Lifestyle & Wellness

Mate­ri­als:

• Drift Wood Pieces
• Acrylic Craft Paint & Glit­ter Craft Paint
• Glass Beads
• Painter’s Tape
• Jute
• Small Golf Eye Hooks
• White Bead­ing Thread

We’re cel­e­brat­ing Nation­al Nutri­tion Month by raid­ing the fridges of two of our Reg­is­tered Dieti­tians. QMG Reg­is­tered Dietit­ian Ang­ie Zanger-Geisel­man shares a few of her favorite go-to items. If you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing how our Nutri­tion Ser­vices can help you, click here or call us at (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3481.

Ticks can be more than an annoy­ance. They can trans­mit dis­eases that pose a risk to your health. Dr. Hala Saad, Infec­tious Dis­ease physi­cian at Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG), says ticks can be active through­out the year, but their activ­i­ty lev­els are gen­er­al­ly high­er dur­ing the warmer months. As we enter the dog days of sum­mer, Dr. Saad offers tips to keep your­self safe this summer.

Sum­mer is a great time for trav­el. If you’re hit­ting the road in the com­ing weeks, make sure you’re pre­pared. What­ev­er activ­i­ty you have planned, hav­ing a trav­el first aid kit with you will help you with any sit­u­a­tion that may arise.

It’s begin­ning to look a lot like Christ­mas. Well, as I’m writ­ing this, it’s near­ly 50 degrees and rain­ing so it seems more like East­er but all the fes­tive lights and trees and inflat­able yard dec­o­ra­tions would sug­gest oth­er­wise. This, the most won­der­ful time of the year, with all its glit­ter and fruit­cake, also brings more than its share of stress. Here are a few com­mon hol­i­day prob­lems and tips for han­dling them.

Sum­mer is wind­ing down. Well, it was when I start­ed this post, but it seems that autumn has arrived overnight. The tem­per­a­ture out­side is notice­ably cool­er and pump­kin spice every­thing is in the stores. But along with the geese, some people’s moods are get­ting ready to fly south for win­ter. Fall ush­ers in all the plaid scarves and the start of mild to mod­er­ate depres­sion for many people.

Our region recent­ly expe­ri­enced icy con­di­tions, and as the win­ter sea­son goes on, we are like­ly to see more ice and snow. Win­ter weath­er can be unpre­dictable, so it is impor­tant to be pre­pared to pre­vent seri­ous injury.

The hol­i­days are com­ing quick­ly, which means it is almost time for Hal­loween. Tra­di­tion­al­ly Hal­loween has been a day where chil­dren can bet on one thing, CAN­DY! No, this is not a blog post telling you to lock your chil­dren up that day and make them eat raw broc­coli, but rather a post to explain how we can make this hol­i­day inclu­sive for chil­dren with food allergies.

The Holiday’s are Here

All too often when the weath­er gets cold and the days get short­er, good inten­tions go out the win­dow. Most of the time ​“Hol­i­day Foods” like gravies, high-fat meats, desserts, eggnog, can­dy, stuff­ing, and casseroles are not exact­ly help­ing any­one reach their health goals. While it is okay to have an occa­sion­al treat, Octo­ber to Jan­u­ary tends to be a time when treats are read­i­ly avail­able and fit­ness is at an all-time low. It may not seem like 3 or 4 months is a big deal, but most Amer­i­cans gain at least 1 – 5 pounds dur­ing this peri­od. Addi­tion­al­ly, tak­ing so many months off from focus­ing on your health makes it that much hard­er to get back-on-track. For those that have dia­betes, hyper­ten­sion, fat­ty liv­er dis­ease, or oth­er chron­ic con­di­tions a few months can cer­tain­ly have a large impact on dis­ease pro­gres­sion and outcomes.