Author: D. Bents

We love a reason to celebrate at Paragon and today we celebrate Amy! If you are in the clinic, please wish her a happy birthday month!

Whether you have older muscles that take a while to warm up every morning, or have aches from overexertion, we have some tips from Harvard Health to help you get out of bed more easily. Have you considered stretching before you get out of bed? Paragon Orthopedic Center has often reminded you that you have to warm up before stretching, giving you the cold taffy analogy, but here is an example where you don’t have to worry about a warmup. Because you’ve been under the covers, your muscles are already warm. Your only prep work is to flex your joints before you stretch. (Hint: remove the blankets.) Check out this article with six stretches you can do before rising with helpful photos to make sure you have the right body positions. Stretching is a great way to prevent injuries, possibly prevent falls, and a limber body is a healthier body!

Try these stretches before you get out of bed – Harvard Health

The goal of the Paragon Orthopedic Center blog is to inform you, and typically we choose the subject of physical health, specifically bone health, since that’s our specialty. However, since the theme of the week everywhere you look is love, today we focus on that emotion central to this Valentine’s Day week and how it is good for you, both physically and mentally. Time magazine provides five succinct points:

• Love makes you happy.
• Love reduces your stress level.
• Love eases anxiety.
• Love encourages people to take better care of themselves.
• Love helps you live longer.

For more on these five points and the studies that prove them, read here:
5 Ways Love Is Good for Your Mental and Physical Health | Time

You never know when you might be the only one who can save a person who is having a heart attack. It could be a friend, a grandparent, a spouse, or a child, and we want to empower you with the knowledge to be able to help your loved ones. Statistically, heart attacks happen often at home and the quicker blood is circulated, the less tissue death or damage that occurs.

FOR UNTRAINED BYSTANDERS
–ALWAYS call 9-1-1 first. They will help you and summon assistance.
-Give CPR. Push down hard and fast in the center of the chest at a rate of 100 to 120 pushes a minute. Let the chest come back up to its normal position after each push. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends timing your pushes to the beat of the song “Stayin’ Alive.” This method of CPR is called “hands-only” and does not involve breathing into the person’s mouth.

The acronym for trained responders is now CAB: Compressions, Airway, Breathing. Studies found that the time to give breaths was better spent promptly starting compressions for increased survival rates.

Read more here:
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): First aid – Mayo Clinic

Are you aware of your heart health risks? Heart health is something to take seriously, and Paragon Orthopedic Center is making it easy for you. Check out this website with information on the following:

• Control your blood pressure
• Move more
• Stress less
• Eat healthy
• Manage cholesterol
• Manage blood sugar
• Quit smoking

Live to the Beat is an engaging website with very helpful information presented in a motivating format. Show yourself some love and take a few moments:

Live to the Beat | Million Hearts

Are you starting to think about ways to show your love this Valentine’s Day? Here we present some pretty creative ideas, and these ideas will fit in perfectly with any resolutions that aim for a healthier lifestyle in 2023. If you always aim for healthy choices, this will be a must read for you too. Get your creative juices flowing for the loved ones in your life. Don’t forget that hugs can lower stress hormones!
The American Heart Association’s ideas include:
-a dance class
-a couple’s cooking class (look online!)
-consider a small box of dark chocolates instead of the box that won’t fit in the shopping basket.
Get more inspiration here:
Ideas for a safe, healthy Valentine’s Day everyone can love | American Heart Association

“For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”-Simon Wiesenthal

There was an outstanding article recently in the Wall Street Journal describing how the honorable people from Denmark to Greece during WWII stood together against the Nazi push to persecute the Jews. It is an inspiring story of what we humans can do together and make a difference. In Greece, the mayor at the time on the island of Zakynthos in 1943, when told to give the Nazis a list of all the Jews in 24 hours, he followed orders and came up with a list. It listed his own name and the local bishop’s, who were both Greek. The community banded together to hide their Jews and the entire Jewish community was saved on this island, whereas almost all others in Greece perished. The article provides more details of heroic community actions that saved thousands of lives. It is a shared altruistic ethos that we can all learn from in our society that has grown tragically individualistic, with technology that encourages isolation and discourages being there for a neighbor. Paragon Orthopedics Center encourages the good people of Southern Oregon to always be against antisemitism, bigotry, and racism.

Where Good People Stood Up to the Nazis – WSJ

We celebrated birthdays at the Paragon Orthopedic Clinic recently and you just have to love these smiles! If you see Kiah, Andrea, Kelly, or Dr. Ziegler, don’t forget to wish them some fun during their birthday month!

Of all the surgeries in the U.S., seniors account for nearly 40%, and nearly 1 in 7 major surgeries done on older adults results in death within a year of the surgery. These statistics show that the risks to the future health of a senior having surgery should be seriously considered before decisions are made. A study done by the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) looked into this after noting a gap in the research. The study showed 1 in 3 older adults did not return to their baseline functioning six months after surgery. It addresses outcomes of their surgeries and highlights areas of concern particular to this population. This article poses questions and provides insights that will help you or an older person in your life decide if surgery is the best option.

Should Older Seniors Risk Major Surgery? New Research Offers Guidance | Kaiser Health News (khn.org)

Paragon Orthopedic Center often encourages patients to incorporate more exercise into their weekly schedules, but we know that can be a challenge. It can be very hard! While it is widely accepted that it takes an average of 66 days to make a habit, this can vary person to person. Our blog is here to encourage you with information about how to make exercise a habit. Harvard has 10 tips for you:

1. Split up your workout time to fit your day if you can’t do it all at once.
2. Get someone to join you.
3. Do your exercises briskly. Keep that heart rate up!
4. Exercise…then eat. Git ‘er done!
5. Try a pedometer or smart wrist gadget to track your efforts.
6. Turn off media that wastes time…that includes your phone.
7. Turn sit time into fit time by exercising while watching tv.
8. Sign up for a class. The obligation will motivate.
9. Set aside exercise time in your daily schedule.
10. Set goals and reward yourself when you meet them!

Read more here and get moving Southern Oregon!
Make exercise a daily habit – 10 tips | The Nutrition Source | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health