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Health

What’s Up with Carrots?

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

What’s Up with Carrots?

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent, UH CTAHR

When you think of an orange vegetable, carrots come to mind, but once upon a time the most common color of carrots wasn’t orange. It wasn’t until the 1500s that the Dutch stumbled upon an orange carrot and focused on developing more orange varieties.
Believed to be native to the area around Afghanistan, the first carrots were purple and yellow. Around A.D. 900-1200, they spread to the eastern Mediterranean, then to China and Eastern Europe by the 1300s. By the 1600s, yellow carrots reached Japan, but it wasn’t until the 1700s that orange carrots emerged in Holland and adjacent areas.…

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Na Pu`uwai Receives $1.6 M to Continue Programs

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

Molokai’s Native Hawaiian health care provider, Na Pu`uwai, recently received $1,696,281 in federal funding. The funding, part of an ongoing grant, enables the organization to continue current programs, according to Executive Director William Akutagawa.

The funding was part of $10,673,171 allocated to healthcare, education and wellness programs designed to address the needs of Native Hawaiians across the state. The money comes through a series of five grants administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The funding was announced last week by Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Senator Daniel K. Akaka, U.S. Representative Mazie K. Hirono, and U.S. Representative Colleen Hanabusa.…

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Moving Mountains of Metal

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Moving Mountains of Metal

Molokai metals recycling event is now open.

If you’ve been collecting junk cars, appliances or scrap metal in your yard, now is the time to say goodbye to such lawn ornaments. A metals recycling collection event on Molokai, put on by the County of Maui, is going on right now until Sept. 8. The event allows residents to safely trash their scrap metal free of charge.

The current metals recycling program, which started three years ago, opens up once to three times per year. Located at the Molokai-Naiwa Landfill on Maunaloa Highway, the event is operated by Maui-based company Kitagawa’s Towing & Metals Recycling, which is contracted by the county to process the metals.…

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Kanemitsu Bakery Looks at the Options

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Kanemitsu Bakery Looks at the Options

The ovens of Kanemitsu Bakery remain cold since June, when the Department of Health (DOH) suspended their permit after a complaint was filed. Since then, the bakery has been making some of the sanitation improvements stipulated by the DOH. The operation has not been able to reopen as soon as owner George Kanemitsu had originally hoped, and now he said he’s looking into additional options — including establishing a bakery on Oahu.

In the meantime, work on the Molokai facility continues. The restaurant portion of the business remains open because it operates from a separate, permitted kitchen.

Kanemitsu said he anticipates a visit from DOH inspectors, accompanied by a governor’s representative, in the next couple weeks, after which he said he will have a better idea of a date to re-open.…

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Health Problems that Spread at School

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

Community Contributed

By Jon Mikami, RPh, and Kelly Go, RPh, Molokai Drugs, Inc.

Keiki should learn to share, right? However, when it comes to bugs and other contagious health problems in school, does your kid have to get everything that’s passed around?

Packed into a classroom and messing around on a playground or locker room, kids do tend to share lots of health problems in school. Here’s what you can do about it and when you should be concerned.

Do those little uku (head lice) top your list of concerns? Although these creepy insects might disgust you, it may help to know that they don’t cause diseases or other health problems, other than maybe a red, rash-like reaction.…

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Candles in the Dark

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

Candles in the Dark

Community remembers and celebrates at Relay for Life 2012

After darkness fell upon Kaunakakai Ball Park at Molokai’s fourth annual Relay for Life, a huge circle of candle-lit luminaria lanterns formed on the ground in memory or honor of a friend or loved one who has been affected by cancer. Family and friends surrounded each decorated bag, reminding themselves and each other that they were not alone in their struggle. Over 300 people attended this year’s 12-hour event starting Friday in support of the fight against cancer.

“Relay [For Life] is about celebrating, remembering and fighting back,” said guest speaker Trisha Adams.…

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Community Health Center Connects to Hawaiian Culture

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

MCHC News Release

The Molokai Community Health Center (MCHC) was the training site for a three-day workshop for a new education curriculum based on the ancient Hawaiian practice of uhau humu pohakau, or dry stack stone masonry. The unique curriculum was designed by Hui Ho`oniho and funded by the Administration for Native Americans.

“We were excited to partner with Hui Ho`oniho to help launch this new curriculum,” said Matt Yamashita, president of MCHC. “Our health center is committed to educational and cultural efforts that benefit our community.”

The workshop’s primary goal was to train educators in how to use the new curriculum in classroom settings.…

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What is Psychosis?

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

Community Contributed

By Stephanie Napoli, Psy.D., MCHC Behavioral Health Director

Psychosis is a widely misunderstood word that is commonly used as an insult, much in the same way “retarded” is. But psychosis is actually a medical term that refers to a mental disorder characterized by symptoms (such as delusions or hallucinations) that indicate impaired contact with reality. A person who is psychotic, then, has lost touch with reality. This usually means that they see, hear, think, understand, or interpret things differently than most people. Most commonly, people with psychosis see or hear things that aren’t really there.

Psychosis is due to problems with naturally occurring brain chemicals and can be caused by severe mental illness (for example schizophrenia), substance abuse (particularly methamphetamine or “ice” which commonly causes paranoia and hallucinations), severe stress or trauma, severe sleep deprivation, and, at times, some medical conditions (for example, Alzheimer’s Dementia, HIV/AIDS, Lupus, or hypoglycemia).…

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Sweet Oranges

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

Sweet Oranges

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent, UH CTAHR Cooperative Extension Service

A few days ago, I inquired about the price of orange juice at one of the stores and found the half-gallon sold for $5 while the gallon sold for $10. For $15 more, I could have bought an orange tree to produce more orange juice than I can shake a stick at.

Native to Asia, oranges were introduced to Hawaii by Captain George Vancouver in 1792, and are known as the Hawaiian or Kona orange. These were propagated by seed so there’s some variability in plants and fruits.…

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Summer Send-Off

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Summer Send-Off

Molokai PALS celebrate another successful summer.

Play and Learn Sessions (PALS) keiki and staff from all four elementary schools on Molokai sang and danced their way to healthy living at this year’s Ohana Nite, held at Kualapu`u Rec Center on Thursday.  This year’s theme celebrated “Ke Ola Pono No Na keiki,” or “Healthy living for our children.”

While the keiki from Kilohana “walked it out,” Maunaloa PALS students danced, wielding homemade posters of healthy snacks.  Kualapu`u sang about aloha and Kaunakakai keiki went on a “buta hunt.”

PALS is a summer program that keep kids engaged physically and mentally through arts and crafts, sports, culture lessons, music and dance.…

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