Join Health Exchange in National Walking Month!

May 2012 is National Walking Month.

Here at Health Exchange we are always walking, whatever time of year (though maybe a little less in the winter!) but National Walking Month is a good time to get started with regular walking, or to increase the amount of walking you are currently doing.

What’s going on?

All throughout May Living Streets are hosting The Great British Walking Challenge (http://www.livingstreets.org.uk/walk-with-us/events-and-challenges/great-british-walking-challenge) where you can monitor how much walking you are doing. To make it more interesting you can compete against your friends, family or work colleagues, set yourself goals, take part in challenges or see how many calories you are burning!

Walk to Work

The 14^th – 18^th May is Walk to Work week, so why not ditch the car or bus and get some extra walking in? The exercise will help increase energy levels throughout the day, and reduce stress levels at work. If you live too far from work to walk all the way, why not alter your journey to walk part of it? Get off the bus earlier, or park further away.

Walk to School

The 21^st – 25^th May is Walk to School week, which is a great way to get the kids doing some walking too. The extra exercise and fresh air will help with concentration at school and benefit overall health and fitness levels. Check with your school, they may be organising walking buses or other schemes during this week.

Health Exchange Health Walks take place all year round, and are a great way to be active in a friendly group, with gentle, risk assessed routes led by trained volunteer walk leaders. It’s always a highlight of my week if I can get out of the office to join a walk, the fresh air and exercise are good for me, and it’s great to meet our walkers around the city. To find our details of walks in your area, contact us on 0800 158 3535 or visithttp://www.healthexchange.org.uk/our-services/motivational/get-walking/

Here is how one of girls, Sharece, got on.

“From leaving Health Exchange as a Health Promotion Assistant I now do support work with young men who have learning difficulties. The work experience I did completed helped me get back into work and I love my new job.

I have applied to go to university in september to study Health and Wellbeing. It has been a pleasure working at Health Exchange”

Well done Sharece.

It’s Time to Talk About Prostate Cancer

It isn’t a pretty subject, but today we’re going to talk about prostate cancer. In the overall picture of your health and fitness , your prostate health sits pretty high. Paying attention to you r body pays off long term and nowadays people are more relaxed when talking about prostate trouble.

What is the prostate gland?

Your prostate is part of your reproductive system and it’s unique to the male sex. It’s about the size of a walnut and sits just outside the bladder, surrounding the urethra (the tube through which your urine  passes).

Age

If you’re a gentleman of a good vintage (let’s say aged 50 years or older), you’re at much higher risk of developing prostate cancer according to national statistics.  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst men in the UK.

Family history

Prostate cancer is shown to be passed down in families. The stats show that 5-10% of all diagnosed cases in older men, and an even higher number (30%-40%) in early onset cases (men diagnosed under the age of 55), are caused by inherited genes. In other words, if a close male relative has suffered from prostate cancer in the past, you are at higher risk.

Ethnicity

Research shows that British men of a black African or black Caribbean background are far more likely to suffer from prostate cancer than white or South Asian men living in the UK. Migration studies also suggest that there are high risk and low risk countries for prostate cancer.

Symptoms of prostate problems:

It’s also possible to have prostate cancer without having any of the common symptoms.  A tumour often goes unnoticed until it puts enough pressure on the urethra to cause discomfort.  It’s also true that non-cancer related prostate conditions share many of the same symptoms as prostate cancer.

• Difficulty passing urine
• Having to rush to pass urine
• Blood in the urine
• New pain in the hips,  back or pelvis
• Weight loss in older men
• Difficulty getting an erection

Having some or any of these symptoms isn’t always a sure symptom of cancer, but the best person to talk to is always your GP. Your GP will then be able to send you to specialists for further tests.

The earlier a cancer is detected, the greater your chance of making a full recovery. So don’t keep your worries to yourself – speak to your GP if you’re having any problems.

This article was written in collaboration with whatistumor.net. For more information about cancer and tumour, including symptoms, treatment and the science behind, click here.

Article supplied by whatistumor.net

Music has been shown to increase exercise endurance by 15% so each week we are going to put together a playlist to keep you active and interested.

Our first playlist is from our Walks Co-ordinator, Catherine Fletcher. Her playlist is to help all you active walkers out there… each song has the word walk in it. I wonder if you can guess a few of them.

Click here to download the playlist

It’s not easy to get or awarded to just anybody, this puts us in the top 26% of employers in the country.

The Investors in People standard is dedicated to creating a happy, healthy workforce. We are always trying to build on the health and happiness of the Birmingham population, so why not our staff! It represents the Health Exchange’s commitment to improving the wellbeing, work environment and assisted learning of our staff.

Quality of service is so important to us at Health Exchange which is why the IIP standard will sit next to the quality marks we have already be awarded by QISMET, the Information Standard, Social Enterprise Mark and Matrix. We are not stopping there either, we are determined to add at least one other quality standard to our repertoire this year. Quality is something we see as constantly being looked at and developed within the organisation.

How did we do?

Overall we took 40,072,150 steps between us in 12 weeks, which is 25,646km and burned 1,615,709 calories! This is the same calorie count as 808 larger burgers, 2,390 glasses of red wine and 1,546 slices of cake!

The individual daily average was 11,531 steps, which burned around 465 calories.

So what does all this mean?

NHS Choices explains that for sustainable weight loss, you should aim at burning 600 calories more than you consume each day. With 10,000 steps using between 300-400 calories, this is a good start for losing weight and a good benchmark for achieving a healthy day to day level of physical activity.

So what can you achieve from different kinds of physical activity?

NHS Choices cites the Department of Health paper ‘At least five a day’ (2004) to give the following guide for a person of 60kg (9.5 stone) in 30 minutes:

• Strolling – 75 calories
• Walking – 99 calories
• Fast walking – 150 calories
• Aerobic dancing – 195 calories
• Running – 300 calories
• Swimming – 240 calories
• Cycling – 240 calories
• Tennis – 240 calories

Want to start walking, socialising and improving your wellbeing?

Then click here to join one of our Free Health Walks.

For more information, check the following links:

NHS 10000 Step Challenge

NHS getting started dancing

NHS getting started walking

GCC Corporate Challenge

Visit www.startwellbirmingham.co.uk the brand new FREE website designed for early years professionals and parents to provide:

 Separate early years professional and parents sections
 More information about each of the 7 key messages
 Practical ideas to put the 7 key messages into practice in your setting
 Practical ideas for parents to put the 7 key messages into practice at home
 Links to lots of useful resources
 Information about free nutrition training available for early years professionals

One of our longest serving staff members has shared the story of her career to demonstrate how easy it is to progress in the health arena with some hardwork and support.

My origins are from Tanzania. As first generation British I migrated here with my family and have for most of my married life been a home maker and supported my husband in running his business.

My ambition in life was, and has always been, to work in health; which I knew would enable me to positively contribute back to society. As my children were grown up, I decided to exploit any opportunities which arose that would give me a chance to fulfil my dream.

I  started as a volunteer in September 2006, with Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care NHS Trust, as a Lay Health Advisor. I enlisted for training and learnt in depth information about various medical conditions.

In November 2006 Sue Turton gave an introduction about the new Health Exchange program. This was an opportunity not to miss and I pursued it immediately. I accepted the offer without any hesitation and took up training in Support Services in Health Care.

In February 2007, I started employment with Health Exchange as a Health Supporter. During this placement I covered offices in City Hospital, Birmingham Libraries, and different community and children centres. This exposed me to different cultures and gave me a variety of experiences which further contributed to enhancing my communication and interpersonal skills.  I took the chance to become a Walk Leader and Stop Smoking Advisor across the organisation. This experience was priceless.

In April 2010 the opportunity to become a Health Trainer and Expert Patient Program Tutor presented itself, which I embraced wholeheartedly. My role as a Health Trainer was to support and motivate people to make small lifestyle changes which would contribute to the betterment of their health and overall wellbeing. Getting opportunity was satisfying beyond words. I was covering the Birmingham East and North Area, where I worked in GP Surgeries along with Doctors, Nurses, CVD Nurses, Practice Managers. I must mention that a lot of hard work was required especially at the outset when everything was new and different practices and procedures had to be learnt and adhered to. The work did not get any easier but as soon as the relationships with surgeries and patients built up, the satisfaction was rewarding in itself. I do not intend to boast about my achievements but I feel it’s necessary as to inspire future HT’s to join the team.  I am proud to say I was awarded best Health Trainer in BEN Area in 2011, with 5 out of 8 chosen feedbacks displayed in our Health Exchange Board at the Health Trainers Conference belonging to me. I was in the role for 15 months and had seen more than 500 clients with 6 reviews each and a lot more sessions in the pipeline. As EPP Tutor I delivered courses to the general public, carers and patients with long term conditions. It seems a lot, it is a lot, but this is what we Health Exchangers do and are best at.

Finally, In October 2011 I was promoted to a Wellbeing Facilitator, where I starting providing shadowing opportunities to my colleagues and setting up to deliver Courses on Chronic Disease Education. It is quite recent, and so far it’s been enlightening giving me a chance to mentor and learn concurrently.

To conclude, I’d like to add a little note: to any one aspiring to contribute to the wellbeing of their community, I must emphasise there is no better place than the health exchange in my experience.  With determination, hard work, excellent supportive friends and colleagues, we can all make a positive difference, excel in ourselves, experience ‘job satisfaction’ first hand and most importantly, help everyone become healthy. I think if one person changes because of us, achieves better wellbeing, vitality, quality of life, and possibly longevity, then it’s all been worth it.