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  • Sun’s Out, Fun’s Out: Safety Tips to Protect Your Skin This Summer

    While exposure to sunlight can be beneficial, getting too much can be harmful. Prolonged sun exposure can damage the skin and increase the risk of skin cancer (TRICARE covers skin cancer exams). The good news is that there are ways you can keep your skin protected and still have fun in the sun. Skin

  • Avoid Heart Disease: Know Your Blood Pressure, Cholesterol

    You wake up one morning and feel pressure in your chest and then a sharp pain. Are you having a heart attack? You call 911 just to be safe. How did this happen or what you could have done to prevent it? Regular heart, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings can help you stay healthy. TRICARE

  • Safely celebrating the Fourth of July

    Across the U.S., many Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with pool parties, barbecues and fireworks shows. As the festivities draw near, it is important to know how to safely celebrate the holiday. Military personnel are encouraged to review safety procedures, local and state laws and

  • PTSD doesn’t have to be fought alone

    Post-traumatic stress disorder can be the result of someone experiencing an event that creates a heightened sense of terror or helplessness. PTSD can cause debilitating anxiety and fear throughout the remainder of the affected person’s life. Although PTSD may be associated with combat and the

  • Men: Get Screened for Cancer Risk

    Your doctor calls to give you your test results.  Is it cancer? You are worried because cancer runs in your family. Luckily the tests come back clear. Although there’s no magic potion to prevent all cancers, you may be able to reduce your cancer risk by participating in recommended cancer

  • Mental health team builds bonds, shatters stigmas

    It can start with a simple conversation.“How are you?”“Yeah, I bet you see some crazy stuff at your job.”“That must have been really hard for you to process.”What at first seemed like a run-of-the-mill conversation, stemming from a friendly visit, was more than meets the eye. It was a check-in. It

  • Connection saves lives: be there to help prevent suicide

    You can make a difference for someone struggling with suicidal thoughts with as little as eye contact and a friendly smile, an arm around the shoulder, or a kind word at the right time. Everyone has a role to play in preventing suicide, a key theme of the Department of Defense’s #BeThere Campaign,

  • Healing from invisible wounds

    On Jan. 15, 2008, Senior Airman Christopher D’Angelo, a heavy equipment operator, was the lead gunner in an armored vehicle convoy on a road near Baghdad. The sun was shining and the air comfortable. His unit had just transported construction materials to forward operating bases and was currently

  • Scott Air Force Base recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month

    Since 1949, May has been observed as National Mental Health Awareness Month, an opportunity to bring about greater awareness of psychological health concerns and conditions, to offer support for those who are living with these conditions, and to promote increased access to care and treatment.This

  • Protecting your Child from Lead and Other Household Poisoning

    The word poison suggests a bubbling vial marked with skull and crossbones. However, poisonings can result from misuse of common household products or even from our home itself in the form of lead. Poisoning can happen all at once or gradually over time. TRICARE covers children’s blood lead testing

  • Mosquito Season: Are you prepared to fight Zika?

    In 2016, the Zika virus made world-wide news as a new threat to public health, but mosquito-borne illnesses have always been a health risk for people living in certain climates. Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to avoid exposure to Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses.“These are

  • Stopping Sexual Assault – Not Just in April

    The truth is, the vast majority of Airmen we serve alongside have never – and will never – sexually assault another person in their lifetime. Let me say it again for the people in the back – the vast majority of our Airmen HAVE NEVER and WILL NEVER harm another person. Hard stop.

  • Overcoming the shadow of death: an Airman’s fight against depression

    Staff Sgt. Srun Sookmeewiriya (pronounced, Sook-mee-vi-ri-ya), or Sook, as many people know him, may seem like a happy and carefree Airman at first glance. The 313th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron NCO in charge of reports regularly puts forth an earnest effort to keep his unit alive and

  • New Air Force physical therapy fellowship to offer “pinnacle of training”

    A new Air Force Academy fellowship that trains Airmen to be embedded physical therapists recently received accreditation from the American Physical Therapy Association as an Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy Fellowship, in time for the program’s first students to graduate this summer. The first of

  • Don’t Get Caught Out in the Cold

    The winter season is coming to an end, but end of season storms can still be dangerous.  Protect yourself and your family from cold weather dangers.Snow, sleet and high winds can knock out heat, power and communication services to your home or office. When you know a storm is coming, prepare for

  • Preventing Traumatic Brain Injury in Your Child

    When it comes to traumatic brain injury (TBI), you can’t have too much information. Traumatic brain injuries affect millions of Americans each year, and each TBI experience is unique.  Be sure to know the signs and symptoms of TBI as well as how you can prevent yourself and your loved ones from

  • Family Advocacy: Keeping families together

    Whether it’s packing up and moving every few years, dealing with deployments, or combatting everyday work stressors, military members and their families face a unique set of challenges. The 49th Medical Group’s Family Advocacy Program staff want military families to know one thing: You don’t have