Healthy Living

One of the best pieces of news I have heard in a long time is that many high schools are now requiring students to learn CPR before graduation. I have long believed that everyone, not just medical personnel, should learn CPR. You never know when you will need this skill to save the life of a family member, friend, or neighbor. Basic life support classes also teach how to help someone who is choking, how to use an AED (an Automated External Defibrillator), and how to recognize signs of a stroke or heart attack.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually. Unfortunately, 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed. This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 70 percent of cardiac arrests occur.

Here is a perfect example. My friend was standing at her kitchen window watching her neighbor mow his lawn. Suddenly, he stopped, clutched his chest, stumbled and fell on the ground. She rushed out, called 911 on her cell phone, and started to administer CPR. Fortunately, she had just completed my basic life support class where she had learned CPR and was able to quickly spring to action.

Most people die from cardiac arrest because they cannot survive — or cannot survive without brain damage — long enough to be defibrillated. When someone is in cardiac arrest, he or she needs prompt resuscitation by someone trained in CPR using chest compression. That is the only thing that will keep a patient alive long enough for emergency personnel to arrive and defibrillate the heart. The window of opportunity is small — only five to seven minutes to defibrillate before brain damage occurs unless successful CPR is done.

There is an increasing availability of defibrillators in public places, workplaces, planes, even some homes. But it’s even more critical for people to learn the simple skills that can save lives in the event of cardiac arrest. Call The American Red Cross, American Heart Association or American Ambulance in Norwich to find out where a class is being offered. As the American Heart Association declares on their website www.cpr.heart.org: “Simply put, the life you save with CPR is most likely to be someone you love.”

Alice Facente is a former community health education nurse for the Backus Health System. This advice should not replace the advice of your personal health care provider. To comment on this column or others, visit the Healthy Living blog at www.healthydocs.blogspot.com or e-mail any of the Healthy Living columnists at healthyliving@wwbh.org.

Every day I receive an email from DailyGood.org that starts with a positive quote, followed by an uplifting story or essay that illustrates that quote. Last week’s essay was entitled, “Today I will do nothing.” That sure caught my attention. In this fast-paced, often-frantic, stress-filled world perhaps there is nothing we need more than a day to do absolutely nothing.

It seems that everyone is too busy to “stop and smell the roses.” That’s a saying we haven’t heard in a long time.

Kids are rocketed from one activity to the next at a high velocity – from school to baseball practice, to dance lessons, to karate lessons, to a track meet, with barely enough time to squeeze in a fast food take-out burger and fries for supper. Homework is jammed in there somewhere, too.

Free time to do nothing seems to be a thing of the past, a time-waster, unnecessary, even boring.

But the frantic pace of our days leads to trouble sleeping at night. We start the process over again the next day without ever getting restored and revitalized.

Here are some ways to accept the challenge of slowing down and unwinding.

• Take time to go outside and breathe in fresh air. It will clear your mind and clear your lungs. Take a leisurely walk. Look around at the beauty nature has to offer. Children have this one figured out. They notice unusual bark on a tree, heart-shaped rocks, faces in the clouds, colorful wildflowers, chipmunks scurrying, ant hills being built, splendid sunsets; it’s all there to be seen and enjoyed -- and it’s free.

• Unplug from technology. For one day, take a break from computers, cell phones, all electronic devices, even television, but especially video games. Your email and Facebook posts will still be there a day later.

• Relax about keeping the house in perfect order. My husband doesn’t like this suggestion, but I agree with the late Erma Bombeck who said, “My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?”

The late author O. Henry is credited with saying, “The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate.”

We really can’t be aimless and uncalculating every day; that just isn’t feasible. But a day to do nothing once in a while may be just the remedy we all need.

Alice Facente is a former community health education nurse for the Backus Health System. This advice should not replace the advice of your personal health care provider. To comment on this column or others, visit the Healthy Living blog at www.healthydocs.blogspot.com or e-mail any of the Healthy Living columnists at healthyliving@wwbh.org.