Plentiful sunshine. Much cooler. High 79F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..
Clear skies. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: September 23, 2022 @ 8:11 am
A runner in the Charleston Running Club jogs across the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston. The Charleston Running Club hosts a run on the bridge every Tuesday evening, as well as other running events. File/Staff
Roper St. Francis Healthcare has a proactive program to care for diabetic wounds and ulcers to try and prevent lower-limb amputations. File/Brad Nettles/Staff
Medical University of South Carolina promotes lung cancer screening for higher-risk patients to try and find those tumors early, when the chances of long-term survival are much higher. File/Brad Nettles/Staff
A runner in the Charleston Running Club jogs across the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston. The Charleston Running Club hosts a run on the bridge every Tuesday evening, as well as other running events. File/Staff
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The phrase “health and wellness” could lend itself to many interpretations. Charleston has a lot to offer however you define it.
Charleston’s medical providers and hospitals have an impressive array of top-notch care, from a Level One Trauma Center to a sparkling new Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital to more than 3,400 physicians across the Lowcountry.
That’s more than a quarter of all the doctors who practice in South Carolina, according to the South Carolina Health Professions Data Book.
Those doctors, nurses and other providers are delivering babies and fighting infectious diseases and cancer on a daily basis.
Roper St. Francis Healthcare has a proactive program to care for diabetic wounds and ulcers to try and prevent lower-limb amputations. File/Brad Nettles/Staff
But they are also seeking innovative ways of reaching patients and preventing disease. Roper Hospital recently launched a Limb Amputation Prevention Program that seeks to help diabetic patients avoid wounds and ulcers on their legs and feet that can be difficult to treat and can lead to losing a toe, a foot or even a leg. That also puts them at higher risk of dying in the next five years by at least 40 percent, studies have found.
Charleston hospitals are also concerned about detecting lung cancer early, with a robust and proactive program at Medical University of South Carolina that includes a prompt in a patient’s electronic medical record that they are eligible for the screening.
Finding lung cancer early when surgery is an option increases the survival rate to 60 percent after five years compared to 22 percent overall, according to the American Cancer Society.
Medical University of South Carolina promotes lung cancer screening for higher-risk patients to try and find those tumors early, when the chances of long-term survival are much higher. File/Brad Nettles/Staff
Charleston also boasts world-class burn care at the Joseph M. Still Burn Clinic at Trident Medical Center, and elite trauma care at its medical center as well.
But health and wellness is more than medicine, and Charleston has a lot to offer outside clinic walls.
The warm climate and sea breeze make it easy to get outside and exercise. One of the nicest within the city is in historic Hampton Park, one of the largest in the city and the one with the broadest array of plants, flowers and trees, according to the city. Runners, walkers and bicyclists of all ages and fitness levels use the one-mile road around its perimeter on a daily basis, passing beneath live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.
For a completely different look, the Charleston Running Club has a regular Tuesday evening run that begins on the waterfront and goes up the steep slope of Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge high over the Cooper River, the site of the famous Cooper River Bridge Run each spring.
Group runs happen every day of the week and some, such as the Charleston Beer Runners, cater to particular interests.
There are active groups across the area, from the Park Circle Pacers in North Charleston to Summerville and James Island. And West Ashley boasts more than eight miles of Greenway that is popular for running, bicycling or walking away from busy roads.
There is also the shorter West Ashley Bikeway in the same area.
All of these areas beckon people outside to take charge of their own health and wellness.
Reach Tom Corwin at 843-214-6584. Follow him on Twitter at @AUG_SciMed.
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