Talking Health with the Clinton County Health Department

  1-800-222-1222 is a number every household should know, or at the very least have on the refrigerator. It connects you with Poison Help 24/7/365. What do you call them for? Well, if you are a parent, it might be when your kids are playing Lion King and decide to forage for food in the houseplants. Or when your partner thinks they can get rid of the sniffles quicker by washing down their Nyquil with Alka-Seltzer. Speaking from experience, you don’t really know when or why you will need them, but trust me, you will. Public Health Educator Maryann Barto is with us this month to teach us who and what to look out for. Maryann works in CCHD’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program where she visits the homes of residents (just like you) and helps make them safer. After visiting your home and completing a safety assessment, she can provide you with free education and safety products. Want a visit? Give her a call at 518-565-4870. Maryann, who should we have our eye on when it comes to accident...

 The month of February has become synonymous with images of hearts, love and that little guy in the diaper. But it’s also known for a different kind of heart, the anatomical one. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. According to the New York State Community Health Indicator Reports Dashboard , Clinton County has several cardiovascular disease indicators of high concern when the rates are compared to other counties in the state. Things like premature death (aged 35-64) mortality rates for cardiovascular disease, diseases of the heart, coronary heart disease and congestive heart failure are on the naughty list. It’s time to get smart about your heart. That means knowing what causes heart disease and what your individual risk factors are. To help navigate through all the medical jargon and recommendations, we have enlisted the help of AJay Keyser. AJay is a Family Nurse Practitioner who works wit...

Here in the North Country, we know winter. She’s the pesky old friend that shows up just when we are at the end of the rope to hit us in the face with a snowball or her bitter cold attitude - let's face it, we wouldn't even still be friends if we hadn't known her for so long. But here we are, welcoming her back into our community, weather (get it...) we like it or not. One minute she’s a beauty; the sun’s rays glistening off her snowy landscape. The next she’s a frigid b…well you know what. The problem with dealing with the ice queen is that we still have to function even though all we want to do is stay in our cozy homes giving her the silent treatment. This means having to travel in unpleasant conditions like snow, sleet, rain, ice and wind. Lucky for us, we have CCHD Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Mark Lafountain to help us navigate through our love/hate relationship with winter. Mark, why do we keep doing this to ourselves? Some folks see winter as just another seas...