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…)

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…)

How many times have you seen those signs in restaurant or other public restrooms saying “All Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work”? This is a very important thing to help fight the spread of germs. But, for truly good germ fighting power, it should say that they must “Wash AND Dry” their hands.

Why? Because according to scientists at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, it isn’t just the washing that helps. They looked at how many germs were spread when people touched different stuff – skin, food, utensils – after washing their hands with and without good drying. If hands were dried really well after washing, the number of germs that they spread shrank by 94 to 99%. It is about 1,000 times safer if you dry your hands well after washing them than if you leave them wet or damp! (more…)

“Whoa, there, Mister Clean. Where do ya think you’re going with that germ load?” asked Hal.

Sal, his hand just inches from the bathroom door of Johnny Balboa’s Famous Italian Pizzaria and Popcorn Parlor, Sal’s favorite restaurant. Sal turned with a frown and said, “Back to my chili con carne pizza, of course. Why?”

“Not with those hands, little bro,” answered Hal.

Sal looked at his hands, both palms turned up, flipped them over, and said, “They’re the only hands I got, Hal.” (more…)

And, speaking of great asthma education resources…

Oh, sorry, I guess that was just in my head. Well, since we’re on the topic, I came across some really great asthma education resources that I thought would be good to share.

As you know, a lot of web content is pretty weak. Some is downright wrong and may even be harmful. Other sites may not be so much bad as they are a waste of time.

There are a few I’ve found that are rock solid reliable and, if you’re looking for quality asthma education resources, these will bring a good return on your time investment “dollar”, so to speak. (more…)

AAAAI!!! Sounds more like something you might scream when running away from asthma education, doesn’t it? But, actually, “AAAAI” is the short name for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and they have loads of asthma education tools. Plus, they now have a new Just for Kids section. It has games, puzzles, storybooks, video, and more.

Their new spokesperson is Mr. Nose-it-All. (As you can see from his picture, he’s actually more of a “spokes-nose”.) Mr. Nose-it-All has pages and pages of word games, bubble pop games, coloring books, matching games, storybooks, even a BrainPOP video with Tim and Moby. (more…)