Lack of preaching, wealth of knowledge at Teton County Health Fair

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo--With over 70 informational health booths and the results of April’s blood draws available, the Teton County Health Fair was in full swing at the Snow King Convention Center last Saturday morning. The place was packed, with many people turning out to view their blood draw results and have them analyzed by doctors on hand to answer questions.

Community businesses and nonprofits offered information to attendees on ways to improve their lifestyles. Many booths offered free services such as vision and hearing screenings, skin cancer and blood pressure checks, and body composition assessment. Surprisingly though, many booths offered free candy in order to lure you in so they could talk your ear off about their agenda, i.e., sell you on something. But not everyone used such unhealthy tactics.

First, I approached the Teton Addiction Recovery Center Booth and chatted with Brianna Talbot. Of the patients Talbot sees, “about one third have a hard time and return,” she said. On average nationwide, addicts must check themselves into a center seven times, Talbot said. It’s hard to change, and Talbot had plenty of literature on how to stay away from addictive substances and to identify a problem. Most people at the fair were looking at ways to improve their lifestyles; for some, cutting addictive substances out can be a key step.

Next I was off to talk with Peter E. Rork, M.D. of Teton Orthopaedics. Knee injuries are a common occurrence in skiing, and because Jackson has one of the biggest, burliest mountains in the nation, Dr. Rork gets to perform an inordinate amount of knee surgeries.  “In February I did over 70,” said Rork, who does 60 to 70 a month on average during the winter and summer, then numbers drop to 30-40 a month in the off season. “During the off season I have a practice that compares to most other orthopedists in the country,” he said. “Winter time I can hardly keep up.”

If you want to stay out of Dr. Rork’s office, he suggests, “Don’t ski fatigued.” When people get tired they get sloppy and are more apt to injure themselves on the slopes. He also suggested keeping your bindings clear of debris such as dirt and mud, so they continue to function properly.

If you are constantly fatigued it may be because you aren’t getting enough nutrients in your diet. Nothing is better than eating your fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, but more often, our lifestyles are too busy to stop and eat right. Enter Juice Plus, an all natural vitamin pill. You may already take a daily vitamin supplement, but if it consists of man-made vitamins, they may not be absorbing into you blood stream, thus doing you no good.

Juice Plus is proven to absorb into your blood stream, and according to local sales rep Rosemary Askin, “eleven published medical studies show the nutrients go right into the blood stream.” The company juices fruits and vegetables in California, then dries the juice out to form a powder that is then put into pill form. Take two fruit pills and two vegetable pills a day and you’ll be getting all the nutrients you need. Next up, turkey toothpaste and living on the moon!

On to the Teton County Tobacco Prevention booth where program Manager Julia Heemstra told me that tobacco use is “the primary health concern that we face as a nation and as a community.” Julia had a pig’s lung that represented what a human lung looks like after a year of smoking a pack a day.

It was black. If that wasn’t enough to convince you not to smoke – or to quit – Julia had a jar of tar that showed the amount that is in your lungs after smoking as few as 2-5 cigarettes a day for one year. Yep, it was gross.

She had plenty of kits to quit chew, too. Inside the kit was a coconut based chewing tobacco alternative – it won’t give you a buzz, but it tastes delicious ( I tried it), and it won’t give you cancer or cavities.
I was surrounded by people being rolfed, receiving Thai massages, undergoing hypnosis, and learning about various colon cleansing products.

Yet the fact that no one was pushing this upon me, the fact that you had to approach the booths and inquire about the benefits, made the Health Fair enjoyable. There are a million different paths to feeling healthy, and everyone’s different. This was made obvious by the 70 different booths from local businesses and nonprofits at the Teton County Health Fair.
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Lack of preaching, wealth of knowledge at Teton County Health Fair | Planet JH News Article: General Health And Fitness

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