Vol. 31, No. 1
January 10, 2014
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Start Leading a Healthier Lifestyle with Help from Barquist HEATHER MCDOWELL DUONG USAMRMC PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Barquist Health Clinic offers educational group wellness classes every Wednesday from 1:30-2:30 p.m. at their Fort Detrick clinic. Class instructors emphasize arming participants with not only practical tools to help them begin adopting healthier behaviors, but also instilling in them a renewed sense of empowerment. Barquist hosts their wellness classes as part of an initiative to promote the Surgeon General’s Performance Triad. Classes are taught by trained health professionals and focus on pain management, sleep disturbance, coping with chronic illness and general healthy behavior. The healthy behavior class taught on the third Wednesday of each month touches on each component of the Performance Triad -- Sleep, Activity, and Nutrition. At a recent session, psychiatric nurse practitioner and facilitator Clarissa Darr began the class by asking participants which aspects of healthy living they were most interested in, so that she and co-facilitator and registered nurse Capt. Patricia Alvarez could tailor the class to their unique needs. Starting with nutrition, Alvarez instructed the class to plan out meals to ensure they eat small, frequent meals comprising three healthy primary meals and two snacks in between to maintain good nutrition. She referred attendees to USDA’s http://choosemyplate.gov for determining a recommended daily calorie intake, sample menus and recipes, and much more. Alvarez explained that once participants know how many calories they should consume per day, they need to be able to translate those numbers into actual meals. To illustrate her point, she held up a plate of steamed broccoli, a sweet potato, chicken breast and a clementine and asked the class to guess the amount of calories represented on the plate. She then held up a blueberry muffin and posed the same question. After many incorrect guesses she enlightened her students stating that the complete meal was
Psychiatric nurse practitioner Clarissa Darr with Barquist Health Clinic has been in practice for more than 30 years. Darr illustrates how use of a sleep diary can help individuals track sleep and wake patterns, a first step in improving sleep hygiene. Photo by Sidney Hinds 380 calories and the muffin was 500 calories. “So let’s say you have 1,800 calories to work with each day, you really need to think about your food choices. If you have this muffin for breakfast or a snack, that’s not leaving you with many calories for the rest of the day,” said Alvarez. In addition to eating the right foods, Alvarez warned that calories should be consumed throughout the day as opposed to abstaining from breakfast and lunch and eating a 1,500 calorie dinner, for example. “You will overwhelm your body, and it will store those calories as fat. You need to keep your glycemic index steady,” she said. Alvarez offered other helpful tips during the session such as using a smaller plate when portioning out servings, eating slowly and getting proper rest. According to Alvarez, proper rest is critical, not only in weight management, but in achieving optimal physical, mental, and emotional health. She acknowledged that acquiring a healthy sleep routine is especially challenging for soldiers returning from deployment where inadequate sleep
was the norm. She added that getting optimal sleep starts with learning and practicing good sleep habits before, during, and after deployment. Darr began a more in-depth discussion on improving sleep by reviewing stimulus control procedures. “Use your bed for sleep and sex only,” she said. She clarified that when people watch TV, eat or read in their bed they subconsciously associate their bed as a place to be awake instead of asleep. To help create a bedroom environment conducive to sleep, Darr recommended that rooms are quiet, dark and at a moderate temperature. She shared that there are many steps one can take to help induce sleep at night beyond the obvious contenders such as avoiding caffeine.
Darr recommended participants avoid alcohol after dinner, nicotine prior to bedtime, exercise within two hours of hitting the sack, and daytime napping. “If you do take a nap, refrain from sleeping longer than 20 minutes,” said Darr. She explained that melatonin is a natural hormone which helps regulate when a person falls asleep and wakes. Exposure to too little light during the day can disrupt the body’s normal melatonin cycles. Given this scenario she added that this effect poses a unique challenge for shift workers. “It is important to understand how your body’s biochemistry works,” said Darr. She commented that just as participants See BARQUIST, continued on page 10
What’s Inside
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Registered nurse Capt. Patricia Alvarez with Barquist Health Clinic explains the benefits of choosing a well-balanced, low-fat meal in place of a convenient, yet higher calorie snack. Alvarez’s medical background includes 13 years experience primarily in critical care. Photo by Sidney Hinds
AFIRM II Kick Off, p.6
New Bed Net, p.7
ASAP Happy Hour, p.9