Healthy Dearborn Fun Healthy Resources – April 2021

Physical Activity

It’s national lawn and garden month, which means it is getting warmer outside! Enjoy the nice weather with this fun, OUTDOOR scavenger hunt with a chance to win prizes!

Nutrition

Healthy eating involves taking control of how much and what types of food you eat, as well as the beverages you drink. Make half of your plate fruits and vegetables. Dark green, red, and orange vegetables have high levels of the nutrients you need, like vitamin C, calcium, and fiber. Adding tomato and spinach—or any other available greens that you like—to your sandwich is an easy way to get more veggies in your meal. Check out the CDC’s BAM! Dining Decisions App to see how healthy you can make your plate!

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/bam/mobileapp.html

Covid Resources

Patients age 16 and up with an active myBeaumontChart account can sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine through Beaumont’s Save My Shot program. When you meet the State of Michigan’s criteria for vaccination and appointments are available, we will email you an invitation to schedule your appointment. Invitations will be sent based on prioritization and in order of registration. If you do not meet the current state criteria for vaccination, you can still complete the Save My Shot registration process. You will be placed on a waiting list until you become eligible. All vaccination appointments must be scheduled through myBeaumontChart. Walk-ins are not permitted.

Please visit www.beaumont.org/savemyshot

*Click here to submit feedback and additional ways Healthy Dearborn can help support you and your family with physical activity, nutrition and/or Covid resources.  

Healthy Dearborn: Healthy, Fun Resources – March 2021

Physical Activity 

The best part about physical activity is that can be modified for everyone in any setting. Physical activity can be done inside or outside, by running, walking, or sitting in a chair. What is most important is that you move your body for at least 60 minutes a day! Check out this Health Through LiteracyTM guided reading of Wilma Unlimited from Michigan Fitness Foundation’s Online Learning in a SNAP YouTube page. Wilma was diagnosed with Polio, a disease that left her left leg paralyzed. She, however, did not let that stop her from being active. She went to become the first American women to earn three medals in a single Olympiad. 

Nutrition 

Did you know it’s National Nutrition Month? This is an annual campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to invite everyone to learn more about making informed food choices and developing healthful eating and physical activity habits.  Learn more about it HERE 

A fun activity to celebrate National Nutrition Month. Print the word search & the answer key HERE 

Covid Resources 

Debunking Common Myths About COVID-19 Vaccines 

Beaumont experts help set the record straight on some common COVID-19 vaccine myths that can undermine the science and research that went into the development.  

Here are some common coronavirus vaccine myths and the truth behind each: 

Myth: The vaccine was rushed, so it’s probably not safe. 

Fact: The United States Food and Drug Administration closely monitored research by Pfizer and Moderna as the two companies worked toward a vaccine. The research suggests both vaccines have very little, if any, side effects, and is approximately 95% effective. 

Additionally, the FDA has rigorous scientific and regulatory processes in place to facilitate development and ensure the safety, effectiveness and quality of COVID-19 vaccines. 

In addition, Beaumont Health established a Vaccine Review Subcommittee comprised of experts in Infection Prevention, Research, Nursing and Pharmacy that will review all available data and make a recommendation to the Vaccine Steering Committee about proceeding to offer vaccine to employees, physicians and the community. Beaumont is committed to ensuring any vaccine provided to employees and the community is deemed safe by our expert panel. 

Myth: Delays or pauses in the process meant trials weren’t going well. 

Fact: Every scientific process, including creating vaccines, can have pauses or delays, but it doesn’t mean trials aren’t going well. Pauses or delays mean the safety system in place is working as it should, which is reassuring. 

Earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca paused COVID-19 vaccination clinical trials in an overabundance of caution for the safety of volunteers. They have since resumed the trials. 

Myth: I don’t want the COVID-19 virus injected into my body. 

Fact: The COVID-19 vaccine does not use dead or weakened strains of coronavirus. mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases. To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, they teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real COVID-19 virus enters our bodies. 

Myth: It’s safe for me to get vaccinated, but not my family. I don’t want the vaccine to get my family sick. 

Fact: Receiving a vaccine will not make other people sick. Additionally, because the COVID-19 vaccination does not use any form of the virus, either in a dead or weakened state, any risk which might have been a possibility in transmitting COVID-19 to family or friends is not plausible.  

Myth: I’ll get the first round of vaccine, but I won’t need the second. 

Fact: There are some viruses and some bacteria that we vaccinate against and one dose of the vaccine just doesn’t provide full immunity to prevent illness. Priming your immune system with the first dose allows it to react to it once, create some memory and then when you get exposed to it a second time through the second vaccination, it really develops that full, long-term memory. 

Myth: If I get vaccinated for COVID-19, I’ll be more vulnerable to illnesses. 

Fact: While the COVID-19 vaccine will work to teach your immune system to recognize and protect against coronavirus, it is not proven to make you vulnerable to other illnesses. You may experience the typical sore arm, slight fever or aches, but that’s a sign your immune system is active and getting ready to protect you against COVID-19, if necessary. 

Myth: Because vaccines are available, the pandemic is over. 

Fact: According to the CDC, while experts learn more about the protection COVID-19 vaccines provide under real-life conditions, it will be important for everyone to continue using all the tools available to us to help stop this pandemic, like covering your mouth and nose with a mask, washing hands often, and staying at least six feet away from others. Together, COVID-19 vaccination and following CDC’s recommendations for how to protect yourself and others will offer the best protection from getting and spreading COVID-19. 

Experts need to understand more about the protection that COVID-19 vaccines provide before deciding to change recommendations on steps everyone should take to slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Other factors, including how many people get vaccinated and how the virus is spreading in communities, will also affect this decision. 

Myth: The vaccine changes your DNA. 

Fact: The vaccine does not change your DNA. It’s called an mRNA vaccine, which is a type of vaccine that causes your cells to make an inactive part of virus that triggers an immune response. That immune response is what protects us from getting infected if the real COVID-19 virus enters our bodies. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND HELPFUL RESOURCES: 

*Click here to submit feedback and additional ways Healthy Dearborn can help support you and your family with physical activity, nutrition and/or Covid resources.