Mild dehydration, if it occurs frequently, may increase your risk for health problems such as heartburn, constipation, kidney stones, and even kidney failure. Severe dehydration can cause your body to shut down and go into shock. This is why it is important to make sure you know the early warning signs of dehydration in order to take action and protect your health.
How Dehydration Happens - Mild dehydration occurs when you lose 3% to 5% of your body weight through loss of fluids (usually sweat, vomit, or diarrhea).
- Heat and Exertion
If you’re already low on fluids, and you exercise or do physical labor in a hot environment, you can become dehydrated in a matter of hours.
- Thirst
Fortunately, dehydration is unlikely to happen without triggering significant thirst, so if you feel thirsty, listen to your body and take frequent sips of water. Don’t gulp down gallons, especially if you’re suffering from nausea or diarrhea — it’s likely to make things worse.
- Check Your Fluids
If your urine is unusually strong smelling or dark, it may be a sign that you are mildly dehydrated. But many things can affect your urine, from medications and multivitamins to certain foods or beverages, such as asparagus or beer; so also keep an eye on any changes in how much water you pass. Low urine volume over the course of a day is usually associated with dehydration.
Preventing and Treating Dehydration – The best treatment for dehydration is prevention. If you know you’re going to be exercising or laboring in a hot, dry environment, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re well hydrated to start with. Take water with you, and watch for early signs of dehydration.
To recover from and treat mild dehydration, slowly drink water or pure fruit juice until you no longer feel thirsty. A banana or a serving or two of another fruit will help restore the minerals you may have lost. Many fruits and vegetables have a lot of water in them, so you don’t need to rely on drinks alone for staying hydrated.
Posted in Safety, Wellness
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Tagged Safety
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Americans are always looking for the “magic bullet”. What’s the easiest way to get something done? When it comes to health perhaps the easy way out is not always the best. Maybe it’s time we became our own magic bullet. Americans tend to want a pill to fix all their ills. Is this the right thing to do? In some cases there may not be an option but perhaps there is a better way. The high rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease are to a great extent caused by lifestyle and can be reversed with sensible eating habits and a little exercise. But most Americans would rather take a pill, the magic bullet, hoping to reverse these problems. Read the documentation that comes with those pills. If the disease doesn’t kill you the drug just might.
Here are some stats to ponder:
• The CDC reports that more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese.
• According to the National Institute of Health there are 17 million Americans with Type 2 Diabetes. In a study of more than 3,000 participants it was found that diabetes incidence was reduced substantially by 58 percent in the group that took part in the lifestyle group. (http://ndep.nih.gov/media/GP_Toolkit.pdf).
• A staggering 76.4 million of adult Americans have high blood pressure.
When battling a preventable disease the excuses of “I don’t have time” or “I can’t” just don’t work. Isn’t your life worth a little extra time and effort? There are so many resources and information available to us today to fall back on and to use for our own well-being. Start today. Do the research; take the time and energy to become your own “magic bullet”.
The internet has put a wealth of information literally at our fingertips. Small children up to senior citizens are on the web using social media, researching information, banking, playing games, and attending school classes.
There is so much good on the web but also a lot of BAD on the web and everyone must be vigilant and informed to keep your computer and yourself safe from scammers.
Let’s review a few basic things to keep you and your computer safe.
Email –
NEVER click on any link or open any documents that you were not expecting to be sent to you. Even if it appears that a good friend sent the email.
Official looking emails from a bank or government entity….Don’t be fooled. Legitimate corporations do not send emails requesting private information.
Website Safety
Passwords – create a secure password. Many websites have password criteria to use but a good password includes a combination of alpha, capitals, numbers and symbols. An example would be S@fEty1st. Do not use the same password for multiple websites.
Be careful typing website addresses. One small typo can take you to a website that you did not intend to view.
Social Media
Again…create a secure password for your social media websites.
Do not put personal information onto social media.
The internet can be a very useful tool but be diligent and think before clicking on every link.
Resolutions, Choices, now PLAN. I can hear the moans and groans. “Plan, when do I have time to plan?” It really isn’t that hard and does not take that long.
Never go to the grocery store without a PLAN. The grocery store is a landmine of bad choices waiting to be made all in the name of convenience. Convenience foods are loaded with calories, salt, fat and all sorts of ingredients that cannot be pronounced and that you really don’t want in your body!
While watching your favorite television show jot down a few menu ideas and make a grocery list based on those menus. Post the menu on the refrigerator and use it during the week. Plan to make extra servings to make lunch planning easy. Packing a lunch for work is:
(a) cheaper than eating out…think of the money to be saved!
(b) easier to manage calorie intake…think of the pounds you’ll lose
(c) give you a few minutes to get out of the office and take a short walk…think of the stress that will melt away
Upon arriving home from the grocery store take the time to portion out those snacks into those handy little snack size plastic bags. This makes it easy to grab a lower calorie snack and control overeating by opening up that chip bag and eating from it.
Pick a day to make a couple meals ahead of time so that on those hectic nights the refrigerator is stocked with easily heated up good for you food. The hour or so it takes to prepare ahead will assist you on those hectic nights when time is of the essence.
The small commitment to plan just a little bit will reap huge rewards in reaching that resolution to be healthy and lose weight.
January 1 equated to the season of resolutions. Now here we are in March and where are those resolutions? Have you stayed steadfast in your resolution or given it up as hopeless?
Fact is, it is not and really was never a resolution. It is a choice. A daily, hourly, minute by minute choice. Whether the resolution was to save money or lose weight, stay stress free….it is a choice.
So many factors in our lives help us make those choices. Our family, our friends, our financial situation, the environment we live in.
There are so many excuses for not sticking to our resolutions (aka choices). Don’t fall victim to those excuses. Take control. Surround yourself with people that support you, change your environment if necessary. Make a list of the items that are important to you. Post it on the refrigerator, bathroom mirror. Wherever you will see it every day. Take small steps. After a while those small steps become a habit and you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of this before.
Don’t let your circumstances control you. You control your circumstances. Those choices you are making daily will help you stick to that resolution you made in January.
Please be aware of the risk of losing your air conditioner unit to thieves. They are active in our community and very bold-even providing their own means to climb roofs or get wherever they need to steal the copper from air conditioning units. Most theft claims will be covered by property insurance, however, we have seen instances where the thieves soon return and steal the replaced units! This type of claim activity may place you in a difficult position upon renewal of your property policy.
Suggestions to reduce your exposure are to buy the best (strongest) cage you can afford for your air conditioning unit. You may also consider adding a monitored security alarm to the unit.
The more difficult you make it for thieves; the better your chances are that they will move on to locations that provide easier access.
If you are a tenant, please check your lease, confirm with your property manager, or ask your insurance agent to review your lease, to clarify whose responsibility it would be to replace or repair the air conditioning unit in event of a loss.
This is an expensive type of claim and one we want our friends to be aware of with these suggestions to protect themselves.
2012 is here and with that comes resolutions to make changes in areas of our lives we are unhappy with. Didn’t follow through on those 2011 resolutions? Don’t beat yourself up, 2012 is a new year.
One of the major downfalls for our New Year resolutions is that they are usually not reasonable, sustainable or attainable. Think small!
Here are some guidelines for your resolutions.
- Be Specific. If losing weight is your resolution don’t say “I want to lose weight”. A better goal would be”Iwant to lose 10 pounds”. This makes the goal specific.
- Be Realistic. Stating the desire to lose 100 pounds, while possible is not realistic. Break the goal down into mini goals.
- Make it known. Tell your friends and co-workers. Let them know how important this goal is to you and enlist their help.
- Make it Measurable. Set a timeframe for your mini-goals.
- Make it fun and reward yourself. No one wants to do be miserable while attaining a goal so have some fun! As mini goals are met, reward yourself. (if the goal is diet related the reward should not be food).
- Don’t give up. There will be setbacks. Don’t obsess about it. Just accept it and get back on track.
Here’s to setting and reaching attainable goals in 2012!
Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (OSHA 300A) (29 CFR 1904.32)
Most employers having 11 or more employees are required to maintain a log of their employees’ work-related injuries and illnesses. For this purpose, the OSHA 300 Log of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses or an equivalent must be used. At the end of the calendar year, the totals from the 300 Log are transferred to a summary form, the OSHA 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.
The 300A has to be posted in the workplace (or at the job site) in a location where the employer normally posts employee notices. It must be posted by February 1 and remain through April 30.
Wellness has a pervasive impact on a company from employee attendance to the actual bottom line when negotiating with underwriters at health insurance renewal time. The good news is this is the one area where we have some control. Since the holidays are often a time of over indulgence, now is a great opportunity to implement wellness strategies to counteract the negative effects of too much Egg Nog.
Here are some tips for keeping your group merry and bright:
- Post healthy eating and exercise tips on the lunch room bulletin board. (Did you know that one slice of pumpkin pie with whip cream has approximately 500 calories? This is the exercise equivalent of one hour of running.)
- Keep fresh fruits and veggies in the lunch room to offer a healthy alternative to holiday sweets
- Start a lunch hour walking club
- Plan a competitive company event (i.e. 5k) for just after the new year to keep up the fitness momentum.
Education is the best wellness tool. Click here for a list of traditional holiday foods and caloric impact, in addition to wellness tips.
As we celebrate Christmas and Hanukah, it is my wish that you will take a break from the busyness of life to really appreciate your blessings and enjoy time with your family and friends. Soon the holidays will be over, and we will ramp up for a strong beginning of a new year. Before then, I suggest taking a deep breath to allow your body to relax, (at least for a few minutes), enjoy special music, and indulge in your favorite holiday foods. This is a very special time of year and one to appreciate before we quickly return to our busy routines. On behalf of Lykes Insurance, we wish you Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year!
