A healthy leap

Today is the Great American Smokeout! If you or a loved one is addicted to the nicotine, today is the day to try and cut that tie. The American Cancer Society has a Stay Away from Tobacco page with a bunch of useful resources. The CDC has a listing of sites to help you quit smoking, and SmokeFree.gov has interactive tools to make sure you quit and stay quit. My favorite resource for cold turkey tips is WhyQuit.com. The library also has a number of books about smoking and smoking cessation.

Even if the Great American Smokeout snuck up on you too soon and you're just not ready today, you can always pick a day that works for you, and just keep trying. It's rough at first, but it gets easier. Good luck!

Sex, Lies, and Menopause:

The Shocking Truth About Hormone Replacement Therapy

Wednesday, October 19
6:00 - 7:30 pm
Main Library Community Room
145 Washington Ave.

Turning thirty years of medical and cultural wisdom on its head, Sex, Lies, and Menopause challenges both the medical establishment and modern feminists to prove that menopause does not have to lead to potentially deadly conditions. The research presented in Sex, Lies, and Menopause will at last allow women to create their own plan of action to put themselves on the path to better health and hormonal balance at any stage of life.

An anthropologist and cultural theorist, T.S. Wiley is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and has been a guest investigator at Sansum Medical Reserch Institute. She lives in Santa Fe.

This program is free and open to the public.

Health Screenings at Southside

Tuesday, January 11
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Southside Branch Library
6599 Jaguar Drive.

The Santa Fe County Mobile Health Van will be conducting FREE health screenings for all ages tomorrow.

Please share this information with family and friends.

A Gift of Health

"According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in four Americans experience mental illness at some point in their lives. Of New Mexico’s approximately 2 million residents, about 72,000 adults and 22,000 children live with serious mental conditions."

New Mexico Family Network and OptumHealth New Mexico donated over one hundred books to our collection this month. Each title is about an aspect of mental health, and is part of a statewide program to fill New Mexico's libraries will quality up-to-date information about mental health support. So far, libraries around the state have received about 2,000 books. With topics including bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, bullying, substance abuse, and stress management, the books cover a wide range of grade and reading levels.

With library budgets around the state decreasing at a similar rate as funding for mental health support programs for New Mexicans, this gift is very much appreciated. We're looking forward to getting these books on our shelves quickly, and helping you find the support that you and your families need. Many thanks to New Mexico Family Network and OptumHealth New Mexico for this generous donation!

Health Hut

If you read yesterday's blog and watched the video, you'll recall that data and information is often absorbed and understood more efficiently when it's presented visually. With new studies being published daily, one field that's difficult to keep up with is health and medicine. A good health blog is Health Hut, which periodically posts health and fitness information for those of us who don't work in the healthcare field. A recent post features 40 health infographics, so you can visually access quality information about health topics such as the causes of obesity or alcoholism rates by state and country.

For example, the following graphic charts rates of diagnosed depression worldwide. Without peeking, can you guess which country is highest?

Mobile Health Van at Southside

The Santa Fe County Mobile Health Van will be parked at the Southside Branch Library on Thursday, March 25th from 10 am – 3 pm. They will provide Free total Cholesterol Screenings (No Fasting Requited) and Free Blood Pressure Screenings for individuals 18 years old and older.

The Southside Library is located at 6599 Jaguar Dr.