Grace Balding has a busy schedule every day caring for her toddler as well as preparing for her second baby. She is around 22 weeks pregnant and is a stay-at-home mom. Her and her husband share a vehicle which makes it difficult for Grace to get to her doctor appointments since her husband works full-time.

Until a few years ago, nobody really thought to put goats and yoga together. And yet, here we are, living in a world where the sight of downward-facing yogis and bouncing baby goats in the same place looks as natural as mac and cheese.

For Jim and Terri Gustin, owners of Critter Creek Farm in Rock Hill – primarily a flower farm, but one with lots of animals around – the idea just worked itself out.   

During yoga a commonly practiced vinyasa or flow, is moving from downward facing dog to cobra pose. Since we practice this transition so frequently it is important to align the upper body to avoid straining or injuring your shoulders. Alma is here to demonstrate the proper alignment. Beginning in down dog, make sure your stance is long enough, so that when you move to plank pose your shoulders are directly above your wrists and your body is parallel to the floor. Your hands are shoulder distance apart.

Pastor Tommy Cox of Georgetown, S.C., was admitted to Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital following severe chest pains. After the hospital team ruled out a heart attack, the Cox family thought that things were looking better. However, after an endoscopy procedure, Pastor Cox started acting abnormal. His wife, Ginny, was the first to notice that her husband was unable to form words. She immedidately alerted a nurse who issued a stroke alert. 

Tyler McGee and Ryan Rosenblatt are working toward their doctor of pharmacy degree at the Medical University of South Carolina. As part of their four-year plan, they have to go to clinics to treat patients. This is done with the supervision and guidance of a preceptor: an experienced pharmacist who serves as a mentor and helps the students make the right judgment calls for patients.

How many times have you felt discomfort or tension across your upper back or neck. Unfortunately, this is becoming more common, as we spend time at our computers or on our phones. When we allow our head and shoulders to drop forward the muscles of the upper back misaligned and have to work harder than necessary. Good shoulder alignment can go a long way to relieving this tension and preventing future injury. Let's practice. First take a deep breath and lengthen your waist, press your head back and align your ears over your shoulders.

Bamberg County faces the same economic problems that many other rural counties in our state confront. Much of Bamberg’s struggle has to do with its hospital closing several years ago, which not only took away a major part of the job industry but also affected healthcare access.  The few primary care doctors in the area had to step in to take up the slack. One of those doctors was Dr. Danette McAlhaney.

Recently several studies have been published stating that sitting, is the new smoking. Emphasizing that each of us needs to sit less and move more. Taking a movement break every thirty minutes will improve health problems like high blood pressure and also help with lower back pain. Your lower back is moved by your leg, so learning goodalignment for your spine begins with standing. So let's practice mountian pose. Please bring your feet parallel beneath your hips and make the muscles of your legs stronger. Push the tops of your thighs backward and then pull down through your tailbone.

At the 2019 South Carolina Telehealth Summit, Dr. Dave Garr was named the 2019 South Carolina Telehealth Pioneer Award winner. In his tenure working for South Carolina's Area Health Education Consortium, he educated doctors on the importance of telehealth and how to best use it in their practice. His colleagues said Garr was a leader and innovator who understood that telehealth would improve access to care in South Carolina.

In April, Palmetto Care Connections honored retired S.C. Department of Mental Health director John Magill with the 2019 Telehealth Champion Award. Colleagues said Magill's dedication to underserved populations helped spur the grand expansion of DMH's telepsychiatry program, which is one of the most widely used telehealth services in South Carolina.