Health & Wellness althbe i her is found stomach her! 5, Greece (AP) - A 9-year-old girl i hospital in central Greece suffe l was found to be carrying her rs said last Thursday. s at Larissa General Hospital e gically removed a growth they ?> an embryo more than two incl r could see on the right side that a, but they couldn't suspect that this : an embryo," hospital director I said. ( made a full recovery, he l Markou, head of the hospital's I the embryo was a formed I eyes, but no brain or ut said cases where one of a other in the womb occurs niths. family difl not want to be ; said will help local fight substance abuse t Carolina Coalition Initiative Center of Wake Forest Ur Medicine has received a two-> funding initiative from the N.C. t to support local substance abuse < i state history. NCCI is grant funded by the N.< t of Health and Human Services, ] Health, Developmental Disabilities : Abuse Services (DMHDDSAS). 1 assistance is provided by the Center. The NCCI's mission abuse ih communities by of Community coalitions to i, population-level prevention :ited about this new initiative, 1 communities deal with the > abuse," said Mark Wolf son, 1 ive director. i said the NCCI Cooidinating ' nts to community ] i will receive up to ! ? build community i ons will receive extensive to help them said . Community . America (CADCA), ).C., is a partner in this i of three weeks of I : months to help prepare t $57; protests spitting] l (AP>- A gay-rights group is r prison sentence given to an I i convicted of spitting on a . ic health officials say the risk i AIDS virus from | low. convinced a that the man's a deadly I the long appropriate, spit into the - mouth of a while he public 2006, the offi 42, had been in prison twice i a habitual offender subject to a i lyears. Centers for Disease I says no one has ever contracted tbe,j Anderson, the HIV projects 1, a gay-rights group, said th* ; wrong impressions about how " ey Craig Watkins said "it i nt intended to cause .fn? patients hai removed i growing number of women I cancer seem to be choosing tc t removed instead of just the 8 reporting. ? were standard treatment I showed that women i confined to the breast did \ ! radical surgery followed I 1 of more women choosing I it ,||M ' of about 5,500 women at i t, Minn., shows that I . Doctors say there are si g : around the country, too. was released last Thursday ? y of Clinical Oncology an " group's annual meeting Clinic study, about 45 ' patients chose mastectomies I to only 30 percent in 2003, the S, 43 percent were opting for I [LjBH Family walks for cure to REMEMBER ONE OF THEIR OWN o Young walkers Gah'ques Ligons, Tasiana Andrews and Gjerria Ligons Jr. SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE A family used the May 3 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event at Old Salem as a way r> to honor a loved one who passed away from breast cancer, The family of the late Alphlonia "Peaches" Perkins Gywn, who died March 6, 2006, took part in the annual event, which has raised tens of thousands of dollars for breast cancer research. Gywn's family members are no strangers to the walk; they have taken part each year since she passed away. This year, about 15 family members walked the three-mile trek, including men, women, boys and girls of various ages. The youngest partici pant was two-year-old Tasiana Andrews, the great niece of Gywn and the daughter of Terry and Stacy Andrews, walked the whole three miles, non-stop. Other walkers were amazed by the little girl's determination and cheered her along as she made her way to the finish line. Each year, the family wears matching t shirts to honor Gywn. Arnita Perkins Ingram, Gwyn'-s sister, designed this year's shirts. The family said the walk was both joyous and memorable, and they vow to continue to take part in the event as a tribute to their beloved "Peaches." 'Clumped' blood may contribute to sickle cell pain SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE It's long been knowri that patients with sickle cell disease have malformed, "sick le-shaped" red blood cells - which are nor mally disc-shaped - that can cause sudden painful episodes when they block small blood vessels. ? Now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that blood from sick le cell patients also contains clumps, or aggregates, of red and white blood cells that may contribute to the blockages. The study, published on-line April 18 in the British Journal of Haematology, marks the first time that aggregates made up of red blood cells and white blood cells have been found in whole blood from sickle cell patients. The study also shows how the red and white blood cells adhere to one anoth er: the interaction is mediated by a particu lar protein, integrin alpha four beta one. First author Dr. Julia E. Brittain, a research assistant professor in the medical school's department of biochemistry and biophysics, s^id further study could lead to new treatments for the disease. "If the blockages are caused by these chunks of aggregates that are circulating in the blood, and we know how the aggregates are stick ing together, we potentially could design drugs to disrupt the aggregates so that they pass through the blood vessel more freely," she said. Normal red blood cells don't interact with white blood cells. But Brittain first showed in lab tests with isolated cells that young red blood cells (reticulocytes) would interact with white blood cells and form aggregates with them. Then, she looked for such clumps in blood samples from 14 peo ple with sickle cell disease. All the patient samples studied had clump9, though some had only a few, while others had thousands. She didn't see clumps in samples from patients without sickle cell disease. Brittain said other researchers may have disrupted the aggregates because blood collection tubes usually contain an anticoagulant that ties up calcium, which often plays a role in cell adhesion. She saw the aggregates only when she used an anti coagulant that doesn't remove calcium. Brittain and her colleagues plan further study of the phenomenon, including the conditions that might determine the num ber of aggregates in the blood, and whether they are affected by the drug hydroxurea. which is commonly used to treat sickle cell disease. Nutrition & Diabetes This article was previously run in The Chronicle by the Maya Angelou Research Center on Minority Health. It is being re-run to correspond with the Center's current series on dia betes. Diabetes is a growing prob lem in our country. According to the latest statistics, nearly 21 million people have diabetes, many of whom don't even know they have it. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Rates of the most common form of diabetes, known as Type 2 diabetes, have risen dramatically in the last twenty years. Unfortunately, African Americans are not only more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, but they are also more likely to suffer from some of the ltfl health problems associated with diabetes, such as amputations, kidney disease and blindness. Heart disease, the leading cause of death among people with dia betes, also has a big impact in African American communities. Recent research has shown that working with a health care provider team to control blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, is very important in successfully managing diabetes and avoiding these serious com plications. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), diet can play a big role in this management strategy. The ADA recommends a num ber of tips: ? Limiting the amount of calories, fat and saturated fat in your diet is one key. "Limiting" these foods means eating lean meats, fish or poultry, choosing reduced fat snacks, and cutting back on added fats such as but ter or mayonnaise. ? Limit the portion sizes of your meals, especially when eat ing out, is very important. Eating foods that are high in fiber also helps keep the blood sugar down and gives you that feeling of "fullness" so you can See Diabetes on All School system smoking out smokers Ban in Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County schools coming in July SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools will soon be a tobacco- free school system. A new policy that prohibits the use of tobacco products by anyone on any proper ty owned or leased by the school sys tem will go into effect July 1. Though students have been prohibited from using tobacco products in schools for many years, staff and visitors have been permitted to use tobacco products in designated outdoor areas. Last year, the N.C. General Assembly passed the Tobacco Free School Law. which forbids the use of tobacco products by anyone at any time on school property. Staff and visitors will notice the following policy changes: ? Tobacco products will not be allowed to be used at any time by staff, visitors, contrac tors or students. ? The policy will apply to all school-owned or school leased property, including buildings, grounds, busses, fleet ?cars, ball fields and other facilities. ? Any property owned by the school system will be tobacco-free. Any other property used or leased for school-sponsored or school-related events will become 100 percent tobacco-free for the dura tion of those events. The school system's employee benefits program will offer free services and products to help employees quit their tobacco use. These include the North Carolina Quitline. which^offers free quit assistance seven days a week, 8 a.m. to midnight. Employees can access the service online at http://www.quitnownc.org. Professional quit counselors are trained to help tobacco users work through the process. Free nicotine replacement patches are available for employees who subscribe to the N.C. State Health Plan. The plan will waive the co-payment for generic, over-the-counter nicotine patches for employees if they use the Quitline or receive smoking-cessation counsel ing from their health-care provider. 4

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