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By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact News
Big Sky Connection - It's National Heart Month, and given Montana's health and geographical challenges, doctors are calling on residents to take special care to keep their blood pressure and cholesterol under control, and to get strenuous exercise five times a week. Comments from Dr. Brian Rah, interventional cardiologist at Billings Clinic.
Click on the image above for the audio. - Montana faces above-average rates of obesity and diabetes, both of which are dangerous to heart health. (Adobe Stock)
Mark Moran
February 12, 2024 - Doctors in Montana are asking people to pay close attention to their cardiac health during February, which is National Heart Month - especially since the state faces challenges that other states don't.
Montana is slightly above the national average for heart rate deaths each year.
Dr. Brian Rah, interventional cardiologist and head of cardiology at Billings Clinic, attributed that to Montana's high rates of obesity and diabetes.
He added that the state's sheer size and geography also present unique challenges, especially in an emergency.
"For example, if somebody's having a heart attack, these patients have to drive hours to the nearest hospital," said Rah, "then get flown to Billings or another major medical facility where they can do stent procedures."
Rah said the best way to ensure cardiac health is to keep blood pressure and cholesterol under control, and reach 85% of your maximum age-predicted heart rate for 30 minutes at least five times a week.
Figure that out by multiplying your age by 0.85 and subtracting it from 220.
Rah said while people often assume heart attacks happen mostly to middle-aged or older men, women are also at risk - and he has seen an increase in the number of heart problems among young people.
"Even people who are in their 20s and 30s, you know," said Rah. "I've actually had people who are in their mid-20s have big heart attacks, and about 5% or more people who are 20 actually have coronary disease."
Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in America. Rah said it is much more likely that someone in the U.S. will die of a heart attack than all types of cancer combined.
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PNS - Monday, February 12, 2024 - Research says a healthy majority retain trust in their local election officials, the FCC says robocalls using AI-generated voices are illegal, and Long Island votes in a special election to replace former Representative George Santos.
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PNS - Monday, February 12, 2024 - Special election held for New York's 3rd Congressional District; Trump says he'd let Russia attack NATO countries that don't pay enough; 'Operation Good' works to curb violent crime in Jackson; the U.S. Senate takes a step closer to passing foreign Aid to Ukraine and Israel.
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"The Labor Movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth." -Wendell Phillips, Abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, Women's rights, and the Labor movement
This Week in Labor History (Feb 14 – 20):
Wednesday, Feb 14:
Western Federation of Miners’ strike for 8-hour day. The WFM was a so-called “radical”, militant union formed by miners from Butte, Montana, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, and Utah. They fought for radical ideas of fair pay, the 8-hour workday, and less deadly working conditions. -1903
Striking workers at Detroit’s newspapers, out since the previous July, offer to return to work. The offer is accepted 5 days later but the newspapers vow to retain some 1,200 scabs. A court ruling the following year ordered as many as 1,100 former strikers reinstated. -1996
Thursday, Feb 15:
Susan B. Anthony, a suffragist, abolitionist, union activist, and 8-hour-day advocate was born on this date. "Join the union, girls, and together say: Equal Pay for Equal Work." -1820
Signing of original 11-state master trucking agreement, involving 200,000 truckers, which forms the basis for the Teamsters Union. -1933
Friday, Feb 16:
Beginning of a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a 5-day, 40-hour week. -1926
Thousands of Socialists battle Communists at a rally in New York's Madison Square Garden. (This would be entirely baffling to any of today's right-wingers and FOX “news” viewers due to not understanding the stark differences between the two.) -1934
All public schools in Milwaukee and Madison are closed as teachers call in sick to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to gut their collective bargaining rights. Walker gets his way and guts the union and Wisconsin starts its economic decline and adds billions to its deficit all in the name of the magical “Free Market”. - 2011
Saturday, Feb 17:
Thomas Paine's “Rights of Man”, Part II is published. The original American Patriot, Paine was known as the voice of the American Revolution, he was a champion of original Liberal American values and social safety nets in order to ensure the Liberty and Freedom of the People. John Adams said, “Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.” -1792
Legendary Labor leader “Big Bill” Haywood (IWW) and 2 others were framed and arrested for the murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Stuenenberg. Clarence Darrow successfully defended them, telling jurors, “If at the behest of this mob you should kill Bill Haywood, he is mortal, he will die, but I want to say that a million men will grab up the banner of labor where at the open grave Haywood lays it down . . .” -1906
Germany: Hermann Goering endorses Nazi terrorism after 2 weeks of Fascist violence against the labor unions and union leaders. Anti-unionism is always the hallmark of every fascist regime throughout history, and currently. -1933
Sunday, Feb 18:
One of the first American Labor newspapers, The Man, is published in New York City. It cost one cent. -1834
Faced with 84-hour workweeks, 24-hour shifts, and pay of 29 cents an hour, firefighters form The Int’l Association of Fire Fighters. -1918
Monday, Feb 19:
During the Bread & Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA, 200 police drew their clubs and went after 100 unarmed peaceful women picketers, knocking them to the ground and beating many unconscious in order to protect corporate profits, low wages, and deadly working conditions. Several pregnant strikers lost their babies as a result of the attack on the strikers by the supporters of wage-slavery and Capitalism. -1912
The longest ILWU (Longshoremen Union) strike ends. It produced a contract that both provided for and protected the Union’s members while allowing ports to remain competitive. On a national scale, the 1971 strike demonstrated that the American Labor movement was still alive. Even a painful 130-day strike was not enough to break the Solidarity of the ILWU. -1972
Tuesday, Feb 20:
Norway: Teacher’s Union begins successful nonviolent strike against Nazification of schools. -1942
UMWA wins the Pittston miner's strike. 98 union miners and a minister occupied a Pittston Coal plant in Carbo, Virginia, beginning a year-long strike. The company had terminated earned healthcare benefits for over 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners, ended contributions to a retirement trust established in 1950, and refused to bargain in good faith. While a month-long Soviet coal strike dominated US news broadcasts, the year-long Pittston strike garnered almost no mainstream press coverage whatsoever. -1990
This Week in Labor History is compiled by Kevin D. Curtis
