​This New Year’s marks not only the start of a new year, but also the start of a new decade. What better time to set some new goals to make you the best you can be?

Many people commit to New Year’s resolutions meant to make them healthier, such as losing weight, dieting or exercising more. While these are all great things for your health, it can be daunting when it’s time to follow through.

No matter how far you have to go until you reach your goals, the most important thing is to get started. Join a gym, find some healthy recipes, find some local fitness classes. Many people find “accountability partners” with similar goals to keep each other on track. These days, many people buy fitness trackers to assess their daily steps or calories burned. Seeing what you did that day can motivate people to be more aware of their activity levels. 

One way to ensure that you are more likely to stick to your goals of being healthier is to think of it as a lifestyle change, not just a temporary change that will be over once you reach your goals. Learn to focus on how good you’ll feel with a healthier diet and frequent exercise, instead of dreading going to the gym or eating a salad instead of a fast food combo meal.

Another way to make creating healthier habits easier is to learn more about the unhealthy habits you currently have. Once you know more about what smoking, drinking, unhealthy diet or lack of exercise can do to your body, it will be easier to make better choices. 

One thing to remember about becoming healthier is that what works for someone else may not work for you. Some people may love waking up at 4 a.m. and going for a run, while some prefer late night workouts. Finding something you enjoy will help ensure that you stick to it. 

Personally, my resolution for 2019 was to quit drinking soda, juices, etc. and only drink water. It was difficult at first, because I always ordered Dr Pepper with my meals when I went to restaurants. After ordering water with my meals for about three weeks, I got used to it and didn’t want soda anymore. These days, Dr Pepper wouldn’t taste the same to me even if I wanted to drink it. Once you make it through the adjustment period, it will be easier to make healthy choices without even thinking about it. 

One thing that helped me while I was trying to live a healthier life was following people with similar goals on social media. There are many Instagram accounts dedicated to weight loss tips, healthy recipes, workout challenges and more. Many people even start their own weight loss accounts to track their progress. Pinterest is also a very helpful resource for finding healthy recipes for any type of diet, whether it's vegan, keto, paleo, etc.

Imagine where you could be in your health journey by the end of the year or decade if you start today! Just remember that getting healthier takes time and that one week can’t undo months or years of unhealthy habits. Also, remember that there is a reason you made these resolutions, and think of that reason every time you feel like quitting.

​There have been some great “Twelve Days of Christmas” parodies over the years, so why shouldn’t the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention add one into the mix?

After all, the holiday season coincides with the start of cold weather and winter, and when you gather together with friends and relatives, you want to exchange goodwill and gifts, not a cold or the flu. 

So sing along to the “Twelve Ways to Health Holiday Song” and remember to wash your hands, get your flu vaccine, indulge in food and drink safely and with moderation and stay warm and joyful during these celebratory times.

The first way to health, said the CDC to me
Wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The second way to health, said the CDC to me
Bundle up for warmth, and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The third way to health, said the CDC to me
Manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The fourth way to health, said the CDC to me
Don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The fifth way to health, said the CDC to me, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The sixth way to health, said the CDC to me
Fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The seventh way to health, said the CDC to me
Get exams and screenings, fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The eighth way to health, said the CDC to me
Get your vaccinations, get exams and screenings, fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The ninth way to health, said the CDC to me
Monitor the children, get your vaccinations, get exams and screenings, fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The tenth way to health, said the CDC to me
Practice fire safety, monitor the children, get your vaccinations, get exams and screenings, fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The eleventh way to health, said the CDC to me
Prepare dinner safely, practice fire safety, monitor the children, get your vaccinations, get exams and screenings, fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.
The twelfth way to health, said the CDC to me
Eat well and get moving, prepare dinner safely, practice fire safety, monitor the children, get your vaccinations, get exams and screenings, fasten belts while driving, be smoke-free, don’t drink and drive, manage stress, bundle up for warmth and wash hands to be safe and healthy.

The CDC also offers some tips that didn’t make it into the song that can help us navigate temptations in a healthy manner. Such as, reach for veggies instead of salty and sugary snacks. When gathering together with family and friends, round some of them up for a walk or a hike. It’s also a good time to talk to them about family health history. Make sure you get plenty of sleep. Don’t smoke, and avoid other people’s second-hand smoke.

Most of all, relax and have a great time with family!

Before the dust has settled on the case of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail after being accused of sexually trafficking girls, an eerily similar story has emerged from Florida. This time, it’s center on a man who launched a non-profit to purportedly help children in the foster care system who was actually grooming them to be prostitutes.

Foster children, along with runaways, are two very vulnerable groups when it comes to falling victim to sexually trafficking, noted Andrew Cogar, an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of West Virginia who prosecutes federal cases of human trafficking.

Any number of reports of human trafficking in the United States is too high. A total of 10,949—the number of reported humans caught up in trafficking schemes in 2018—is especially alarming when you consider how these figures have tripled since 2012. Also, 7,126 were female; 1,137 were male. The remaining 2,686 were not identified by gender.

Back in 2012, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, 3,409 cases were reported. The number has risen steadily in recent years, especially since 2016: 2013, 5,176; 2014, 5,382; 2015, 5,714; 2016, 7,748; 2017, 8,773; and 2018, 10,949.

Are those figures rising because the actual numbers of cases are going up or because more awareness has led to more instances of human trafficking being brought to light? 
It’s probably some of both, said Cogar, who also co-founded and co-chairs the West Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force.

Recently, Cogar presented a lecture on human trafficking at Monongalia County Health Department’s Quick Response Team (QRT). The QRT is a group of MCHD employees, law enforcement, first responders, peer recovery coaches and other community stakeholders who meet weekly to address the opioid crisis. Obviously, drug users can be targeted for human trafficking; in other instances, traffickers purposely get their victims hooked on drugs to help control them more.

In addition to QRT members, the lecture also was attended by MCHD employees in MCHD Clinical Services, MCHD Dentistry and Women, Infants & Children. The work of those public health workers in particular puts them in contact with groups of people who could be among the most vulnerable in our community, so it was good for them to learn signs to watch out for that someone might need help.

What are those signs? First, Cogar noted, in the United States, trafficking people for sex is more prominent than for labor, while internationally, it’s the reverse. 

A definition of different types of trafficking can be found on the website for the West Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force:

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against his/her will.

Sex trafficking has been found in a wide variety of venues within the sex industry, including residential brothels, escort services, fake massage businesses, strip clubs and street prostitution.

Labor trafficking has been found in diverse labor settings including, domestic work, small businesses, large farms and factories.
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In the United States, risk factors that might reveal that someone is being trafficked include restricted freedom of movement, a sexually explicit online profile, indebtedness to an employer, unusual tattoos that could be branding, large quantities of cash and several cell phones.

Also, Cogar noted, someone who has been trafficked in this way might not really know it.
“They don’t always realize they are victims,” he said. “And they might be conditioned not to cooperate if someone tries to help them.”

Just about everyone working in prostitution has been trafficked at some point, Cogar said, even those who end up working for themselves. “Nobody really wants to be a prostitute,” he added. And 50 percent of people who have been trafficked for sexual services were first trafficked as minors. “There are instances of children as young as 8 or 9 being trafficked with alarming frequency,” he added.

How close does that hit to home? Very close, noted Cogar. In 2018, of the nearly 11,000 cases of human trafficking reported in the United States, 40 of them took place in West Virginia. However, he said, that figure “undercounts significantly” what’s really happening in the Mountain State.

Cogar showed ads from now-defunct web services of purported Russian females offering massages in towns all over West Virginia. The ads create more questions than they answer, however. Are the females of legal age? Who placed the ad? Are they really from Russia? If so, who sponsored them in the United States? And why is one of them wearing a T-shirt that says “Sex” on it?

Sadly, Cogar said, ads like these have been replaced by websites with much more explicit offers these days. “This is child’s play compared to what’s being posted now,” he said. 

There are other human trafficking scenarios: restaurants that bring foreigners to work for them for long hours and low wages, promising to help getting a Green Card in six months. That never happens, and then there might be blackmail involved with threats of calling immigration services if the victims don’t continue to work under illegal circumstances.

Another way to ensnare someone into a trafficking situation is looking on the internet for vulnerable people, such as runaways and foster children. Many times, it’s an older man who preys on a girl. At first, they pretend to care; then they will say something like, “If you really love me, you will make money for me.” 

“That’s the way traffickers sink their teeth into their victims,” Cogar said. 

And then they might take video of the girl engaged in sex and threaten to show it to friends and family. Or they might give victims drugs so they are so strung out, they are easily to manipulate. Or both. 

Do you know of a situation in which there might be human trafficking involved? If so, Cogar urges you to report that. There are several ways you can do this, including by contacting the West Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or Cogar himself. His email address is andy.cogar@usdoj.gov.

Want to learn more? In addition to the above websites, you also can check out the Polaris Project and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
​
Remember, it takes a village to take care of our fellow citizens, especially those who are among the most vulnerable in a community.

It’s that time of year again, when fidget spinners, LEGO bricks and mini-drones (yes, mini-drones) might be topping some holiday gift lists for kids.

But toys come with age guidelines, and they are not just suggestions. As with any toy, parents should do some research to make sure it’s age-appropriate for their children.

Monongalia County Health Department’s Environmental Health program wants to make sure parents take some of these facts into consideration as they shop for their kids during the holiday season.

According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, any items with smaller, removable parts should not be in the hands of kids under 3 years of age. Also, all kids should be warned against putting any of the toys’ parts in their mouths.

Kids 3 and under, however, are especially vulnerable because they often put just about any item in their mouths.

According to a variety of sources, between 200,000 and 250,000 children a year visit emergency departments following a toy-related injury. The CPSC placed that number at 226,100 in 2018. Seventy-three percent of those children were under the age of 15; 37 percent were under the age of 5. Most toy-related injuries involve cuts and bruises, often to the head and face.

The highest percentage of those accidents, 19 percent, took place on non-motorized scooters while an additional 5 percent were on toy vehicles. Sometimes these accidents involve a collision with a car; in other instances, young children have drowned after wheeling their toy vehicle into swimming pools.

Of course, any riding toys—bikes, scooters, skateboards, skates—should be accompanied by the appropriate protective gear, which can include helmets and knee and wrist pads.

Another 25 percent of the toys weren’t specified in the CPSC statistics. Toy balls and building sets accounted for another 14 percent of injuries.

The good news is that the number of overall injuries requiring ED treatment has gone down since 2010, from 242,000 to 226,100. But that doesn’t mean parents should become complacent when it comes to the toys their children are playing with.

Another factor to consider is battery-operated toys. Here are some tips on how to handle those items when children are involved:

• Keep button batteries away from small children. Each year, nearly 3,000 children are treated in emergency departments after swallowing button batteries, according to Safe Kids Worldwide (safekids.org).

• Be present when products with batteries are charging.

• Never charge a product with batteries overnight while you are sleeping.

• Unplug the toy immediately once it is fully charged.

• Have working smoke alarms in your house to protect you if there is a fire.

Also, make sure toys such as crayons and markers are labeled “nontoxic.” And be aware that toys that are marked ATSM have met the American Society of Testing and Materials standards.

After making sure a toy is age-appropriate, the next mantra is reminiscent of the one real estate agents use, but instead of “location, location, location,” it’s “supervise, supervise, supervise.” Especially in the beginning, when children are first getting the hang of a new toy.

And perhaps you’ve lectured your children about sharing toys. But depending on the age range of the kids, that’s not always good advice and might prompt a toddler to play with a toy meant for older children.
​
Everyone wants to have happy holidays. Spending time with your kids as they get accustomed to new toys is a great way to do that and make sure they stay safe.

Toward the end of sixth grade, Adrian Kiger Olmstead developed an unquenchable thirst.

“I was always asking to be excused from class to get drinks of water,” she said.

That, of course, would lead to more bathroom trips.

“It got to the point where I was embarrassed, so I said something to my mom about it.”
Her mother had an aunt and an uncle who had had type 1 diabetes. She knew the disease was a possibility because excessive thirst is a well-known symptom. And she was right.

Olmstead set about learning how to control the disease. She had no choice. Diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the No. 1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations and adult blindness. Before insulin was developed a century ago, the life expectation for someone diagnosed with diabetes was a few months. 

Olmstead’s regimen quickly included daily injections of insulin, as well as years of pricking her finger to check her blood sugar levels. She no longer does the latter, thanks to a patch she wears that measures her blood sugar levels automatically with a subcutaneous needle.

"I practically cried with happiness and relief that I didn’t have to poke my finger anymore.”

She still endures insulin shots in her stomach; however, “It’s like brushing my teeth.”

Often diagnosed in children, type 1 diabetes means that the pancreas isn’t making any or very much insulin, a hormone that enables blood sugar to enter the cells in your body so it can be used for energy.

More than 30 million Americans, or about 1 in 10, have diabetes, although about 1 in 4 have not been diagnosed. However, between 90%-95% of them have type 2 diabetes. That means the pancreas can still make insulin, but cells don’t respond to it. This is called insulin resistance. People with type 2 diabetes can improve their condition with better eating habits, exercise and sometimes medications.

But, as Olmstead noted, for those with type 1 diabetes, “We can’t live without insulin.”
And paying for insulin has become increasingly difficult. Although the scientists who created insulin about 100 years ago sold the patent for a token $1, insulin costs have skyrocketed in recent years.

Olmstead usually pays $200-$300 a month for insulin and supplies, on top of $500 out-of-pocket for health insurance. While hefty, other people with type 1 diabetes have posted even higher costs. 

Various sources note that the cost of insulin went up nearly 300% between 2002 and 2013. And it has continued to rise since then.

“We are literally fighting for our lives,” Olmstead said. “We have been priced out of taking care of ourselves. When I was diagnosed, I was told, ‘This is manageable.’ It’s manageable, but you have to be able to afford it to manage it. If you are a type I diabetic, if you don’t have insulin, you will die.”

These developments have turned Olmstead into a diabetes activist. Earlier this year, she learned about the group Insulin4All and saw that it didn’t have a West Virginia chapter, so she started one.

​According to information on Insulin4All’s webpage, since the 1990s, the cost of insulin increased more than 1,200%. 

Olmstead has teamed up with Monongalia County Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer. When the two met, Fleischauer had already gotten legislation nationally known as Kevin’s Law passed. The law allows pharmacists to provide a 30-day refill on lifesaving prescriptions such as insulin. It was named for a man who couldn’t get a refill over the New Year’s holiday and died after rationing insulin. 

Fleischauer announced the enactment of Kevin’s Law in West Virginia last June from Monongalia County Health Department. That’s where she also discussed plans with the media for a Dec. 8 bus trip to Canada, where insulin can be purchased much more cheaply. Olmstead will be on board. 

In addition to getting lower-priced insulin, Olmstead said, the caravan will be a way to offer hope to people with diabetes.

“And the fact that we’re literally having to drive to another country to buy affordable insulin is absurd. But it’s reality.”

Fleischauer is also working on legislation that would cap the monthly price of insulin at $50 for those with insurance. “Colorado, for example, passed a bill and now there is a $100 cap on insulin per month per person,” Olmstead said.

There is still room on the bus for anyone who is interested and who already has a passport. To reserve a spot or get more details, email Olmstead at WVInsulin4All@gmail.com.

And if anyone with diabetes needs general help managing the illness or navigating insurance, the MCHD Clinical Services Diabetes Clinic can help. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Friday. Call 304-598-5119 to make an appointment.