In This Issue - the CCPOA Benefit Trust Fund

CCPOA Benefit Trust Fund | Lighting The Darkness. Keeping You Covered.
Spring/Summer 2015
In This Issue
WALKADOO.......................................... 1
YOUNG BLOOD ................................... 2
WESTERN DENTAL.............................. 2
CHILDREN’S HEALTH.......................... 3
WORLD WIDE WEIRD.......................... 4
BUSTED................................................ 5
THINKIN BOUT DRINKIN..................... 6
TIDBITS................................................. 8
Introducing Walkadoo
Take a walk and earn some cash.
WALKADOOTM IS A WELLNESS
PROGRAM FOR EVERY WALK OF
LIFE.
916-779-6300
800-468-6486
www.ccpoabtf.org
Visit the links on our home page.
CCPOA Benefit Trust Fund
Communications Department
2515 Venture Oaks Way, Ste. 200
Sacramento, CA 95833-4235
We present this issue of SearchLight for your
education and enjoyment. We produce this
publication three or four times a year, as the whim
strikes us. If you have any benefit questions,
please call the Trust. Don’t count on your buddy,
because he got his information from some guy in
a van parked outside the wall.
It’s easy, here’s how:
• Register at mywellvolution.com.
• Once registered, select Walkadoo.
Whether you walk, run, hike, or bike,
• Follow the steps to set up the prodo what you already do
gram and order your
and Walkadoo will help
Pebble, provided to you at
you keep track of your acno cost from CCPOA.
tivity and personal goals
• Wear your Pebble or
and let you share them
other activity monitor
with your friends and
throughout the day to
family, from your computtrack your steps.
er and mobile device.
• Complete 10,000 points
between June 1 and
WALKADOO IS HERE, SO
November 30, 2015, and
ORDER YOUR PEBBLE
you will earn $75!
Make your Pebble the fashion accessory that
TODAY!
You can also earn addimakes you a Walkadoo-er.
You can track your
tional rewards by particiWalkadoo activity with
pating in Daily Challenge
a Pebble, a device you wear on your hip,
and by taking the Well-Being Assessment
inside your shirt, or even In your pocket –
survey by November 30, 2015:
anywhere that is comfortable for you.
• Complete the Well-Being Assessment
Go to mywellvolution.com, click on the
survey and earn $25!
Walkadoo program icon, and follow the
• Earn 5,000 points in Daily Challenge
steps to register and order your Pebble.*
and earn $75!
EARN REWARDS
CCPOA Medical Plan participants*
can earn up to $175 by participating in
Walkadoo and Daily Challenge® and by
taking the Well-Being Assessment survey.
GET MOVING!
For more information visit our website
ccpoabtf.org and click on the banner.
* Only CCPOA Medical Plan Blue Shield participants enrolled in the Basic plan are eligible for rewards and Pebble. Dependents can participate in the program but are not eligible for rewards or Pebble.
Walkadoo is a trademark, and Daily Challenge is a registered trademark, of MeYouHealth. MeYouHealth is a wholly owned subsidiary of Healthways, Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in
the U.S. and other countries.
Wellvolution is a registered trademark of Blue Shield of California. Blue Shield and the Shield symbol are registered trademarks of the BlueCross BlueShield Association, an association of independent Blue
Cross and Blue Shield plans.
1
Young Blood:
The Vampire Transfusion
T
2
he secret to eternal youth and even a
cure for Alzheimer’s could be on the
horizon with the ‘Vampire’ blood transfusion.
According to two studies the ageing
process could be reversed–or even halted–
by transfusions of young blood.
Scientists believe the process could
even lead to a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, claiming it ‘recharges’ the brain,
forms new blood vessels and improves
learning and memory.
Researchers at Harvard University discovered that ‘youth protein’ GDF11, which
circulates in the blood, is responsible for
keeping the brain and muscles young and
strong.
The protein disappears as we age but it
is present in large quantities when we are
young.
Within the next three years scientists
are set to begin human trials.
said the discovery should give hope for
a healthier future.
“We all wonder why we were stronger
and mentally more agile when young,
and these two unusually exciting papers
actually point to a possible answer.” Says
Professor Doug Melton, of Harvard’s
Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative
Biology, “There seems to be little question
that, GDF11 has an amazing capacity to
restore aging muscle and brain function.
“We do think that, at least in principal,
there will be a way to reverse some of the
decline of aging with a single protein.
Similar findings at Stanford University
seem to point to the same conclusion.
“This could have been done 20 years
ago,” said Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, author
of the Stanford study. “You don’t need
to know anything about how the brain
works. You just give an old mouse young
blood and see if the animal is smarter
than before. It’s just that nobody did it.”
The “vampire therapy” improved the
performance of the elderly mice in memory and learning tasks.
Now, the final step is about to begin –
giving young human blood plasma to older
people with medical conditions.
Thanks to the long safety record of
blood transfusions getting approval to
perform the experiment in humans has
been relatively simple, says Wyss-Coray.
Don’t try this at home. Transfusions
need to be screened for disease, matched
for blood type and the plasma needs to be
separated out.
“Certainly you can’t drink the blood,”
he says. “Although obviously we haven’t
tried that experiment.”
So in early October, a team at Stanford
School of Medicine will give a transfusion
of blood plasma donated by people under
30 to older volunteers with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s.
If this works, then you can imagine
the day when college students will make
big dollars donating their blood to rich,
privately funded blood centers. Or just be
held captive in their dungeons, either way.
telegraph.co.uk; med.stanford.edu
Does Your Dentist do Western?
Sometinmes members assume that after their first year with CCPOA that they need to
change dentists. They often assume that they get Western Dental for the first year, but if
they want a private practice they need to switch over to Primary Dental. Well, I’m here to
tell you that this is just not the truth. Let’s set the record straight.
Western Dental IS the most cost-saving option, with many services (like cleaning, xrays etc.) Covered 100%. Western Dental DOES have access to more than 650 dentists in
Western Dental owned-and-operated offices. But what if you want to find an independent
dentist who accepts Western Dental insurance? It takes a few clicks to get there-but the
Western Dental site has that info.
>
westerndental.com > Bottom center of the home page: Insurance - View
all dental plans > Already a Member? Group Plan Members > CCPOA >
Find a dentist - Search providers.
After entering your information the search results will find all the locations available,
both Western Dental offices and private practice locations. So if saving a little money is
your thing, then a few extra clicks may be just what the dentist ordered.
Photo: Dracula, 1931: Wikimedia Commons
Children’s Health From the Blue Shield Health Library
Healthy Eating in Children:
Things That Influence Food Choices
Chicken nuggets. Mac n’ Cheese. Fries and Dogs. You know
it’s junk, but it tastes so good. How do you get your kid to eat
anything else? The good news is it is not impossible. The bad
news is that it requires consistency and persistance from YOU
the parent, and it won’t be easy.
AVAILABILITY OF FOOD.
Because food is so readily available
in our culture, it is easy to eat without
thinking about how hungry you really are
or how much you have already eaten that
day. Some experts believe the high availability of food is responsible for the increasing numbers of overweight children
and adults in the United States. Schools
have vending machines and snack bars
with poor food choices. Fast food restaurants are everywhere. In fast food restaurants, “super-sized” meals can lead us
to purchase and eat more food than our
bodies need. Even regular portions are
very large compared to the past. Portion
sizes are increasing. Having a structured
meal and snack schedule can help you
and your child keep your hunger in check.
This helps avoid unplanned fast-food and
vending-machine purchases.
are crowded with frozen meals, microwave-able meals, instant
soups and stews, and prepackaged lunches. These foods usually
contain few fruits and vegetables and are often high in fat and
salt. Marketing often targets children through tie-ins between
movies, fast-food restaurants, and toys.
Children then pressure their parents to
visit certain restaurants and buy foods
Enforce the “one bite rule”
for them based on whether they can get a
Many parents have had success with the “one bite
desired toy. Resist this type of marketing,
rule,” requiring the child to try at least one solid
and plan the meals you know are nutrimouthful of a rejected food whenever it is served.
tious.
(Maybe your mom tried this on you.) After enough
exposures the food will be more familiar to the child
and usually they begin to rate it more favorably.
Research consistently shows that children
who have initially rejected a food must be
exposed to it at least 8-10 times for the
food to be accepted.
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL
MEANINGS OF FOOD.
We may serve and eat foods because
we were brought up eating them and find
them comforting. Some people eat, or
don’t eat, certain foods based on religious,
political, or social beliefs. Many ethnic
foods can be very healthy, and they have
Don’t force them to finish
developed over time because they supported life. For example, spaghetti with
Negative food experiences have the opposite
tomato, meat sauce, and Parmesan cheese
of the desired effect and actually increase picky
includes four food groups. Tacos contain
eating tendencies. One bite is different from
four food groups also. These foods can be
finishing your plate. One of the biggest
nutritious if they don’t contain too much
misconceptions among parents is that forcing their
fat.
child to eat a food she doesn’t like will get her
Emotions. Depression , anxiety , boreto
change
her
behavior.
However,
fighting
and
EATING ROUTINES.
dom, and stress often lead to unhealthy
Adults and children who eat regular
eating habits, both in adults and children.
punishments create a negative meal experience, and
meals tend to have better diets and be
Sometimes attempts to change eating habthe child will learn to associate food with the bad
closer to a healthy weight than those who
feelings. Require one bite, but try not to start a fight. its cannot succeed until we learn to man“graze” throughout the day. One of the
age the emotions and stress in our lives.
main barriers to planning regular and
In children, ongoing stress can cause a
balanced meals is a busy lifestyle. But
change in normal growth,
taking the time to plan meals can help you improve your and
leading to too much or too little weight or
your child’s nutrition. Family meals are an important time to
height gain. Fixing the problem that is causshare and discuss the day’s events. They also teach children
ing a child’s stress (rather than resorting to
what balanced meals look like.
a weight-loss or
weight-gain diet) will
return a child
to a normal growth
FOOD MARKETING.
pattern.
Marketing creates a desire for many less-than-nutritious
foods. Snack foods marketed not for their nutritional value,
but for their fun and taste often replace the healthier foods
we could be eating. Foods advertised on television during
children’s shows tend to have very little nutritional value.
Marketing also caters to a busy lifestyle. Grocery store shelves
Source: summertomato.com and blueshieldca.com
3
Found online. That makes it true.
4
Lotto Lucky
Lucky American
What’s better than finding out you’ve
won $30? Finding out you’ve won $15
million, that’s what
67 year-old Great-grandfather Peter
Congdon matched all six numbers in
England’s Lotto Quadruple Rollover to
take the $15,000,000 jackpot.
Mr. Congdon, a widower, said he was
told by three separate people that he
would be lucky that day. ‘I thought I
might have won £25. Then I realized I’d
matched six numbers and there was only
one jackpot winner so I ran straight down
to my daughter’s house and asked her to
double-check.’
When Mr. Congdon’s daughter confirmed that he had won the jackpot, he responded in truly British fashion: he made
himself a cup of tea.
This is just one of those stories that
makes you smile, because Peter just
seems like a nice guy. He is a city councillor, runs bingo in the community
centre three times a week and
helps out with family services.
He’s going to buy himself
a Land Rover and take his
three children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild
on vacation. metro.co.uk
In the late ‘90s, at a yard sale in
Donelson Hills, Tennessee, pipe fitter Stan
Caffy bought a rolled-up piece of parchment, along with other things. He then
packed these new treasures away in his
garage, like you do. When Caffy’s wife
pushed him to clean out the space (like
wives’ do) he gave the parchment to a
thrift store in Nashville. Michael Sparks
came along, looking for old and odd things
at sales, and bought it for $2.48.
The parchment turned out
to be one of the 200 official
copies of the Declaration of
Independence commissioned by
John Quincy Adams in 1820. It
was the 36th such copy found
intact, and after having the print authenticated and preserved, it was sold at auction for $477,650. therichest.com
Lotto Lucky Too
The same lottery ticket has lucked
out twice for a Seattle couple.
In February they bought a Powerball
ticket. It was not a winner. So they did
what we all Do – forgot about it and left
it in the car. A month later, they realized
it was a “second-chance” ticket, checked
online and Lo-and-Behold, the forgotten
ticket was actually worth $1 million.
Lucky, huh? But the REAL luck had
been a few weeks earlier, when their car
had been broken into. The thief stole a
pair of sunglasses. The kicker? The stolen
sunglasses were actually sitting atop the
winning ticket. kirotv.com
Divine Luck?
Church choirs are serious business,
and the West Side Baptist Church choir
in Beatrice, Nebraska, had practice every Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. On March 1,
1950, every single member of the 15-person choir showed up late for their practice. All of them. There were no holdouts.
Practice was to start at 7:20. The church
literally exploded at 7:27.
A gas leak, ignited by the flame in
the furnace, sent the roof of the church
straight down, killing all of the nobody
inside. Somehow, every single member of
the choir was late and, as a result, missed
not only their date to sing for the Lord,
but also their date to meet Him. And not
because they were all together somewhere
else – they each missed it for completely
different reasons.
Considering that it was a church choir,
the members pretty much agreed that it
was a miracle. No matter how cynical you
are, you have to admit, they have a point.
Unsurprisingly, this story was fascinating
enough to earn a spot on an episode of
Unsolved Mysteries. cracked.com
The Luckiest Man in
the World. Or Not.
Considered by many to be the greatest gambler of all time, Archie Karas had
the longest documented winning streak
in gambling history. Known simply as
“The Run”, Karas started with $50 and in
a little more than 3 years, turned it into
$40 million, then lost it all.
Born in Greece, at the age of 15, he
ran away from home, hopped on
a ship heading for America and
took a job as a waiter. A pool hall
next to the restaurant where he
worked allowed Karas to hone
his skills as a hustler, where he
soon ran out of challengers, so he
moved on to the L.A. Poker rooms.
By 1993, Karas had lost all but $50
playing high-stakes poker so he did what
any of us would do and drove to Las
Vegas. Out of respect, Karas has never revealed the player’s name that was willing
to lay it all on the line and bet big, but
in short order Karas had amassed tens
of thousands of dollars. Before the battle
was over he had a bankroll of $4 million
on which to start his “run”. By the end
of his winning streak Archie “The Greek”
Karas, who had begun with a mere $50
in hand, had won a fortune of over $40
million dollars.
But Lady Luck is fickle, and two years
after the streak began, his string of luck
came crashing down. First, Karas lost
$20 million playing dice. Then switched
to baccarat and lost another $17 million.
Then switched back to dice. By 1995,
Karas had lost all of his money in just
three weeks.
His former greatness never returned.
In 2013 – while playing blackjack – Karas
was spotted by surveillance cameras
marking cards. Using a hollowed-out
gambling chip filled with dye he would
secretly leave tiny smudges of ink wiped
onto the backs of jacks, queens, kings and
aces. altereddimensions.net
Off-beat news stories
about crime and such...
Stranger In Bed?
Take A Selfie!
Knowing her friends wouldn’t believe
her, the businesswoman in Dubai took a
selfie with a police officer next to her and
the stranger in the background.
Major General Khalil Al Mansoori, assistant police commander for criminal
affairs in Dubai
said: “They had
alcoholic drinks.
The man then
sneaked into the
woman’s apartment and slept
on her bed as he was very tired. We are
satisfied he had no intention to steal.”
That does not mean he is in the clear.
Under Dubai’s strict rules he could face
charges for drinking alcohol and being in
the woman’s bed, because sharing a bed
is illegal for couples that are not married.
metro.co.uk
DUI is not OK
Facebook ‘Em
Police say a 19-year-old Pennsylvania
man set up his own DUI checkpoint, complete with flares, a BB gun, handcuffs,
and a portable scanner. Because it’s not
a party until you’re demanding to see
license and registration.
The only problem with this scenario
are that (1) police caught on to his little
ruse and (2) the man, Logan Shaulis was
drunk himself at the time.
When officers arrived, they say Shaulis
tried to hand the BB gun to a passenger,
saying, “I can’t get caught with this.”
tribdem.com
Nicholas Wig, 26, broke into a home
near Minneapolis and stole money, credit
cards, and other valuables. He also needed to use the computer. Now, it’s generally
not OK to log into Facebook during work.
It’s definitely not OK if you’re a absentminded burglar, and you forget about logging out.
When homeowner James Wood returned home later that rainy night, he
noticed that his burglar had left behind
some wet jeans and shoes and that his
computer was on – still displaying the
Facebook profile of a “Nick Dub.”
Wood decided to post something to the
page: ‘You left a few things at my house
last night, how can I get them back to
you?” Surprise, “Nick Dub” messaged him
back! They arranged an exchange, and
Wood called police as soon as he saw Wig
on his street. He recognized him from his
picture on Facebook.
“I’ve never seen this before,” says a
Dakota County attorney. “Might even
make the late-night television shows in
terms of not being too bright.” Better then that
it made the SearchLight!
Saggin n’ Braggin
Ladies and Gentleman... the Half-fro
Cracking Up Now?
Outside a Florida movie theater
18-year-old Charles Ross was cracking
himself up. Known as a YouTube prankster he would harass people then put the
footage on YouTube. With some of his videos having over 7,000,000 views he felt
pretty invincible.
Police arrested Ross for giving wedgies
to people. cbsnews.com
Blue Sneakers. Red underwear. Orange
jumpsuit.
Taykim Ross, 18, of Long Island, took
$200, electronics and Air Jordan sneakers from one of two apartments during
his break-in, but instead of sneaking
away, he stayed in the backyard to try on
the shoes.
As he tried them on, an alert neighbor
snapped a photo of him. His prominent
red boxers are clearly visible. Later, as a
Hempstead cop was driving through the
neighborhood, he says he “noticed someone bending over putting garbage down—
and I saw the bright red underwear.” All
the stolen goods were recovered.
Ross was taking out the trash for an
elderly neighbor when arrested. Because
that’s what you do. Steal from your neighbors and then
help the elderly. newsday.com
Walk It Off
If your mother didn’t raise
you right, then you grow
up to be the kind of
young woman who calls
a cab, takes it for a 30
mile ride, then hops out
without paying, figuring somebody else
would just take care of it.
“What would you do if you didn’t have
a cab?” Ohio judge Michael Cicconetti
asked the defendant, Victoria Bascom.
“Walk,” she said. “So I think it’s only appropriate that you walk 30 miles,” the
judge told her. They slapped a GPS device
on her, and dropped her back at the fair
grounds where she started. She also owes
the cabbie $100 and was sentenced to
four months’ probation. abcnews.com
5
Having a drink is much different than needing one.
D
eciding it’s time to stop drinking is
one of the best choices anyone can
make, but sticking with it involves ongoing challenges. There are programs available that can improve your chances for
success during those challenging times
and help support you, a family member,
or a friend. A period of challenge can lead
to a period of reward. There ARE treatment programs that can help you start
reaping the rewards of an alcohol-free or
a smoke-free life and, ultimately, a healthier you.
6
WHAT ARE THE TREATMENTS FOR
ALCOHOLISM?
Abstinence is the goal of treatment for
alcoholism. The likelihood of recovery
is good among alcoholics with otherwise
good health, social support, and motivation. Approximately 50% to 60% remain
abstinent at the end of a year’s treatment
and a majority of those stay dry permanently. Those with poor social support,
poor motivation, or psychiatric disorders
tend to relapse within a few years of
treatment. For these people, success is
measured by longer periods of abstinence,
reduced use of alcohol, better health, and
improved social functioning.
TREATMENT HAS THREE STAGES:
Detoxification (detox): This may be
needed immediately after discontinuing
alcohol use and can be a medical emergency, as detox can result in withdrawal
seizures, hallucinations, delirium tremens
(DT), and in some cases may result in
death.
Rehabilitation: This involves counseling and medications to give the recovering
alcoholic the skills needed for maintaining sobriety. This step in treatment can
be done inpatient or outpatient. Both are
equally effective.
Maintenance: This step’s success
requires an alcoholic to be self-driven.
The key to maintenance is support,
There are several medicines used to help people in
recovery from alcoholism maintain abstinence and
sobriety. One drug, disulfiram may be used
once the detox phase is complete and the person is
abstinent. It interferes with alcohol
metabolism so that drinking a small
amount will cause nausea, vomiting, blurred vision,
confusion, and breathing difficulty. This medication
is most appropriate for alcoholics who are highly
motivated to stop drinking or whose medication use
is supervised, because the drug does not affect the
motivation to drink.
which often includes regular Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA) meetings and getting a
sponsor.
Because detoxification does not stop
the craving for alcohol, recovery is often
difficult to maintain. For a person in an
early stage of alcoholism, discontinuing
alcohol use may result in some withdrawal symptoms, including anxiety and
poor sleep. Withdrawal from long-term
dependence may bring the uncontrollable
shaking, spasms, panic, and hallucinations of DTs. If not treated professionally,
people with DTs have a mortality rate of
more than 10%, so detoxification from
late-stage alcoholism should be attempted
under the care of an experienced doctor
and may require a brief inpatient stay at
a hospital or treatment center.
Treatment may involve one or more
medications. Benzodiazepines are antianxiety drugs used to treat withdrawal
symptoms such as anxiety and poor sleep
and to prevent seizures and delirium.
These are the most frequently used medications during the detox phase, at which
time they are usually tapered and then
discontinued. They must be used with
care, since they may be addictive.
HOW TO STOP DRINKING
The first step to success is to consult
with your doctor. Alcohol withdrawal can
be dangerous without proper management, and some people need medical help
to manage the physical process. Stopping
alcohol abuse can help you prevent or
reduce health problems made worse by alcohol use. Stopping alcohol abuse can also
help increase your ability to be productive
at work, school, and home. Make a plan
and get started.
Identify your reasons. Make a list of
the reasons you want to cut down on or
stop drinking alcohol. You might want to
ask a trusted friend or family member to
help you make the list complete. Keep this
list so that you can renew your commitment from time to time.
Make a plan. Set a date to stop drinking. Make a plan to stop drinking alcohol.
Post it in a place where you can see it
often, such as on your refrigerator door
or bathroom mirror. You might want to
put it in more than one place. You also
might want to put it on a card and keep it
in your purse or wallet.
Share your plan with others. Talk with
your family members and trusted friends
about your plan. Let them know how they
can help you to be successful.
Evaluate your progress. In your plan,
identify when you will evaluate your
progress. Try a plan for 30 days so that
the new behavior becomes a habit. Review
your reasons for stopping alcohol use.
Write down the benefits that you are seeing. If you drank after successfully stopping (relapse), it does not mean that you
have failed. Relapse is common. Begin
again, using your experience to help you
learn how to stick with your plan this
time.
One of the most disgusting concoctions ever depicted on
film--Johnny Diamond’s Sober-Up
Fast Sauce, is in the 1966 John Wayne film El
Dorado. “It does something to a man’s stomach, so it
naturally won’t hold any liquor.” It feels only right to
include it here, seeing as this mixture is one of the most
memorable cinematic concoctions ever.
In the film Cole Thornton (John Wayne) asks his
companions, Bull (Arthur Hunnicutt) and Mississippi
(James Caan), “Either one of you know a fast way to
sober a man up?”
MISSISSIPPI: Johnny Diamond had a recipe. Let’s see.
Cayenne pepper, mustard--the hot kind, ipecac, asafetida,
and oil of cloves… or was it? No, it was croton oil.
BULL: Croton oil?! I’ll be a suck-egg mule. You know
what that mixture’ll do to a fella?
MISSISSIPPI: Guaranteed kill or cure.
Mississippi reveals the final ingredient as they are putting
the mixture together, -- gunpowder.
The Duke sums it all up with this: “I hope you
don’t blow him up.”
Continue your new behaviors. After
trying this plan for 30 days, try it for
another 30 days. Like anything else in
life, it is not easy to change behavior,
even when it might be in your best
interest. But the more you practice new
behaviors, the more likely it is that they
will become habits. If you try this plan
but are not successful, talk with your
doctor about other ways to stop drinking
alcohol.
The following are other ideas that can help
in your plan to stop using alcohol:
• Avoid stumbling blocks. Many things
can interfere with meeting your goal to
cut down on or stop drinking. If your current life revolves around alcohol use, you
might need to choose new friends or a
new lifestyle. To stay focused on your goal
and succeed, think through ideas to help
you stop using alcohol on your own. For
example, make a list of people and places
in your life that have nothing to do with
alcohol use.
• Attend a self-help group. Some people attend self-help groups to help them
stick to their plan to cut down on or stop
drinking. If you are not sure whether
a self-help group is for you but would
like to try, go to a group at least 3 times
before you make your decision. There are
different types of groups (such as men or
women only, discussion, and speaker). Go
to another group if the first one does not
fit your needs.
• Reward yourself. Use the money that
you are no longer spending on drinking
to do something fun with your family or
friends. Go out to eat or see a movie.
HELPING SOMEONE GET TREATMENT
Need to know how to help a person
who has an alcohol use problem? Perhaps
you suspect that alcohol is causing health
concerns or other issues for a family
member or friend. Learn how to recognize
alcohol abuse or dependence in others and
help someone seek advice or treatment.
Educate yourself about alcohol’s
effects on a person and the person’s
family. Learn how alcohol affects health
and how it can lead to serious health
problems, such as stroke, depression,
and cirrhosis. You can get information by
contacting an alcohol and drug treatment
center in your area and talking with a
health professional trained in dealing with
alcohol use problems.
Allow consequences. Let the person
suffer the consequences of his or her
drinking behavior. Stop making excuses
for the drinking. Don’t take over the
person’s responsibilities or cover up for
him or her. If you are having problems
recognizing and changing your enabling
behaviors , talk with a health professional
or go to a support group such as Al-Anon
for people affected by someone who has
an alcohol use problem. Allowing the
person to suffer consequences might help
the person realize that alcohol is causing
a problem.
Express your concerns. Talk with the
person about your concerns regarding the
drinking problem, and tell him or her that
you care. You might choose to talk with
the person during a formal intervention.
This is a carefully planned meeting in
which family, friends, and coworkers try
to persuade a person who has a problem with alcohol to get treatment. Some
health professionals, though, believe that
talking with a person who has an alcohol
use problem without the help of an intervention specialist might have a negative
impact on everyone involved.
Get treatment immediately. If the
person agrees to treatment, take him or
her immediately. Don’t wait, because the
person might decide not to go after all.
Follow through. If the person does
not go to treatment, follow through with
what you told the person you would do if
he or she did not get treatment. Not all
people with alcohol use problems consent
to treatment after they have been approached with the concerns of others. But
this does not mean that you (and other
people involved) have failed. Your expression of concern lets the person know
how much you (and other people) care. It
might help the person seek treatment in
the future.
Get help for yourself. You will receive
practical advice and encouragement by
attending a support group for people who
have been affected by someone’s alcohol
use problem. Two such support groups
are Al-Anon and Alateen. You might also
choose to speak directly with an alcohol
and drug counselor for support.
Source: webmd.com and blueshieldca.com
Mental Health/
Substance Abuse
Treatment
Obviously no article in a newsletter has all the
answers, but we want you to know that if you
or a loved one has a drinking problem there
IS hope.
If you are a member of the CCPOA
Medical Plan, treatment for Substance
Abuse is available.
For details about your Mental Health benefits
contact MHSA customer service by calling toll
free 1-877-263-9952.
7
TIDBITS
Chocolate is a diet food? All Good!
Dark Chocolate
Guidelines
• A true dark chocolate will never
have sugar listed first in the
ingredients. It should always be
below the cocoa ingredients.
• More than 70% cocoa
• Not processed with alkali
Dark chocolate: once considered a rare treat is now mainstream. For good reason.
It feels decadent, tastes great, and has healthy benefits. Medical research has helped it
become the acceptable snack for wannabe healthy eaters. One study showed participants
ate less junk food after eating dark chocolate. This did not happen with milk chocolate.
Calories + Carbs = FAT
Half of a three-ounce bar of dark chocolate contains just 200 calories and 21 grams
of carbs. Compare that to a chocolate-chip cookie from Panera bread (440 calories,
58 grams of carbs) or chocolate croissant from Starbucks (370 calories, 46 grams of
carbs). Bonus: Research has shown that making dark chocolate a daily treat can help curb
cravings for both sweet and salty foods.
It’s The Flavanols
Research points to flavanols – substances that help lower blood pressure and vascular function, improve
cognitive function, and even provides UV protection for our skin! Dark chocolate has a higher proportion of
flavanols than milk chocolate. A higher percentage of cacao (cocoa) means a higher amount of flavanols.
The Good, The Bad and The Yummy
The Good: Many big brands of dark chocolate make the cut including: Lindt, Godiva and Ghirardelli.
The Bad: These brands just don’t have the proper mix of ingrediants to be on the list: Milky Way, Hersheys, M&M’s, Dove.
The Yummy: All of them! Are you kidding me right now? It’s chocolate.
foxnews.com
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