Posts Tagged ‘Important Health’
Promotional products do more than increase sales and bulk up your patient list. Well-chosen promotional products can help reinforce important health messages and drive home the importance of nearly any health care issue. Many health care professionals are most familiar with promotional products from the receiving end – the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries are among the biggest consumers of promotional products – but there are many ways that you can use promotional products in your practice.
Promotional products make a wonderful addition to any public service campaign.
In many cases, raising awareness is the first step toward providing medical care or a cure. There’s a wide variety of different types and classes of promotional products to choose from. Some suggestions might include squeezable stress toys as part of an awareness campaign about the harmful effects of stress or t-shirts printed with a health awareness slogan. Your office might give printed pedometers as part of a fitness campaign, or hand out inexpensive promotional watches as part of a “Time to watch your health” campaign.
Promotional products can help build your practice.
Introduce your office to new residents in your area with a welcome in their post box, or partner with an estate agent to be part of a “Welcome to Your New Home” basket of goodies. Include a useful gift from your office, imprinted with your practice name and telephone number for emergencies. The type of gift you include should be specific to your practice area. A general practitioner could use a small first aid kit, for instance. A chiropractor might include a hand-held back massager imprinted with his name and number. A clever gift from a pediatrician’s office might be a bandage dispenser filled with colorful adhesive bandages for those little cuts and scrapes and a refrigerator magnet to keep your telephone number handy.
Support public service causes with appropriate promotional items.
Make yourself and your staff available for public health fairs and promotions. When you partner with public service agencies you increase both your visibility and your credibility. If your business is nutrition, set up a display to emphasize the importance of healthy eating and hand out travel mugs imprinted with a health conscious message. If your office specializes in sports medicine, you might choose stress toys shaped as different types of balls. Suit the promo products that you choose as takeaways to your practice specialty.
Paper promotional products are important informational tools.
Companies that specialize in promotional gifts for trade fairs and conferences often also handle the design and production of informational tools like brochures, leaflets and flyers about your practice and specialty. If you already have a relationship with a promotional product company, be sure to include them when you’re pricing the cost of creating promotional literature about your practice.
Say thank you and please come again to your patients and clients with promotional products.
Pediatricians have handed out stickers, lollipops and plastic rings to their patients for years as a “Job Well Done” reward. Why confine that to children? There’s a wide variety of little thank you gifts that you could offer your patients, from sticky notes with a reminder to “Eat Healthy” to stress toys to help them stay healthy.
Sports nutrition is a complex topic, especially since nutritionists do not always agree on the best diet for a particular athlete. Just like all areas of training, professionals have pet theories upon which they build their regimens. There are basics, though, that cannot be ignored. First, hydration is key.
Hydration is incredibly important. Health experts assert that many, if not most, people live in a constant condition of dehydration. Not very many people actually consume as much water as they need. It isn’t necessary to drink hundreds of ounces of water per day, but it is important to get the necessary levels to maintain basic health. Simple things like not confusing thirst for hunger (surprisingly common) can be helpful in strategizing to avoid dehydration.
Athletes must be especially mindful of proper hydration. The loss of sweat through heavy exertion means that water must be replenished to keep the body working in top form. Water is needed in the body to assist in transportation of nutrients and assist in waste elimination from the body. Water is responsible for lubricating joints and tissues, as well as regulating body temperature. Finally, water aids in proper digestion. You can tell that you’re adequately hydrated if you produce a goodly amount of light-colored, diluted urine. Deep colored urine is a danger sign that you should increase your fluid intake.
As for nutrition, getting a proper balance of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins is key to optimal sports performance. Protein facilitates the repair of damaged muscles and helps in building new muscles. Carbohydrates are in charge of causing muscles to contract. It isn’t necessary to go all high-protein or high-carbohydrate when coming up with nutrition strategies. Balance is the best way to create a plan that works. By understanding the consequences of the diet you choose, you will learn much more about your own physiology. One example is that choosing a high-protein diet can make you more susceptible to dehydration.
Vegetarian athletes should consult carefully with professionals about how to design an eating plan. Vegetarians must pay close attention to protein intake, and be sure that they are getting an adequate amount to support their training regimen. It’s also a good idea to get regular testing to determine whether all nutritional needs are being met. Female athletes, for example, can be susceptible to iron deficiencies. Any athletes of both sexes can be dangerously short of B vitamins, as well as vitamin D.