MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE ALBANY, Ga. -- In lieu of the holiday season, the Prevention and Education Section at the Personal Services Branch, in conjunction with the Branch Medical Clinic here, hosted a pre-holiday health check Friday and Saturday.
Friday's health check was held at the Maintenance Center and Saturday's was at the Base Exchange. The conveniently located health checks were offered to raise personal health awareness, said Brenda Ray, Semper-Fit Health Promotion coordinator and Prevention and Education coordinator at the Personal Services Branch here.
Base employees, Marines and family members were able to have their blood pressure taken and their height and weight measured, by Navy corpsmen.
"Some people want to know where they stand before Christmas," said Ray. "We tend to abandon our healthy habits for the holidays and we don't know what's going on with out bodies until after the fact."
felt just measuring people's height and weight and taking their blood pressure was not enough. She thought it was important to hand out informative pamphlets to aid people with high blood pressure and weight problems.
Not everyone has the time to visit a doctor on a regular basis, said Ray. Free and easily available health checks gives those people a chance to take a few minutes for important health screening.
One Maintenance Center worker had high blood pressure and was not aware of it until Friday's health fest. After the health screening the employee made an appointment to see her doctor, said Ray.
"We hope by doing this screening, if there are problems, you will go ahead and follow-up with a physician," said Ray.
During the holidays many people are caught up in the shopping hustle and bustle, buying gifts for their friends and loved ones, said Ray. People are so preoccupied with other people's needs that they don't pay attention to their own. But hopefully these holiday health checks have heightened people's awareness about their own bodies.
"A lot of time around the holidays, we have a tendency to overindulge," said Ray. "By knowing some of these things we hope you will be more conscientious of what you do over the holidays."
More than 400 people took part in the holiday health checks. Ray was happy about the large turnout and was glad Personal Services and the Branch Medical Clinic could provide the base community with helpful information.
"I think any time you can pass out information about any topic, it is effective," said Ray.
Armed with helpful information and aware of their weight and blood pressure, those who received a health screening are ready to battle the holiday season.