Living with Parkinson’s; Dealing with Insect Bites & Sunburn; Pediatric Literacy

[HTML1] Segment A (0:00 – 11:00)
Your Health Matters host Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Elmyra Encarnacion about strategies for living with Parkinson’s Disease.

What is a movement disorder? According to Dr. Elmyra Encarnacion, “It’s an umbrella term a neurological condition that causes patients to exhibit ‘abnormal movements.’ Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor are the two most common ones.” Many people have heard of Parkinson’s, a chronic debilitating neurological condition that results in loss of motor skills. In today’s first segment of Your Health Matters, host Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Encarnacion, Director of the Plummer Movement Disorders Center at Scott & White Healthcare’s Temple, Texas clinic. She describes how the Center is a program for people — and their families — who are living with Parkinson’s disease, and talks about its focus on outreach, therapy and research. “We always involve the caregivers and family in Parkinson’s symposiums,” says Dr. Encarnacion. “It’s a place where those newly diagnosed patients and their families can come and ask us all sorts of questions about Parkinson’s Disease. We also give lectures to general neurologists, nurses, doctors in training, and so on, because we believe in raising disease awareness.”

Segment B (11:01 – 22:00)
Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Anna Myers on treating and coping with insect bites and stings.

Segment C (22:01 – 33:00)
Dr. Anna Myers on preventing and treating sunburn

In our second and third segments of Your Health Matters, we hear from Dr. Anna Myers, a pediatrician at Scott & White Healthcare’s Waco clinic, about two recurring summertime issues faced all too frequently by children and adults alike. First, we’ll learn how warm weather and outdoor living provide ample opportunity for bugs and people to get together, with consequences that can range from mild irritation to a need for serious medical intervention. Then we’ll find out what can happen when we spend too much time in the sun, unprotected from its harmful rays. This goes beyond sunburn into the territory of premature aging and skin cancers. As a mother of two, Dr. Myers has firsthand experience in prevention as well as cure, and she offers a number of useful pointers on how to stay safe and comfortable outdoors.

Segment D (33:01 – 44:00)
Tom Cook on Scott & White’s pediatric literacy program

In our fourth segment, Christopher Springmann speaks with Tom Cook, a volunteer manager for the Children’s BookWell Program at Scott & White Healthcare’s Round Rock, Texas clinic. This ongoing pediatric literacy program encourages early reading to children and provides new books for young patients during their annual “well child” appointments. Mr. Cook describes the mission as fostering and nurturing children’s growth and development through the availability and reading of books. According to Jeffrey Helmcamp, M.D., pediatrician at Scott & White’s Wells Branch Clinic, “Reading to children at an early age takes advantage of early brain development, and the knowledge acquired during this period will impact their learning potential for life.” The program also helps physicians better diagnose communication disorders by reviewing with parents their observations of a child’s ability to remember stories, point to characters in the books, and eventually develop language and reading skills. And, as an obvious plus, good reading habits will help them in school and ultimately in their careers. “Every newborn receives Good Night, Moon,” says Mr. Cook. “And the plan is to expand that program so that newborns, every three months, up until 18 months will receive an additional book. And then starting at two years, or 24 months, up through the fifth year they’ll receive an additional book.”

More about Elmyra Encarnacion
Dr. Elmyra Encarnacion serves as Director of the Plummer Movement Disorders Center at Scott & White Healthcare’s Temple, Texas clinic. She earned a B.A. at University of Virginia, and an M.D. at St. Georges University Medical School in Granada, West Indies. She trained in internal medicine at Columbia University Medical School, in neurology at Northwestern University Medical School, and in movement disorders at University of South Florida and the National Institute of Health. Dr. Encarnacion is certified by the American Board of Neurology and an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. She joined Scott & White in 2007.

More about Anna Myers
Dr. Anna Myers is a pediatrician at Scott & White Healthcare’s Waco, Texas clinic.  She earned a B.A. at Baylor University and an M.D. at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she received the 2002 Winston K. Shorey Award, an honor given annually to a medical school senior who most fully demonstrates the qualities of an ideal physician. She trained in pediatrics at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. Dr. Myers was appointed to Scott & White in 2005 and also serves as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

More about Tom Cook
Tom Cook is the Manager of Volunteer Services at Scott & White Healthcare in Round Rock, TX.

More about Scott & White Healthcare
When Arthur C. Scott, M.D. and Raleigh R. White Jr., M.D. began their medical practice in Temple, Texas in 1897, they shared one fundamental conviction: medicine must serve the people. Today, Scott & White Healthcare is a fully integrated health system — the largest multi-specialty practice in Texas and the sixth largest group practice in the nation. Scott & White employs more than 1,100 health care providers and research scientists who care for patients covering 25,000 square miles across Central Texas.

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About Christopher Springmann

Christopher Springmann is Executive Producer and Senior Correspondent of Life, Love and Health, the award-winning health and wellness program that reaches millions daily on multiple news, talk and sports channels including Sirius XM, CNN, FOX, NPR affiliates, American Forces Network, and HealthRadio.net.

Life, Love and Health is also Mr. Springmann’s latest endeavor in a journey of “creative convergence” that started as a photographer for Time, Fortune, National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines. He moved into writing leadership profiles for Chief Executive and California CEO magazines, which in turn provided the inspiration for creating Life, Love and Health: to fulfill the unmet need of telling America’s health story. Mr. Springmann meets this need in entertaining and emotionally engaging ways, with the authentic voices of real people, including a diverse group of doctors and nurses, patients and their families, plus researchers and innovators in the health-and-wellness field. He relies on the credibility and persuasiveness of people’s passionate storytelling to get the point across. People identify with the experiences of others and are encouraged to take positive, attainable actions to improve their personal and family health.

Christopher is also the Host of Life, Love and Health on WomensRadio. Life, Love and Health seeks to ultimately make a difference in people’s lives by encouraging individuals to take positive, attainable actions to improve their personal and family health.