Category: Health

Providers on air ambulances are usually able to give blood components like red blood cells and plasma. But Dr. Ryan Newberry, assistant professor of emergency medicine at UW Health, said research shows that someone who is bleeding to death needs all of the components in blood.

“(Whole blood) can help temporize or slow bleeding, especially if we can give it in that first hour after your injury,” said Newberry, who is also assistant medical director of UW Health’s Med Flight. “That allows us to have a little more time to get you from wherever that injury occurred, the side of the road, a back field, a community emergency department, and get you to a trauma center.”

Consumers should observe good food safety practices in order to protect themselves against food-borne illness. Health experts recommend getting a refrigerator thermometer and making sure the temperature is 40 degrees or lower. “The colder the temperature, the longer the food will last safely,” wrote Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Anxiety is a natural response to uncertainty,” said Richard Davidson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds. “The most important thing for people to recognize is that whatever anxiety they’re feeling, there’s probably, at least, 150 million other people who are feeling anxiety in a very similar way.”

While the different outbreaks have come in rapid succession, the number of illnesses being reported isn’t out of the ordinary, according to Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It just happens to be the luck of the draw that we’re seeing it in Wisconsin,” Glass said. “They are also very high profile because they have affected a number of people.”

Experts at UW Health are recommending parents and caregivers use Halloween as an opportunity to talk with kids about sugar intake, healthy eating habits and good balances.

It is not uncommon for kids to come home with a big bag full of candy. Camila Martin, a clinical pediatric nutritionist with UW Health Kids, says to help kids plan to have some balance when eating candy.

Tom Oliver is a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said it’s not that health care isn’t important to voters, it just doesn’t always make for the best talking points and political ads.

“There’s a lot of health issues out there, just not the things that grab everybody’s attention and that people want to funnel billions of dollars behind into a whole campaign,” he said.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose school of education was recently ranked one of the best in the nation, future educators learn the importance of a positive learning environment.

“We definitely focus on relationship building and rapport and creating a positive learning environment,” said Kimber Wilkerson, director of teacher education at the university. “That often makes a difference for kids, whether going to school is another stressor or a place where they don’t feel connected, versus knowing that they have someone.”

Hip replacement recovery includes regaining strength in in knee and hip muscles, physical therapists Lori Thein Brody and Jill Thein-Nissenbaum tell us. Then, retired orthopedic surgeon John Orwin talks to us as he recovers from knee surgery.

Dr. Molly Lepic, an OB-GYN with UW Health who teaches medical students, said pain is a varied response. Also, patients who have previously had a vaginal delivery typically feel less pain during IUD insertion because their cervix has dilated before.

“Everybody’s pain tolerance is different,” she added.

Dr. Jim Gern, pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study’s authors, said the findings could influence the current public health approach to preventing asthma.

First, it’s a roundup of fall events and activities with Anne Sayers, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. Then, psychologist Shilagh Mergain of UW-Madison is back to help you build an “Olympic mindset,” and tackle whatever comes your way.