Hello ladies! I wanted to let you know that today (Mother’s Day - how fitting) is the start of National Women’s Health Week! That’s right, an entire week devoted to ensuring that you stay healthy and knowledgeable about the things that impact your health.

To kick off this week’s event, the Department of Health and Human Services along with the National Women’s Health Information Center, is sponsoring the 5th Annual WOMAN Challenge! The 8 week challenge is designed to encourage women and girls to walk 10,000 steps or engage in 30 minutes of physical activity each day. Women can choose to walk one of six “virtual routes” across the country.

What I love about this challenge is that it really gives all who want to participate the tools to succeed and get encouraged - through emails and opportunities to share successes. Also there is the opportunity to join or create teams so that you have others around you to share in the motivation. That is what improving your health is all about, staying continually encouraged and motivated to do what’s best for yourself.

I want everyone to understand that it is always in your reach to attain goals of good health! They always say knowledge is power right? That’s why I absolutely love what can be achieved through the Web - it’s information at your fingertips that can be applied to our lives and that’s my aim with Pulse & Signal. This is especially true for all the women out there who are multitasking with all sorts of things to take care of - take time out for yourself and your well-being.

In honor of National Women’s Health Week and the WOMAN Challenge, I am going to post a series of women-focused health tips each day from Monday to Friday and do a wrap up on Saturday. Check back here everyday to get some information that you might not have known about women’s health.

For more information, please visit the websites for the WOMAN Challenge and National Women’s Health Week.

[This post can be seen as a continuation of what I was thinking about when I posted on slowing down]

For the past few weeks I have been mulling over in my head the notion of balance and how it applies to my health. Ever since I can remember, I have been a type of an overachiever. Constantly looking for ways to improve myself, say something better, and write something better - especially if I was really interested in a certain something. Since I started writing about the convergence of modern health communication and social media/personal technology, my brain has been on fire with ideas and thoughts. I have re-ignited my passion for health…and once I get passionate about something, oh boy, I go full speed ahead!

Since getting more involved with aspects of social media and getting to interact with so many great people, I found myself paying less and less attention to things like getting adequate sleep (sometimes 3-4 hours a night) and not eating properly. I felt like things were going alright, despite increasingly frequent bouts of sluggishness during the day and nagging chest pains. I shrugged it off for a while until 3 weekends ago, when I was enjoying a bed and breakfast in Va and I woke up in the middle of the night with a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and acute numbness down the left side of my body. To be honest, I thought it might have been the last few minutes of my life - especially knowing about the chest pains I had been experiencing the weeks prior (that I of course told myself I would get checked out eventually). Long story short, I was rushed to the ER and was released a few hours later with a clean bill of health. Nothing clinically wrong, but I knew this was my warning sign…a wake up call of sorts.

Now, I know there was a NY Times article about this sort of thing - bloggers dying or having heart attacks - and I wanted to distance myself from the media frenzy and not be another person talking about the same thing, despite its obvious importance to our culture and it being my specific interest. However, this was a personal event for me and one that I wanted to share with my readers. Sometimes you have to live through a situation in order to feel inspired and when I feel inspired, I want to share it with others, hope you don’t mind.

I came away from this event, reorganizing my time and what I did with it. Spending more time with the people I care about, focusing on my goals to revamp/update the way we view our health and communicate about it (health education, promotion…more on that later) and having quality interactions with people who are passionate about something. I bet you’re thinking that this is where I say “life is short” - actually that is a moot point in my opinion. Let me tweak that phrase a bit and say life is an opportunity - the quality of which is up to you. Whether you are here reading this because you are wired up to the gills with social media interests or just want to get a better idea of where your health fits into a busy lifestyle - one thing remains the same…you make use of this opportunity called life by taking care of yourself.

Thanks for listening.

One of the people I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know in the world of social marketing (applying marketing principles to behavior change) is Nedra Weinreich. She has been successfully operating Weinreich Communications for over 12 years. Her wisdom and experience continue to inspire and motivate me, so I am more than pleased to announce her annual Social Marketing University training series coming to the Washington, DC area this June - here are the details:

“This is a great introduction to using social marketing to bring about health and social change.

The training lasts 2-1/2 days, with the last half-day focusing on Next Generation Social Marketing. If you are a social marketer who already knows the basics and are interested in expanding your bag of tricks to include newer marketing methods using social media and other technologies — many of the things I write about on [Spare Change] — you can register just for the last day.

Social Marketing University
June 2-4, 2008
George Washington University
Washington, DC

Next Generation Social Marketing Seminar
June 4, 2008, 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
included in registration for SMU
OR register separately for seminar only

Complete information about the topics to be covered, hotel reservations, registration fees and what past participants have said can be found on the Social Marketing University information page.”

Unfortunately the early bird special cutoff date has recently passed HOWEVER, I spoke with Nedra and she has graciously offered readers of this blog a $50 discount toward the full training, using the code: PULSE

I am definitely looking forward to meeting Nedra when she comes to the East Coast next month!

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI):

“High blood pressure (HBP) affects more than 65 million—or 1 in 3—American adults. HBP often has no warning signs or symptoms. Once it occurs, it usually lasts a lifetime. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to heart and kidney disease, stroke, and blindness.”

This month, take some time out for yourself and get your blood pressure checked.

My grandmother used to tell me “Prevention is better than cure” - it makes sense here. Why wait until a problem occurs?

For more information, check out these resources from NHLBI:

• Your Guide for Lowering High Blood Pressure
• Facts and Detailed Information on High Blood Pressure
• Your Guide to a Healthy Heart (PDF)

Found this video of Connie Reece of Every Dot Connects blog, talking about what social media means to her.

I wholeheartedly agree that this technology allows us to come together to share ideas and build relationships - which is the most important aspect.

You’ll hear me say this over and over again in relation to health: the health communication world is all about people and helping to build awareness & promote positive behavior change.

This whole social media phenomenon is about the people…see the connection?

Hat tip to the Diva Marketing blog for the source! What does social media mean to you?

I am extremely excited to know that one of my favorite Health 2.0 bloggers, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn who writes over at Health Populi, has just come out with a document highlighting how the future of health is being affected by social media. I plan to really dig into this document over the next few days as this is pretty much the focus of my interest regarding the advancement of health.

No longer are consumers tied down to a single option regarding their personal health. You all know that I love information and the Web is certainly the place to get your fill - that includes health information. With sites like WebMD for details on disease and conditions, Healia Communities for interaction with others on health issues and even tools like Qwitter, to help stop smoking - it’s easy to see that the Web is transforming how we get informed about our health.

You can find the document here

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while now and I just was able to locate a useful piece of media for it. Thanks to Chris Condayan (@csuspect on Twitter) for the video!

Ok, so cough/cold/flu season is technically over you say? That may be true but the information in that video transcends seasons. Remember when your parents told you to cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze? Yeah that sounds polite but can actually be pointless in the prevention of spreading germs if you don’t wash your hands.

With most of us clickity-clackin away on the keyboard at work and manuevering the mouse over the keypad, our hands are frequenting surfaces that we use over and over again. So think about it, if you are at your desk and you sneeze into your hand and continue typing - what do you think is going to happen? The germs are going to be transferred to your keyboard and most likely your mouse as well. And then you shake hands with your co worker, congratulating them on a promotion. And then use the doorknob to leave building. I think you get my point.

Here are a few tips I thought of to help you keep the sniffles away from yourself and others in the workplace as well as your home:

1. Wash your hands frequently. Especially before eating a meal.
2. When coughing or sneezing (especially when you have a cold), do so inside your sleeve, right by your elbow or further above. When you do this, you can just toss your shirt in the laundry and wash those germs away. If you use a piece of Kleenex, still be sure to wash your hands afterward.
3. Have some of those Clorox wipes handy - they are great for wiping down surfaces on your desk and getting rid of any germs hanging around. Might be a good idea to wipe down your keyboard and mouse at the end of each week.
4. Hand sanitizers! Great stuff and alot of them come in tiny dispensers that you can carry around in your pocket or purse. If you can’t wash your hands, this is the next best thing.
5. If you’re sick and sneezing/coughing all over the place, do everyone a favor and stay home. Trying to keep a perfect record (like the guy in the video) quickly turns into “How many other people can I make sick the fastest”. Don’t be that guy/girl.

Coughing into your hands isn’t going to help when you shake someone’s hand in the next 5 minutes. I know this seems like common sense stuff but sometimes we all need a reminder!

I’ve been really excited to learn more about how the Web and it’s growing focus on community has been impacting the realm of health education. Improving the quality of our lives through peer discussion AND the dissemination of professional information is something we need more of in the health landscape - we need to focus on the people.

And that’s what Healia Communities aims to accomplish.

You’re probably already aware of the health information search engine, Healia - this tool has been around for a while and from what I can tell, has been successful in helping individuals find what they need on topics ranging from mental health to weight management.

The Health 2.0 movement is definitely taking notice that individuals aren’t solely seeking doctors for their medical advice. There are plenty of health professionals who are better trained to actually interact with people on deeper community basis and you can find some of them on Healia Communities. This has always been a concern of mine when it comes to health information being twisted and changed - causing people to leave thinking about the wrong concepts. Experts are important, but experts that actually respond is essential, good job Healia.

The personalization aspect of being able to join certain groups that are tailored to your health interests make the site even more effective in that you don’t have to look all over the community to find what you want. Interested in finding out how to get your family to lose weight (similar to a question I put up there)? If you are part of the weight management group, you will most likely see this query and be able to quickly respond. You feel better by offering your own sage advice and the person asking the question now walks away with a smile, feeling encouraged. Win-win situation right?

Healia Communities is about what concerns you.

If you want to connect with me, I’m mindofandre in the community. Oh yeah they also blog regularly about diseases and conditions that you probably want to know about.

ReadWriteWeb also recently did a profile of other communities that deal with community members lending an ear and expertise to one another. The Web is really starting to bring people together for a common good.

So go ahead and join the conversation and meet people who are concerned about the same things you are. What better issue to be concerned about than your health and the well being of others?

I want to preface my next blog post with this TED Talk that I was fortunate to watch a few weeks ago. In this age of fast paced technology, food, communications and relationships - we are even quicker to take things for granted.

I was having a conversation with a co-worker earlier this week and what she said made alot of sense.

“Times have definitely changed with all this technology, but our bodies sure haven’t!” The point made with this phrase is that even though times have changed with regard to how much we can consume - we still need to eat properly, get adequate sleep and enjoy our lives.

Take a look at this TED Talk given by Carl Honore –> TED Talk: Carl Honore - Slow Down

Attention Health Educators and Health Communicators! This is for you (us)!

Who’s happy that the weather is warming up? I know I am! Something about sunshine and getting fresh air does wonders for the mind and body.

Before you run outside to enjoy that fresh air, I wanted to talk about a passion of mine and I believe it will revolutionize the way we deal with health. That passion is something many of us engage with on a daily basis – the Internet; more specifically, the emerging social aspects of the Internet. For those of you not familiar with the term social media – let me give a brief description. Social media or new media, has to do with the relatively recent advances in the ways we are able to communicate with each other online. It consists of elements such as blogs, social networks (Myspace, Facebook) and user-generated videos (YouTube, Viddler).

Speaking of video, check this YouTube video that shows actress Jennifer Connelly helping to spread the word about the need of clean water in Africa. Now, if the video gets sent around my friends and family, how far do you think this message will go?

Those new online social tools have completely changed how we interact with each other. Now, with social online communities that are geared toward individuals battling cancer, mental illness or diabetes (www.diabetesmine.com) – the online world has effectively become a well respected and genuine place to connect with like-minded individuals and share information. It is now possible to collaborate with other public health professionals who share your same interests, even if you all are in different parts of the world! Think about the ideas that can be generated, the networking opportunities and the friends that can be made!

Let me ask you a question – the public health/health education industry is about who? Answer: the people. Messages that help reduce the risk of diabetes, prevent the transmission of HIV and even educate the next generation of superstar health professionals, can all be created and disseminated in the online spaces. I believe if more people in the health world took a serious look at harnessing the resources (and increasingly user focused) aspects of the Web and social media, we would see prolific benefits and long lasting results. So go ahead and start exploring – the opportunities are out there!