Health and Wellness 37

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Ways to Care For Your EYES as You Age

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior

As you age, you'll notice several parts of your body change. You may find that you're achy or can't move as fast as you used to. One area of your health you may not think about changing as you age is your eyesight.

"Vision changes are a natural part of aging," said optometrist Dr. Inna Lazar. "But so many Americans don't get their eyes regularly examined and aren't proactive about their eye health. There are also many simple fixes for aging eyes, including affordable reading glasses and innovative eyewear solutions."

If you want to take care of your sight but don't know where to start, check out these six tips for protecting your eyes as you age.

1. Review your family eye health history

Just like you inherit your eye color from your parents, they may pass down eye diseases and conditions that develop as you age. Talk with your family about their eye health history to determine if you're at higher risk for developing an eye disease or condition. Make sure to let your primary care physician and optometrist know about any genetic eye conditions so you can be proactive about diagnosis and care.

2. Notice changes to your vision

Our eyes change slowly as we age, so you might not notice eye issues immediately. One common eye condition you'll likely develop as you age is presbyopia, the gradual loss of your ability to focus on nearby objects. A telling sign of this condition is holding books, newspapers, and other reading materials farther away so you can read them. While

annoying, this eye problem isn't serious and can often be managed with reading glasses or bifocal glasses.

If you're in the market for a pair of readers, consider Foster Grant. Foster Grant Pop of Power Bifocal Style Readers is an excellent solution to allow you to experience clear vision up close and far away, without having to remove your glasses. The bottom segment of each lens is magnified for reading while the rest has no magnification, and the entire lens helps filter potentially harmful blue light from digital devices and other light sources. The collection consists of eight styles with seven diopters ranging from +1.25 - +3.00.

3. Protect your sight by eating right

Having a healthy, balanced diet isn't just good for your waistline. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, nutrition can help protect your eyesight. Focus on eating eye-healthy foods like orange-colored vegetables and fruits like carrots, cold-water fish with omega-3 fatty acids, and leafy green vegetables.

4. Get examined

An eye exam can identify potential eye issues in their early stages when they're easiest to treat. According to WebMD, if you don't have existing eye issues and are younger than 40, you should get a routine eye exam every 2 years. As you get older, exams should be more frequent to catch any changes to your sight. If you are experiencing symptoms or have a family history of eye problems, it's a good idea to have a comprehen sive dilated eye exam. This exam can help identify common vision problems as well as glaucoma and other eye diseases.

5. Protect your eyes

When you think of eye protection, you probably imagine safety goggles, eye shields, and sports glasses. But one piece of eye protection you should use regularly is a pair of sunglasses.

According to the American Optometric Association, overexposure to solar radiation over time can increase your risk of cataracts, eye cancer, and macular degeneration. You can protect your eyes by purchasing sunglasses that block 100% of UV-A and UV-B radiation. Pick a stylish pair so you can look good while caring for your eyesight. All eyewear from Foster Grant is 100% UVA/UVB protective.

Just like when you exercise your muscles, your eyes can become fatigued from overuse. If you spend most of your day looking at screens, you may experience eyestrain. To give your eyes a break, look away from your screen every 20 minutes at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Also, consider using blue light reading glasses, like Pop of Power Bifocal Style Blue Light Readers, which block 30% of potentially harmful blue light produced by computers and other artificial and natural sources, including the sun. To learn more, visit www.FosterGrant.com.

Be proactive and protect your eyes. Using these six tips, you can give your sight the best chance of staying healthy as you age.

Source: BPT

6. Rest your eyes

1. Review your family eye health history

2. Notice changes to your vision

4. Get examined

3. Protect your sight by eating right

5. Protect your eyes

6. Rest your eyes

By d-mars.com News Provider

According to a new survey, American nurses are overwhelmed by job demands, a long-brewing situation only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the majority of nurses continue to be dedicated to the care of patients, many are considering leaving the profession at a time when staff shortages are part of the problem. But there’s hope, according to industry experts, who say that understanding these challenges can lead to meaningful and necessary reforms.

The 2022 national survey, “The Future of Nursing: A Profession in Crisis,” of nurses and student nurses, was conducted by Cross Country, a market-leading tech-enabled workforce solutions platform and advisory firm, in partnership with Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing.

Overall, the study revealed that nurses remain passionate about patient care, with 66% citing helping people through meaningful work as the main driver for staying in the field. Nevertheless, ongoing challenges have created undue burdens for nurses, with pay rates/compensation (86%), staff shortages (53%), stress (39%), and burnout (35%) cited as top career dissatisfiers.

This frustration has put the industry in crisis: 28% of nurses indicated their desire to leave the profession has increased dramatically since the pandemic, while those who said their desire to stay has dropped from 24% in 2021 to 4% in 2022. This translates to a real potential loss of talent in hospitals, physicians’ offices, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare settings. Of those surveyed, 23% plan to look for a new career in 1-2 years, and 13% plan to retire in 1-5 years.

“We had hoped that as the pandemic eased, nurses would have better balance, mental health, and working

Addressing the Burdens of American Nurses

ongoing examination of pay rates and retention practices; identifying new pathways for education, licensing, and talent development; focusing on flexibility and growth opportunities; and investments toward innovation to strengthen the nursing workforce.

The company continues to invest heavily in technology and digital transformation to support these strategies. Among these initiatives is a new website dedicated to nursing candidates. Found at crosscountry.com, the site aims to help healthcare professionals find and engage with potential job opportunities more effectively.

Identifying new pathways for nursing education is also a critical stepping stone toward reforming the profession and addressing healthcare provider shortages. That’s why the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing offers accredited programs at all levels to prepare and train students, including various tracks for a BSN, Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), PhD and DNP focused on Caring Science. Also offered are a BSN-DNP program with a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner concentration and post-graduate dermatology and telehealth certificate courses, as well as other concentrations that intersect innovation and technology.

“Nursing is the greatest profession in the world. The experience you will get is priceless,” said one of the survey respondents. “Make sure you’re getting into nursing for the right reasons because I love coming to work and look forward to caring for patients every day. No two patients are alike, so every day in nursing is like a new experience and adventure. And you make the difference.”

conditions, but we are not there and as a result, nurses are leaving the profession in droves,” says John A. Martins, president, and chief executive officer, Cross Country Healthcare. “The time to fix these mounting problems is now.”

To that end, Cross Country is deploying several strategies to transform the nursing profession. These include an

To learn more about the challenges facing the nursing industry, visit crosscountry.com/thefuture-of-nursing, where the complete study results, can be found.

Source: StatePoint

Ensuring Every Child in America Has Access To Healthy School Meals

By d-mars.com News Provider

Starting in early 2020, every child in the United States became eligible for school meals at no cost, regardless of family income level -- no forms, no questions asked. That policy, along with other interventions, including increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, Children Program benefits, kept millions of children and families from going hungry during the pandemic. But support for school meals ended this September, putting healthy school meals increasingly out of reach for children who rely on them for nearly half their daily calories and a consistent source of good nutrition.

Amid soaring food prices, rising rates of nutrition and food insecurity, and families having a harder time accessing nutritious foods in their communities, advocates at the American Heart Association say that Congress’s failure to extend healthy school meals is already having profound consequences.

For more than two years, the country has seen food insecurity rates stay relatively stagnant. Pandemic-era assistance helped ensure that already high rates of families struggling to feed their kids did not worsen. However, with these policies ending and food costs skyrocketing, early data from 2022

suggest that food insecurity is quickly on the rise. Food insecurity disproportionately affects households with children (14.8%), Hispanic households (17%), Black households (21%), and households living at or below the federal poverty line (35%). This crisis also comes at a time when households across America are facing delayed health care, barriers to affordable housing, and a general financial squeeze caused by rising prices of consumer goods.

“Providing healthy school meals for students at no charge is a recipe for success that reduces food insecurity, improves children’s diets and academic performance, generates critical revenue for schools, and decreases stigma,” according to Nancy Brown, CEO, American Heart Association.

Kids who eat well perform better in school. However, access to food is just part of the issue. The American Heart Association points out that with pre-pandemic numbers of more than 15 million school breakfasts and 30 million school lunches served every day, what children put on their plates has a significant impact on their overall health and well-being.

“Federal programs including SNAP and the Summer Food Service program have been integral to addressing hunger, but many policies focus on improving access to sufficient quantities of food,” says Brown. “While this goal is critically important, especially in mitigating the effects of poverty, we must modernize these policies and programs to also focus on food quality, so people have access to enough nutritious food.”

There are opportunities for the federal government to change course and ensure that every child across the country has access to free, nutritious foods at school. The White House recently released a national strategy to end nutrition and food insecurity and mitigate the effects of diet-related chronic diseases in the United States by 2030, making the recommendation for healthy school meals for all and strong nutrition standards. Additionally, a key committee in the House of Representatives has passed a child nutrition reauthorization bill that would protect and strengthen nutrition

standards for school meals and help millions of children gain to healthy school among other updates child nutrition Advocates at the Heart Association Senate now needs to give children succeed.

To learn more, yourethecure.org/tqmwpbx.

“Action by the federal government is long overdue. It is a necessity for families and schools to feed children the healthy meals they need for

success.”

Idhini Platform Changing Clinical Trial Participation in BIPOC COMMUNITIES One Study at a Time

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Recent studies have revealed that approximately 5% of Black Americans participate in clinical trials. Unfortunately, that number proves lower in the overall BIPOC community, and an organization called Idhini works to help improve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color participation.

To capture the voice of the BIPOC community and their unique needs, Idhini boasts that it provides access and equitable rewards for participation in health research.

“The main reason is trust,” Gerard Charlot, a principal at Idhini, a national database of BIPOC individuals available to participate in clinical trials, told the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Let It Be Known live morning news show. Officials designed the platform to provide health information and resources and assist in the health and financial outcomes associated with health literacy.

“Our

millions access school meals, updates to programs. the American Association say that the needs to do its part the best chance to more, visit https://act. yourethecure.org/tqmwpbx.

Source: StatePoint

Idhini has partnered with There Goes My Hero, a national registry that recently launched the “Color the Registry” initiative to secure more African American donors to help save lives.

Idhini helps recruit and screen individuals to ensure suitable patients participate in trials. In addition, the platform captures attitudes and sentiments toward research and converts sentiments into analysis and reporting.

A Chicago Sun-Times study revealed that patients — particularly Black and Latino Americans — now look for pharmaceutical companies to act as information brokers. “Across social media channels, podcasts, and other outlets, they want these companies to take three major actions: help distinguish between false and accurate health care information; be realistic and honest about the realities of diseases and treatments and show what goes on behind the scenes at pharma companies,” the study authors wrote.

The authors concluded that people are reachable in a new way, and the newfound awareness of and interest in the makers of drugs and vaccines offers a pathway to learning.

“People want to hear from pharma companies,” the study authors wrote. “They’re listening and learning. They then bring this information with them to their doctors’ appointments.”

“If we are successful, increased access to healthcare and equitable rewards for participation will create positive health and social outcomes, a more diverse healthcare workforce, and higher financial rewards for health organizations.”

Idhini wants to close the gap in health research within the BIPOC community.

Charlot said the organization reduces the cost of acquiring health-related data and insights from Black and minority communities while increasing the lifetime value of each community member’s interaction with medical research.

He said it’s 100% virtually.

“Why not make the community successful,” Charlot stated.

“The main reason there’s a problem is the lack of trust, not just from Black people, but the BIPOC community in general.”

Charlot said that’s the point of Idhini.

“Major pharmaceutical companies use our stuff because it works,” Charlot stated.

“Our approach is not the Gerard way –it’s the right way.

“You have patient-centered research where it’s now all about community research. If you’re not engaging the community, there’s no value.”

Charlot concluded:

“The future of our families is not just about you; it’s about everybody you love. And the reality is that by learning more about it, by having awareness, you empower yourself to be better. You empower your community which makes you feel like you belong, and for yourself to note that you matter.”

Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association

vision is to have medical research reflect the population it serves,” Charlot stated.

Pain Management Options for Youth Sports Injuries

By d-mars.com News Provider

Youth sports are an important part of a child’s social and emotional development and fuel a healthy and active lifestyle. However, sports can result in injuries that may leave players sidelined. As parents, it’s important to be prepared before an injury happens—and that includes being informed about opioid risks.

A child might be prescribed opioids—oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, etc. -- to manage pain after an injury, or following surgery or another procedure to treat their injury. In fact, sports-related injuries are often one of the first times children and teens are exposed to opioids. Opioids have side effects like nausea and dizziness, and can also lead to addiction and dependence. As millions of children face sports-related injuries each year, the risk of opioid exposure increases -- underscoring the need for education and awareness of non-opioid options and a plan for how to talk to providers.

Treating an injury with opioids can lead to misuse. Opioid misuse is 50% higher in kids who participate in high-injury sports than in those who don’t. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 9.7 million people ages 12 and older misused prescription opioids in 2019. Improper disposal of opioids is another factor that can lead to misuse. Almost 90% of patients with leftover opioid pills didn’t dispose of them properly, with many keeping them in their homes and some sharing them with family or friends.

Fortunately, there are safe and effective non-opioid options available for children that can help reduce, or eliminate the need for opioids after surgery. In fact, 94% of surgeons agree that non-opioid options can positively impact recovery and the ability to return to normal function following surgery.

Conversations about pain management should happen long before injury or surgery, and families should have plans in place around injuries and how to navigate opioids and alternative options.

Recently, the National Safety Council and Pacira BioSciences, Inc., which sponsored this article, partnered to launch Connect2Prevent, a program that aims to educate employees and their family members on the importance of preventing opioid misuse. Launching publicly following a pilot program, enrolled participants will receive weekly lessons that provide information, action steps, and ways to connect and communicate with teens, including evidence-based motivational interviewing strategies. The curriculum is focused on identifying opioid misuse, safe storage, and disposal, stigma, talking to providers, refusal skills, harm reduction, and more. Programs like Connect2Prevent and informative discussion guides can help prepare families for these important conversations. To learn more, visit nsc.org.

With fall sports season in full swing, the risk of injury increases. Understanding safe pain management can keep young athletes recovering and staying healthy for years to come.

Source: StatePoint

President Biden Announces Fix To Family Glitch in Obamacare Subsidies

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

With an estimated 5.1 million people falling into the socalled family glitch – primarily children and women – the Biden administration has issued a rule that makes it easier for those with employer-sponsored health plans to get Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The rule, which comes from the Internal Revenue Service, fixes the glitch that prevented family members from receiving Obamacare subsidies if a household member had access to employer-sponsored healthcare coverage that meets specific requirements identified in the law.

Obamacare required that employer plans be affordable for employees. Unfortunately, it didn’t offer that same protection for family members.

“Health care should be a right, not a privilege. But for many Americans caught in the so-called family glitch, the peace of mind that health insurance brings has remained out of reach,” President Joe Biden offered in a statement.

“Because of this glitch, employer-based health insurance has been considered ‘affordable’ if the coverage is affordable for

the employee even if it is not for their family members – making those family members ineligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies even though they need them to afford quality coverage.”

In April, the president announced a proposal to fix what the administration called a regulatory flaw.

Beginning in November, families can sign up to take advantage of the change.

The White House said about 1 million Americans would either gain coverage or see their insurance become more affordable because of the new rule.

“This marks the most significant administrative action since the law was first put into place,” Biden asserted.

“It builds on our progress so far, which has brought the rate of uninsured Americans to a record-low eight percent. My administration will continue working every day to lower costs and expand quality, affordable health coverage to all Americans.”

The Urban Institute estimated that eliminating the family glitch would decrease employer spending by roughly $2 billion annually.

“Changing the family glitch would lower health care premiums for hundreds of thousands of affected families without undermining employer coverage,” researchers

at the Urban Institute found.

“There would be a modest increase in health coverage, but the biggest effect would be to improve affordability. There would be a small increase in federal government spending and a tiny increase in state spending that would be at least partially offset by additional tax revenue.”

Protecting and strengthening implementation of the Affordable Care Act remains key to increasing access to quality, affordable health care,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a statement.

“Today’s action resolves a flaw in prior ACA regulations to bring more affordable coverage to about one million Americans. Our goal is simple: leave no one behind and give everyone the peace of mind that comes with health insurance,” Becerra stated.

He continued:

“Under President Biden’s leadership, our nation’s uninsured rate is at an all-time low, and Affordable Care Act enrollment is at an all-time high. This is not by accident. We are meeting people

where they are to tell them about their healthcare options through unprecedented outreach efforts. And through landmark legislation like the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, we have offered the lowest ACA premium rates in history. Our work to expand coverage and lower healthcare costs for American families never stops.

“Whether you’re part of a family previously affected by this glitch, or an individual buying insurance on the marketplace, the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring you have access to the healthcare you deserve.”

Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)