular walking:

Burns up to 40% more calories

Reaches the same intensity of running without the high impact and without perceived exertion

Strengthen your upper body: stomach, chest, back and arms

Reduce the stress on the joints

Relieves neck and shoulder pain

Improves neck and chest mobility

Poles provides balance and stability

Increases safety of walking, preventing falling

Enhances mood

More Fun!

10-Jul-11 7:00 AM

My Plate: New Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Recently, the US government replaced the familiar Food Pyramid with a new visual concept called "My Plate". The goal was to replace the often times difficult to understand food pyramid with a new concept called "My Plate". This week, Amy Stivers, a nutritionist from The Methodist Hospital, and Chuck Garcia will join Dr. Galati in a discussion of the new dietary guidelines.

Links of interest and to share are posted below.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines (released to the public Jan 2011) are what lead to the new “choose my plate icon”. Below is the link to the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (it is updated every 5 yrs).

Summary of the Guidelines

The 10 tips series is new and is useful, simply stated nutrition tips for the general public.

12-Jun-11 12:00 PM

Free MRI: Screen for Teen Cardiac Problems

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 22 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Tonight on Your Health First, Dr. Galati with talk with Dr. Paolo Angelini, a cardiologist with Leachman Cardiology, and the Texas Heart Institute.

Dr. Angelini is conducting a study, looking at sudden cardiac death in young children. In most cases, these children have a coronary artery anomaly, a condition they may have been born with. Routing EKG, x-ray, or echo cardiograms cannot detect these findings. MRI of the heart is the best way to detect problems, and intervene early.

Through the Texas Heart Institute, free MRI's of the heart can be performed with participation in this research study. This is a non-invase exam, with no contrast or IV's needed.

For more information, contact Dr. Angelini at 713-790-9401.

22-May-11 5:00 PM

Alan B Astrow, M.D.: Palliative Care Information Act in Real Life

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This week, Dr. Alan B. Astrow, from Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, will be joining Dr. Joe Galati to discuss a recent New England Journal of Medicine article Dr. Astrow had published this past week. As a Medical Onclolgist, and Medical Director of Hematology and Oncology at Maimonides Medical Center, he is an expert in end of life issues and Palliative Care.

Dr. Astrow will review the recent NEJM article, and provide insight to our listeners on the questions to ask their physicians when you or a loved one is faced with a terminal medical condition.

The full article can be read here.

22-May-11 4:00 PM

Overeating: External Cues that Make Us Eat Too Much

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:00:00 GMT

This Sunday, Dr. Galati will be joined by Chuck Garcia, as regular contributer to Your Health First, and discuss a recent article on the external cues that make us overeat. The article can be read and downloaded here.

15-May-11 12:00 PM

Dan Campolieta: Exercise and Smart Food Choices

Joseph Galati - noemail@yourhealthfirst.com — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:00:00 GMT

This Sunday evening, Dr. Galati will talk with Dan Campolieta, jazz musician and composer by day, and exercise and health enthusiast when he's not making music.

Over the past few years, Dan has become motivated to engage himself and others in exercise and fitness. He has become involved with a company called Beachbody, where he is a coach for their exercise programs, such as Insanity and P90X.

Dan has been able to influence his peers, including the genX and the Y generations (born after 1981), leading by example with regard to exercise and nutrition. Research clearly indicated that the current 20 year olds are at an increased risk of obesity related medical complications, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Diseases once seen only in the elderly, are now seen at an increasing rate in those 40 years younger. There is a need, more than ever, to educate the youth on increasing physical activity, and controlling their dietary intake with better selection of foods.

Links of interest are posted below:

Obesity Statistics: CDC

Diabetes Trends

Exercise and Obesity

15-May-11 12:00 PM