Most people think of “x-rays” as the pictures that doctors take when trying to “see” something inside their bodies. This common usage is correct, but x-rays (or x-radiation) are actually a type of electromagnetic energy. They act a lot like the rays of light we are accustomed to seeing except their energy waves are much, much shorter.

X-rays – the pictures – have been helping doctors see inside the human body for over a hundred years. They have helped find broken bones and strange objects hidden inside people. They’ve helped diagnose pneumonia and asthma and heart problems. They uncovered strange growths and cancers. They’ve helped us understand the inside of the human body in ways we had never been able to before their discovery.

X-radiation has been used to treat medical conditions for almost as long as they’ve been used to take pictures. At first, they were thought to cause no damage to human tissue in small doses and in large doses the harmful effects were thought to be only temporary. (more…)

Children’s health literacy series uses Nucleus’s ultrasound animation to explain procedures to kids in an easy to understand way

Nucleus Medical Media, a health literacy company, announces the use of their ultrasound animation in the Health Nuts Media ABCs of Health Literacy animation series aimed toward educating children.

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When he turned the corner into the living room, Hal almost fell out on the floor in full blown laugh mode. His little brother, Sal, was dancing – or his fairly poor version thereof – to Hal’s old fetal ultrasound video.

Years ago, Hal’s mom had decided to digitize all of her old VCR tapes. For some strange reason that Hal never fully understood, when she got to his old fetal ultrasound recording, she decided to add a music track. The song was by one of those ancient groups she loved from back in the “disco era”: the Cee Bees…or the Bee Gees…or something like that. Anyway, the beat of the song matched perfectly with the beat of Hal’s little unborn heart in the video and his mom said she just couldn’t resist turning out this “music video.” (Thankfully, this was both her first and her last such effort.)

Anyway, as Hal started to howl with laughter, Sal stopped dancing. He turned with a sheepish grin and said, “What?…shut up (more…)

Hal remembered the day so well. He was just a a kid, maybe three to four years old or so, when his mom told him, “Oh, looks like you have a little stomach bug.”

Of course, he was trying hard to stay balanced on the toilet as the loose stuff inside of him kept leaking out of his bottom and so he wasn’t really focused on what she was saying. Still, that phrase, “a stomach bug,” stuck in his brain. He remembered clearly the gross picture that came to his mind of creepy multi-legged insects crawling around inside of his belly. He remembered, too, how that image didn’t help with the queasy feeling he was having as he perched aloft the toilet trying hard not to fall in. (It was tough at that age because the toilet bowl seemed huge at the time; it was always a balancing act, but worse when he didn’t feel well.)

And, actually, thinking about it now didn’t really help the rumblings he was dealing with in his now older and bigger belly, even though he knew good and well that (more…)

At Health Nuts Media, there’s one thing we know for sure: friends and family are the most important part of health. Period.

Don’t get us wrong: we love our electronics and our apps and our games and our videos and our TVs. But, when all else fails — when batteries die, when the electricity goes out, when websites crash — family and friends are always there to help us through. (That’s a jest, we hope you know, as these events pale in comparison to the major traumas of life and health for which family and friends are the only real failsafe.)

Friends and family are the key to true health and happiness and we are very lucky to have a whole heap of each. We’ve had so many of them helping us, both morally and financially, as we try to create this new approach to engaging health education and literacy. We could not be more blessed. We love and cherish each and every one of them and cannot begin to express our gratitude. (more…)

At the recent Planetree Conference, promoting patient-/person-centered care, we heard some of the best “evidence” that Health Nuts Media animation was having a truly wonderful impact upon patients. These patient success stories came from one of the good folks at JFK Medical Center in New Jersey where they are using HNM content via their interactive in-room patient video services system provided by our channel partner, TVR Communications.

Adriana Rizzolo, MSN RN CRNP, spoke about some of her experiences using Health Nuts Media’s patient education content. She is a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist who serves as the clinical leader for Pediatric Nursing within JFK Medical Center. Her skills include clinical expertise in pediatrics, evidence based practice, collaboration, consultation, education, mentoring, and change leadership.

Adrianna’s clinical expertise stems from 6 years experience as a Pediatric Acute Care and Critical Care Nurse at a level one trauma center. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing and her Master’s degree as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She is board certified (more…)