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For 17 years, Kirsten Ball worked in banking and investments, rising through the corporate world of First Valley Bank, Montecito Bank and Trust and AG Edwards Investments. She was a teller and later operations manager and loved her work. But all those years, she longed to become a nurse.

Influenza, commonly called "the flu," is caused by the influenza virus, which infects the respiratory tract (nose, throat, lungs). Unlike many other viral respiratory infections, such as the common cold, the flu can cause severe illness and life-threatening complications in many people. Significant flu activity can begin as early as October, last as late as May, and typically peaks in February.

In terms of health benefits, salmon is an ideal meal. Having two servings of salmon each week has been said to help reduce risk of having a heart attack, help control blood pressure and infuse your body with all kinds of beneficial vitamins.

September is starting off with a sizzle, as a wave of high pressure descends over the western US. So that means it’s time to take extra care with your health. Extreme heat warnings issued by the weather service suggest staying indoors, drinking extra fluids and easing off on excessive outdoor physical activity during the times when temperatures are hitting and exceeding triple digits.

Dr. Michael Ashnin is the son of a nurse. His late wife was a nurse. He is the father of a nurse. And as he put himself through medical school, he too was a nurse. In his family are many medical professionals – nurses, doctors, and dentists. He was born and raised in the medical world. The native of Latvia – a country on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Estonia – earned his medical degree from the Latvian Medical Academy.

A colonoscopy is one of those procedures no one likes to talk about, but which is critically important to your continued healthy life as you age. Screening for colon cancer and rectal cancer is an important function of colonoscopy. Cancer of the large bowel, also called colorectal cancer, usually develops from a benign precursor, a polyp. A polyp is a mushroom-like growth on the inside wall of the colon or rectum. Polyps grow slowly over many years; some become cancerous, others do not. 

On Monday, we will be able to witness the rarest and spectacular cosmic event of our generation. The Great American Eclipse of 2017 will take place Monday with its path of totality extending across the United States from Salem, Oregon all the way to Charleston, South Carolina.

The path of totality is a 70-mile wide trail where a full, total eclipse can be viewed. The solar eclipse will be unlike anything you have seen before.

A year after graduating Lompoc High School, Amy Misner was working in the LVMC cafeteria, serving meals and staffing the cash register.

She met her future husband that way, and also found a career. One day while working at the register, a coworker stopped by and mentioned she was leaving her job as a hospital phlebotomist and asked Amy whether she’d be interested in applying for the position.

During pregnancy, babies are as close to their mothers as they can possibly be, receiving all the necessary things to keep them protected, receiving warmth, food, and oxygen from their mother.

Once they are born, they are abrupt without these essential needs. Placing these infants skin-to-skin with their mothers immediately decreases their stress level and places them back as closely as possible to that warm protected environment to which they have become accustomed.

The first two years of life are the most critical time periods within a child’s life to ensure the infant is receiving all the essentials needed for proper growth, health, and development.

Research has proven breast milk to be a superior source of protein for infants. Breast milk is composed of fats, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals, water, and contains all the vital nutrients that the infant requires for the first 6 months of life.

Fiday, August 11 at 10am @ Ocean's Seven Cafe

Leslie Mehigan, breastfeeding liaison for Santa Barbara County WIC, will be speaking on milk supply, sore nipples, WIC services and World Breastfeeding Awareness Month!

Years ago, as a personal chef for a local family, I needed a recipe that would be versatile for the differing palates of the husband and wife. The wife was a fan of meats – lamb, steak, chicken. The husband was more vegetarian and preferred vegetables and tofu.

I might seem born to become Director of Pharmacy at LVMC – my grandfather, father, brother, and sister are pharmacists. The native of Cairo, Egypt, grew up following my father Amer Gamal Amer to work at the family’s pharmacy, learning about the ways of medicine. Then one day while exploring around the shop, I found an ornate diploma for my grandfather’s degree of pharmacy – and learned that my own father had once explored around my own father’s pharmacy as a youngster. 

Lompoc Valley Medical Center and Lompoc High School has forged a unique partnership designed to expand student knowledge of careers in the medical field. Every spring, a group of students come to the hospital on Fridays for an intense round of job-shadowing in various departments.