Get Healthy and Stay Healthy

Most of you know about our benefits, but many of you don’t know about the benefits within King County’s benefit programs. These are provided free of charge to help you and your family be better consumers of health care. King County offers you tools, information and support so you can make well-informed decisions about your health and your health-care dollars. Read more.

Immunizations Save Lives: Is Your Family Current With its Shots?

Immunizations are one of the greatest public health success stories of the 20th century, saving millions around the world from serious illness and death. Diseases such as polio and measles, which once had a devastating impact on our youth, are no longer significant threats locally.

Despite the clear benefits, one out of five children today in King County is not fully immunized. Read more.

Health Journey Coaches

In every community there are people who venture into new and uncharted territory. The stories these people send back pave the way for others to follow. A few volunteers from our King County employee community have set out on a personal health journey. Each has picked a destination, be it losing weight, exercising more, or eating more fruits and vegetables. Read more.

Wellness Assessments: A Healthy Incentives Cornerstone

The annual wellness assessment, which begins in January 2006, is a confidential survey that asks questions about your current health status. To ensure confidentiality, the survey is given by an outside vendor. After you take the wellness assessment, you (and only you) receive a description that is a snapshot of your current health. Read more.

The e-Health Matters Newsletter is available online

The Health Matters is a monthly newsletter offering health information and health tips in an easy to ready, informative format. A copy of Health Matters is delivered to the homes of every benefits-eligible King County employee to help get you and family healthy, and keep you that way! Follow this link for highlights of the August issue.

Chronic Pain . . . The enemy within

This homework could save your life!

Did you know … just like your height and weight, tendencies for many health conditions are genetically passed from one family member to another? If you did realize this, have you checked to see if any tendencies exist within your genealogy? Read more:

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Starting Out on the Path to Health: Eat less

(Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of 3 articles about moving more and eating less. This article features one way you can get to and sustain a healthy weight. )

It’s well into the New Year and you still haven’t taken those extra pounds off. Where do you start? And how can you avoid the unhealthy ups and downs of dieting?

Portion control is a big key.

In 2001 The Pennsylvania State University looked into eating behaviors related to portion control*. They found when adults were presented with larger amounts of food, they consumed more – as much as 30 % more. Interestingly, it didn’t matter whether they were male or female or what their body mass index was. Larger portions led to more food intake.

So one thing you can do to keep those pounds off is not to allow large portions to be presented to you. At a restaurant, ask the server to bring you a smaller portion before it comes to you. At home, don’t pile your food high. Cut back by ¼ or 1/3. Along with increasing physical exercise, you will be creating a lifestyle of a sustainable healthy weight. Why not start tonight?

Curious about how much portion sizes have increased in the U.S.? Here’s a fun quiz you can take: http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/portion/

*The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 1, 2002 76(6) 1207-1213