Working for Your Health: Are you safe in your home?
We all want to feel safe. For most of us, being at home comes with a sense of safety. We may be far less safe than we think.
We know that 55 percent of serious...
Working for Your Health: Loss of information that matters to you
Our federal government collects health data. These data form the basis of information important to you. If you follow this column, you may recall reading about the importance of data in healthcare. Recent reductions...
Working for Your Health: The World Health Organization
April 7 marks the 77th anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has saved millions of lives worldwide. The WHO was founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations during a time...
Working for Your Health: Primary care is vital for our health
Our primary medical providers are critical to our personal health, and to the health of our community. When we are ill, or are worried, or want to know how to stay well, we turn...
Working for Your Health: A closer look at pain
Pain has plagued us since the beginning of humankind, its origins explored in frustrated fits and starts by philosophers and doctors attempting to understand and mitigate it. From his Lyceum in ancient Greece, Aristotle,...
Working for Your Health: Dukes County Health Council overview
For almost three years, the Dukes County Health Council (DCHC) has been bringing readers the latest information on important public health topics, ranging from research breakthroughs in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, stroke, and cancer,...
Working for Your Health: Look out for each other
Perhaps you have witnessed a scene like this: An older adult walks out of their house after a dusting of snow. Their driveway looks clear, maybe with a bit of frost. They are getting...
Working for Your Health: Is old age over?
Few of us relish the thought of growing old. No matter how well we take care of ourselves, aging can bring unwelcome changes that are often painful and debilitating. Yet we are fortunate to...
Working for Your Health: Community health center scrambling after Leslie’s closure
As news of the closure of Leslie’s Pharmacy reverberates across the Island community, local agencies are scrambling to assist vulnerable patients who relied on the longtime pharmacists for advice and prescriptions.
Leslie’s, a Vineyard Haven...
Dukes County Health Council: Take the plunge
Watching athletes like Katie Ledecky and Torri Huske take home the gold during the Paris Olympics has inspired some of us to take to the water. These superstar athletes are doing more than making...
Working for Your Health: Summertime blues
On Martha’s Vineyard, as August swelters on, the crowds have come. Seemingly overnight, the number of people on our 96-square-mile Island skyrocketed from an ample 20,500 to a staggering 100,000.
The stressors related to summer...
Working for Your Health: Vineyard youth
Most of us have an idea of what “being healthy” means to us. Not being sick, being able to do the things I want to do, having energy are a few of the things...
Working for Your Health: Stroke prevention
May is a time when the weather typically brightens, and many of us are getting back in our yards, firing up our grills, and looking forward to the long days of summer. The last...
Dukes County Health Council: Hard conversations
Most of us do not like to think about bad things — like being sick and unable to speak for ourselves. However, most of us do know what we want out of life. Choosing...
Working for Your Health: PFAS and you
What is PFAS?
There’s been a lot of news lately — much of it cautionary — about the chemicals known as PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Chances are you’ve been exposed to them, perhaps unknowingly,...
Working for Your Health: Heart health
Here are some fun facts about the human heart gathered from health.clevelandclinic.org/fun-facts-about-your-heart:
The heart is an organ about the size of two clasped hands. It’s made mostly of muscle tissue that contracts rhythmically, to...
Working for Your Health: A New Year’s resolution
“This year, I will do what I can to keep from getting sick from an infection, and help others to do the same.”
In 1952, the polio epidemic reached its peak in the U.S.; 60,000...
Working for Your Health: There’s no place like home
The concept of “home” varies from person to person; all of us know its importance. For many of us, home takes on greater meaning during the holiday season. It is a place where we...
Dukes County Health Council: Working for your health
Did you know?
By 2050, the number of people in the U.S. living with Alzheimer's disease is estimated to reach nearly 13 million.
1 in 3 older adults dies with Alzheimer's or another dementia.
...
Working for Your Health: Are you ‘health literate’?
Do you know the names of any medicines you are taking, and why you are taking them? Can you read their labels? Are you confident you are taking your medications the way that your...