healthy lifestyles s u m m e r
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july 29, 2015
2 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Avoiding certain surgeries with physical therapy By Stacie Duce for the
Ravalli Republic
With people seeking more natural options for medical problems at lower costs, promising new studies claim that physical therapy and physiotherapy can in some cases replace major surgery for several serious conditions. Clear Passage, a network of physical therapy clinics in Florida, is touting non-surgical results for bowel obstructions and common causes of female infertility. They say their methods delivered higher success rates than surgery for a fraction of surgical costs. In a 10-year Clear Passage study of 1,392 infertile women,
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the technique opened previously blocked fallopian tubes in 61 percent of women. The study reports that pregnancy rates after therapy was significantly higher than surgical rates – 57 percent vs. 34 percent – and could be due to the lack of scarring that can close tubes again a few months after surgery. According to a published review, the therapy was also used to help women suffering from endometriosis and used “various site-specific pressures across the restrictive bands of adhered tissues and structures, working progressively deeper from the most superficial tissues, to restore mobility via myofascial release.” Another Clear Passage study was presented at Digestive Disease Week in Washington D.C. and showed the results of deep tissue therapy in clearing adhesive bowel obstructions that are normally treated with invasive abdominal surgery. “Adhesions form as we age,” Dr. Richard King, said. He is a Florida- based gynecologist-surgeon and the medical director for the studies. “These internal scars can create straightjackets that surround and squeeze internal organs, confounding doctors and patients alike. The new therapy appears to peel apart these internal scars like freeing the runs in a sweater. In doing so, most patients found the therapy resolved their problems without surgery, so they could return to normal lives.” Jim Kostecki is a Hamilton chiropractor who is also board certified in physiotherapy cautioned that any new treatment should
compliment standard treatments rather than claim to cure entirely. “There are a lot of exciting new developments out there, but it takes a lot of studies to substantiate,” he said. He’s had experience with other new research that also helps patients avoid invasive surgeries on joints. “New research shows that if you can realign ligaments, they will grow back together because like tissues have an electro-magnetic attraction to each other,” Kostecki said. “It sounds crazy, but it does work. I’ve seen both before and after images in several cases where, if there’s not a break involved, we can adjust and get everything lined up so that ligaments heal without surgery. I’ve witnessed two of those cases in my office. “It’s amazing what can happen with slight adjustments in joints,” he said. “Nerve flow comes back, blood flow comes back, oxygen increases so that healing can begin. From there, it doesn’t take long to re-educate and rehab those muscles and teach them what they’re supposed to do. It doesn’t take long at all if there’s not much muscle lost.” Kostecki said, “In general, chiropractics and physiotherapy help adjust and re-educate muscles, nerves and ligaments so people get better and so they can have a better lifestyle and avoid spending money on stuff they don’t necessarily have to do. It’s a proven, very low-cost alterative for many injuries.”
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4 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Chaos to Clarity By STACIE DUCE for the
Ravalli Republic
Thanks to Disney’s latest animated feature, “Inside Out,” which addresses the importance of our spectrum of emotions, even young children can appreciate the fact that everybody gets angry. But Linda Jordan of Hamilton wants to make sure that we keep that potentially volatile emotion in check. She recently opened “Chaos to Clarity,” an anger management clinic located in the same commercial strip as Crazy Mike’s Video in Hamilton. Jordan is a certified anger management facilitator for adults and children and helps many through court-mandated treatment for domestic violence or batterer’s interventions. She uses the Deluth model for helping others find power and control and provides organized 52-hour courses with workbook curriculum as well as individual counseling sessions tailored to a person’s situation and needs. Jordan spent 25 years in executive management for social service agencies in the San Francisco Bay area and moved to the Bitterroot Valley to be closer to family. “In all that work I did with programming and acquiring grants to assure the effectiveness of social services for a range of mental health challenges and criminal offenses, it was always very clear to me that their issues originated with emotional intelligence and unresolved anger issues. … I’d really like the second part of my career to focus on prevention rather than intervention.” She said her daily work is rewarding because so often there are “a-ha moments” for her clients as they learn more self-awareness skills or recognize when they’re blaming someone instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. “Studying Emotional Intelligence has really come to the forefront during the last 10 years,” she said. “Shouldn’t we all give more thought to relationship management? So much of our emotional intelligence is based on the relationship we had with our parents and their role modeling. That can affect our personal space needs, for example, and a variety of other anger triggers.” Jordan encourages anyone to participate in self-awareness inventories, especially with their partner or family member. “It
gives so much clarity to understanding why they feel the way they do or behave the way they do. It also gives greater understanding to anger and what triggers it. Anger is a secondary emotion – something else always happens first and so digging to the root of anger can most often solve many problems.” In addition, Jordan also provides consultations to organizations for team building and operational analysis. “A healthy organization insures that systems and individuals are working at optimal levels,” she said. “Teams become minifamilies, mostly because we spend so much time together each day and when people are not happy in their workplace, there can be an uproar. Production starts fading because work is not a well-oiled machine. When employees don’t feel supported, they become more adversarial. Their type of anger might go under the radar for quite some time, but it is nonetheless very powerful.” Jordan said her program increases an organization’s health in the context of a business – “what’s not working, what are the goals of the teams. I help them gain clarity of their patterns and what needs some attention.” She said, “Employees often always know what would work best, but aren’t able or invited to make things better. So I help invite people to talk about concerns and develop a focused program that changes their relationship with work from adversarial to positive. So many people can be successful and do good work when there’s no animosity.” Since coming to the Bitterroot Valley, Jordan has identified some weaknesses to the local social service system that could improve overall care. “It seems we need more supported housing opportunities,” she said. “People challenged with substance abuse, mental illness, criminal behavior and homelessness often deal with more than one of those challenges. If they go through some sort of
Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - 5
treatment and rehabilitation, clean and sober living is really vital. But if they go back to their old situations, if often undermines all the good work that’s been done.” Jordan also likes working with middle-school-aged teens who are just learning about their strong emotions and needs to have relationships. “If they develop healthy relationships at that stage of life, then they have a foundation for healthy relationships for the rest of their life,” she said. More than anything, Jordan wants people to realize that “anger is your friend. It’s a signal. It’s like pain – absolutely a guidance system to help you react in the moment to a threatening situation. But if we react with emotional awareness, we can use that signal and do the right thing with it.”
Linda Jordan advises that when anger is fed and goes unchecked, the health risks are serious. She said: • Anger increases our heart-rate, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. • Anger absolutely decreases our immune system • People who get angry often have seven-times the risk of death by 60. • Anger management can improve quality of life and reduce stress. • Preventing stress and anger triggers are more powerful than managing them. • Music and breathing techniques are two powerful ways to prevent the debilitating effects of anger. At Chaos to Clarity, Linda Jordan provides group and individual classes in the evenings Monday through Thursday. She also has daytime office hours Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. For more information, call (406)203-6943 or email chaostoclarityllc@gmail.com.
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6 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Alyssa Heath and several other students from Brigham Young University spent time each week working in an eye clinic observing surgeries and on outreach missions to provide eye exams and free glasses to those who did not have adequate medical services in their area.
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This summer, Alyssa Heath of Hamilton traveled to Ghana for a medical internship that not only helped bring sight to those in critical need, but opened her eyes as well. “When you say ‘Africa,’ you think poverty, but it’s so much more than that,” she said. “It’s a developing country. They want economic growth; they want opportunities. People are living in poverty and life is hard, but they are still very happy and welcoming. I saw that if you give people access to healthcare, they’re going to use it and they want it. There’s definitely a demand for it.” Heath learned about the non-profit organization, Unite for Sight, at a study abroad fair at Brigham Young University, where she will begin her junior year of pre-med studies this fall. “Unite for Sight partners with local doctors at eye clinics in Ghana and other places,” Heath said. “We were assigned to help
Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - 7
in a clinic and then went on outreaches to villages and communities all over Ghana. The outreaches are for low-income people who don’t have access to eye care or can’t afford it. We would help patients test their vision and they’d see a doctor if needed. They were provided with very discounted glasses and medication as well.” The fee for her to participate in the program was $1,800 of which 100 percent went directly to pay for surgeries by local physicians for those who couldn’t afford it. Heath said she was also required to bring 600 pairs of reading glasses. “I only had to pay for the shipping of the glasses because they were provided by Restoring Vision – another charity that collects reading glasses across the country,” she said. While working in the local clinics about one day per week, the students were able to observe surgeries and procedures. “The most interesting to me was definitely the cataract surgeries I got to observe,” Heath said. “Some patients were completely blind because of cataracts and we’d watch the surgery, which could be as short as five minutes and the next day they are able to see perfectly. It was amazing.” While most of the cataract patients were older, “I did see patients as young as 18 with congenital cataracts. They weren’t able to see at all until the surgery,” she said. “The local Ghanaian surgeons were awesome. Some had international training, but that’s the reason why this program works so well is because local doctors understand what the people need,” she said. “They obviously know the languages and have trust from
Alyssa while on a weekend outing to the rain forests in Ghana
8 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015
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the outset. Only the volunteers in the clinics came from abroad.” Heath picked up some conversational words in both the Tri and Ga languages. “The people speak so many different languages and dialects depending on their tribe, so that was a challenge.” In addition to work, the nine students she traveled with also participated in weekend outings to see cultural sites of the area around Accra, the capital of Ghana. “We saw some really cool things,” she said. “We went to the Cape Coast Slave Castle, which was very interesting. We went on a canopy walk in the rain forest and visited a monkey sanctuary. We hiked to the Wli waterfall – the tallest waterfall in Western Africa. We saw a lot of country, which was really fun.” While Heath has always planned to study medicine and possibly become a family practice doctor like her father, Dr. Brett Heath, her internship made her consider other career options like ophthalmology. “I’m sure I’ll consider many medical fields before I finish my education, but it’s definitely my long-term plan to be a doctor and this experience was really beneficial,” she said. She said her college courses in anatomy and tissue biology prepared her well for the internship, but it was a class called “Sociology of International Development” that gave her the most practical application for her six-week experience. “There are so many critical issues in developing countries, so it was interesting that my sociology class applied even more than anatomy when preparing me for the experience,” she said. “I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to communicate with people who aren’t from your culture and don’t speak your same language. It puts you a little of our your comfort zone, but teaches you life skills that you really need.”
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Alyssa Heath is in Ghana for her medical internship.
Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - 9
Changing vaccination requirements for Montana RAVALLI REPUBLIC
Public school vaccination requirements have increased due to new Montana State legislation and Ravalli County Public Health Department is offering various vaccine clinics at additional hours to help families prepare. The legislation, effective October 1st, 2015, adds chickenpox and whooping cough vaccines to the list of immunizations required for K-12 students. “This year is the first year that students in grades K-12 will need to be immunized against varicella (chicken pox), in addition to all previously required vaccines,” explained LuAnn Burgmuller, Public Health Director. “Students in grades 7-12 who received a Td (tetanus/diphtheria) upon entering 7th grade will need to get a booster Tdap (tetanus/ diphtheria/pertussis) for the pertussis (whooping cough) coverage.” No changes in exemptions (religious or medical) were made to the law. Burgmuller is encouraging families to be proactive about the new law this summer in efforts to smooth the back to school process as much as possible. In addition to regular hours, the Health Department with also be hosting vaccine clinics opportunities during the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital Sports Physicals (August 6 and 12, 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.) “We are open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. -5 p.m.,” Burgmuller said. “We ask that people bring their immunization records so we can help them update their records and to ensure they are receiving the appropriate vaccines. We advise people to call ahead and we’ll accommodate them.” The Public Health Department accepts insured, underinsured, and uninsured individuals, “Money should not be a barrier. If they are not insured or underinsured they will qualify for the state Vaccine For Children (VFC) program through age 18. “ The Ravalli County Public Health office is open every day, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., at 205 Bedford Street, Hamilton. For questions, or to schedule an appointment, call the Health Department at (406)375-6672.
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10 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Valley View Estates strives to provide top-rate care Story & Photos By STACIE DUCE for the
Ravalli Republic
On the site of an old potato cellar, a traditional nursing home was built in 1962 in Hamilton to provide elderly assistance and housing. “Because of our roots, some might assume that not much has changed at Valley View, but nothing could be further from the truth,” said new Executive Director Alan Baum. “We are not your grandmother’s nursing home; we are a skilled nursing facility and that’s an important distinction. The procedures that used to be performed in a hospital’s operating room can now be done as outpatient care, at a hospital but also here. Our highly trained RNs are able to administer intravenous antibiotics, tube feedings, chest tubes, complex wound care, to name a few. … Our goal is to raise Valley View to preeminence so that we are the best skilled nursing facility in the Bitterroot Valley.” Baum’s vision and enthusiasm have been contagious among Valley View’s 68 employees and numerous volunteers since he assumed the role of executive director on June 8, 2015. “He’s very upbeat,” said Office Manager Bobbi Jo Noakes. “He’s always trying to bring up the morale and it’s working. There‘s no ‘No’ in his vocabulary. He always tries to say ‘yes.’ It might not be ‘yes’ tomorrow, but he knows it can be ‘yes’ eventually.” Following college and military service, Baum’s first career was as a stockbroker in Seattle. At 42, he retired from his demanding life and settled in Hamilton – what he called, “the most beautiful place I’d ever been.” After two years, he realized that retirement wasn’t what he imagined so he went back to college and earned a nursing degree. “It was a challenge and the fulfillment I was looking for,” he
said. “I went from a cold-blooded capitalist in finance to becoming a nurse and cultivating my compassionate side. It’s a side every man has whether he wants to admit it or not.” Baum worked as a nurse at Discovery Care Centre for six years before taking an administrative position in Billings. But he never sold his Hamilton home because his plan was to return. “It was my goal to return literally since the day I left, so this position is a fulfillment of my career and I intend to be successful and have a good time,” he said. “My two skill sets in finance and nursing are the perfect combination for this position and I plan to have the same progressive success I had in Billings.” Baum’s goals are “not just an ambition, we’re making them happen,” he said. “We’ve sent our nurses to be certified in complex wound care and respiratory disease care. … Valley View is growing, but mostly in skills and abilities. We’ve got the only secure memory care unit in the valley and have skilled nursing for memory care. So the more comprehensive skills our staff obtains, the better care we can provide. We’ve always been good, but we’re about to be excellent.” Since the mid-1970s, Valley View Estates has been owned by the Goodman Group, which operates nine other senior living and health care communities in Billings and Missoula. About three years ago, an extensive renovation project updated the facilities’ amenities as well as provided a new living room and an extended kitchen. Since Baum’s arrival, changes to the staff have been implemented as well. He shuns the idea of job descriptions that keep staff in defined boxes. “We’ve got people with aptitudes for spiritual care or exercise therapy, so we’re going to let them expand and do what they’re good at along with their regular responsibilities,” he said. “We want every person’s contribution to meet the complex needs of our residents.”
Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - 11
A volunteer pastor who has visited frequently for years was think that’s essential.” soon put on Baum’s payroll so he could provide essential end-ofNoakes said every week, in addition to Bingo, they have ice life counseling and spiritual support with more continuity. Baum cream socials, donut and coffee groups as well as “Grandma’s is also proud of the full-time, in-house occuKitchen” where residents can choose what they pational therapists and physical therapists at want to make from scratch and the kitchen staff Valley View. helps cook or bake. In addition, residents, who “When we have them here full-time, we’re are able, enjoy shopping trips and community able to provide all the support someone might outings like music in the park on Tuesdays. need after hip surgery, for example,” Baum Baum hasn’t shied away from the challenge said. “In some cases, that rehabilitation can be of navigating Medicaid’s complicated paysix to 10 weeks and nobody wants to be in the ment systems that he says have only become hospital that long. So they come here tempoworse in recent years. “We’re not going to rarily and receive all the care they could posturn anyone away because they can’t pay,” he sibly need during that time. Then later in life, if said. “We’re going to find a way, despite lower they find that they’ll be a permanent resident, Medicaid rates and bundled payments and there’s less anxiety because they know the everything else, to provide complex medical place and it’s comfortable. They know how needs when they exceed an extended family’s clean the facility is, how good the food is and ability to provide them for a loved one. how excellent the medical care is. It’s a benefit “We’re going to be that place,” he said. to them and their families.” “From Lolo to Salmon, families don’t have to Baum has changed the title of his eight go far from home to find the expert, compreAlan Baum, the new executive director at Valley activity directors to “life enhancement aides.” View Estates in Hamilton. hensive care their loved one needs.” He said, “They bring color and vibrance to For more information, visit Valley View Estates everyday life instead of just 47 versions of Bingo. We’re not just at 225 N. Eighth St. in Hamilton or call (406)363-1144 or go online providing passive entertainment but active engagement and I www.valleyviewestates.org.
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