Category: A Healthier Community

12 Family-Friendly Apple Farms in Upstate New York

My toddler began his first apple picking trip by collecting the rotten fruit off the grass, offering them to me in his tiny palm and asking, “this?”

“No, sweetie,” I replied, gently knocking the mushy fruit out of his hands. “Try these.”

I pointed to the McIntosh hanging on a low branch by his head. He reached up and plucked a small one off the branch, dumping it into my bag. He zig-zagged through the trees, grabbing at the low-hanging fruit within his reach.

This apple farm had all the important features – a fenced-off area with chickens, a baby pig and goats; a store to buy little donuts and apple cider and a bright blue tractor trucking visitors to orchards of McIntosh and Spartan apples.

Matt picking apples. (provided by Joy Auch)

Matt picking apples. (provided by Joy Auch)

Before we left for the tractor ride back to the farm store to purchase our bounty, my little one did something he hadn’t done before. He grabbed an apple and took a bite and then another. It was the first time he willingly ate an apple.

Loving the sweet, tart or crisp apple

Apple picking isn’t just an active outing with lots of walking and hauling.  It may also foster a child’s love of the sweet, tart or crisp and always healthy apple.

“This is such a wonderful family bonding experience that is also exercise and healthy eating in disguise,” said Patricia Salzer, a registered dietitian and an Excellus BlueCross BlueShield workplace wellness consultant.

Apples are guilt-free because they have just traces of fat and sodium and no cholesterol. The skin of the apple is loaded with disease-fighting antioxidants. Adults and children alike can benefit from eating apples, whether they consume them out of hand, paired with peanut butter or baked in a wholesome fruit crisp with oats and nuts.

Apple farms of Upstate NY

Are you ready to embark with family or friends on one of the most quintessential fall activities?

If so, here’s a short list of apple orchards in upstate New York near Binghamton, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. My co-workers recommended many of these orchards as their go-to fall family fun places:

A list of apple picking opportunities in New York or any state can also be found at pickyourown.org

Please follow COVID-19 precautions while enjoying your visit to the apple orchard. For more information, contact your local apple farm. 

Sneak more apples into your meals

You’ve picked bushels and bushels of apples. Now what?

Salzer offers these tips as ways you can incorporate more apples into your daily diet:

  • Make a fruit salad with a mixture of your favorite fruits. Or, add apples to your vegetable salads.
  • Add apples to your cereal, yogurt, pancakes or oatmeal.
  • Add apples to winter squash soup or grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. Roast  them alongside chicken or pork.
  • Make an apple crisp with whole-wheat flour, oats and walnuts.

Keep apples visible in your kitchen so you’re more likely to eat them or store them in the front of your refrigerator. Better yet, swap out the cookie jar for a bowl of apples

Some tasty apple and other fall recipes are available on the Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Pinterest page at pinterest.com/excellusbcbs. Love pumpkin? Check out Five Pumpkin Breakfast Recipes for Fall.

I Never Saw a Tick on Me. But I Still Caught Lyme Disease.

I never saw it on me.

After years of walking the dog, hiking and trail running, I was trained to look for ticks. But I still didn’t spot it. Then I noticed a painless rash on my leg. I thought it was a bug bite, or skin irritation. I thought nothing of it.

I began to feel tired and developed a low-grade fever, but I still didn’t equate these symptoms to my bug bite from a tick I didn’t see, until I noticed the expanding redness around the bite.  The bite had also formed the “bull’s eye” or “target” look of Lyme disease.

By the time I saw my physician, the bull’s eye appearance was gone, but the red rash had spread. The rash looked like a common skin infection.  If I had not told my physician of the bull’s eye rash, we would have missed or delayed my Lyme disease diagnosis.

Notice I said “we.” Your doctor alone can’t diagnose a bite or rash he or she never observed. That’s why it’s important to actively participate in your health and diagnosis.

5 Essential Steps When Checking for Lyme Disease

Not all people with Lyme disease develop the bull’s eye rash. But if you do get it, measure the red patch around the bite to see if it’s expanding:

  1. Mark the edges of the patch
  2. Measure and record the patch’s height and width with a ruler
  3. Repeat the next day. Give these numbers to your physician.
  4. Take pictures of the rash and share with your doctor.
  5. Make a note if you experience fever, energy loss, and unusual joint stiffness. These are all common symptoms of early Lyme disease.

Preventing Lyme Disease

To avoid ticks, cover up with long sleeves and pants when you’re in the woods or in areas with high grass. Use insect repellant.

Ticks can be carried into your yard by your pets, so carefully examine your furry friends.

Even after you leave the woods or a grassy area, you can still prevent Lyme disease by quickly finding and removing ticks.

Here’s how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends safely removing ticks:

  • Take a bath or shower soon after coming indoors to help wash off the tick or find the little insect.
  • It’s not just a country song by Brad Paisley: really check yourself and loved ones for ticks! Use a hand-held or full-length mirror. Parents: Check for ticks under your kid’s arms, around and in their ears, inside their belly button, behind their knees, between their legs, around the waist and in their hair.
  • To remove ticks:
    • Grab the tick with a fine-tipped tweezer. Try to get as close to the surface of the skin as you can get.
    • Pull upward. Use steady, even pressure. If the mouth of the tick breaks off and stays in your skin, try to remove that part with tweezers.
    • Clean your hands and the area of the tick bite with rubbing alcohol, iodine scrub, or soap and water. Then kill it! Submerge the tick in alcohol, seal it in a bag or container, wrap it tightly in tape or flush it down the toilet.

Be Aware. Lyme Disease is Here!

Having been in practice as a chiropractor for 28 years, I saw and diagnosed many of my patients’ skin conditions, referring them on for appropriate care.

But I almost missed this diagnosis.

All health practitioners need to be aware of the early signs and symptoms of Lyme disease. Caught early, the disease is very treatable with antibiotics. Delayed recognitions can trigger life-changing complications. For more information, check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at cdc.gov/lyme.

You can catch Lyme disease if you’re bitten by an infected tick.

  • 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported annually in the U.S.
  • About 3,000 cases of Lyme disease were confirmed in New York in 2014, the most recent year for which data are available.

The number of cases is likely higher. Officials believe that only a fraction of illnesses are actually reported.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/humancases.html

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/tables.html

Race Day Checklist – 9 Tips Before Hitting Your Next Starting Line: 5ks, Half-Marathons and Mud Runs

I trained hard for my first Tough Mudder, a mud run through an obstacle course that included barbed wire and dangling electrical wires.

But a bulky T-shirt almost threw me off my game. I was running with a team, and we ordered identical T-shirts. I didn’t try on my shirt until 10 p.m. the night before the race. It was way too big.

Here’s Janette (left) with her Tough Mudder teammates. Her shirt might not look baggy, but that’s because her fellow runner is holding the back of her shirt, so it doesn’t look too big in the photo!

You need to wear tightly fitted clothes to compete in a Tough Mudder. A bulky shirt will slow you down, because it will be heavy with mud and get stuck as you’re crawling through barbed wire.

Fortunately, my boyfriend ran to the store and bought a replacement shirt while I got some beauty sleep before the big event.

No more race day snafus

Learn from me, and don’t go to your next 5k, half-marathon or mud run unprepared! If you bought new running clothes, for example, make sure you try them on long before race day.

I have friends who don’t do anything to prepare for a race other than making sure they’re able to run the distance. Unfortunately, this has caused a lot of problems.

One friend was late to a very popular race, the Turkey Trot.  Because she arrived late, she had to park far from the starting line. When she arrived, the race had already begun, and she was well behind the other participants.  She hated being the very last participant and did not finish very well.

Here are more tips to help you hit that personal record (PR), tackle a marathon, go from couch to 5k and avoid race day snafus:

The week before the run …

    1. Get enough sleep the entire week before your race. You consistently need to receive a solid amount of sleep if you want to perform well. I personally aim for at least eight hours of sleep a night.

The night before the run…

    1. Avoid intense workouts. Take it easy the day before the event so you can perform your best the next day. An easy run or cross-training is OK.
    2. Don’t try any new foods. You don’t want to surprise your body, or your body might surprise you. You don’t have to load up on carbohydrates the day before a shorter race, such as a 5k. But if you do want to increase your carbs for a longer race such as a marathon, make sure you do so the entire week before the race – not just the night before.
    3. Get ready the night before the race. Have your clothes, race packet and gear ready to go.
    4. Set an alarm. Even if you don’t think you’ll oversleep, it’s better to be safe than sorry.  Look up information on the parking situation before you leave for the event.
    5. Have a plan for your phone and keys, whether it’s leaving them with a friend or family member, using a running belt or wearing clothes with pockets.
    6. Hydrate the night before. Keep a water bottle near you and keep sipping. Avoid alcohol.

The morning of the event…

  1. For breakfast, eat whatever you normally would consume before a run and drink water. Toast, fruit, half of a bagel, dry cereal or oatmeal are all great options. Remember to avoid new foods.
  2. Arrive at the race with time to spare. Check in and warm up the same way you normally would before a run.

If things don’t go well, that’s OK. It’s important to embrace the unexpected and be safe. If you’re late to a 5k, mud run or marathon, don’t try sprinting fast to catch up. You wouldn’t want to strain a muscle or slip on wet autumn leaves. No matter what happens, remember to have fun!

Good luck!

Am I Selfish if I Don’t Get a Flu Shot? 3 Unexpected Reasons Why I’m Getting the Vaccination This Year

I don’t like needles, never have. But, every year I’ve gotten a flu shot, because I’ve been told that it’s my best defense against the flu. So I visit my doctor every year, close my eyes, turn my head and wait for the needle to plunge into my arm. Except, last year something different happened.

I still got the flu. Last February, it hit me pretty hard. As a matter of fact, I literally couldn’t sit up for a couple of days. It was frustrating. I couldn’t help but think, “Why get a flu shot if I still get the flu?”

The effectiveness of the flu shot can vary every year, so there’s always the possibility I could still get sick from the flu…again.

Which leaves me with basically two options this year – either get the shot again (and still risk getting the flu) or do nothing (and also risk getting the flu).

But my first unexpected reason for still getting the shot is that even if I get the flu again after getting the shot, the vaccination will probably protect me from developing serious complications, including severe pneumonia and/or a hospitalization.  This is especially true for people who are older than I am and/or battle certain chronic diseases.

It’s not all about the needles

But, what if I avoid the whole “needle thing” this year and not get a shot at all? Is that being selfish? Maybe, and that wouldn’t be good for you or those around you.

We all have a responsibility to protect those who can’t get a shot, but could get seriously sick if they caught the flu. Babies younger than 6 months of age are too young to get the vaccine. People with severe, life-threatening allergies to the shot also can’t get the vaccination.

I don’t want to get the flu and spread it to someone who can’t handle the disease. That’s my second unexpected reason for getting the vaccination.

Just consider these stats:

If more people avoid flu vaccines this season because of needle phobia, those numbers will surely jump. The flu virus spreads too easily and can cause serious health problems for women who are pregnant, the very young or very old and/or those who have a chronic illness or a medical condition that weakens their immune system.

So, it’s not just about me and my dislike of needles. When I get a flu shot, it doesn’t just protect me, it also helps to protect you and those around you.

Well, maybe it’s a little bit about the needles.

I’m also not the only one who hates needles. In an online survey by Harris Interactive conducted for Target Corp., 60 percent of adult respondents said they won’t get the flu vaccination, and about 20 percent of them said it’s because they’re afraid of needles.

For some, the nasal spray version of the flu vaccine was a way around their needle phobia. However, the nasal spray is not recommended for the coming flu season, because it doesn’t offer much protection from the virus, according to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kids may be harder hit by this recommendation, because the nasal spray accounts for about one-third of all flu vaccines given to children. Yet everyone age six months and older should get the shot, according to ACIP.

Overcoming the fear of needles

I start thinking about the shot at least 24 hours before receiving it. By the time I’m actually in the chair, I’m sure my blood pressure has risen above my normal numbers. All I can think about at that moment is just getting it over with.

If you’re like me and fear needles, here are tips for dealing with your phobia:

  • Distract yourself before and during the shot by listening to music, reading a book or using your phone.
  • Concentrate on taking slow, deep breaths and relaxing the muscles in your arm.
  • Instead of looking at what the health care provider is doing, focus intently on something else in the room. I always look away.
  • You can also ask your health care provider ahead of time about skin-numbing products that may reduce pain if applied about an hour before the shot.

Here are tips specific to kids:

  • Encourage your child to bring a favorite toy or comfort item to the appointment.
  • Be a good role model by staying positive and cheerful during the shot.
  • Remind your child (as well as yourself) that the shot is quick and will keep you healthy for a long time.

My third unexpected reason

You never know when the flu will hit. I got the flu in February.

I mistakenly thought the flu was pretty much done by then. I was wrong. Within just a few hours on a chilly mid-February day, I went from feeling perfectly fine to literally being unable to get out of bed. I felt awful for two straight days and had all of the typical flu symptoms.

Most of the time, seasonal flu activity peaks between December and February, but outbreaks can happen as early as October and last into May. Because you never know when the flu will peak each season, I’m going to make sure I get my flu shot earlier in October. That’s my third unexpected reason for getting the vaccination.

flu-infographic

Don’t let a fear of needles get in the way of doing the right thing for your health and the health of all those around you. This coming flu season, make sure everyone in your family gets a flu shot.