"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."
~Joseph Campbell

As we approach Memorial Day, I imagine many of us are looking forward to the official kick-off of another summer season! It's easy to fill our minds with pleasant thoughts of lazy days on a boat, playing in the yard with our families, catching a baseball game or hitting the golf course. Along with all the relaxing and happy days, please take some time to remember the reason this holiday weekend exists. Memorial Day is for remembering all those who have died in American conflicts. It is because of them we are still able to enjoy our boats, backyards, families and our freedom.

Looking back at May I can tell you that our team at National Anesthesia spent this past month in a frenzy of activity. It began with a visit to our local spring meeting for the Michigan Association of Nurse Anesthetists and we are closing out the month with the launch of our new staffing division, National Physician Staffing, Inc. After 21 years of staffing only anesthesiologists and CRNAs, it was time to share our experience and background with other specialties!

I hope you enjoy this month's edition of National News. Read on and catch up with us in the articles, "Have You Heard the News?," "We Salute You," "Showtime with National" and before you throw another burger on the grill, read the article "You Are What You Eat: How Fat Affects Your Bloodstream."

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to our veterans and our current service men and women.

Stephen Read, President
National Anesthesia Services, Inc.

"You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people to get what they want."

----- Zig Ziglar

We want you to be one of the first to know... during our 21st year in business National is expanding!

As the healthcare industry evolves, we understand that the needs of physician groups, healthcare facilities and medical professionals change with it. In the past year, we've observed the ever-increasing need for staffing assistance among a few key specialties. Now our clients and providers can rely on the same great customer service we've always applied to anesthesia staffing for help with hospitalists, radiologists and emergency medicine physicians.

If you're a current or past client or provider of National, you know what to expect from us already and will continue to receive the same great service with professionalism, reliability and dedication. Please forward this on and recommend us to your colleagues in other specialties.

If you've not worked with us yet, give us a chance! We'll show you what we're made of and know you'll be pleased.

Please contact us at 1-800-642-1999 to discuss your staffing needs for CRNAs, anesthesiologists, hospitalists, radiologists and emergency medicine physicians. If we're not already, we'll work hard to become your agency of choice!

If you are an anesthesiologist or a CRNA, you can still update your profile and search jobs at our anesthesia website: www.nationalanesthesia.com.

Please invite your colleagues who are hospitalists, radiologists and emergency medicine physicians to register with us at our new website: www.nationalphysicianstaffinginc.com. Thank you!

Everyone has their own story and over the past 21 years we've heard quite a few! For this month's newsletter we wanted to share John Bordes' experience, he is a CRNA we've been working with since January of this year. To John and the rest of the troops - we salute you!

June 2010 will be my fifth deployment to the Middle East to fight the war on terror. I am looking forward to getting back and will be deploying with some familiar faces from previous trips. While my anesthesia duties in the United States are usually somewhat similar from day to day, Afghanistan presents many challenges. In the field, I carry a drawover vaporizer and pretty much do old school anesthesia until we can transport the patient via medivac. I have also done many medivac missions from the field to outlying Combat Surgical Hospitals. Working with National has been a very good experience for me and my family. They have been able to help me work around both my civilian and military careers and understand the commitment I have to both. It's a great relief to know that Jason and the gang at National are on my team and will have me back at work upon my return and for that I send out a big Army hooooooaaahhh!

This year's spring meeting for the Michigan Association of Nurse Anesthetists (MANA) was conveniently located in Troy just 5 miles from our office here in Michigan. Even though the spring meeting is close to home for us, it's always fun to see old friends and acquaintances. We enjoy getting to catch up with everyone and making some new friends!

We had a lot of exciting news to share this year which drew quite the crowd! The Haiti Anesthesia Relief program announcement, the unlimited Reese's cups and the "Day at the Beach" giveaway (complete with the margaritas!) made the National Anesthesia booth very popular! The lucky winner of our giveaway, Pamela Martin, CRNA, took home a great beach bag, towel, journal, sunscreen and Jose Cuervo margarita mix. Hopefully she will have a chance to enjoy a day alone with her bag full of goodies!

We are fortunate to attend the MANA meetings every year and support the organization. We send a HUGE thank you to those who stopped by to say hello. We truly enjoy getting to talk with you and can't wait to see you all this fall in Traverse City!

After being shown the immediate impact high-calorie meals can have on your bloodstream, viewers challenged ABC News to show what a healthier meal might do to the body.

"I watched you showing the effects of eating fast food on the blood stream this morning. Now show me the same test done with homemade food in a normal household and a twigs and berries diet at home. Be fair and show those results," one viewer wrote in to ABCNews.com. "I have an extra 20 [pounds] on me from eating at a fast food place for 2 years. I just want you to prove to me that the results are indeed different eating so called healthy food and twigs and berries."

So ABC News correspondent Yunji de Nies and producer Jon Garcia headed to the University of Maryland's Medical Center again - this time to show how lighter fare would affect their systems.

They each packed away more than 6,000 calories and more than 10 times the amount of saturated fat the government recommends.
The result: two hours later the fat was still chugging through their veins.

But when they had a much healthier lunch, the results were drastically different.

How a Healthier Diet Affects Your Bloodstream

De Nies and Garcia opted for healthier meals from the very same restaurants they used in the last experiment. This time they began their meals with soybeans, before moving on to salmon, grilled veggies and rice. Lunch ended with apple pie the pair shared.

Lighter Meals Make a Difference in Health

The lighter lunch packed about 1,000 calories and three grams of saturated fat.

When lab technicians tested Garcia's blood two hours after the meal, there was almost no discernible change in the amount of fat in his blood stream from the sample taken before the meal. That was in stark contrast to the original experiment, when there was an undeniable increase in the level of fat in his blood after the meal.

"[The food] was healthy, didn't raise the blood fat levels and, therefore, likely to not have an abnormal or unhealthy effect on your arteries," Dr. Mike Miller of the University of Maryland told Garcia.

De Nies' results proved so extraordinary that they surprised even the doctors. Not only was her blood clear of fat, but her arteries were actually more expanded and healthier after she'd eaten the salmon than they were before.

"We've seen that with people eating fish," said Dr. Robert Vogel of the University of Maryland. "This was a much healthier meal for you, and it actually made your arteries healthier."

Her arteries were so much healthier that doctors said one meal had the same effect on de Nies' arteries as if she had just gone for a run. The final lab results showed that De Nies' arteries had a 25 percent improvement.
"The great news here is that you can go to virtually any restaurant or fast-food chain and find a healthy food choice," Miller said.

Cardiovascular disease is the nation's No. 1 killer, but the doctors said that this experiment shows you how much difference what you eat at every meal can really make in your health. "It's not so much what we shouldn't do," Vogel said. "It really is how we should live what is really good for us."

By Andrew Miller and Cindy Smith
http://abcnews.go.com

General Disclaimer: The materials have been compiled by National Anesthesia Services. Inc. from internal and external sources. However, while we have attempted to provide accurate information in this publication, no representation is made or warranty given as to the completeness or accuracy of the Materials. In particular, you should be aware that the Materials may be incomplete, may contain errors, or may have become out of date. You should therefore verify information obtained from this publication before you take any action upon it.