Tag: health

Registration open for ‘Fishing for Fitness’ Tournament

by Kelly Rogge

Kansas City Kansas Community College is getting ready to go fishing, but not in the way you might expect.

The Fishing for Fitness Tournament starts March 31 at KCKCC’s Wellness and Fitness Center. The four-week Incentive Program combines physical activity with tracking of weekly fruit and vegetables. Pam Hall, personal trainer at the Wellness Center, said it is a great way to challenge KCKCC employees and students.

At the beginning of each week, participants will catch a “fish,” which will determine the amount of weight in pounds that week’s activity will be worth.

Activity pounds are tracked and turned in weekly.  Bonus activity pounds can be earned as well as bonus pounds for daily fruit and vegetables.  At the end of the four weeks, participants “weigh in” to see who has the most pounds of healthy activity.

“The goal of the program is to challenge our employees and wellness students to add more physical activity to their days and weeks, to make a consistent effort to include physical activity and healthy lifestyle choices in their everyday lives,” she said. “This program provides physical activity and nutrition components that are assigned an amount of poundage. The goal is to weigh in each week with the most amounts of pounds you can accrue accordingly.”

This is the third time KCKCC has done Fishing for Fitness. Last year, the Wellness Center had an indoor duathlon for the spring health incentive program, however, not many participated. Instead, past participations of the Fishing for Fitness Tournament requested it be brought back.

“This program gets participants who are struggling to keep an exercise program going jumpstarted and motivated to keep going for a consistent four weeks,” Hall said. “The Fishing for Fitness Tournament also will challenge the consistent exercisers to add a bit more to their weekly activity. It will challenge all participants to take four weeks and give back to themselves in a healthy way.”

For more information or to register for the Fishing for Fitness Tournament, visit the KCKCC Wellness and Fitness Center or call Pam Hall at 913-288-7368. Hall can also be contacted by email at [email protected].

Wyandotte County ranked near bottom in county health rankings

Wyandotte County was ranked near the bottom of Kansas counties in health rankings were released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Ranked 96th overall in Kansas, Wyandotte County was low on most categories covered by the health rankings. It is among the bottom five counties in the state for health.

The fifth annual rankings again listed nearby Johnson County as the top county in Kansas. Woodson County in southeast Kansas was the lowest on the list.

Along with health factors, this ranking includes social and economic factors such as rates of graduation, numbers of children in poverty, single-parent households, and violent crime.

The rankings are located at www.countyhealthrankings.org.

 

New less invasive defibrillator implanted by KU Hospital doctors

Cardiologists at The University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, Kan., are the first in the region to offer the S-ICD system, an implantable defibrillator that sits just under the skin, leaving the heart muscle untouched.

The device is designed for patients at risk of sudden cardiac arrest, an abrupt loss of heart function caused by chaotic activity of the heart. The S-ICD system constantly monitors a patient’s heart, delivering a lifesaving shock if sudden cardiac arrest strikes.

What makes the S-ICD system different from other implantable cardiac defibrillators is that it sits just under the skin without the need for thin, insulated wires, or leads, to be placed into the heart itself. This leaves the heart and blood vessels untouched, providing many benefits for patients. Those include less scarring, less chance of infection and a quicker recovery.

“This is an insurance policy, it’s like a couple of paramedics sitting in your chest all the time just riding around, and when your heart needs something it springs into action and shocks it back into rhythm,” said Dr. Rhea Pimentel, an electrophysiologist at The University of Kansas Hospital. “It’s the perfect device for patients who don’t need the pacing that a traditional implantable defibrillator provides.”

The American Heart Association estimates approximately 850,000 people in the United States are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest and need an implantable pacemaker but remain unprotected.

A KU Hospital video about the defibrillator is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl3Cb73xf3Y.