Vim & Vigor - Fall 2008 - North Denver - (Page 3)

for your health keeping colorado healthy new surgical procedures and achieving sleep success ❋ new procedure performed A new procedure that allows physicians to visualize the small bowel without major surgery was performed recently at St. Anthony Central Hospital by a team from Rocky Mountain Gastroenterology Associates. This marked the ﬁrst time the technique, known as double-balloon enteroscopy, had been performed in Colorado. “Traditional gastrointestinal (GI) procedures include a colonoscopy, which visualizes the colon, and an upper endoscopy, which only visualizes the beginning of the small intestine,” says gastroenterologist Scott Mackenzie, M.D. “This new advance allows for most of the gastrointestinal tract to be visualized in real time with an endoscope.” The technique involves the use of a balloon at the end of a special enteroscope camera and an overtube. The patient is sedated and the special scope is used to pull the small bowel over the scope and advance the scope along the small intestines using balloons on the end of the scope and overtube. The procedure can be done via the esophagus and stomach or through the colon. Double-balloon enteroscopy can beneﬁt patients experiencing bleeding from a source in the GI tract that cannot be reached with a conventional scope, those with lesions detected through capsule endoscopy (where a pill with a camera inside is swallowed), and those with lesions identiﬁed by CT scan or small-bowel imaging studies. ❋ the high cost of sleep loss The National Sleep Foundation projects that drowsy employees cost U.S. businesses some $18 billion annually in lost productivity. A recent edition of the CBS News program 60 Minutes showed the impact is far more than ﬁnancial. Reporter Lesley Stahl conﬁrmed that the Exxon Valdez oil spill, an environmental as well as energy disaster, occurred after midnight with a captain who had slept only four hours the previous night. The nuclear incidents at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union and Three Mile Island in the U.S. both happened late at night and involved human error. More recently, the assistant captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed, killing 11, admitted to exhaustion prior to the accident. The program also reported increasing evidence linking lack of proper sleep with health issues, including diabetes and heart disease. Greater public awareness about sleep problems and their effect is an important ﬁrst step, says Crintz Scott, CRT, RPSGT, manager of the St. Anthony Sleep Disorders Centers. “For many people, getting necessary sleep is simply a matter of lifestyle change,” she says, “but for others, the reason may be quite complex and require a professional diagnosis.” For a free, conﬁdential sleep disorder survey from St. Anthony Sleep Disorders Centers, call 303-629-3575. There is increasing evidence linking lack of proper sleep with health issues, including diabetes and heart disease. vim & vigor · fall 2008 3

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Fall 2008 - North Denver

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2008 - North Denver Contents A Mission in Motion For Your Health Goal! Seeing Beyond Time Equals Muscle The Fiber Solution Prize Fighters On the Cover: Spreading the News I'm Glad I Had a... Tailor-Made Beyond the Bedside On Track Living the Good Life Little Kids, Big Decisions Zeroing In Right At Home Beating the Clock Community Connections Ask the Experts

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2008 - North Denver

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