Seattle/LocalHealthGuide

By Mark Ganz
Mark Ganz
It is encouraging to have President-Elect Obama declare that we cannot allow these tough economic times to postpone health care reform.
His position mirrors what a recent Regence poll found: People want health care reform now, especially those who must find their own insurance.
Our nation’s mounting job losses are throwing thousands out of [...]

Reports that some of this winter’s influenza viruses are resistant of the drug Tamiflu underscores the importance of getting your flu shot, say Public Health - Seattle & King County officials in a health advisory.
The warning was issued in response to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention that a [...]

The maker of Wonderfarm biscuits is recalling several varieties of its cookies because of concerns they may be contaminated with melamine.
Melamine is a nitrogen-containing compound used for a variety of industrial uses. It is not allowed in food in the U.S.A.
Recently, tens of thousands of infants in China have been poisoned after drinking infant formula [...]

The universal health-care plan proposed by Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler will likely fail as similar plans have failed in other states, according to an analysis by the Washington Policy Center, a Seattle-based think tank that favors market-based solutions.
The plan proposed by Commissioner Kreidler, called the Guaranteed Health Benefits Plan, seeks to provide everyone in the state [...]

Blue indicates family members with diabetes
Diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other health conditions run in families, so knowing your family’s health history can help you and your health provider take steps to reduce your risk of developing many preventable conditions.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has created an online tool that allows you [...]

John Howie, Chef and Owner of the Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar in Bellevue, will be cooking up a special Thanksgiving feast for the families of newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center.
Howie and his culinary team will be serving a complete holiday meal tomorrow evening, Wednesday, for the [...]

[ December 1, 2008; 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. ]  

The consulting firm Milliman invites you to a town hall meeting focused on healthcare reform, specifically on electronic health records (EHRs) and how they might affect the next era in healthcare.
[Editor's note: Milliman provides consulting services on employee benefits, healthcare, investment, life insurance and financial services, and property and casualty insurance.}
Why EHRs? The biggest changes on [...]

Amy’s Kitchen is recalling a lot of its Tofu Scramble in a Pocket Sandwich because the lot may contain milk. The product is labelled as “nondairy” and might cause serious or life-threatening allergic reactions in consumers allergic to milk. The recalled products are labelled Lot 10 H148.
Amy’s Kitchen Inc. Issues Allergy Alert and Voluntary National [...]

Bottomline: Probably not.
You may have read in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today or heard on local television about a study that suggests children living in rainy counties in Washington have a higher risk of developing autism.
The stories spring from a paper published in the journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine this week.
In that paper, researchers [...]

When a patient in an intensive care unit is too sick to communicate, it is often the family that must make critical decisions about the patient’s care.
This may mean deciding with the medical team whether to proceed with a difficult operation, for example, or to withdraw life support.
This a situation that many of us are [...]