In case you missed this article from the Demoncrat Gazette Feb. 7

Gifts, lot sale keep agency for blind open 

Talk of LR closure dropped

 Just two months after officials at World Services for the Blind warned clients that they might not have a campus to return to after the Christmas break, the organization's new leader said Friday that not only has its financial distress gone away, but it also plans to offer two new vocational studies this year. World Services for the Blind is a nationally accredited adult rehabilitation center in Little Rock that provides a college preparatory program, vision rehabilitation, vocational courses, an assisted technology learning center, job-placement assistance and a personal-adjustment program.

 The organization also offers the sole location in the nation for an Internal Revenue Service vocational program that fast-tracks graduates to guaranteed jobs with the IRS. Clients live on campus at the agency's headquarters off Fair Park Boulevard.

 They were told in December by then-President and Chief Executive Officer Stacey Hunter Schwartz to take all of their belongings home over the break because the organization was "in a pretty dire financial state" and might not reopen. Schwartz resigned from her position just days after telling the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that she was desperately searching for donors and a smaller campus because the organization couldn't maintain its 91-bed facility with only a third of that number in clients. She had been with the agency for a month and declined to say specifically why she resigned. Bruce Davis, a member of the nonprofit organization's board of directors since 2008, has been appointed as interim CEO and said he will remain in the post for the time being. But eventually, the organization will search for a new executive. 

World Services for the Blind reopened on schedule last week and has no immediate or long-term plans to close, Davis said Friday. Since Schwartz's announcement, World Services for the Blind has received some "significant contributions" and has sold its downtown property that had been on the market for years, and those two developments "removed the immediate financial concerns," Davis said. World Services for the Blind also has acquired a grant worth more than $300,000 from the Lions Club International Foundation that will assist the agency in adding vocational training in medical coding and call-center skills. Both vocations will be added by the end of the year, raising the organization's vocational-course offerings to 11. Three staff members will be added, and there also will be a job-referral program started as part of the two-year Lions Club grant, Davis said.

 "While we continue to be interested in partners, we plan to continue on our own until such time someone comes along who we'd be interested in partnering with," Davis said. "If they don't come, then we will continue as we have for the past 67 years. ... We could be interested [in relocating to a smaller campus] if the right opportunity avails itself, but we are happy where we are if that doesn't happen. 

The agency's downtown property sold to One Financial Center Limited Partnership for $1.5 million. The site -- bordered by Sixth Street to the north, College Street to the east, Eighth Street to the south and Collins Street to the west -- includes about 50,000-square-feet of buildings and totals 7 acres. World Services for the Blind originally acquired the land in 2004 and 2005 for about $3.9 million. There were plans to enclose the streets and build a $30 million, 10-acre campus. Fundraising goals were never met, however, and the organization abandoned those plans in 2010. The property has been for sale ever since, but there were few offers. "It's certainly not what we had hoped to secure the property for," said John Martin, vice president of commercial brokerage at Moses Tucker Real Estate, who handled the sale. "We had plans that we would be able to do more than that, but given that One Financial was the buyer, they made it clear that that was all they were capable of doing. At the end of the day, it made sense for both sides to do the deal. The timing was right, so we felt like it was a reasonable deal. Stan Hasting, who is part of the family that owns One Financial Center Limited Partnership, said the family has adjacent property and had previously tried to purchase the land from World Services for the Blind. There are no plans to build anything there, Hasting said, adding that the family will continue leasing out the buildings.

 While the $1.5 million sale was short of hopes, it allowed World Services for the Blind to continue operations for its clients. The organization is otherwise financed solely through donations, the tuition paid by state rehabilitation agencies for the clients and through grants. The organization hasn't filled more than a third of its 91-bed capacity in the past five years, but Davis hopes that will change with the growth that's coming. He said the training center's clients number in the upper 20s and he expects that to increase to the upper 30s by March, when one of the new vocational training courses is added. The organization has served clients from the 50 states and 57 countries. All the clients who were at the campus before Christmas and New Year's break returned, he said. While about 10 employees were laid off in November, no additional workers have been laid off. "People need to understand we are in business. Our clients have come back, and we expect to have an increased number by the end of March," Davis said. "We are very excited about what's happening because it's all positive in our view.

Dump cake with fruit

★ PEACH DUMP CAKE ★

Try this same recipe with apple filling, or cherries. You can use any kind of canned fruit that has syrup with it.

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
2 15 ounce cans lite peaches
(or try apple pie filling, cherries, mixed fruit etc.)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, (freeze)

Instructions:
Heat oven to 375
Cover the bottom of a 13 x 9 cake pan with a light layer of the dry
cake mix. Pour the cans of un-drained peaches over the top of the
cake mix. Sprinkle the rest of the cake mix over the top of the peaches evenly. Sprinkle a little cinnamon over the top of the cake mix..
Take the frozen butter, then using a cheese grater, grate evenly over
the top of the cake mix.
Pop in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Try this same recipe with
apple filling, or cherries. You can use any kind of canned fruit that
has syrup with it.

Serve with ice cream!!

Would you wear a Healthcare device?

Apple's HealthKit gets a checkup at top hospitals 

The service is being trialed or considered at 14 of the 23 leading hospitals polled by Reuters, though implementing it poses some challenges. 

by Lance Whitney 

Hospitals are checking out Apple's HealthKit as a cost-cutting measure. Apple's new HealthKit technology is getting its own examinations at some top hospitals to see if it can successfully monitor patients remotely and thus help trim medical costs. Among 23 of the leading hospitals questioned by Reuters, 14 have launched a pilot program of HealthKit or are in discussions to do so, Reuters reported on Thursday. The goal of the program is to see if doctors can monitor patients with chronic ailments such as diabetes and hypertension looking for early signs of medical problems so they can step in before a problem becomes more serious. 

Ultimately, such monitoring could help hospitals save money by cutting down on repeat admissions, which earn them penalties from the government, Reuters said. Unveiled last year, Apple's HealthKit is a framework designed for developers to create apps that can gather and share medical information about its users. Via Apple's Health app, the data collected from third-party apps can then be sent remotely to doctors and hospitals. Apple is competing with Google and Samsung, which have launched similar services. Those services are only now starting to roll out for testing, which means Apple is ahead of the game. But many of the hospitals say they also want to test the Google Fit service since most smartphones run Android.

Right now, the Health app is available only for the iPhone. But it will also be a key part of the Apple Watch, due to launch in April. As such, you could wear the watch all day so the Health app continuously monitors your overall health and specific medical conditions. One hospital cited by Reuters as piloting HealthKit is Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. Working with Apple and healthcare software provider Epic Systems, Ochsner has been using the technology to monitor patients with high blood pressure. "If we had more data, like daily weights, we could give the patient a call before they need to be hospitalized," chief clinical transformation officer Dr. Richard Milani told Reuters. 

Technology has been seen as one way to cut down on spiraling medical costs. But there are challenges. Doctors have to determine if sorting through all the medical data they could potentially receive is worth the time, effort and investment. Apple, Google and Samsung are using their own unique products and services to win a piece of the healthcare market. But for the technology to work for all medical providers, common standards will need to be put into place. Further, patients and doctors have to trust that the exchange of medical data will be safe and secure. That's an especially relevant concern following the news this week that health insurance provider Anthem was the victim of a major hack , exposing the personal information of as many as 80 million former and current members and employees. 

Good diet information

Health Classic Diet Advice You Can Probably Ignore 

BY SHAUN DREISBACH 

1.Don't Lose Weight Quickly 

Many experts have chided that losing weight too fast means you won't keep off the pounds over time. "Yet it's not true," says David Allison, PhD, director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham ( UAB ). "In clinical trials, rapid initial weight loss is associated with lower body mass long-term. For example, a University of Florida study compared people who lost weight quickly (one and a half pounds a week for the first month), slowly (half a pound a week), and moderately (somewhere between these two amounts). Participants in the fast-weight-loss group lost more weight overall and were five times more likely to have kept it off 18 months later than those in the slow group. The new advice: Drastically cutting calories or doing some crazy cayenne-pepper-and-cardboard diet isn't healthy, of course. But slow and steady isn't the only option. "Some people get more motivated when they lose a lot of weight right off the bat," Allison says. Do what works for you. Just don't dip below about 1,200 calories a day (men may need more). 

2. Always Eat Breakfast 

Heck, even the surgeon general and first lady want us to start the day with a healthy breakfast. But UAB researchers discovered scant evidence of trials that have tested whether breakfast helps people lose weight. The few that did found that skipping it has little or no effect. A 2002 study of people in the National Weight Control Registry (a database of more than 10,000 people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for a year or more) found that 78 percent of successful dieters regularly have a morning meal. Experts have interpreted this to mean that breakfast helps the formerly overweight stay slim, but the research doesn't show that. "The only way to prove that is to have a bunch of men and women skip breakfast and see if they gain weight," says David Levitsky, PhD, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. But when he and his colleague recently did just that, the results were quite surprising. They found that people who skipped breakfast wound up eating an average of 450 fewer calories by the end of the day than when they ate breakfast. The new advice: While there are many healthy reasons to start your day with breakfast, don't feel like you have to eat a morning meal if you're not hungry or you're trying to lose a few pounds. A nutritional SWAT team will not show up at your door, and it may help fast-track weight loss.

 3. Eating at Home Is Always Better than Eating Out 

"For years, we thought that calories from foods and drinks away from home-giant sodas, fast-food burgers, vending machine snacks-comprised a major portion of calories in our diets," says Adam Drewnowski, PhD, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. But people may have been misinterpreting the numbers. About 35 percent of the amount of money we spend on food and drinks happens in restaurants-because eating out is generally more expensive than dining at home. That got incorrectly equated to the percentage of calories we get from eating out, says Drewnowski. A study he recently conducted found that meals at fast-food and full-service restaurants accounted for only 17 to 26 percent of our total calorie consumption. "Soda bought from these spots provided about 1 percent of dietary calories, and vending machine foods accounted for almost zero," says Drewnowski. Up to 76 percent of the calories in our diets hail from food bought at grocery, convenience, and specialty stores-then eaten at home. The new advice: "Take a hard look at your grocery bill," suggests Drewnowski. "Stores often give an itemized list, which means you can see where the major sources of calories are. You should have a balance of produce, lean protein, and whole grains and minimal refined or packaged foods.

 4. Small Changes Add Up! 

Nutrition scientists today know that equations like this don't work in real life: Cut 200 calories a day, and you'll lose 20 pounds in a year. As your body shrinks, you don't need or burn as many calories. "Say I weigh 150 pounds, and I burn an extra 100 calories a day going for a walk. After 35 days, I should be down 3,500 calories-or a pound. In 365 days, it should be more than ten pounds," explains Allison. "But as I get lighter, it no longer takes 100 calories to move my body. If it did, ten years from now, I'll have lost 100 pounds. How is that even possible? The new advice: At some point, little things won't be enough to keep up weight loss. Commit to change: In addition to a daily walk, you may need to shave a few hundred calories by, say, nixing the cheese on your sandwich or the side of rice with your stir-fry.

 5. Big, Ambitious Weight-Loss Goals Set You Up for Failure 

Such a behemoth goal as "I want to go from a size 14 to a 2" is doomed from the get-go, we've always believed. Better to set the bar lower ("I want to lose ten pounds and go from there") so you can actually clear it, right? "The logic here goes that if you have too-high expectations, you'll get frustrated and discouraged and drop out of your weight-loss program," says Allison. "But big-goal setters are no more likely to drop out than those who make smaller ones-and there's some evidence that they may do even better. A University of Minnesota study found that women who set weight-loss goals that the researchers deemed unrealistic were more likely to achieve their ideal BMI s than those who chose more "reasonable" goals. The new advice: Small goals can provide a motivating sense of accomplishment as you tick each one off. But don't be afraid to go after a big number. "It's helpful to have some optimism," says Allison. The key: having specific steps to achieve it, such as exercising five days a week and cutting portions.  

Cut calories when possible

5 heart-healthy food swaps 

By Tanya Zuckerbrot 

Published February 04, 2015 

A diet high in saturated fats increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. It's easy to cut your fat intake by swapping to lower fat versions of foods you frequently eat: 

Whipped Cream Cheese 

The problem with regular cream cheese is that a two tablespoon serving contains 9 grams of fat, of which 6 grams are cholesterol-spiking saturated fat. You can still enjoy your schmear by going with "light" whipped cream cheese that trims 40 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat off each serving. 

Greek Yogurt Mayonnaise isn't just for sandwiches; it turns up in all kinds of foods, such as egg and chicken salad, dips, cole slaw, salad dressings - even sushi rolls. A single tablespoon of mayo packs 10 grams of fat, so it's hardly heart healthy. For the creaminess of mayo minus all the fat, use Greek yogurt in your favorite recipes. You'll save 75 calories and 10 grams of fat per tablespoon and get a welcome boost of protein and calcium, too.

 Whole Orange 

While fresh -squeezed orange juice is nutrient-dense, juicing removes nearly all of the fiber, which has been scientifically proven to reduce cholesterol. Grab a fresh whole orange instead and you'll get a healthy dose of vitamin C, potassium, folate, calcium, vitamin B6, and thiamin, plus 6 times more heart healthy fiber and far less sugar. 

Whole Wheat Bread 

Eating a lot of refined carbohydrates such as white bread can raise blood triglycerides and lead to insulin resistance - factors that increase risk of stroke, heart attack, and coronary artery disease. Switch to whole wheat bread and you'll benefits from the many important nutrients white bread loses during processing - particularly fiber. 

Skim Milk 

Opt for whole milk instead of skim milk and you'll get the same vitamins and minerals without all the calories and fat! One 'cup' of whole milk has 150 calories and 5 grams of saturated fat, compared to a 'cup' of skim milk with 90 calories and no saturated fat.

 For delicious high fiber meal plans, recipes and tips on healthy eating, drinking and losing weight, check out my latest book, The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear - with Fiber! Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD , is a registered dietitian in New York City and the author of two bestselling diet books: The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear - with fiber and The F-Factor Diet . Subscribe to Tanya's free weekly newsletter and follow her on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , Pinterest, and LinkedIn

Cost of diabetes

Cost of having diabetes has doubled in two decades 

Published February 02, 2015 

The cost of managing diabetes has more than doubled in the past 20 years, a new analysis says. The average diabetes patient now spends $2,790 more per year than they did in 1987 - and more than half the additional spending is for medications. 

 "People need to be mindful about the substantial increase in the cost of diabetes, which has been partially fueled by the rising prices of newer drugs," said Xiaohui Zhou, a health economist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who led the study. Zhou and colleagues compared National Medical Expenditure Survey data from 1987, 2000-2001 and 2010-2011. The 1987 survey, involving 22,538 people, showed that diabetics spent $2,588 per person more on healthcare than people without diabetes.

 In 2000 and 2010, with more people responding (roughly 39,000 each time), the extra spending by diabetics rose to $4,205 and $5,378, respectively. When the researchers accounted for factors like age, race, obesity and type of care, 55 percent of spending by diabetic patients was on prescription medication, 24 percent was for inpatient visits, 15 percent was for outpatient visits and 6 percent went toward ER visits and other expenses. The researchers also asked whether costs were higher because people used health services more, or because the price of the service had risen. The answer: both.

 Patients now use more medication, and the costs of the drugs have also risen. The increased cost of outpatient visits was mainly due to more visits, and inpatient and ER expenses grew as a result of rising prices, they write in the journal Diabetes Care. The U.S. is not alone in facing this issue. "A growing trend of increased spending on anti-diabetic prescription medications has also been observed in other developed countries," Zhou said in an email. Tim Dall, a managing director with IHS Life Sciences who studies the economic side of diabetes care but was not involved in this research, said the American Diabetes Association has previously found that "a large portion of diabetes-related costs are associated with the complications of diabetes rather than with treating diabetes itself. Zhou noted that new drugs and devices are constantly emerging and "patients now receive a more complicated treatment regimen than the past. 

Some newer drugs are eight to 10 times the cost of older drugs such as sulfonylureas, Zhou said. Dall feels that while costs may be great, the benefits of new developments are also substantial. "The average medical cost to treat people with diabetes has been increasing over time, but patients are getting better care and living longer," he told Reuters Health by email. However, he said, if a certain regimen is working well for a patient, there may not be a need to upgrade. 

Zhou and Dall say more effort needs to be put toward diabetes prevention and not merely management of the disease. "This growing trend of diabetes cost is simply unsustainable. Besides the efforts to bend the treatment cost, the efforts to reduce the number of future diabetes patients are imperative," Zhou said.

Training in Hot Springs Village

Good morning everyone,
Hope you are staying warm!  We will have technology training at Christ Lutheran Church in the Village on Saturday at 10! Hope to see you there!
Dr. Janet