Skip to main content

Answering surveys mean being a good consumer and citizen...

In my past, rarely did I answer a phone number I don't know. It felt invasive.

However, now that I get client and customer direct phone calls from varying area codes for both of my businesses, I tend to answer them more. (If I hear either word "mortgage" or "interest" in the first sentence, I hang up!)

Today, I'm glad I answered today's "random" call, because it was the Colorado Department of Health on behalf of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention calling with a health survey, which I was happy to fill out - not only because health is my new career and in hopes to somehow impact the health and statistics on American health, but also for selfish pride that I live in one of the healthiest states in the country and I wanted my healthy body and mind included in the results. 

Today I wasn't asked about my nutrition, and so at the end of the survey, I asked why. She knew I worked in the industry of health and nutrition because one of the questions was about my employment. She said because of this, I may be interested in the results, and more about the program. Indeed.

The survey was the The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and is the nation's premier system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. Established in 1984 with 15 states, BRFSS now collects data in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories. BRFSS completes more than 400,000 adult interviews each year, making it the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world.

And while I wasn't asked about nutrition this year, I learned that a portion of the states do include that segment of questions (so it will be asked in other states this year), and last year it was asked in Colorado. Those results were a good read, because one of the opening paragraphs rung true for me: 
Eating fruits and vegetables contributes important under-consumed nutrients to the diet, reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, and may help individuals achieve and maintain a healthy weight when consumed instead of higher calorie foods. However, very few Americans consume recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables. 
[Surveillance of Fruit and Vegetable Intake Using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System]
These results are included with their Track A results as part of the Healthy People 2020 objectives, which also include survey results Health Care, Physical Activity, Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Cancer Screening, and Cognitive Impairment, in addition to Fruit and Vegetable Intake.  

Coloradoans - there is also information about our local survey here: https://www.colorado.gov/cdphe

So in summary, my plug is this (if I may be so bold), if you also get a call from your state on behalf of the CDC, please take the time to answer this, so that the center can better study and care for our public health. 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gluten Free for Psoriasis

Recently I've been putting my researching brain cells to work on studying the Gluten Free way of life. Since the age of 14 I have had psoriasis, and recently it's been showing signs of progression to psoriatic arthritis, a progression that occurs in about 20-40% of the cases (studies are still incomplete, although the reverse is 80% of PA patients have had psoriasis, so the two are definitely linked). I've been tested for allergies in the 1980s (none), and I'm a pretty natural consumer as well, so I don't use body products with harmful ingredients like parabens or sulfates. Herbal and homeopathic remedies and dead sea salts have all helped reduce my inflammations, but have never eliminated the disorder completely. I was vegetarian for 7 years in the 1990s, and that never cleared up my psoriasis either. Because of its progression I've started researching the diet and how it relates to the disorder, and stumbled upon several articles and studies that now link...
18 comments
Read more

Specific Carbohydrate Diet

After 2.5 years on a strict gluten-free diet and showing only marginal improvement to my skin condition of psoriasis, (although pain free from psoriatic arthritis), my naturopathic doctor has recommended the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). I had grown frustrated with the worsening allergic reactions I was having to several new foods, and went in for a checkup about two months ago, seeing both my naturopath and a new acupuncturist.  For me this reaction is severe joint pain and swelling on my right side, and I am so sensitive to gluten that now anything made in a factory with gluten - as well as all "inflammatory" foods such as soy and the "nightshades" family now - gives me this reaction. Both docs agreed I should go off the nightshades, refined sugars, and soy, and add some acupuncture, Chinese herbs and natural remedies (aloe juice, apple cider vinegar, and more) to my daily rituals to enduce some intestinal healing.  Since then I have seen a 50% reduction i...
1 comment
Read more

My switch to all natural Henna - Part 2

(Continued from Part 1) Henna Gods, I am truly impressed. Granted, my mantra has been, "the Indian women have such beautiful hair..." so the results had to be good.  But even so, my hair looks awesome. A more natural shade of red than the chem dye- slightly lighter than my natural brown tone (is that possible? is that from the chamomile?)- than I've ever had in the four years that my stylist and I have been tampering with tubes of colors like Michelangelo. Not wine red, not Redskins red, not Mahogany-Obsidian red.  I had been shooting for my mother's red. Scottish/Irish red, a dark Ginger. I think I'm finally there, or damn close. So how'd we get there? Here's the last 48 hours: 10pm Monday Large ceramic bowl Mixed 300g of fresh organic Rajasthani Indian Henna powder with 3.5c of warm chamomile tea from distilled water, steeped for 20 minutes and cooled with 6 cubes of ice Covered with plastic wrap, left on counter 9am Tuesday No "red...
Post a Comment
Read more