A Smoker's Choice: A Few Good Reasons for Cessation
 

Why is now the best time to quit tobacco? In the United States, for every person who dies from tobacco use, another 20 suffer with at least one serious tobacco-related illness or disease.

As noted in the 2010 Surgeon General's report, How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You, "Quitting tobacco use is one of the most important steps to improving a person's health and protecting the health of other family members."

In the United States, approximately 70 percent of adults who smoke report that they want to quit completely, and millions have attempted to quit tobacco.  Tobacco cessation is associated with significant health benefits that improve with time. At any age, the sooner quitting occurs, the sooner the body can begin to heal.


 

Breast Milk: Fresh Start to Good Health   

According to the National Immunization Survey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services, the rate of Georgia mothers whose babies were being breastfed at age 1 in 2007 remained flat from 2006 at 17.9 percent.  There were only 14 states in the U.S. that met the Healthy People 2010 goal to have 50 percent of mothers breastfeeding their infant at six months of age and only 15 states met the organization's goal to have 25 percent of mothers breastfeeding their infant at 12 months of age.

The Healthy People 2020 objectives for breastfeeding are: 82 percent ever breastfed, 61 percent at six months, and 34 percent at one year.

The number of women who breastfeed their infants varies significantly by race.  In Georgia in 2007, 27.9 percent of African-American mothers breastfed their infant at 6 months and 12.9 percent breastfed their baby at age 1.  By comparison, 45.1 percent of Caucasian mothers breastfed their infant at 6 months and 23.6 breastfed their baby at age 1.


 

August is National Immunization Awareness Month     

August is National Immunization Awareness Month and is the perfect time to promote immunizations and remind family, friends and coworkers to get caught up on their shots.  Immunizations aren't just for babies and young children.  We all need shots to help protect us from serious diseases and illness.

Today there are vaccines for a variety of diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, meningitis, diphtheria, influenza, pneumococcal disease, chickenpox, shingles and even cervical cancer.  The Georgia Department of Public Health is encouraging Georgians to protect every adult and child - and get immunized. 


 

My Seat Belt Saved My Life
 

Photos of the wrecked car make it hard to believe she walked away alive and with only bruises and no broken bones.  The black and blue marks of the seatbelt across her chest remind her that she was involved in a very serious accident that could have changed her life.

Janie Brodnax is the Chief Operations Officer for the Georgia Department of Public Health.  On her way to work recently, Brodnax was involved in serious accident.  She obeyed the law and buckled up on that day as she has for many years of driving.  That decision saved her life. Although her car was totaled, there were no fatalities. PHWEEK interviewed Brodnax to hear first-hand how driving with your seat belt buckled made all the difference in her survival.

"Another car cut me off when I was changing lanes," recalled Brodnax. "I swerved to avoid the car and lost control of my car, hitting the wall and causing my car to roll-over several times."
 

"When driving or riding in cars or SUVs equipped with seatbelts, I always wear mine," Broadnax said, remembering the details of the accident and how fast things changed.  "I have no doubt that I would not have survived had I not been wearing a seat belt."