Balancedliving winter2013 web

BalancedLIVING Winter 2013

Stay Healthy Aloft pp. 12 -13

Why Exercise Matters to Your Kids pg. 9

erview ome: Ov H w e N Buying a ns y Traditio a d li o H y Health uiz izations Q n u m Im Adult

BalancedLiving Winter 2013

MINES & Associates 10367 West Centennial Road Littleton, Colorado 80127 800.873.7138 www.MINESandAssociates.com

A word from your Employee Assistance Program...

. . . . . . . . C r e d its . . . . . . .

Life Advantages - Author Delvina Mirtemadi ©2013 Ways to Enhance Your Self-Esteem pg. 4

Welcome to our winter issue of Balanced Living. It is this time of year that we all find ourselves wondering where time goes as another year grows ever closer. So get those resolutions ready to start next year off better than ever.

This winter beat the cold by going on a trip somewhere warm, and stay healthy while you are at it by following this issue’s tips for traveling. Or just stay at home with loved ones and start some new healthy holiday traditions your family will love.

And if the cold season starts to feel a little too dreary and you need a pick-me-up, please don’t hesitate to call your Employee Assistance Program.

See you next year!

– The MINES Team

Wellness Library Health Ink and Vitality Communications © 2013 Improve Your Listening Skills pg. 5 Start Some Healthful Holiday Traditions pp. 6 - 7 Quiz: Adult Immunizations pg. 14 Krames Staywell Find Safe, Fun Ways to Keep Young Kids Active pg. 8 Here’s Why Exercise Matters to Your Kids pg. 9 Here’s How to Stay Healthy Aloft pp. 12 -13 Nolo Legal Press Buying a Home: Overview pp. 10 - 11 www.LiveStrong.com Rainbow Spaghetti Squash pg. 15

ChooseWell

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Perspectives on Organizational Wellness

From Wellness to Wellbeing

Watch our entire 2013 webinar series online and catch up on what organizations are doing to improve their members’ health.

Physical Wellness

Occupatio

Stress Reduction?

nal Welln ess

Emotional Wellness

Team Building

Eating Right

Fitness and You

Our 2013 webinar series is focused on how you can create a wellness-driven workforce. This year, our BizPsych team will be hosting four panel-discussion webinars regarding different aspects of wellness. We are inviting our clients, partners, and key stake-holders to share their experiences, perspectives, and highlight how their program sets them apart from other wellness programs.

To receive updates visit: MINESandAssociates.com/webinar

Broadcast 1: Physical Wellness April 17th 10am - 11am MST

This discussion encompasses nutrition, physical fitness, stress, and how to avoid unhealthy habits like smoking, excessive drinking, and drugs.

Broadcast 2: Occupational Wellness

July 17th 10am - 11am MST

Explore the importance and impact of having a culture that promotes having a positive attitude in the workplace. Discover strategies to build a culture that embraces meaningful recognition, practices the art of appreciation and offers ways to support and enrich career development.

Broadcast 3: Emotional Wellness September 18th 10am - 11am MST

How good are you at being aware of your emotions, accepting your feelings or managing your emotions?

Relationships, stress, self-esteem, and life outlook are all factors that play a role in managing our relationship with ourselves and with others in our personal and professional lives. In this session, we will explore ways to enhance your emotional well being.

Broadcast 4: From Wellness to Wellbeing November 20th 10am - 11am MST

How does wellbeing differ from wellness? We’ll explore a few new trends in wellness. You may even be able to create a huge shift in the overall health of your organization after this! Come learn how to take a pulse on your organization’s current level of wellness and develop a plan to move it to optimal levels of wellbeing.

Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in our webinars? We’d love to hear from you.

Shoot us an email at communications@minesandassociates.com and let us know what you’d like to see.

www.MINESandAssociates.com | 800.873.7138

Ways to Enhance Your Self-Esteem Feeling good about yourself is an essential element to living a healthy, happy life. Unfortunately, we are often our own worst enemy. Whether we are insecure about certain parts of our lives or we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, how we feel about who we are and how we live our lives can greatly impact our quality of life. The good news is self-esteem is something you can work on and change for the better. Read on to find how you can increase your self-esteem and enhance your life.

Replacing Negative Self-Talk with Positive Self-Talk

What happens when you make a mistake? Listen to your internal monologue and find out what you’re saying to yourself and about yourself. By tuning into how you treat yourself internally, you can make your internal monologue more positive. When you don’t verbally beat yourself up, you can bring more positive feelings into your life.

Praise Yourself

Take some time to reflect. What have you accomplished? It doesn’t matter if it is a big thing or a small thing, if it means something to you and makes you feel good, it’s important. Write them down on a piece of paper or take time to think about each success. By noting them, you can realize that what you’ve done is significant.

Speak Up When Necessary

Don’t be a doormat. Think before you speak, but speak up when it is necessary to do so. Respect the opinions of others, and also respect that you have an opinion, too. Teaching yourself to be assertive and to communicate effectively can help your relationship with others and your relationship with yourself.

Be Understanding

If you make a mistake or blunder, don’t take it too seriously. Mistakes happen all the time, so forgive yourself and others when they happen. Don’t criticize or dwell on what’s happened, move forward and use it as a learning situation.

Nurture Good Relationships

Who do you spend time with? The friendships and relationships you choose say a lot about how you feel about yourself. It is important for the people who are close to you to be supportive and kind to you. If they aren’t, reconsider those relationships. Finding people who support you helps you support yourself. M

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Winter 2013 Balanced Living

Improve Your Listening Skills Successful communication is a two-way street. When someone speaks to you, you should listen and create a dialogue. As you listen and converse, your goal should be understanding, not winning or being right.

If you’re like most people, however, you have undeveloped listening skills.

“Listening is the art of truly hearing what a person is trying to say, not just what’s said. The best listeners hear the words and see the body language so they capture the whole message,” says Anne Warfield, president of Impression Management Professionals in Minneapolis, and author of “Communicating More Effectively.”

Ms. Warfield offers these suggestions on how to improve your listening skills.

Listen actively

Body language to look for

If you learn to use active listening skills to hear and comprehend the thoughts, feelings, and concerns behind the words, you’ll make a speaker feel respected and also create an understanding that leads to progress and mutual benefit.

Eyes. Good eye contact signifies honesty and confidence. To create good eye contact, position yourself so you’re at about the same eye level as the other person.

“Active listening takes concentration, effort, and the ability to put your own agenda aside, for the moment, so you can understand the other person’s viewpoint,” Ms. Warfield says.

Steps to active listening Stop whatever you’re doing and give your full attention to the speaker. This shows respect and allows you to view body language. To demonstrate your interest, lean forward, look directly at the other person, nod and make appropriate comments about what he or she says.

What to listen for Words. Is the message clear and concise? What are the words alone trying to say?

Tone of voice. The tone of someone’s voice reflects the person’s emotional state. Does the tone sound hostile or nervous, or does it sound friendly, relaxed, and sincere?

Facial expression. A genuine smile expresses friendship, approval, and relaxation. Sullen looks represent disinterest, disapproval, or concern.

Frowning conveys disapproval or disbelief.

Posture. Standing tall and straight with arms relaxed at the side indicates confidence, while sloped shoulders suggest low self-esteem. Crossed arms signal a person’s anger or defensiveness.

Rating your listening skills “To find out how well you listen, repeat what you think the other person said before you respond to it,” says Ms. Warfield. “If people correct you more than 20 percent of the time, you hear what you want to hear, not what’s said.”

Listening actively pays off because mutual understanding in communication is essential for success, not only in your career, but also in your personal life. M

Pitch. A high-pitched voice usually indicates nervousness, fear, or anxiety. A lower pitch signifies confidence.

Pace. People usually vary in the speed of their speech.

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Start Some Healthful Holiday Traditions The month of December can produce extra stress, a breakdown in healthy eating habits, even depression. But you and your family can adopt some new traditions that may help relieve the season’s stress and make your holidays healthy and happy.

“Each December, millions of Americans find themselves spending more money than they can afford, taking on more responsibilities than they can handle, and having less relaxed time with their families than they have at any other time of the year,” explains Jo Robinson, coauthor of “Unplug the Christmas Machine.” “Too many people attempt to celebrate someone else’s holidays. They’re taking their cues on what the holidays should be from television shows, ads, store displays, or their own parents, rather than doing what would be most meaningful to them.”

Your physical health When the holidays become more than you bargained for, your physical health can be compromised because you may put aside healthy habits. And stress can put additional demands on your body. Here are some tips on maintaining your health during the holiday season: • Don’t do too much. Give yourself some time to relax.

• Share the workload. Let everyone play an active role; make the holidays a family affair so you’re not burdened with all the work.

• Establish priorities. You can’t do everything; say no to some demands on your time.

• Simplify your life. Be less elaborate this year. Relax your housekeeping and holiday preparations.

• Continue to exercise. Don’t let your regular regimen lapse.

• Eat healthy foods and limit your consumption of high-fat holiday treats. Serve healthy fare at your family’s holiday party.

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Your emotional health It’s easy to become overwrought this time of year, especially if you believe something is lacking in your holiday celebration. Here are some ways to create new holiday traditions that will help level your emotions: • Ask yourself if you really enjoy all the rituals or whether they have merely become habits. Try adopting less elaborate traditions of holidays past.

• Don’t be afraid to scale down gift giving. You’ll probably receive a lot of support.

• If your annual party is too much to handle, postpone it until after the holidays when you have more time to prepare. This also will help alleviate post-holiday letdown by giving you something to look forward to.

• If you are unable to be with your family, get out around people. Plan to be with friends or volunteer to help others who also may be separated from their families.

Happy and healthy kids Children are especially vulnerable to commercial stimuli during the holiday season. But basically, all kids really need are realistic expectations about gifts, an even-paced holiday season and strong, loving family traditions. Here are some ways to make the holidays special for your children: • Spend more time with your kids. Entertain less and attend fewer parties that exclude children.

• Watch less television and do more activities as a family.

• Include your kids in all preparations. Let your children help you decorate and bake, even if it means your creations aren’t perfect.

• Teach children the meaning of giving. Adopt a needy family and have your youngsters help you prepare a meal for them. Suggest that your children buy a gift for an underprivileged child with their own money. Or ask them to donate one of their own gifts to a less fortunate child.

• Teach your children that gifts don’t have to be tangible. Trade intangible gifts with each other -- such as helping with homework, washing the dishes, and polishing shoes. Let your children come up with their own ideas of what they can offer. M Winter 2013 Balanced Living 7

Find Safe, Fun Ways to Keep Young Kids Active

In a world that hypes baby yoga and baby swimming classes, can baby football be far behind?

Physical activity for the very young is vital, but avoid such extremes, experts say.

“The norm now is for kids to be inactive, and your child is never too young to begin movement,” says Eric Small, M.D., who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on sports medicine and fitness. “But on the other end of the spectrum we have parents enrolling kids 1, 2, and 3-years-old in classes they are not ready for. I just treated a preschooler for knee pain from being overstretched in a yoga class.”

On the other hand, some busy parents keep kids in one place to aid child care. “We containerize kids for safe-keeping and convenience,” says Jim Pavarnik, Ph.D., president of the North American Society for Pediatric Exercise Medicine. Some spend hours in car seats or strollers. But kids have to move to build cognitive and motor skills and to learn that physical activity is fun.

The experts recommend:

• Toddlers should have at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity a day. Preschoolers need at least an hour.

• Toddlers need an hour or more each day in free play. That could mean riding, pushing, pulling, and climbing safe objects, for instance.

• Toddlers and preschoolers shouldn’t be inactive for more than an hour at a time except when sleeping.

Activity doesn’t have to be complex or costly. Play patty-cake, for instance.

Activity builds bones

One payoff for activity may be better bones. A study of 460 children (average age 5) compared those who did 40 minutes of vigorous activity a day, like hopping, running, and jumping, with those who didn’t.

The study, printed in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in July 2004, found the active kids had: • 9 percent more bone area and 12 percent greater bone strength in boys.

• 7 percent more bone area and 9 percent greater bone strength in girls. M

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Winter 2013 Balanced Living

Here’s Why Exercise Matters to Your Kids

Do you think gym class and other forms of physical activity aren’t important for children? Consider these U.S. government statistics: • • •

The percentage of young people who are overweight has doubled since 1980.

One out of three high school students doesn’t participate regularly in vigorous physical activity.

Only 29 percent of high school students attend daily physical education classes.

“What we’re seeing are the extremes in which some kids play a lot of competitive sports in organized leagues while others get no physical activity at all,” says Eric Small, M.D. A pediatric sports medicine specialist, Dr. Small is a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

How can you tell if your kid is unfit?

Howell Wechsler, Ed.D., M.P.H., heads the Health Science Division of Adolescent School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Wechsler says you may have a problem if your child: • • • • •

Is out of breath after climbing one to two sets of stairs.

Has trouble carrying a sack of groceries in from the car.

Can’t touch his or her toes.

Is clearly overweight and “knock kneed” Is an object of ridicule, teasing, or social ostracism by peers because he or she is “fat.”

The role of gym class Getting your child into the game doesn’t have to mean competitive sports. Experts say parents should lobby for regular physical education classes in school.

“It’s a tragedy when physical education is discontinued,” says Howard Taras, M.D., a professor at the University of California at San Diego. “Children who are physically active during the day are also more alert and able to learn,” says Dr. Taras, who teaches school health and community pediatrics.

Adolescents should be physically active each day, experts say.

They also should: • Do three or more sessions a week of activity lasting 20 minutes or more.

• Pick activities that require vigorous, aerobic exertion.

That doesn’t count weight lifting or things like softball that leave kids standing around a lot. Family walks, bike rides, and similar activities are a great start, Dr. Small says. M

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Buying a Home: Overview If you’ve decided to buy a house, you may be wondering where to begin -- find a real estate agent? Go to open houses? You’ll have to juggle a number of tasks simultaneously, ranging from the fun to the tedious. The preview below will alert you what’s ahead, and link you to other key information.

Step 1: Decide Which Community or Neighborhood Interes You If you’re already committed to a certain geographical area, and know you can afford it, jump down to the next step.

However, if you’re moving to a different state, or you have an inkling that your ideal neighborhood might be out of your financial reach, you may need to research other neighborhoods.

Step 2: Begin Looking at Houses Even before you’re ready to choose a house, visiting open houses is a great way to get to know your local market.

Visit a wide range of houses, paying attention to the numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms, special features, and overall charm. If the seller has made pest or other inspection reports available, read them carefully, paying particular attention to the estimated cost of repairs. Ask the agent how many offers are expected on the house (multiple bidders can drive up the list price, and vice versa).

Step 3: Assemble Your Team of Professionals Most people prefer to work with a real estate agent or a lawyer at some point in the process. (In fact, in a handful of U.S. states, a lawyer must be hired to help finalize the sale.) A mortgage broker can also be of great help in finding the right home loan.

Experienced, responsible professionals can save you time, money, and aggravation. By the same token, incompetent or unethical ones can mess matters up badly. Take the time to get referrals from friends, and meet with a few prospects before you hire anyone.

Step 4: Figure Out How You’ll Pay for the House You’ll probably have to save, scrounge, and borrow in order to afford your house. There are two parts of the purchase that you’ll need to prepare for: your down payment and your mortgage. If you can make a down payment of 20% or more of the purchase price, you’ll avoid paying private mortgage insurance (PMI).

Mortgages now come in all flavors and varieties, not just the fixed rate and adjustable rate ones from the past. The better your credit rating, the more favorable a mortgage you’ll be able to obtain.

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Step 5: Offering to Buy the House You Want Here’s where you lay your cards on the table, and present the seller with a written offer to buy the house. (Most states have standard contract forms that you or your real estate agent can use for this purpose.) The standard offer form will usually require you to state your proposed purchase price, where you expect to obtain financing, what conditions or “contingencies” you’re attaching to the offer, how quickly you’re willing to close the deal, and more.

Step 6: Dealing With the House’s Physical Condition Whether new or old, no house is in perfect condition. An important part of the homebuying process is finding out about the house’s condition from the seller, investigating its condition on your own, and protecting yourself against problems that will arise in the future.

Many states’ laws require sellers to tell you about many or most problems that they know of concerning the house -- issues like leaks, termites, a faulty foundation, past water or fire damage, and more.

No matter how informative your seller seems to be, you’ll still want to have your own inspections done by at least one experienced professional -- and for the sale to be contingent upon your approving the results.

Neither the seller nor the inspector can know everything about the house, however. Problems could be lurking that they can’t see, and new problems -- or disasters -- could arise later. For these, you’ll need to buy homeowners’ insurance.

Step 7: Closing the Deal Events start moving very quickly toward the end of a house-buying process. Your purchase contract will normally contain a “closing date,” and all your activities will be geared toward wrapping things up by then. You’ll need to finalize your financing, review the home inspection and other reports, probably have the house appraised (most lenders require this), get title insurance, and more.

Stay focused on the big picture. Little issues will come up that need negotiating -- for example, the inspection report may show a minor needed repair, which you’d like the seller to pay for. If the seller refuses, he or she risks your calling off the deal. But if you play hardball, you may lose the house over a few hundred dollars.

On the closing day, you probably won’t meet with the seller in person. More likely you’ll go to the office of your title agent, escrow agent, or attorney to sign the final documents. Then the house is yours! M

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Here’s How to Stay Healthy Aloft While the thought of flying gives some people white knuckles, commercial airliners are actually much safer than cars, bicycles, or even your own home.

But being airborne involves more potential health considerations than you might think. Veteran fliers and medical experts know some tips to prevent these conditions.

An open ear

Depending on how high you’re flying, a typical airline cabin is pressurized to the equivalent altitude of 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. Ascending usually causes no problems, but some people can experience pain during descent if their middle ear doesn’t readjust to the increasing pressure.

Yawning or swallowing can help ease the pain; so can chewing gum. Or try this: inhale, close your mouth and pinch your nostrils shut, then gently push the breath from your lungs up toward the back of your throat and nose. This will force air up into the eustachian tube and equalize the pressure in your ears.

But what if you’re seriously congested beforehand? Stuart R. Rose, M.D., the Northampton, Mass., author of the recent “International Travel HealthGuide”, suggests asking your doctor about postponing your trip if you are suffering from an acute ear infection, heavy cold, sinusitis, hay fever, or an upper respiratory infection.

He recommends the following strategies: • If you have nasal congestion due to allergies, ask your doctor to prescribe a cortisone-type nasal spray and/or a non-sedating antihistamine.

• If you’re congested from a cold, take a decongestant two hours before departure.

• Use a nasal decongestant two hours before landing, and blow your nose frequently to remove mucus.

Economy Class syndrome

It’s hard to enjoy sitting in a cramped position in economy class for several hours. For most passengers, all this means is slight discomfort, or maybe a few pins and needles. But for a few, sitting like this can cause venous stasis or deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the settling of blood or actual clot formation in the veins of your legs. Although often associated with economy class, DVT may occur in persons in first class or in any transportation where the person sits for a protracted period.

A more serious complication of DVT is a pulmonary embolus (PE). This is a clot that moves from the legs to the lungs and may cause mild to serious or fatal consequences. The longer a person sits without moving the higher the risk of developing DVT and subsequently “throwing” a PE. Flights over 12 hours have the greatest risk while DVT is uncommon in flights under four hours. Other risk factors include increasing age (age over 50), overweight or obesity, a previous history of PE, cardiovascular disease, cancer, oral contraceptive use or pregnancy, recent surgery, and dehydration. Moving the legs frequently, jiggling the feet, stretching the calves by flexing the foot up toward the shin, and getting up frequently and walking up and down the isle improve blood flow in the legs. Preventing dehydration is important.

Always maintain adequate hydration while traveling.

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Don’t lag behind because of jet lag

While jet lag has a widespread reputation, it occurs only on certain types of flights and in certain sets of circumstances. Among the symptoms: daytime fatigue and the inability to sleep at night, gastrointestinal distress, tired muscles, headaches, moodiness, and general malaise. Other factors contributing to jet lag include travel stress, sleep deprivation, and fatigue.

But the primary cause of jet lag is the disruption of our circadian rhythms - the internal clocks on which our bodies run - caused by travel either east or west across multiple time zones. Body temperature, hormone releases, eating, and sleep-wake cycles all operate on circadian (circle the day) rhythms. They are controlled by both internal clocks and external clocks, such as sunlight and social cues.

Traveling across time zones throws these internal and external clocks out of synch and jet lag results. Your internal rhythms adjust easier when you travel west across time zones, which tends to lengthen your day.

That’s because without exterior cues (clocks, daylight), our bodies would run on a 25-hour clock, studies have shown. Eastward travel shortens the day well below that 25-hour cycle.

While researchers investigate ways of combating jet lag, including bright light treatments and pills containing hormones to adjust internal clocks, medical experts advocate a common sense approach. The most basic advice: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Tips to avoid jet lag Before you leave: • If possible, try to get your body on your destination time schedule.

• Get plenty of sleep; don’t stay up late packing the night before.

• Light: If you travel westward across several time zones, try to get three hours of outdoor light the afternoon you arrive in order to extend your biological clock. If you travel eastward several time zones, get early morning light as soon as possible in order to tell your body it should be waking up earlier. If you travel more than six time zones, however, take mid-day light instead.

• If you have trouble sleeping, experts recommend taking a short-acting sleeping pill - but only for the first few days. Ask your physician’s advice on this.

• By the day after your arrival, begin eating and sleeping on local time.

Do drink the water Dehydration certainly plays a role in jet lag. Blame the air you breathe inside the airplane. The high-altitude air pulled in through jet engines is extremely dry; relative humidity aloft is as low as 5 to 10%, and not higher than 25 %.

So, to prevent dehydration, experts advise: • Drink extra liquids shortly before you depart.

• While in-flight, avoid alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is a diuretic that promotes dehydration.

• Don’t drink too much coffee; it also promotes dehydration. Also, excess caffeine can cause over stimulation, nervousness, tremors, and anxiety.

• Limit fruit juices or soft drinks. They contain too much sugar and/or caffeine, experts say. Grapefruit juice and excess sugar are also diuretics.

• Drink plenty of water. Try for a liter or more for a six or seven-hour flight, in addition to what you drink with your meals.

• After you arrive at your destination, continue to drink extra liquids. M Winter 2013 Balanced Living 13

Quiz Yourself: Adult Immunizations

Immunizations aren’t just for children. Adults need immunizations, too, to protect themselves against disease.

Knowing which vaccinations you need can help you maintain your health and wellbeing throughout your lifetime. Talk to your doctor if you have any questions about your immunization schedule.

Questions

1. A tetanus and diphtheria booster should be given every 15 years.

2. You need a polio booster throughout your lifetime.

3. The pneumococcal vaccine protects against pneumococcal pneumonia, a serious lung infection that 2 million Americans suffer each year.

4. The influenza (flu) shot should be given to anyone age 50 or older; people with diabetes or chronic heart, kidney, blood or lung problems, such as asthma and emphysema; and health care providers.

5. The best time to get a flu shot is December or January, when flu season starts.

1. False. It should be given every 10 years.

2. False. Most adults who were vaccinated as children do not need further immunization for this disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Three groups of adults are considered high risk and should discuss with their doctor getting a polio vaccination or booster: people traveling to areas of the world where polio is common, laboratory workers who might handle the polio virus, and health care workers who treat people with polio.

3. True. Those who should receive the vaccine are people age 65 and older; people with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes; people with chronic heart or lung diseases, such as asthma and emphysema; and adults without spleens or with weakened immune systems. A person vaccinated before age 65 should receive a second dose at age 65 if at least five years have passed since the first dose, according to the CDC. People without spleens or with weakened systems should also receive a second dose at least five years after the first.

4. True. Others who should receive an annual flu shot include residents of nursing homes, women in their second or third trimester during flu season; and family members or caregivers who may infect people at high risk for the flu, the CDC says.

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6. The hepatitis A vaccine should be given to people who live, work, or travel outside the United States; military personnel; and food-service workers.

7. The measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles) vaccine should be given to women of childbearing age whose immunity to MMR is low.

8. If you live in an area where Lyme disease is prevalent and you work or spend time in wooded areas where ticks are present, you should consider getting a Lyme disease vaccination.

9. The smallpox vaccine has been added to the list of immunizations recommended for adults.

10. Only children need to have the varicella-zoster, a shot that protects against chickenpox.

Answers

5. False. The best time to get this shot is October or November of each year, before the flu season begins.

6. True. Sexually active people, intravenous drug users, people with chronic liver disease, people with clotting factor disorders, and researchers who work with the virus in a lab setting also should receive the vaccine.

7. True. A simple blood test can determine your immunity.

If your immunity isn’t up to par and you’re considering pregnancy, you’ll need a booster shot at least a month before conception.

8. True. You should also consider getting a vaccination if you plan to travel to an area where Lyme disease is prevalent and you plan to spend time in the woods.

The vaccine is not recommended for people with little exposure to wooded or overgrown areas infested with Lyme disease-carrying ticks, the CDC says.

9. False. The CDC does not recommend that the general public be vaccinated against smallpox. Smallpox vaccination is only recommended for researchers working on smallpox bioterrorism investigations and for health care workers at sites designated to take patients infected with smallpox.

10. False. Chickenpox can be fatal in adults. Any adult who didn’t have chickenpox as a child should talk to a doctor about getting the vaccine. M

SEASONAL RECIPE

Rainbow Spaghetti Squash • • • • • • • • • • •

1 lb. Spaghetti Squash 1 tsp. Vegetable Oil, Coconut 1 tsp. Garlic 1/4 tsp. Crucshed Red Pepper 1/4 tsp. Salt 1 cup Sweet Red Pepper 15 Stalks of Asparagus 1 1/2 cups Broccoli 1/4 cup Dry White Wine 2 tbsp. each Parsley, Cilantro, Nutritional Yeast 1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1. Fill a medium baking dish with 2 inches of water. Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Place both halves in baking dish skin-side up, flesh-side down.

2. Microwave on high 8-10 minutes or until squash is tender. Let sit until cool enough to handle and scoop out flesh. Set aside.

3. Heat coconut oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook slowly until it starts to brown, stirring constantly to coat in oil for about 1 minute. Add crushed red pepper and salt, stirring to blend evenly. Increase heat to medium high and add vegetables. Stir to coat with spices before adding wine.

4. When pan is very hot, pour wine over vegetables and continue to toss in pan. Let cook/steam about 5 minutes or until vegetable become al dente.

5. Add squash, parsley, cilantro, and nutritional yeast. Stir to incorporate all ingredients and remove from heat. Season with salt and lots of pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh tomatoes if desired.

Makes approximately 2 servings.

Nutritional analysis (per serving): 212 calories; 4.73 g fat ( 2.12 g sat ); 0 mg cholesterol; 34.11 g carbohydrates; 6.59 g from sugars; 12.27 g protein; 12.2 g fiber; 359.79 mg sodium.

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Helping you keep

your balance

Your Employee Assistance Program is here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week It’s confidential, FREE, and available to you and your family.

For information or confidential assistance call 1-800-873-7138