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Health

5 Ways to Decrease Your Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women; it is also the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, a month set aside to increase awareness and education of colon cancer. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, almost half (47%) of colorectal cancer could be prevented or significantly delayed with lifestyle and diet...

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The Taylor family after their father's heart surgery

Rob Taylor was doing almost everything right.

For 15 years, the 59-year-old Bullard resident worked out in the gym at least three times a week with his personal trainer. He didn’t smoke and recently added playing in a senior softball league to his list of activities. Though he weighed around 250 pounds, Taylor carried it well on his six-foot frame.

Together with his wife and three children, the family kept up an active lifestyle and ate a “well-rounded, healthy diet” most of the time.

“However, about a third of the time,” recalled Taylor, “I didn’t eat very healthy...

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Despite the obstacles she has faced throughout her life, Joanna Blundell is only looking forward.

“I don’t have time to look backward,” said Blundell, a 57-year-old resident of Ore City. “I always try to be positive and move forward.”

Diagnosed at age two with cerebral palsy, a group of disorders that affect a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture, Blundell speaks highly of the doctors who have cared for her. “I have been blessed to receive care from some of the best doctors,” she said.

“I was admitted to the hospital in Galveston and had my...

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Younger brother gets second chance to live a healthier, longer life

Preventable, early deaths have happened too many times in Louis Ashley’s family.

“I’ve lost three of my four brothers,” said Ashley, a 51-year-old fluids engineer with a Texas oil company. “One drank himself to death, another died by suicide and one died in a car wreck. I suppose I’m the one who can change his lifestyle before it’s too late.”

Though he and his love Juliet live in Louisiana, Ashley has worked in Texas for 15 years on a 14 days on, 14 days off schedule. He designs the hydraulics and fluid systems that the company uses to pull oil out of the ground.

...

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Retired minister on road to good health with Pritikin ICR Program

For Sam Steele, 72, a retired Presbyterian minister living in Hallsville, his heart health has been a constant concern for him and his family.

Fortunately, he is now receiving care from the ...

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Patient starts an on-demand video visit with a healthcare provider

For the Dixon household in Palestine, the day usually starts with mom, dad and their two kids getting dressed and heading out to work and school.

However, one morning in February, everyone left the house except mom, who wasn’t feeling well. Leah Dixon, 40, the chief operating officer of the UT Health East Texas Physicians Group, woke with symptoms of a sore throat and sinus congestion, so she decided to work from home.

Unfortunately, her symptoms got progressively worse during the morning. Leah decided to access UT Health East Texas...

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When you are sick at home and cannot get out to visit a healthcare provider, there is now a service that helps you get personalized healthcare in the comfort of your own home: on-demand video visits.

Leah Dixon, chief operating officer of UT Health East Texas Physicians, said the service is convenient and very easy to use — individuals just need to have a strong internet connection and a computer, smartphone or tablet.

...

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Melisa Collum is very familiar with being inside a hospital. After working at hospitals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then Wheeling, West Virginia, Collum moved to East Texas to care for her mother.

She continued her nursing career at UT Health Athens where she worked on the medical/surgical floor, the intensive care unit and the emergency department. She collaborated with and got to know many of the doctors at the hospital, including general surgeon, Dr. Robert Dorman.

But years later, Melisa, 47,...

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When John Gaston woke up that spring morning in 2015, something didn’t feel right.

The 64-year-old was familiar with having shortness of breath because he had asthma his entire life. However, this shortness of breath, along with a lack of energy, was something new.

John called his primary care physician and was examined later that afternoon. His doctor said his heart rate was 180 beats a minute (normal is 60-100), so he asked him, “Can you drive yourself to UT Health East Texas or do you want to go by ambulance?”

“I can’t go to the hospital,” said John, “I’ve got a...

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Cindy Hilliard, 64, doesn’t exactly remember when the irregular heartbeats started.

“It’s been about 5-6 years now, but I probably ignored them for quite some time before,” she said.

A truck driver who crisscrossed the U.S. for 18 years, Cindy enjoyed driving, especially on her favorite route. She would start at her home in Winnsboro, travel to Dallas, Los Angeles and Reading, Pennsylvania, before returning to Dallas and then back home – a journey over 5,800 miles that lasted 5 days.

“I never got to see many popular sites because of time constraints and because I...

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