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Iron Mountain VA offers free wellness service

IRON MOUNTAIN — The Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center (OGJVAMC) is pleased to continue offering “Early Alert,” a free, confidential and voluntary resource that checks in with Veterans once a week via text message. Check-ins involve general questions about sleep, physical health, relationships and financial challenges. If a Veteran identifies struggles during these check ins, Early Alert will instantly refer them to support resources that are specifically relevant for the challenges the Veteran describes, including 24/7 live crisis counseling as needed. Veterans do not need to ...

Health Matters: Neuropathy and fall risk

By Dr. Conway McLean, FAPWHc, DABFAS ESCANABA — The numbers tell the truth, the years to come will see a continued rise in the number of Americans afflicted with diabetes. That and our aging population will have significant consequences to healthcare expenditures. Both of these issues can have serious repercussions when it comes to wellness and quality of life measures. And both can lead to nerve problems. The term typically applied to the most common type of nerve dysfunction is neuropathy. Although the word is frequently encountered in the media, there is (as with so many ...

Health Matters: The mystery of neuropathy

ESCANABA — Nerves are interesting structures with a unique function and very special physiology. Their ability to transmit information nearly instantaneously is unmatched in the biological world and it’s essential for mammalian life. This capacity for nerve impulse transmission is what allows us to walk and talk, to think and see, to hold a cup of coffee, and so much more. How these thin-walled, delicate structures are able to do so is fascinating, and incorporates such sundry topics as physics, chemistry, and, of course, biology. But going into any detail is beyond the scope of ...

Health Matters: Too many living with low back pain

ESCANABA — Pain, an unpleasant sensation, is part of the human existence. Everyone is subject to it at some point in their life. The why and where of pain naturally varies, with low back pain apparently the most common location. As to why so much discomfort is generated by this part of the body is the million dollar question. Certainly there are numerous causes of pain from this region, with its complex anatomy and extreme physical tasks. But with the number of individuals afflicted, more than half of older adults according to some reports, this is a huge issue in both healthcare ...

Inflammation important for health

ESCANABA — Instinctively, most people think of inflammation as something bad, something to get rid of. We usually choose to medicate our pain or stiffness with drugs to relieve the discomfort. However, what you might not know is that inflammation is a critically important part of our defense mechanism. It is a normal part of the healing process. Inflammation is one of the body’s most important defense mechanisms. Without it, we would not be able to fight bacterial infections, injuries, and destruction of tissues. To some extent, inflammation is just a part of life, the inevitable ...

Health Matters: Healing benefitted with prolotherapy

ESCANABA — Some say our healthcare system needs to make a U-turn, a radical shift in its approach. Are we curing hypertension with our medications? Our approach to many musculoskeletal problems consists of masking symptoms, which is generally what’s happening with an anti-inflammatory, orally or injected. In effect, we’re hoping that mother nature will eventually heal the problem so the patient can discontinue the drug. Pharmaceutical use, in general, exemplifies our approach, in which medications are able to control the condition or relieve symptoms, but without having any ...