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Compassion and Dedication Prevail Among Nurses

by TERESA SCHIFFERSponsored by Central Florida Health Care National Nurses Week is officially celebrated May 6-12, but if you talk to Tim Ward at Central Florida Health Care, you’d think it is celebrated every day. “I can brag about our nurses all day long!” he says. “We have some of the most creative and personable…
Pop Quiz!

How Much Do You Know About Giving the Gift of Life? There is a dire need for blood donations in the U.S. as an average of 4.5 million Americans need a blood transfusion every year. The medical community relies on donations as 29,000 pints of donated blood are used every day across the nation. These…
Stress Can Wreak Havoc on Physical Health

by TERESA SCHIFFER Sponsored by Central Florida Health Care Stress affects everyone on a daily basis. Some types of stress motivate people to do what needs to be done every day. Then there are times when stress causes us discomfort, unhappiness, and even chronic health conditions. We talked with Julie Decanio, LCSW, who is a…

Body, mind & spirit: Integrating primary and behavioral care

When you go to the doctor complaining of stomach pain, you probably don’t expect your problem to be depression. But it just may be. When you complain of headache, clumsiness, dizziness, shakiness, blurred vision, tingling around the mouth and seizures, you might expect an anxiety or bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder. You may be surprised if…
Mediterranean diet for cardiovascular health

Dr. Sean P. O’Rourke is a board-certified cardiologist at Watson Clinic. With a subspecialty in cardiovascular disease, Dr. O’Rourke often sees patients suffering from heart disease. He took the time to answer some questions about heart disease, which has a higher death rate in Polk County than in the rest of Florida. Health…
Medical advice: 8 simple tips to sounder sleep

Sure, there’s plenty to worry about these days: The economy, job security and family issues. It’s enough to lose sleep over. Not that we need any help from sleep deprivation. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), one out of 10 adults has insomnia so severe that it has daytime consequences. As…