New option for Medicare coverage

New option for Medicare coverage

YOUNGSTOWN

Residents in nine Ohio counties, including Columbiana, Mahoning, Stark and Trumbull, have a new option for Medicare coverage effective Jan. 1, under the national Allwell brand that unites Buckeye Health Plan’s family of local and regional Medicare plans under one umbrella.

Medicare is a government health insurance program for people 65 or older. Medicare beneficiaries can compare and purchase a plan that will meet their health care and budget needs during the open-enrollment period. Consumers and their family members can compare and purchase products on Buckeye’s website: Advantage.BuckeyeHealthPlan.com. Allwell from Buckeye Health Plan’s products include a variety of benefits such as dental, hearing and vision services, and a 24-hour nurse advice line.

Gum disease and cancer

NEW YORK CITY

A recent peer-reviewed study that appeared in the August 2017 edition of “Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention” concludes that older women with gum disease have a 14 percent increased risk of cancer, including breast cancer.

Released during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the study discusses a way for women to better their current 1-in-8 risk for developing breast cancer with a new type of dental exam, a Dental 3D Cone Beam scan, done by systemic dentists. The scan looks for hidden infection that could be a burden on the body’s immune system that could hinder its fight against disease of any kind, including cancer.

This study proving a causal link between gum disease and cancer follows dozens of studies that verify one fact: the same bacteria are found in both gum disease and breast cancer, as well as in several other types of cancers, heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune diseases and others.

Introduction to FIRST

YOUNGSTOWN

Alta Behavioral Healthcare offers an introduction to FIRST, a Coordinated Specialty Care for First Episode Psychosis treatment program at 9 a.m. Oct. 30 on the third floor of the Voinovich Building, 222 W. Federal St. Mahoning County FIRST is a collaboration between Alta Behavioral Healthcare, the Mahoning County Mental Health & Recovery Board, and the Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (BeST) Center of Northeast Ohio Medical University.

The event is free and open to the public; however, pre-registration is appreciated. To register, visit wwweventbritecomfirstmahoningcounty.eventbrite.com. or call 330-325-6710.

Promote sleep safety

WARREN

Students and faculty from Kent State University Trumbull’s nursing program recently presented Sleep Sacks for newborns at Trumbull Regional Medical Center.

Kent State Trumbull and its nursing faculty have focused on ways that they could promote sleep safety in an effort to reduce the region’s infant mortality rate (IMR). Ohio has one of the nation’s highest rates at just over 7.4 percent; the Trumbull County IMR is 7.6 percent, and in Mahoning County, the IMR is below 6 percent.

By providing Sleep Sacks, holding awareness events, and adding safe sleep instruction to nursing curriculum, Kent State Trumbull faculty hopes to see these numbers decrease. A sleep sack replaces loose blankets in the crib so a baby will stay covered and protected against the chance of a blanket covering a its face and disrupting its breathing. According to the Ohio Department of Health, every week in Ohio three babies die in unsafe sleep environments. Sleep-related infant deaths are among the most preventable infant deaths by practicing the ABCs of safe sleep – place babies Alone, on their Back, in a Crib.