http ://www.thech arlottepost. com
Section
Painkillers
and high
blood
in women
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — Women taking
daily amounts of non-aspirin
painkillers—such as extra-
strength T^enol—should moni
tor their blood pressure, doctors
say following a new study sug
gesting a link between the drugs
and hypertension.
“If you’re takii^ these over-
the-counter medications at high
dosages on a regular basis, make
sure that you report it to your
doctor and you’re checking your
blood pressure,” said Dr. Christie
Ballantyne, a cardiologist at the
Methodist DeBakey Heart
Center in Houston who had no
role in the study
While mimy popular over-the-
counter painkillers have been
linked before to high blood pres
sure, acetaminophen, sold as
I^enol, has generally been con
sidered relatively free of such
risk.
It is the only one that is not a
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drug or NSAID, a class of med
ications the federal government
just required to carry stricter
warning labels because of the
risk for heart-r^ated problems.
Those include ibuprofen (sold as
Advil and Motrin) and naproxen
(sold as Aleve). Many had turned
to those painkillers in the wake
of problems with prescription
dri^, such as \doxx.
However, the new study found
that women taking lyienol were
about twice as likely to develop
blood pressure problems. Risk
also rose for women taking
NSAIDS other than aspirin.
The research foimd that
aspirin still remains the safest
medicine for pain relief It has
long been known to reduce the
risk of cardiovascular problems
and was not included in the gov
ernment’s requirement for
stricter labels for NSAIDs.
The study involved 5,123
women participating in the
Nurses Health Study at
Harvard Medical School and
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
in Boston. None had had hi^
blood pressure when it began.
Results were published online
Monday in the American Heart
Association journal
Hypertension-
‘Tt certainly sets the basis for
more studies,” said Dr.
Stephanie Lawhom, a cardiolo
gist at St. Luke’s Mid America
Heart Institute in Kansas City
“Most of the time we think that
things like acetaminophen are
fairly safe drugs.”
The study found that women
ages 34-77 who took an average
daily dose of more than 500 mil
ligrams of acetaminophen — one
extra-strength Tylenol — had
about double the risk of develop-
ii^ high blood pressure within
about three years.
Women 51-77 who take more
than 400 mg a day of NSAIDS —
equal to say two ibuprofen —
had a 78 percent increased risk
of developing hi^ blood pres
sure over those who didn’t take
die drug. Those ages 34-53 had a
60 percent risk increase.
“We are by no means suggest
ing that women with chronic
pain conditions not receive treat
ment for their pain,” lead author
Dr. John Phillip Forman, of
Harvard Medical School and
associate physician at Bri^am
and Women’s Hospital in Boston,
said in an e-mail. “By pointing
out risks associated with these
drugs, more informed choices
can be made by women and their
• clinicians.”
Previous research linking
these drugp to blood pressure
problems did not look at dose.
The results in this study hdd
up even when researchers
excluded women who were tak
ing pills for headaches, some
thing that could itself be a result
Rease see PAINKILLERSySB
CIjc Cljarlotte
LIFE
ILLUSTRATION/JIM HUNT
Power of the
purse... and shoes
Teen shopaholics find their passion always in fashion
By Gerri Cunningham
THE CHARLOTTE POST
It’s a sunny day in August a
good 90 plus degrees, not a cloud
in the sky and t he mall parking
lot is quite full, a perfect day for
shoppii^.
SouthPark mall serves, as the
golden ticket today since it’s the
first official day of tax-fi^ week
end. Tfeen^e girls carry bags full
of goodies and squeeze through
crowds in stores for bargains. The
halls are sprinkled with men who
look as thou^ they’re on the
verge of a headache, kids yell for
their moms to hurry so they can
watrii TV and the mall employees
could’nt be any happier.
I’m here to talk with teenagers
shopaholics to get their story Tb
illustrate why shopping is such a
huge part of their lives and why
their boyfiiends don’t seem to be
having as much fun.
Why do men hate shopping
mails, and why do most stores
target the younger generation
with hopes of gaining more profits
and more suitably how do aver
age teenagers feel about this
movement?
Watching the chaos in the lobby
requires a break. Walking
towards an ice cream stand we
notice Michelle (kjodman, 19.
What makes (kxxlman stidk out
is how she sits down showing her
male fiiend aU the items she got
fiom Aldo Accesories.
She seems so proud.
His face was priceless.
After introductions and small
talk Chelle, as she prefers to be
called says, ‘T like to shop so much
because it’s such a feel good place.
I walk in and people greet me, I
find everything I want in one
place. Im graduating from
Waddell (High School) this year
and it’s crucial Tm on my A game
my last year in school.”
Chelle pulls out two bags from
Please see SHOPAHOLICS2B
“I like to shop so much because it’s such a feel good place.”
MICHELLE GOODMAN, 19, SENIOR AT WADDELL HIGH SCHOOL
Remembering publisher John H. Johnson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO -When the
Rev. Jesse Jackson was
growing up, images of
blacks in popular culture
consisted mostly of Aimt
Jemima and Unde Ben.
That was before John H.
Johnson began his media
empire.
“He put a human face
on Afiican people,”
Jackson recalled Monday
“The media projected us
as less intelligent than we
were, less hardworking,
less patriotic, more
volatile, less worthy
“But John Johnson
affirmed us witii a dear
mirror and dear water.
We were not u^y—the
water was dirty, and the
dirty mirror gave distort
ed images of who we real
ly w^^,” Jackson said
Tributes to Johnson,
who founded Ebon y and
Jet magazines, poured
out Monday
during a
packed
funeral that
drew among
others
Jackson,
Sen. Barack
Obama,
Gov. Rod Blagojevich,
Chicago Mayor Richard
M. Daley and former
President Clinton.
Mourners filled the
1,500-seat Rockefeller
Memorial Chapel at the
University of Chicago for
the 21/2-hour service.
Johnson died Aug. 8 of
heart failure at 87.
Johnson
Obama said the positive
images of blacks that
Johnson placed in Ebony
and Jet inspired blacks
across the coimtry to
strive to become doctors,
lawyers and politicians.
“Only a handful of men
and women leave an
imprint on the conscience
of a nation and on the his
tory that they helped
shape,” Obama said.
“John Johnson was one of
these m^.”
Bom to a poor Arkansas
family, Johnson started
his publishing business
with a $500 loan secured
by his mother’s furniture
and built a publishing
and cosmetics empire
that made him one of the
wealthiest and most
influential black men in
the United States.
Johnson launched
Ebony in 1945, at a time
when blacks had little
pohtical representation
and enjoyed scant posi
tive media coverage. The
magazine’s circulation of
25,000 a year grew to a
monthly circulation of
more than 1.6 million last
year, according to the
Audit Bureau of
Circulation.
Jet magazine, a
newsweekly foimded in
1951, has a circulation of
mc^ than 954,000. Aloi^
with Ebony and Jet,
Johnson Publishing owns
Fashion Fair Cosmetics, a
high-end line of cosmet
ics, and JPC Book
See REMEMBERING/2B
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2005
Religion 8B
Black leaders to promote health and fitness
©•o
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA —Although an avid
tennis play^ and v^y trim at age
58, Tbrrell Slayton Jr. has a host of
chronic conditions —including dia
betes, high blood pressure and high
cholesterol. But he knows that
many other black men in his com
munity don’t even know the status
of their health.
“Even the most learned among us
sometimes, for whatever reason,
don’t get that checkup as often as
we should,” said Slayton, who has
learned to balance r^ular exercise
and a medication schedule with his
busy role as Georgia’s assistant sec-
, retary of state.
A program created by former U. S.
Surgeon (^neral Dr. David
Satcher and a group of the city’s top
leaders —the 100 Black Men of
Atlanta Inc. — is aimed at raising
health awareness among black
men. They are working to first edu
cate thems^ves about their own
health so they can teach others and
serve as role models.
“I started the program ... to take
advantage of the fact these men are
leaders in the community _ they
were in a position not only to
improve their own health but to
influence the health of other peo
ple,” said Satcher, now interim
president of the Mordiouse School
of Medicine and member of the 100
Black Men group.
Addressing blacks’ health mat
ters long has been a concern of
health officials. Blacks die of dia
betes at a hi^OT rate than whites
in this coimtry They also suffer
higher rates of hi^ blood pressure,
infant mortality and tubeix^osis.
“We know black men have the
lowest life expectancy of any group
in the country” said Satcher, a for
mer CDC director. “I noticed here
as Tve noticed in other parts of the
country the rate in which black
Please see BLACK/3B
Early
puberty in
girls is no
obesity risk
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO —Overweight
girls reach puberty earlier, but
early puberty alone doesn’t nec
essarily lead to being over
weight in adulthood, according
to a new study
Instead, it’s childhood pudgi
ness that’s linked with both
early menstruation and adult
weight problems.
Girls who were overwed^t
before their first menstrual
periods were almost eight times
more likely to be overweight as
women, the study found. But
there was no link between pre-
codoios pxoberty alone and being
overweight later in life.
“Given the epidemic of obesity
in the population, it’s important
to know where best to inter
vene,” said lead researcher
Aviva Must, associate professor
of Public Health and Family
Medicine at Tlifts University
School of Medicine in Boston.
That intervention should
start in childhood, she said.
For parents, she said, the
study provides reassurance
that early puberty is normal for
some overweight girls, and
there is no greater risk of being
overwei^t as an adult for a
slender girl who gets her first
period early
Findings by other researchers
that early puberty in girls caus
es adult weight problems
sparked her research. Must
said. That supposed link threat
ened to rob attention fix)m the
real culprit: childhood obesity
The study will stop doctors
fix)m trying to prevent obesity
by suppressing early puberty
with medications, said Dr.
David Katz, director of the
Prevention Research Center at
Yale University School of
Medicine.
‘T think this is an important
finding,” Katz said. “In many
ways, it corroborates common
sense: Kids who struggle with
their weight become adults who
strug^e with their weight.”
The study will be published in
the September issue of
Pediatrics. It was released
Thursday at the American
Medical Association’s and the
National PTA’s back-to-school
briefing for reporters.
The study defined early
puberty as a first period before
age 12. During the past 25
years, the average age for a
girl’s first period hasn’t changed
much, but it has creeped earlier
by about 2.5 months. Must said.
The data were from 307
women who had participated 40
years ago in a prior study of
their growth and maturation.
As girls, only 4 percait were
overwei^t before their first
period. In adulthood, 37 percent
of the women were overweight
or obese.
Because the prior study
looked at public school girls in
Newton, Mass., participants
were mostly white and middle
class, limiting the current find
ings.
“We need to look at the same
thing in Afiican American and
Hispanic populations,” said
Alison Field, assistant professor
of pediatrics at Children’s
Hospital Boston, who does sim
ilar research but was not
involved in the current study
On the Net:
American Academy of Pediatrics:
/wwwjoapjorg