Cross-posting from Tummy Fillers

For those who are looking for alternative health food but love noodles, here is healthy and easy tocook recipe: Pancit Buco

Recipe details for Pancit Buco can be found here.

Abbott, one of the world’s leaders in health care, along with the leading health economists has supported a new health economics outcomes study. The study found out that patients who were hospitalized and given oral nutritional supplements have had significant reduced hospital stay which results in reduced cost of hospitalization. The 30-day readmission risk was also significantly reduced for patients with at least one known subsequent. The study was done with more than one million adult hospital cases.

Now this is indeed good news for me. Why? Being in my sandwich years of taking care of a family and taking care of my parents, I am constantly anxious about their state of health especially since we live about 4 hours away from each other’s home.

My mother is a stickler for healthy food like fish, fruits and vegetables and so they do not have health-issues related to lifestyle as of now. A few years ago, my father was diagnosed with a condition with which prompt medical interventions were needed. Today he is has good health because of dietary supplements as well as oral nutrition supplements alongside the meals they prepare at home.

Hospital stay is not something we look forward to especially when there are times that those who have been hospitalized come out even more sick

The study I mentioned above was published in the American Journal of Managed Care, (Feb 2013) provides insights into the economic benefits of prescribing oral nutritional supplements to adult patients in the hospital setting.

W hat are the benefits of providing patients with oral nutrition supplements?

• 21% or 2.3 days reduction in length of stay which could translate to 21.6% reduced hospitalization cost
• 6.7% reduction in the probability of a 30-day readmission in patients who had at least one known subsequent readmission

These are just the numbers, for the caregivers and most especially the patients, the emotional and psychological burden of being in a hospital or being sick are reduced as well.

In the study, investigators were able to determine differences in length of stay and costs by comparing hospital stays where oral nutritional supplements were prescribed to stays of similar conditions where oral nutritional supplements weren’t prescribed.

“Because oral nutrition supplements are formulated to provide advanced nutrition and calories for compromised patients and are relatively inexpensive to provide, the sizeable savings they generate make supplementation a cost-effective therapy,” said study co-author, Tomas Philipson PhD, Daniel Levin Chair of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Philippine Hospital Setting:

In the Philippine setting, 4 out of 10 among Filipinos who have been hospitalized or are out-patients are at risk of under-nutrition. Under-nutrition makes the body susceptible to more infections that will lead to further complications and prolonging not just hospitalization but having the illness itself.

“Impaired nutritional status, especially in patients recovering from serious illnesses or surgery, can result in longer hospital stays; an increase in complication rates, higher readmission rates, and associated health care costs,” says Dr. Marianna Sioson, president of the Philippine Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. “Research shows that using oral nutritional supplements can help reduce their length of stay and associated hospital costs. This is indeed good news for the 4 out of 10 hospitalized Filipino patients who are nutritionally at-risk since most of them shoulder their hospital expenses out of their own pockets.”

One of the ways that under-nutrition can be helped is by taking Oral Nutritional Supplements such as Abbott’s Ensure that has two variants: Ensure Gold and Ensure Acti-M2. Ensure Gold is for those who have reached their “golden years” and is good to drink whether they are healthy or not. Acti-M2 is a perfect drink for those who have not yet reached the golden years. Alongside a healthy lifestyle and eating the right kind of food, optimum health can be achieved.

Incidentally, Abbott Nutrition and the Philippine Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition has a partnership in the fight against Undernutrition with the Undernutrition Risk Screening Survey where those who will participate need to answer a few questions regarding their health conditions.

The results of this survey would give more data on the undernutrition condition of people at risk for this condition so that early intervention can be started immediately.

Undernutrition Infographics

EnjoyLife Club

Abbott Philippines now offers special discount for every purchase of participating products within maximum limit of purchase every month. Enjoy Life Club also offers professional nutrition care advice as well as personalized meal plans from their team of registered nutritionist-dietitians.

Call (02) 995-1555 or 1-800-10-955-1555 on weekdays from 8am - 8pm for more information. You can also email familyties.ph@abbott.com

About the Study

The Impact of Oral Nutritional Supplementation on Hospital Outcomes”study is a retrospective data analysis on the effect of oral nutritional supplements on hospital economic outcomes. The study compared hospital stays where oral nutritional supplements were provided with similar hospital stays that did not provide oral nutritional supplements. The difference between length of hospital stay and cost of treatment (including supplies, labor, depreciation of equipment, etc.) were measured.
The probability of 30-day hospital readmission also was calculated.

About Abbott Nutrition

For more than 85 years, Abbott Nutrition has been developing and marketing science-based nutritional products to support the growth, health and wellness of people of all ages. Internationally recognized brands include PediaSure^® brand of complete and balanced nutrition for children; and the Ensure^® brand of complete and balanced oral nutritional supplements for adults.

The company is a leader in nutritional products clinically shown to address the distinct dietary needs of people with serious health conditions or special nutrient requirements, such as the Glucerna^® brand of nutrition shakes and bars for people with diabetes.

About Abbott

Abbott is a global healthcare company devoted to improving life through the development of products and technologies that span the breadth of healthcare. With a portfolio of leading, science-based offerings in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic pharmaceuticals, Abbott serves people in more than 150 countries and employs approximately 69,000 people.

Visit Abbott at www.abbott.com and connect with them on Twitter at @AbbottNews.

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Information written in this article were from the data from studies conducted presented in the conference. I have also received a free sample of Abbott Ensure Gold from Abbott Nutrition which I have given to my mother.

I have plans to do another version of frugal Christmas this year.

Here are a few ideas I was able to do from previous years:

• homemade body scrub
• kid-made Christmas tree decorations
• home-baked goodies like this
• paper stocking for the Christmas tree
• beaded bracelets (you can make these in advance and buy the materials in bulk)
• family portraits as Christmas tree ornaments (another project for your kids)
• personalized gift tags
• bargain books for children
• notepads
• make your own Advent Wreath
• inexpensive gift wrappers with your personalized gift tags
• goodies in a jar

We have gone through several printers used at home since the time we started using computers.

One of the brands we trust and buy is HP or Hewlett-Packard. If I am not mistaken, we’ve had three HP printers already and we only change these to keep up with the times and new technology. More about HP printers in another post.

There are times however, that I feel we need to have a Printing Workflow Software installed because of the different “work stations” in the home since we all have out own. Maybe one of these days.

For now our main concern is ink, because one of the kids said it is time we replenish the ink of our printer.

I am really thankful for technology’s help during times when the children have a lot of projects and homework and they needed to print outputs they have done.

Wash Loads of Love with Electrolux Time Manager Washing Machine

Being the primary person in charge of the household chores, it is not unusual for me to feel tired at the end of the day. The kitchen duties takes a lot of time but because I made use of pre-prepared freezer meals that I cook on an induction stove, the time and effort I put to doing these tasks are almost cut in half.

The main chore that really takes up a lot of my time and energy is the washing of clothes. I love washing clothes and I am really grateful that there are washing machines to help me (and millions more!) do these tasks easier than doing the old fashion way for handwashing.

I am not too fond of ironing clothes and if there’s another thing to be grateful about, aside from a thousand other things, is having a laundry shop nearby that takes care of my ironing needs

I have devised a flow/series of actions to make washing days (two times a week) easier:

• Three baskets for easier sorting: one for the whites which are mostly school uniforms, one for the colored tops and one for the lower body clothes.
• Schedule two laundry days during weekend and another one at the middle of the week. The laundry cycle is scheduled to make sure there are enough uniforms to get the kids by the whole week and if possible till Monday or Tuesday the next week (the weekend wash load).
• I use environmental-friendly bleach for the white clothes: distilled cane vinegar
• For stubborn stains mostly on the whites around the collar and the backside parts, I use a brush to remove dirt away, gently of course, to avoid putting stress on the cloth.
• Socks are soaked in soap and distilled cane vinegar “bleach” in a separate basin.
• Pockets are checked for spare change, tissue papers, handkerchiefs and papers like receipts and candy wrappers.

During the wash stage, the following are the tips I do using my more than 10 year old double tub top load washing machine:

• I put the delicates in a laundry bag.
• After I soak in laundry soap and vinegar and wash the white tops first, I spin-dry the clothes to remove the soap suds for easier rinsing later on.
• I repeat the process with the colored tops: spin-dry after washing with soap.
• I then load the tub for another batch of water and soap for the bottoms clothes and then again spin-dry to remove the soap suds.

Take note though that when doing spin-drying method, do not just put the clothes in the spin-dry tub. I fold the clothes carefully to avoid creases and wrinkles because I do not iron the clothes unless these are uniforms and those that we use for work.

Here is a nice tip: if you have shirts with deodorant stains in the armpit areas, spray these areas with the distilled cane vinegar and see the difference.

• I rinse the clothes twice without having the water spill out while the wash cycle is on to remove the suds because the suds have already been rinsed out. This way I do not use water unnecessarily. I also use fabric softener on the second load of rinsing.

Before I put the clothes on a hanger, I…

• shake the clothes to avoid the front and back parts as well as the armpit parts to stick together thereby creating creases and wrinkles.
• The hangers go under the tops and not through the neckline to avoid the neckline being pulled for the hanger. This way, the necklines are preserved and not looking like the tops have been used for a game of tug-o-war. Hah, I’ve seen clothes like these and not a good sight I must say.
• colored clothes are hanged to dry turned inside out

So, with all the things I need to do when I wash our clothes, it has been a dream of mine to be able to have a washing machine that will not just make washing easier, more clothes-friendly and more convenient to use and be able to conserve time, energy and lessen the consumption of water and electricity bills.

One of the newest washing machines I think answers all the things I listed above that embodies the best one in the market would be an Electrolux Time Manager front load washing machine.

How so?

• The Electrolux Time Manager Load Sensor feature that acts like a weighing scale which serves as a guide in selecting the perfect cycle and detergent recommendation for the wash load saving time, energy and water.

• Electrolux Time Manager Washing Machine helps remove household allergens by up to 99.9% through its Vapour Action (what a big help for my son who has allergic rhinitis and also to those with babies)

• The Electrolux Time Manager Refresh Cycle relaxes the fibers and steams out the wrinkles of the clothes which helps out in cutting down ironing (yey to this!!) No matter smelly clothes that have been left in the cabinets for months because the Refresh Cycle relaxes the creases and removes that odd smell of unused clothes.

• The Electrolux Time Manager has easy-to-use intuitive panel called IQ Touch which makes program settings as well as instructions easy to follow (I can probably tell my young children to go wash their dirty laundry using the Electrolux Time Manager washing machine 😉 )

Electrolux’s “Thinking of You” Philosophy is Electrolux’s way of taking care of their customers. The newly opened Electrolux Customer Service Hub is a haven for customers who want to choose and buy spare parts or consumables for their Electrolux and White Westinghouse appliances. Spare parts and accessories for small appliances as well as major ones and air conditioners are at least 80-90% available at the Electrolux Customer Service Hub.

Not that you need to avail these spare parts for your washing machine because consumers will notice that Electrolux washing machines have longer warranty service than other brands.

The Electrolux Customer Hub is a training facility as well to those wanting to be QUESTers Or Qualified Experienced Service Technicians.

The Electrolux Customer Service Hub is located at the Grundfos Building, 5548 Osmena Highway, Brgy. San Isidro, Makati City.

The Customer Care team can also be reached through wecare@electrolux.com or 845-CARE (2273).

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Write in the comments section below your best laundry tip to make Laundry Time Wash Loads of Love. The best laundry tip will get the following items delivered right at your home:

1. Electrolux Steam Iron ESI 515

2. IKEA Silver Laundry Basket

3. IKEA Children’s Clothes Hangers

4. Surf Liquid Detergent

UPDATE: We have a WINNER:

Jemimah Joy Oriendo

Congratulations! Please reply to the message I sent you, thank you!

As I have written in this post, I got a small rice cooker for our daily “base” to use just in case we can’t go home earlier than the usual schedule. It would be cheaper if we just cook our own food than buy fast-food, which is not only unhealthy but off the budget as well.

Along with this small appliance, I also made a small stash of “emergency food” like canned tuna, biscuits (which they don’t eat!), a jar of peanut butter, powdered milk and rice. For the viand, I have a little stashed in my MIL’s freezer.

I also plan to get other small appliances that can be used for cooking one at a time. My children jokingly told me that I should consider getting appliance package deals so that we can even wash our clothes, refrigerate food to be cooked or bake cookies, 😀

I told them in time, we probably will. For now, we will concentrate on what we need first before getting the bigger things that we already have at home.