Category: Current Articles

    Health care is just like football. Even those who work hard at staying healthy will fumble or get tackled. Everyone gets sick at some point. Flu, a common cold, stomach bugs – they all make the rounds at this time of year. While a trip to an urgent care clinic might help ease the symptoms, a primary care home is typically your better option for long-term healthy outcomes. Patients who have a primary care provider have overall lower healthcare costs and higher satisfaction rates.

    The advantages of a primary care home are much like playing football in your home stadium. You get to know your provider and your care team, and, more importantly, your providers get to know you and your health history. Continuous care at a primary care home builds a long-term relationship between you and your provider that can help reveal ongoing health issues that might otherwise go unrecognized at a single doctor’s office visit. Such relationships lead to better communications and disease management, less risk of complications, fewer hospitalizations, and fewer visits to an emergency department. 

    A primary care home is more than just having the name of your doctor at the tip of your tongue. It is where your primary care provider plays quarterback to a care team that coordinates your health care beyond treating a sudden case of sniffles. It is where wellness examinations, preventive services, chronic diseases management and acute illness treatments are first downs in your health care playbook. It is where you get to score touchdowns on the health goals in your life.

    In a primary care home, your provider also acts as a coach, helping you navigate through the game of health. The health care industry is getting more complicated. With advances in technology, improvements in medical therapies, and a convoluted system of insurance and regulatory issues, it is essential to have a primary care team that knows you. 

    Offense is obviously important as you move toward the goals of chronic disease management. Managing care on a continuum and in context of the individual patient is a more effective, efficient, and holistic approach to patient care. Treatment of acute illnesses also requires knowledge of your overall health and medical conditions. Defense also plays a key role in healthcare wins! Preventive health services, immunizations, wellness exams, and screening tests are all critical in maintaining good health.

    A primary care home also helps maximize your health-care dollars with significant savings over unnecessary emergency department visits. Urgent Care Centers and Emergency Departments do serve a necessary purpose. They are appropriate for acute, potentially serious conditions that are not appropriate for an office setting, or may need urgent treatment when your provider’s office may not be accessible. How do you know when should you go to your primary care provider or the emergency department? 

Primary Care Office:

• persistent pain or condition
• Minor aches and pains
• Arthritis
• Cold or flu-like symptoms
• Earaches
• Minor burns or cuts
• Minor dog or animal bites
• Persistent fever
• Skin rashes
• Sprains
• Symptoms of sexually transmitted infections
• Sudden/severe pain

Emergency Department:

• Coughing up or vomiting blood
• Difficulty speaking
• Fainting or sudden weakness
• Severe or persistent vomiting or diarrhea
• Shortness of breath
• Sudden change in or loss of vision
• Sudden chest pain or pressure
• Sudden confusion or change in mental state
• Suicidal feelings
• Uncontrolled bleeding

    As you enjoy (or suffer through) the bowl games this time of year, you may be contemplating some New Year’s Resolutions. These almost always include some impossible health goal – like losing 100 pounds or exercising six hours a day. Why not make a resolution that is truly beneficial to your health, and extremely easy to keep – make an appointment with your primary care provider! Happy New Year!

Story by Dr. Edward Behling, Chief Medical Officer, HopeHealth

360 North Irby St.  Florence | 843.667.9414 | hope-health.org

3 Terms That Guide You Towards Good Health & Wellness

story by Brock McCallister

Firefighter, City of Florence & Head Trainer, Fitness Forum

    There are three terms that are not exclusive to elite athletes, but often are ones that only get used in a sports setting. They are terms that can and should be used to describe what each one of us should be focusing on – strength, endurance and nutrition.

    No matter if you are someone who works at a desk or a firefighter pulling someone from a burning building, if you seek a healthy lifestyle it will revolve around these three terms. Throughout life there will always be heavy objects to move, something that will make you stop and catch your breath, and illnesses that will challenge your overall health, so if we can manage these three things we will have a pretty good grasp of health and wellness.

    First, let’s talk about strength. Strength by definition is, “our power to resist force.” This may seem very generic, but in other words its our ability to move or stop objects and as we age our ability to develop strength diminishes. In order to develop strength we must, over time, increase the loads that we try to move by pulling, pushing, dragging, and/or holding. Some movements that resemble these, dead-lifting (pulling), squatting (pushing), bench or shoulder pressing (pushing), and dragging. Implementing these exercises with gradually increasing loads will improve your strength drastically and have you ever heard anyone say, “I really wish a wasn’t this strong!”

    Next, endurance defined as “our ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity.” Now a good example of this would be running a marathon, but it is not exclusive to runners. Playing with your grand kids all day, doing work in the yard, and walking the dogs all require endurance. The demands may be different, but they still reflect on our ability to endure working or moving for an extended period of time. Now how do we work on this? Simple, just like strength training you have to gradually increase either the amount of work in a given time frame or increase the amount of time that you do an activity. An example of this would be, decreasing your mile run time from ten minutes to seven minutes or increasing the distance you run in ten minutes from one mile to one and a half miles. Increasing your endurance can help decrease your risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes as well as boost your immune system to get your through flu season!

    Last and most important, nutrition. Without good Nutrition you will hinder both your ability to increase your strength and endurance! Now, everyone seems to have their go to “diet” when they want to drop a few pounds before summer, but for the most part every successful “diet” will have some of the same components, real food and no added sugar. But what does that even mean? Real food would be the stuff that has an expiration date like bananas or meat from the market and some examples of added sugar are soda or candy. Some of the most simple advice for trying to eat healthier would be to stay on the outside of the grocery store, no fast food, and no sugary drinks like soda or sweet tea. As Greg Glassman, Founder of CrossFit says, “ Eat meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO SUGAR!”

    In closing, you can read all of the health and fitness magazines that you want, but when in comes down to it, if you want to have the ability to handle most things that life throws at you, just remember to lift heavy (strength), move fast (endurance), and eat clean (nutrition).

120 East Elm Street, Florence | 843-661-3800 | bmccallister@fitnessforumonline.com

No Join Fee during the month of January at Fitness Forum. Also the start of the Biggest Loser Competition. To learn more, visit www.fitnessforumonline.com!

Whitney Robertson Talks Fitness

story by Jordan Pupa

   Whitney Robertson has been a certified personal trainer for three years and was recently certified in nutrition. She is currently a personal trainer at the Hartsville YMCA.

   “My first true love is the gym. That is where I basically spend my whole day, six days a week. I gained a love for fitness about four years ago when I went through my own fitness journey, losing a total of fifty pounds. I’m glad I had that experience because it gives me a chance to really connect with my clients and understand their struggles and fears. I love seeing my clients gain confidence in the gym. I always have ladies that are super excited about gaining some muscle and definition. The gym doesn’t have to be a scary place, and that is one of my main goals as a trainer, to help people feel comfortable.”

Tips & Tricks for Staying on Track This Holiday Season

• Plan Thanksgiving & Christmas dinner as your cheat meal- NOT a cheat day!

• If you can help it, do not keep excess treats in your house.

• Do not keep “trigger foods” in your house. (These are foods where you can’t have just one.)

• Get your workouts in at the beginning of the week so you can enjoy the weekend with family.

• Keep lots of healthy snacks around, such as apples or mixed nuts.

• If you plan on drinking alcohol, try a Vodka Selzer Water instead of sugary beverages.

• Do not go to family get-togethers or parties starving.

• If bringing a dish to share, spring for a healthy dish that you can also eat.

• When eating out, pick healthy dishes that aren’t loaded with cheese, sodium, and fatty dressings. (You can always modify some items on a menu. For example, on a salad, ask for the cheese and dressing on the side.) 

• If your traveling out of town, bring your own snacks, sauces, or pre-prepped meals. Give yourself the opportunity to choose a healthier option.

At Home Workouts: (Required equipment: dumbells)

LEG WORKOUT: Repeat Exercise 4 Times

•  Squat Thrusters- 10 reps

Accelerate when nearing top of squat, drive dumbbells up off shoulders, and throw weight overhead by extending arms upward. Immediately lower weight by bending arms. As weight descends, bend legs, and catch dumbbells in front of shoulders as knees are bending at approximately 90°.

•  Walking Lunges- 20 total reps

Begin standing with your feet shoulder width apart and dumbbells at your sides. Step forward with one leg, flexing the knees to drop your hips. Descend until your rear knee nearly touches the ground. Your posture should remain upright, and your front knee should stay above the front foot. (Don’t ever let knee go above your front toes.)

•  Calf Raises- 20 reps

Standing with heavier set of dumbbells at your sides, raise the backs of your heels off the ground.

• Sumo Dumbbell Squats- 15 reps

Grab a heavy dumbbell and hold an end with each hand at arm’s length in front of your waist. Set your feet about twice your shoulder width apart, your toes turned out slightly. Lower your body as far as you can by pushing your hips back and bending your knees.

Quick High Intensity Interval Workout: (no dumbells required)

4 total rounds with minimum rest

•  High Knees- 24 total reps

•  Squat Jumps- 10 reps

•  Jumping Jacks- 20 reps

• 30 second rest

•  Mountain Climbers- 20 total reps

•  Crunches- 15 reps

•  Leg Raises- 15 reps

At Home Workout: (Required Equipment: dumbells)

4 rounds with 30 Second rest in between each set

•  Over Head Triceps Extensions- 12 reps

•  Bent Over Together Dumbbell Rows- 12 reps

•  Alternating Dumbbell Curls- 12 reps

•  Lying Chest Press with Dumbbells- 12 reps

•  Shoulder Dumbbell Press- 12 reps

Instagram: whitney_fitxo

Facebook: Whitney Nicole Robertson

704-830-4838 | whitneyyynicole1415@gmail.com