Tsunamis?! But we live in SA!

This week, Dr. Rat­ner tells us about prepar­ing for the unex­pected. What’s in your emer­gency kit?

Dr. Rat­ner

Most of us here in San Anto­nio do not know that this week is Tsunami Pre­pared­ness week. Just because San Anto­nio is only a lit­tle more likely than Salt Lake City to suf­fer the direct effects of a tsunami there are lots of lessons we can learn from this week.

1. Really bad things hap­pen, even if they’re not very likely to hap­pen. So, do you need life vests? Prob­a­bly not, but you should think of some basic items and pro­ce­dures for any unplanned cat­a­stro­phe. Events that hap­pen far away can have rip­ple effects. Are you pre­pared if your plant closes down because you can’t get parts or your cus­tomers are unavailable?
2. We may not be at risk for a tsunami, but what about a flash flood?
3. How hard would it be to store 5 gal­lons of water and a few days of canned or dehy­drated foods, or some mac­a­roni and cheese for each mem­ber of your house­hold? You could fit a few days’ worth under each person’s bed.
4. Can you put together a small plas­tic type tool­box with a few screw­drivers, a pair of pli­ers, some duct tape, a util­ity knife, some zip ties, a hack­saw and a flashlight?
5. Take a few min­utes and dis­cuss with your fam­ily and your extended fam­ily where and when you will meet in the event of fire, black­outs or other disasters.
6. Once a month buy a few extra AA, AAA,C, D and 9 volt bat­ter­ies, and switch out your used bat­ter­ies with your cur­rent stock. This will prove very use­ful if there’s a power outage.

This is not an all-encompassing list, but it is easy, inex­pen­sive and really use­ful when the expected happens.

It’s not some­thing we want to think about every day, but if we’re pre­pared it can turn a dis­as­trous sit­u­a­tion into some­thing that’s just dif­fi­cult. The Amer­i­can Red Cross has some great resources and advice for all kinds of sit­u­a­tions here. And a tool to help you esti­mate how much you’ll need of every­thing here based on your house­hold. Always remem­ber we’re here to help at IUC, but we hope you have a happy and safe weekend!

The unex­pected strikes…unexpectedly.

Photo credit: United Nations Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme / Foter.com / CC BY

Brain Awareness Week (or how to avoid Zombification from a concussion)

This week, be aware of your brain. Your delicious, delicious brain. Not only are they great for feeding your zombies, the gooey center in all of our skulls are extremely important! Here's our own Dr. Ratner weighing in on why concussion baseline screenings are so important:

It is amazing that we are generally so unaware of the organ that does the most for us. Here at Impact we value your brain! Well, most of your brain, anyway. One of the best things you can do as a teenager who is involved with sports is to get a baseline concussion screening. We do not charge for this test. It involves playing a computer game for about 25 minutes. There are no needles, no radiation, or tubes to be stuffed into your nose.  If you ever sustain a head injury or concussion, we repeat the test post-injury and the results help us to determine when it is safe to return to normal activity.

We know so much more about this subject than we did ten years ago. I compare it to seat belts. There was a time when seat belts were not used, but at some point we learned that without a doubt they save lives. It was not easy to convince some people, but now the majority of Americans believe it and wear seat belts. It won’t be long before the same type of paradigm shift occurs when it comes to concussion awareness and management.

So come on by either location, any day between 8AM-8PM for your baseline concussion screening BEFORE you get hurt. That way if you should have a head injury, we can make sure you're back to normal before  you run off into another potential head-bashing opportunity.

Zzzzz…It’s National Sleep Awareness Week

Did you know that sleep (which is so lux­u­ri­ous and won­der­ful any­way) greatly impacts your health? Not get­ting enough sleep can cause or con­tribute to obe­sity, dia­betes and depres­sion, all of which are wide­spread through­out the US. And being sleep-deprived can also cause traf­fic acci­dents and even impaired per­for­mance at school and work. There’s even a “Maggie’s Law” (named after a young woman killed by some­one dri­ving while sleep-deprived) in New Jer­sey mak­ing dri­ving while drowsy ille­gal. In fact, once you’ve been awake for 17+ hours, you’re con­sid­ered just about as impaired as some­one dri­ving while intoxicated. 

Try this quick list of tips to help you sleep well:

• Estab­lish a reg­u­lar bed and wake time
• Avoid nico­tine alto­gether and avoid caf­feine close to bedtime
• Avoid alco­hol
• Exer­cise reg­u­larly (but com­plete the work­out at least 3 hours before bedtime)
• Estab­lish a con­sis­tent relax­ing “wind-down” bed­time routine
• Cre­ate a sleep-conducive envi­ron­ment that is dark, quiet and comfortable
• Dis­cuss the appro­pri­ate way to take any sleep aid with a health­care professional

Check out the National Sleep Foundation’s site for more info (like the above list) and to find out if you’re “Sleep­ing Smart”