36 THE QUEENS COURIER • HEALTH • FEBRUARY 7, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
health
Photo courtesy of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
Elmhurst Hospital opens new senior behavioral health unit
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst has
amenities for patients coping with both
with behavioral health needs experience.
opened a newly renovated Behavioral
physical and mental health challenges.
Health unit designed to meet the special
To address the physical challenges
To increase safety at night, patient
needs of geriatric and frail patients, the
of a geriatric or otherwise frail population,
rooms have functional night lights, and
hospital announced today. Located on
the unit has skid-free fl ooring to
bed alarm technology is in place.
the hospital’s 11th fl oor, the new unit
decrease the risk of falls, handrails in the
A therapist is assigned to the unit to
can serve up to 11 inpatients, providing
bedrooms and lounge/day area, chairs
provide appropriate group activities.
a warm and welcoming atmosphere in a
that help lift patients to a standing position,
“We are very happy to open this beautifully
setting designed for individualized care
and raised toilet seats. Th e lounge/
renovated space for patients dealing
and enhanced safety for a particularly
day rooms are bright and spacious, with
with both physical and mental health
vulnerable population.
a calm and inviting tone, designed to
issues,” said Israel Rocha, CEO of NYC
Th e new unit features specialized
reduce the anxiety that many patients
Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and vice
president of NYC Health + Hospitals.
“We are also enormously proud of
the teamwork involved between the
departments of Behavioral Health and
Medicine that have made this new unit
into a reality. Th is successful collaboration
will help us provide improved care
for our elderly and frail patients as they
undergo treatment for mental and physical
health issues in a supportive environment.”
Th e renovation project cost $750,000.
4 myths about salt
Aft er more than a century of debate
over the role of salt in human health, new
medical evidence suggests that reducing
salt in the U.S. diet may pose a greater risk
of harm to the average person. Consider
these four common myths about salt:
Myth 1: Salt consumption
leads to hypertension
According to the Mayo Clinic, “For most
adults, there’s no identifi able cause of high
blood pressure hypertension.” Dr. Jan
Staessen, head of the Research Unit on
Hypertension at the University of Leuven
in Belgium, has written that, “Th e evidence
relating blood pressure to salt intake
does not translate into an increased risk of
incident hypertension in people consuming
a usual salt diet.” Having a temporarily
elevated blood pressure is not the same
thing as having hypertension, as blood
pressure varies normally throughout the
day depending on a variety of factors.
Myth 2: Americans could
massively reduce their salt
consumption without any negative
health consequences
Dr. Andrew Mente, of McMaster
University in Canada, and his team conducted
the largest ever epidemiologic
study of the impact of sodium intake
on blood pressure, cardiovascular disease
risk and mortality. “We found that
regardless of whether people have high
blood pressure, low-sodium intake is
related to more heart attacks, strokes
and deaths compared to average intake,”
he said.
Myth 3: The U.S. population
would gain signifi cant health
benefi ts from major population
wide salt reduction
Th e FDA recommends a maximum
daily limit of 2,300 mg of sodium per day
and a maximum of 1,500 mg for people
with certain conditions. Salt is 40 percent
sodium. According to Dr. Michael H.
Alderman of the Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, “Sodium consumption
around the globe has a mean of about
3,600 mg/day, and a range from 2,600-
5,000 mg/day. Th is mid-range describes
about 90 percent of the world’s population.
... Optimal survival is realized by
those whose intake is between 2,800 and
5,000 mg/day. Specifi cally, there is no evidence
of a superior health outcome at
intakes less than 2,000 mg/day compared
with those in the usual range.”
Myth 4: Americans eat
more salt than ever
Military records from the early 1800s
up to WWII show that the average soldier
was consuming between 6,000 and 6,800
mg/day of sodium. We eat about half of
that today, and that number has remained
consistent since WWII. Th e advent of
refrigeration meant that we could preserve
food with less salt, but salt remains
a critical ingredient for food safety and
preservation.
Sodium chloride (salt) is a nutrient
that the body cannot produce, and therefore
it must be consumed. Th e average
American eats about 3,400 mg per day of
sodium, according to Th e National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey, right
in the middle of the healthy range.
Courtesy BPT
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