Los Angeles, CA – May 21, 2012: Health Nuts Media Chief Medical Officer, Gregg Alexander, DO, has been named “Super Doc” by the Ohio Health Information Partnership for his work in health information technology. Dr. Alexander was awarded the honor at the Patient Care: Connecting the Dots in Ohio conference held at Ohio State University in Columbus on April 26, 2012.

A practicing pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics in London, Ohio, Dr. Alexander has long promoted the use of a variety of technologies for advancing healthcare. He is the current director of the Pediatric Office of the Future for the American Academy of Pediatrics and also serves on the AAP’s Council on Clinical Information Technology Executive Committee as well as the Project Advisory Committee for the Child Health Informatics Center. (more…)

Patient education needs to fine tune its focus.

Recent evidence reported in the journal Pediatrics shows that the biggest driver for getting kids to move more was simply how much vigorous activity their friends got during an after-school program. Kids imitate their friends in so many ways, so maybe this is no big surprise. Still, the fact that the kids didn’t choose their friends based upon level of activity, but rather tended to match the activity level of their friends points to some useful ways we might help fight obesity in children using the power of social ties.

The article, reviewed and summarized on MedPage Today, lends further credibility to the idea that the power of social media, and especially games tied to social networks, can become powerful combatants in our fight against childhood obesity. (more…)

Childhood diabetes has gone ballistic.

In case you missed the story in USA Today, diabetes and pre-diabetes have dramatically jumped in just the past decade. According to a study just published in the journal Pediatrics, there’s cause for alarm here. From 9% in the year 2000 to a whopping 23% just 8 years later in 2008, the number of U.S. kids with diabetes or it’s earlier version, pre-diabetes, jumped over 250%!

The study’s lead author, epidemiologist Ashleigh May, notes some caution with the exact numbers. The type of blood test they used in the study, the “fasting blood glucose test”, isn’t as accurate over the long term compared with the “A1C” test (also called the “henoglobin A1c” or “HbA1c” test). A1C looks at average blood sugar over several months while the fasting blood sugar is a more “right now” test.

Still, this and other studies show that our kids are at serious risk. Regardless of the exact numbers, childhood diabetes is rising…and rising rapidly. (more…)

Los Angeles, CA – May 18, 2012: In recognition of Asthma Awareness Month, Health Nuts Media has launched an animated asthma education series titled Huff & Puff: An Asthma Tale. The seven-episode cartoon is already helping national healthcare insurance plans, health literacy partners, and local community organizations teach kids about asthma.

Watch the videos at: Huff & Puff: An Asthma Tale

“With rates of asthma rising among children, doctors and parents need health education that is engaging and fun for kids to watch,” said Tim Jones, CEO, Health Nuts Media. “If Health Nuts Media can get children excited about listening to the Big Bad Wolf talk about asthma, we have the opportunity to make a real impact on asthma, and help improve kids’ quality of life.” (more…)

Asthma problems continue to rise in American. So says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a report issued earlier this week. Asthma education and action plans are “key” to helping stem the increase in asthma problems for both adults and children.

This is National Asthma Awareness Month. It’s a little disheartening to know that despite better treatment options, asthma continues to rise as a major cause of illness, hospitalizations, missed work or school days, and early death. Check these staggering numbers (more…)

“There is nothing permanent except change.” So wrote Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, some 2,500 years ago. He was big on reason and logic, but he was smart enough to also know that each coin has two sides. In other words, life is full of opposites. As such, the polar opposites of “permanence” and “change” sort of require each other. Thinking of his wise words, I wondered how he might feel about the troubles we all have developing healthy habits.

Who among us doesn’t have something that they do that isn’t exactly healthy? (Goodness knows I do.) Everyone has habits or “lazinesses” that we’ve developed over time which have led us into doing things which are against our own best health interests. Too much chocolate, pop, sugary drinks, junk and/or fast foods; too much alcohol; smoking; driving too fast; sleeping too little; too much computer or T.V. time; etc…the list goes on and on of things which we know are unhealthy, yet which many of us still find hard to stop. (more…)

Hal was puffing pretty hard when he came through the back kitchen door. He walked over to the cupboards, grabbed a glass, and went to the fridge to grab the water pitcher. He poured a tall glass and drank it thristily. “A healthy habits app a day keeps the doctor away,” he muttered as he looked at his phone.

Sal, who was sitting at their small kitchen table looked up from his cereal bowl and asked, “Don’t you mean an apple a day? That’s what keeps the doctor away.”

“Well, yeah, that too,” replied Hal between breaths. “But, I was talking about my new app. It’s all about making me get better at healthy habits. Here…see?” Hal pressed a couple of buttons on his phone before turning it toward Sal. (more…)

Health Nuts Media now available to 1,500 more primary care physicians

Los Angeles, CA – May 10, 2012: Health Nuts Media announces that its health literacy animation will now be available to an additional 1,500 U.S. pediatric and family medicine physicians as part of a licensing agreement with healthcare web design firm, Pediatric Web. As part of the agreement, Health Nuts Media animated videos will be offered to Pediatric Web clients on a subscription basis.

“Private practice physicians need medical education that engages and captivates their patients,” says Health Nuts Media CEO, Tim Jones. “Our partnership with Pediatric Web will give even more physicians the story-telling power of animation to better inform children and their families (more…)

Education technology provider collaboration turns focus to building knowledge of environmental triggers, treatment and more for asthma

WOODBURY, N.Y., May 10, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Learn360Awareness, an initiative from Learn360 designed to build awareness of specific topics and link supporting educational content to those topics, in partnership with Health Nuts Media, today announces the launch of its third initiative focusing on asthma.

“Nearly 1 in 10 school-aged children suffer from Asthma, making it the leading cause of absenteeism in the U.S. representing nearly 14 million missed school days annually,” said Chris Sanborn, president of Learn360. “The effects of this disease can be dramatically minimized with easy-to-adopt classroom environmental control practices. (more…)