Troy High School students participate in V-Healthy Day
Full article from the Troy Record below
TROY, N.Y. — Troy High School students participated in V-Healthy Day at Troy High School Wednesday. The grassroots vascular education campaign promotes education, awareness, and prevention on heart and vascular issues.
“It’s great for vascular health awareness, especially for high school students because what it sounds like they’re finding is vascular health is declining a little bit earlier than people expect. So, it raises awareness, at least it gets kids some information about what types of things affect vascular health and what types of things they can do to improve it and improve [the] lifespan and lifestyle and overall health and wellness,” Troy High School biology teacher Justin Haviland said of bringing the event to students.
During the event, students were able to learn from medical professionals from the Center for Vascular Awareness at various stations and gain valuable lessons on vascular disease, its risk factors, and prevention; hands-on exposure to innovative vascular devices; and demonstrations on how to measure blood pressure and blood oxygen levels.
Students also received information on how they could use that knowledge and apply for scholarships.
The interactive stations were something Haviland said was key to putting a face to the disease.
“I think that’s the key, I think putting a face to vascular health, said Haviland. “There’s a patient here who’s actually a former Troy High School teacher who’s talking very bluntly about what type of experience she’s had with her vascular health and how some of these surgeries have improved her life.
“The nursing students that are doing the blood pressure has been great because students can actually see their blood pressure and say ‘oh wow, it might be a little bit higher than I expected and I’m only 15 years old’. Also, seeing the stints and some of the surgical tools that are used to improve vascular health for patients that may have declined, whether it’s high blood pressure or cholesterol or previous strokes or heart attacks. So it really does put a face and instrument to a disease.”
One of those experts on vascular health on hand was Dr. Michelle Ford of Ellis Hospital.
Local students learn about heart disease for V-Healthy Day – News10