COVER STORY  Fire and water. Earth and wind. For ancient Greeks, and the Buddhists before them, these basic elements provided a foundation for contemplating the world. In this special section, we invite you to take a look at how these simple, time-honored concepts can help you in your quest to create a healthier home.

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SPECIAL SECTION  Six days after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake ravaged Haiti, Dr. Mathew Rawlins sat in the middle of a Port-au-Prince intersection, scanning his surroundings.Casualties, everywhere.
“Coming out of the woodwork,” he recalls. “That’s what was impressive — you didn’t have to look for people that were injured. They were just all over.” Read More>>

HEALTH LINK  I spent the holiday season doing a really terrible job of holding myself accountable for working out. The plan was to work in exercise around all the various and sundry engagements and responsibilities. The idea was to try out a bunch of home gym solutions whenever I had a free second. Read More>>

ALT MEDICINE  The camera zooms in on the bare back of a woman. She rolls around on a bed, slathered in satin sheets, wearing nothing but cut-off panties and a pair of Reebok EasyTone sneakers. Read More>>

NEWS  In the future, older people across the country will be treated like senior citizens here in the Inland Northwest. Gentiva Health Services, one of almost 10,000 Medicare-certified agencies nationwide, is one of just 11 home health providers selected to help design the future of health care for aging Americans. And the company will be using programs it developed in the Spokane area. Read More>>

FROM THE EDITOR  This edition of InHealthNW is all about creating a space where you and your family can thrive and grow. There’s no shortage of attention to creating a beautiful space — a fact that HGTV exploits 24/7. But how can your home environment improve your health and safety? From the air you breathe to the water you drink, our special section on Healthy Homes looks at ways to make sure your dwelling is safe and sound. Read More>>

COOKING  Spring starts slowly in the Inland Northwest, with blossoms appearing months later than they do on the west side of the state. This analogy sometimes seems to hold true for food and fashion trends as well. Read More>>

GUEST COLUMN  It is 10 am on a Wednesday during a staff meeting at the YWCA Confidential Safe Shelter. A call comes in informing us that a woman and her small child are in need of shelter. She is being transported from a local hospital in a cab, which is being escorted by a Spokane police officer. Read More>>

COVER STORY  Spokane has a lot of things worth bragging about. There’s Riverfront Park. There’s Bloomsday. There’s Hoopfest. And according to Mike LaScuola, environmental health specialist for the Spokane Regional Health District, there’s the water that’s streaming out of your kitchen faucet. Read More>>

COVER STORY  I live in a modest, two-bedroom house, which I share with two roommates, two cats, two dogs and a guinea pig. So it goes without saying: We use a lot of air fresheners.
The current weapon of choice is Febreze (in Thai Dragon Fruit). We chose it for the smell, obviously. The ingredients weren’t even an afterthought. Read More>>

COVER STORY  Changing the battery in a smoke detector when you set your clock back isn’t enough. Protecting your home from fire now requires more than pushing the test button to hear the reassuring high-pitched squeal that it works. You need to know how it works.
“The most important issue is what [smoke detectors] are made of,” says Jan Doherty, the Spokane Fire Department’s Public Information Officer. Read More>>

COVER STORY  As mountains crumble to the seas, so too is Mother Nature at work to retrieve your home and return it to the earth. Her impressive list of accomplices includes the formidable force of gravity, the seeping, but potent, power of water, the fiery might of electricity and the permeating poison of an invisible gas. Add to that the forces of humans — attempting to remodel, embellish and otherwise alter their code-built homes — and it’s clear there is potential for problems. But with a little knowledge and attention to maintenance, you can stave off all those forces, ensuring your home will continue to provide safe shelter for many years. Read More>>

SPECIAL SECTION  Ever since 1964, when he first read about Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, Dr. Mike Ettner, emergency department physician from Kootenai County Medical Center, wanted to be a missionary doctor. It is the only dream he’s ever had. He had planned on spending his life saving the sick and injured in Africa. Read More>>

INNOVATION  Maybe it was a bar fight. Maybe a hockey puck. Maybe it was the result of an ill-considered bet. For whatever reason, there’s a gaping, whistling hole where your two front teeth used to be. These days, an oral surgeon can help you out with an implant — a faux-tooth held in place by a titanium rod. Reports of discomfort may vary, but no one argues it’s not expensive. Read More>>

NEWS  Lacey Jones was sliding. A sophomore at Whitworth, Jones had transferred from Washington State to play softball, the sport she loved. She was practicing sliding one day in February 2002, gliding over the grass again and again, until her metal cleats dug into the turf and her ankle popped. The doctor told her it was broken, cast it and prescribed Vicodin, a commonly prescribed narcotic.
That’s when Jones began navigating the fine line between appropriately medicating her pain and abusing a drug. Read More>>

PARENTING  When Spokane resident Stacey Conner was 10 years old, she and her two younger sisters would walk down a dirt road in their English village to the ocean, hunting for heart-shaped rocks they pretended were made by fairies.
“We’d throw them into the water and make wishes,” she says. Read More>>

PEOPLE  Ever wonder if you could continue to live in your home if you suddenly couldn’t climb stairs? Or what if you suddenly had to rely on public transportation? How would you cope? Could your home be designed to help you out? Read More>>

SENIORS  Pop quiz: What’s your name? What’s today’s date? Other than shark, what are four creatures beginning with S? Why is a carrot like a potato? How long can you remember the phrase, “Good Citizens Always Wear Stout Shoes?”

To the average adult, it’s not a tough quiz. At least, it shouldn’t be. But for an adult suffering from Alzheimer’s, it’s a very tough quiz indeed. They may score only one out of 35 points. Read More>>