February marks National Sweet Potato Month; enjoy these super spud ideas from your Hy-Vee dietitians.

Select and store sweet potatoes
• For the best flavor, choose sweet potatoes that are firm and do not have any cracks, bruises or soft spots.
• Sweet potatoes should be stored in a cool, dark and well-ventilated place.
• Avoid refrigerating sweet potatoes, as the cold temperature and negatively alter their flavor.
Health benefits of sweet potatoes

Antioxidants. Beta-carotene gives the sweet potato its deep orange color. One medium potato also provides us with over 200% of our Daily Value of vitamin A. Vitamin A plays a key role in the health of our eyes, skin, skeletal and soft tissue, and even our teeth!

Anthocyanin lends the purple sweet potato its unusual violet hue. Purple sweet potatoes contain antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties similar to red wine.

Blood Sugar Regulation. The high fiber content of sweet potatoes slows the release of sugar into the bloodstream, helping to keep blood sugar steady.

New Ways to Enjoy Sweet Potatoes

1.) Wash and peel sweet potatoes; cut into long ?-inch-wide strips; toss with olive oil and cayenne pepper. Bake at 425 degrees F for 25 minutes for crispy sweet potato fries with a kick! The fat content of the oil will help with absorption of the beta-carotene in the sweet potatoes.

2.) Purée cooked sweet potatoes with bananas, maple syrup and cinnamon. Top with chopped walnuts. The healthy fat in walnuts also helps with beta-carotene absorption.

3.) Sweet potato pancakes:
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup store-bought pancake mix
1 small pinch ground nutmeg
1 small sweet potato, boiled, peeled and mashed
Cook batter according to pancake mix directions.

4.) Make your own baby food by puréeing cooked sweet potato, adding water for correct consistency.

5.) Microwave a medium-sized spud on HIGH for 4-6 minutes. Cut off the top fourth of the potato and scoop out the flesh. Blend the inside of the potato with a splash of skim milk, a spoonful of maple syrup and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice. Stuff the mixture back into the potato shell and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

6.) Grill them. Wash, leave peel on and cut into wedges. Marinate with bottled low-sodium teriyaki sauce and grill until tender.

Information is not intended as medical advice. Consult your health care provider for individual guidance.

Janet Macon is a registered dietician at Hy-Vee. She can be reached at (563) 324-9948 or jmacon@hy-vee.com.

What is APRIS? APRIS is a community service of Augustana Public Radio WVIK (90.3FM). It serves those with visual or physical impairments, who live within 45 miles of the Quad-Cities. Using a special radio receiver, APRIS provides these people free service of news read aloud from local and regional newspapers. Papers included are: The Quad-City Times, Dispatch/Argus, Chicago Tribune, Muscatine Journal, and Clinton Herald. In addition, the weekly publications of Orion and Geneseo, Morrison and Prophetstown; Erie and Aledo are read on a weekly basis.

Almost 200 volunteers are involved in the reading of these newspapers to provide the service to those in the Quad-Cities area, who have signed up for this remarkable benefit.

From local news to news of neighbors, obituaries to grocery ads, religious news to sports, one can stay connected to the community through this outstanding local radio reading service.

The receivers are loaned, free of charge, to the visually or physically impaired individuals, their families or caregivers. There is a daily schedule of the news readings, which air Monday through Friday. Please see the schedule published in this magazine (below).

To seek more information about this free program, please go to www.wvik.org or call (309) 794-7560 to request a receiver or gain more information.

Would you like to be that voice on the radio as a volunteer? APRIS could not operate without the many volunteers, who read the news routinely. This may be just the volunteer situation you were hoping to find. Wait no longer. Call (309) 794-7560 or email apris@wvik.org to ask how you can help today!

On my very first day as a resident in ophthalmology, I took care of a patient with blepharitis. One month later, I had lost count of how many people I had seen with the very same disease. Blepharitis is a very common and treatable disease of the eye.

The surface of the eye is the most sensitive part of the body; nowhere is there a denser packing of nerve endings. This is protective, causing reflex tearing whenever a foreign substance is on the eye, flushing it out. It also makes the eye much more susceptible to chronic irritation, such as that encountered with blepharitis.

Blepharitis is, by definition, an inflammation of the eyelids. People with it complain of itching, burning, tearing, crusting around the eyes (especially upon awakening), and a mild pain or a gritty feeling to the eyes. The hallmark of the disease is red eyelid margins with debris on the eyelashes. The debris can be caused by bacteria or seborrhea (like dandruff). As they accumulate on the lashes, some of the crusty flakes fall into the eyes (or are rubbed into them) and set up the irritation and tearing. They may also inflame the meibomian (oil producing) glands on the eyelid, further disrupting the tear film. To relieve the symptoms, the debris must be eliminated.

The good news about blepharitis is that frequently it is fairly easy to control; the bad news is that it’s nearly impossible to totally eradicate. The mainstay of therapy is warm compresses and eyelid scrubs. Initially, the compresses are used once or twice a day for a minute or two at a time to loosen up the debris on the lashes and open up the glands on the edge of the eyelid. The gentle eyelid scrubs are usually done with the same washcloth to remove the loosened debris and massage the lids. If the blepharitis is associated with a dry eye (as it commonly is), artificial tears are used to help with the symptoms. In severe cases, an antibiotic ointment, drop, or pill is added to the regimen.

Though most people with blepharitis do not suffer any significant long-term damage to their eyes, it is important to be examined and treated by an eye care specialist if you have the disease. Blepharitis can be associated with other disorders such as keratoconjunctivitis sicca (severe dry eye), acne rosacea, and seborrheic dermatitis, which may require additional (and more aggressive) treatment. Untreated, blepharitis can lead to recurrent styes, scarring of the eyelid margin, painful inflammatory reactions on the surface of the eye, and poor vision. Other ocular problems may look like blepharitis, including allergies, viral and bacterial infections, blockages of the tear ducts, and eyelid malpositions. Very rarely, even some forms of cancer may mimic a chronic blepharitis.

Most people with untreated blepharitis are miserable. Their eyes are red, itch, burn, and tear. If you or a friend have the symptoms of this controllable disease, please call your eye doctor. After all, that little itch may be telling you something.

President of Eye Surgeons Associates, Dr. Benevento is a board certified ophthalmologist. He has a special interest in diabetes and the surgical treatment of cataracts with the latest techniques. Dr. Benevento practices at our offices in Bettendorf and Muscatine Iowa. For more information, please visit our website: www.esaeyecare.com.

Hearing Aids: Do you buy them online or do you buy them from a local Audiologist? How do you decide?

It is becoming more and more common to check the internet for better deals on products these days, but is it really a better deal for all products? It is fairly easy to purchase a jacket online from a store you are familiar with but what about purchasing a hearing aid? What are you going to miss by not going to an Audiologist? That is what will be answered in this article.

Although I am writing as an Audiologist, it would be difficult to tell you exactly what services you would receive from every Audiologist when purchasing hearing aids. So, I will be telling you what we, Audiology Consultants, provide for services during the hearing aid purchasing process and then compare those services to the services you would receive from an online hearing aid purchase.

The first step to purchasing a hearing aid is to have your hearing evaluated. Here at Audiology Consultants, we perform a complete hearing evaluation. A complete hearing evaluation would include otoscopy or visual inspection of the ear canal and eardrum, air conduction, bone conduction, speech recognition testing and word discrimination testing performed in a sound proof booth. A complete evaluation will let us know when you can hear tones at a very quiet level as well as how well you can understand speech with no visual ques. A tympanogram may also be completed to evaluate the function of your middle ear and eardrum. These tests will allow us to determine if you are a candidate for hearing aids and what kind would work the best for you. As Audiologists, we are also trained to identify any possible medical concerns that we would have with regards to your hearing loss and may also recommend that you see a physician prior to pursuing hearing aids. Common causes for a referral to your physician are ear wax or ear infections. The FDA also requires a hearing evaluation and medical clearance from a physician within six months of being fit with a hearing aid. We would request that medical clearance from your physician by sending them a copy of your hearing evaluation.

At this point, we would discuss hearing aid options with you. There are two main decisions to be made when picking out a hearing aid, the style or how the hearing aid will look and the technology in the hearing aid itself. We will discuss with you the different styles and explain what will and what won’t work for your hearing loss. Not every hearing aid is made for every hearing loss. We can also show you an actual model of the hearing aid you chose. The technology in the hearing aids will be based off your lifestyle and needs for the hearing aids. This is also what determines the cost of the hearing aids. We will help you pick a hearing aid that will work for your hearing loss and your budget. We will use our knowledge and experiences with the hearing aids to best fit you.

If you are still undecided if you are ready for a hearing aid, in most cases we are able to provide you with a demo to try. This will give you the opportunity to try some of the best technology on the market and decide if the benefits of the hearing aids outweigh the cost. We do require a small deposit to demo the hearing aids, which is fully refundable, so there is no cost to you to try them.

When you first receive your new hearing aids, we will take the time to go over all the details including, cleaning, care, batteries, warranties, your trial period and how to get them in your ears. We will make sure that you are able to care for them before you leave the office. We also will make sure that they fit properly and will be comfortable for you to wear. During that first visit, we may also make initial adjustments to the hearing aids if needed, one common reason is for any feedback or whistling. Also at this visit, we will use a Real Ear Verification system to verify that your hearing aids are working properly in your ear canal. The hearing aids are programmed through the computer, but this system will verify how they are working with the natural resonance of your ear canal. If we see that the hearing aids need to be adjusted, we would make those needed changes to ensure that the hearing aids are working their best for you.

Once you have received your hearing aids and are experiencing all those sounds you haven’t heard in a while, We will always be there for you when you have any questions, whether it is through an appointment, phone call, email or you just drop in. We are also here to service the hearing aids for cleanings every six months, make adjustments when needed or if the hearing aids stop working properly. There are times where some charges will apply to the services; we do our best to discuss these charges with you prior to doing the service we would charge for. We try our best to inform you ahead of time so that you don’t have any unexpected charges coming your way.

During the entire hearing aid purchasing process, you will be one on one with an Audiologist. We also do our best to make sure that you see the same Audiologist every time you come into one of our offices. That way we have a great opportunity to get to know you and your family better and build a relationship with you. We will be here to help you through the hearing aid process with whatever you need during the lifetime of your hearing aids.

If you purchase a set of hearing aids from the internet, they may or may not offer an online hearing evaluation. If you chose to take an online hearing evaluation, you are not receiving a complete hearing evaluation, you will be receiving a screening. A screening only takes into account a few frequencies and does not include speech testing or bone conduction testing. That is not enough information to properly fit a hearing aid. There is also no way for you to look into your own ears and see if there is wax or an infection. Your hearing loss may be caused by a treatable medical condition, and the internet test will not be able to tell you that you need to see your physician. Which means, you may spend money on hearing aids when you don’t actually need them.

The internet sites do not discuss the different options for hearing aids with but only ask you what you would want. As I mentioned earlier, not every hearing aid is made for every hearing loss. You may like how a certain hearing aid looks but it may not be an appropriate fit for you. You don’t want to spend money on hearing aids that are not going to help you. You also may not be aware that you are not purchasing a hearing aid but a personal amplifier. A personal amplifier does not work the same way that a hearing aid does. We recommend calling an Audiologist to discuss this difference.

When you receive the hearing aids from online it is up to you to read the instruction book and learn to take care of them. You also have to learn from pictures how to put the hearing aids in your ears. No one is there to help you and show you what you may be doing wrong. When you get them what do you do if they don’t seem to sound right? Or if you have feedback or that whistling? At that point you are calling the company you ordered from and possibly having to send them back to the company for adjustments. That can take a lot of time out of your trial period if you have one. There is also no way to use a Real Ear Verification system to ensure that your hearing aids are working properly in your ear canal.

When it comes to making adjustments in the hearing aids you may have to send them back to the company every time you need a change made and hope that it comes back the way you wanted it. That could mean a lot of time without your hearing aids. If you ordered your hearing aids from a site that does not offer adjustments what do you do when you need them? You would then need to find a local Audiologist to make those adjustments. Unfortunately, not every Audiologist works with every hearing aid brand out there. This could mean that you purchased a hearing aid that you can’t get serviced in your area. If you can have them adjusted at a local Audiologist’s office you will be looking at charges for the services that they provide to you. These charges will be discussed with you prior to the services being completed.

When the hearing aids need cleaning or are not working properly you can take them to an Audiologist in your area but it is recommended to call ahead and check what charges you will be expected to pay. You can expect charges no matter where you take them since you didn’t purchase the hearing aids through that Audiologist. They may be able to offer a plan that you would purchase that would cover those costs for a year or two. This would be a topic to discuss with a local Audiologist prior to purchasing your hearing aids from the internet. Good chances you will find out that it doesn’t save money in the long run to purchase from the internet.

When you purchase from the internet you lose that one on one personal experience you get at the Audiologist’s office. You are also missing out on all the knowledge and experience we have to share with you. If we have not had good success with a hearing aid we are not going to recommend it for you. We are familiar with the products we work with and know what will work and won’t work with your hearing loss. We are here to help you make a good investment for your hearing loss. We truly want you to hear your family and friends and have a better enjoyment in life.

Please give us a call if you would like to start the hearing aid purchasing process or if you would just like to ask us questions about hearing aids. We are here to help you with your hearing needs.

For one Moline family, when health-care costs exceed their mortgage payments, any opportunity to save is money in the bank.

Lisa and Jeremy Larson appear to make a healthy living: he is self-employed in financial services, and she’s a partner in a two-person IT consultant firm. They have four healthy and rambunctious children, and their health-care expenses are staggering.

“Between premiums, deductibles, and co-pays, health-care costs more than our mortgage. And we live in a five-bedroom house that includes offices for both our businesses,” says Jeremy. “Being self-employed, we feel the pain of increasing health-care costs, but at least we are working. I can’t imagine how the economy and unemployment are affecting those who can’t afford to get sick.”

How much pain?

The Larson’s pay just over $1,000 a month in premiums, plus they have a $5,000 family deductible. If someone gets sick, and with four kids under 14, someone will, it is easy for the Larson’s to spend at least $17,000 per year on healthcare. (When you add glasses, braces and regular dental care for all six of them, breaking through the $20,000 mark is routine.)

Last year, Lisa had a simple bladder procedure. Even though she was careful to check prices beforehand and choose her least expensive alternative – an ambulatory surgery center – the Larson’s paid about $2,000 out of pocket that wasn’t covered by health
insurance.

“You think you are covered and then you get the bills. Until you meet the deductible, it’s all out of pocket, and even after meeting it, we still pay a percentage. It becomes a lot of money,” says Lisa. “And it’s all after-tax dollars for us because we’re self-employed. We can’t have flex-spend or health-care savings accounts.

Red ink rising

The Larsons feel the impact of rising health insurance premiums more directly than people who get insurance through their employer, but everyone is affected. Average premiums for family coverage have increased 113 percent since 2001, according to the Kaiser/HRET survey of Employer-sponsored Health Benefits, 2001-2011 (ehbs.kff.org/). In comparison, wages have increased over the same period by 34 percent.

“The nine percent increase in premiums in 2011 is especially painful for workers and employers struggling through a weak recovery,” Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman, Ph.D. said.

The Kaiser report (ehbs.kff.org/) went on to point out that employers are passing more than just the increases along to workers. While premiums went up 113 percent, workers’ contributions went up 131 percent.

Budget for the premium package

The days are gone when simply paying health insurance premiums and automatically going to your doctor and the local hospital for treatment is enough for peace of mind. “It’s really time that patients exercise their power and ask questions about how much their procedures cost and determine if there is a more economical way to receive treatment without compromising quality,” advises Michael Patterson, CEO and president of Mississippi Valley Surgery Center (MVSC), Davenport. (qchealthnews.com/2012/01/beating-the-healthcare-squeeze-2/mvsurgerycenter.com).

MVSC is a Quad City area ambulatory surgery center that offers surgical procedures on an outpatient basis, which means patients recover at home. “The MVSC, and its practice partners in the Mississippi Valley Health Network (mvhnetwork.com/), are trained to employ minimally invasive procedures that mean smaller incisions and faster healing, all while ensuring quality of care.

“We also believe in delivering quality health-care value. Patients do not incur significant hospitalization costs because the Mississippi Valley Surgery Center is an outpatient facility. Patients recover at home, healing quickly and return to life as soon as possible,” adds Patterson.

As surgical techniques have improved in recent years, more procedures are being performed at Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC). And procedures performed at an ASC cost significantly less than the same procedures performed in a hospital setting, according to a November 2006 US GAO Congressional Committee’s report on Medicare. www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=1948.

“That’s good news for working families and also for seniors,” adds Patterson. “If we can minimize costs, patients pay less. For example, seniors often pay less for a procedure performed at the MVSC than at a hospital because we are actually paid 59 percent of the rate paid to hospitals. Since the Medicare consumer is responsible for paying 20 percent coinsurance, the lower the charges, the smaller the bills for seniors who do not have supplementary
insurance.”

Employers are also looking carefully at incentives for employees to help minimize health care costs. New kinds of benefit plans will be a major change for employees used to company benefit plans that take care of health-care costs effortlessly.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that millions of workers are already enrolled in consumer-driven plans, about equally divided between high-deductible plans that qualify for a Health Saving Account (HSA) and plans with a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA). The high deductibles that come with these plans are offset by tax-preferred savings options from which employees can pay for their out-of-pocket medical expenses. People insured under these plans pay directly for a greater share of their health care – and they have incentives to minimize the cost.

Healthy living for healthy savings

In general, as health-care costs increase and the political debates heat up, experts predict that employees and their families will need to take greater responsibility for their lifestyles and the costs associated with illness. As one Forbes health care expert put it, “Companies are going to encourage employees to look after their own health and will use the lever of insurance…if you want to smoke and eat a sugary diet, go ahead, but insurance coverage will kick in at a higher level.”

Additional Symptoms:

• Weight gain
• Craving carbohydrates
• Excessive eating
• Increased sleeping
• Just not feeling yourself

Some people who have symptoms of SAD don’t recognize them as part of a disorder. People even tend to blame themselves, or attribute it to the holidays. It is important to recognize these feelings and seek advice from your physician.

But, we must remember in the winter the morning is the most important time of the day to help with the winter blues. Our bodies are craving Vitamin D
normally supplied by sunlight. Some tips for starting your day.

Have an alarm system on your bedroom lights, to start lighting the room a half hour before you awake. Have your morning coffee or breakfast in front of a
window with morning sun, for a 30 minute period. Well, why not? If you have a room in your home with a lot of sunlight, put your home exercise routine in front of the sun. Exercise is also an important routine to maintain for everyday life and increases the dopamine within the brain, which in turn makes us feel happiness. It is a theory that the darkness wreaks havoc with the neurotransmitter-brain chemicals that affect mood. For some it is recommended to use light therapy with 10,000 lux for 30 minutes daily. Vitamin D3 is recommended at 1,000 IU daily.

Sure, all of us would love to go away for the winter and come back to our real lives six months later. But, for most of us that is currently a dream, so let’s just accept the season. Even though winter may not seem so terrific, it carries the joy of the holiday season throughout the winter: Great family gatherings, winter sledding, snow ball fights, snowmen, hot chocolate, great football and basketball games, comfortable clothes, slippers and roaring fires. Certainly, it’s not the same as the heat of July. Keep a positive attitude with a smile, and the winter months should fly by.

When the cold temperatures and the shortened daylight hours make for a lot of time spent inside, parents and caregivers look for fun, interactive and creative activities that stimulate children’s minds and bodies.

Children love to bake – cookies, sweet breads, etc. Plus, cooking is full of opportunities to talk about measuring,
fractions, following directions, reading, where food comes from, and you get a treat at the end! Also, children love board and card games; coloring, play dough, and good books and DVD’s are wonderful ideas. But don’t be afraid to pull on some snow clothes and boots and go play in the snow or make a snowman or an igloo.

Here are a couple of fun activities courtesy of Disney Family Fun:

Balloon Volleyball – For this game, the leader blows up one large balloon. The leader then divides the children into small teams of two or three. The children try to get the balloon back and forth between teams without the balloon touching the ground. The catch is that, unlike regular volley ball, the children aren’t allowed to use their hands. The fact that the children can’t extend their reach as usual keeps the kids from getting too rambunctious, yet gets them thinking of other ways to use their bodies. This game also can be played by one child, with the objective being to see how long he can keep the balloon off the ground on her/his own, or how many times she/he can hit the balloon in 60 seconds.

Dress the Snowman – This is a great game to play just before going outside in the winter. The leader gathers all the kids’ winter gear such as gloves and hats in a pile. Children form two teams. Each team elects one person to be a snowman. On the leader’s signal, the children dress their snowman as fast as they can. The snowman has to remain perfectly still and can’t help with the dressing. This makes putting on items like snow pants and boots very funny. The first team to get a snowman completely dressed wins. The leader may dictate what constitutes a “dressed” snowman, depending on the gear available.

• Play Just Dance or DDR. There are more activity games out there, but those are my family’s favorite. Get your
children moving by dancing around the house.

• Join the YWCA, YMCA or fitness center that has programs to keep your children playing.

• Give them chores to help you around the house, and to keep them moving. I always had to vacuum and sweep when I was younger. I didn’t like it much, but now I don’t mind because it was instilled in me while I was young.

• Make a treasure hunt around the house. Have a few clues outside to make it fun. Of course, have them follow the instructions to put on coats, boots and gloves. You’ll enjoy watching them have fun.

• Go ice skating or indoor skating.

There are many things to do to keep your children active this winter. Have fun with it and play. Get involved with them and watch how much fun you could have, too.

The Child Abuse Council exists to lead community efforts to eliminating child abuse and neglect by strengthening
children and families through prevention, education and treatment. For more information about the Child Abuse Council, you can visit at www.childabuseqc.org.