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LIFE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2005
Religion 8B
Section
Take
home
HTV test
By Maiya Norton
SAVOSAL SEWSPAPhJi
PLBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - The Food
and Drug Administration’s
Blood Products Advisory
Committee is in the preliminary
stages of determining whether
to allow HTV tests to be sold over
the counter.
The pros and cons of such wide
access were discussed during a
recent panel discussion involv
ing members of the FDA,
HIV/AIDS activists, professors
and manufacturers.
OraSure Technologies, the
manufacturing company of the
OraSure and OraQuick rapid
testing methods, is pushing for a
space on the shelf at the phar
macy Such tests would allow
people to anonymously learn
their HIV status in less than an
hour, without-hassle and poten
tially without immediate coun
seling.
“It’s kind of early to know
where things stand,” says
Jessica Frickey, spokesperson
for the Centers for Disease
Control. Present at the FDA’s
recent panel, Frickey realized a
lot more research needs to be
done before the CDC takes a
position on it.
“Bottom line: If more people
would be willing to take a test at
home and find out tlieir status
then that’s the best outcome we
could ask for,” Frickey says. “We
have data that shows when peo
ple know they have HIV, they
take steps to protect their part
ners fixjm infection.”
Much of that data was collect
ed by physicians. And the home
test could lessen interaction
with a medical ®q)ert.
Throughout her college years
at Spehnan College in Atlanta,
Daniela Edison made regular
HIV testing a way of life.
Though she felt uncomfortable
with the physicians discussing
the testing with her, she now
understands the impact they
had.
‘Tt was embarrassing, to be
young and talking about safe sex
and everything with a stranger,”
Edison says. ‘Tve been blessed
to be okay, but if I wasn’t I would
have needed a counselor there
for comfort.”
Imaginations can run wild
when thinking about the impli
cations of at-home testing.
People could easily misunder
stand their tests or lash out emo
tionally and harm themselves or
others. Even though panelists
were divided over where admin
istering a test at home is the
best course of action, most can
agree that having some form of
formal counseling and education
about HIV AIDS testing, preven
tion and tieatment is vital.
“Certainly if you take an HIV
test of this nature, a test that
searches for antibodies to HIV, if
you get a negative test it doesn’t
necessarily mean that you don’t
have HIV,” Frickey says. ‘Tt
could mean that you have HIV
and your antibodies aren’t yet
detectable.”
TTiat’s why some have reserva
tions.
“I think I would lean toward it
not being available unless coun
seling was a part of purchasing
the product which you and I
both know isn’t going to hap
pen,” says Clarence Stewart,
certified sex educator with the
American Association of Sex
Educators, Counselors and
TTierapists. “You’re dealing with
something that will kill you or
something that you will have the
rest of your life. You mean to tell
me that once you find out that
you are not going to want to talk
to somebody?”
^\Tth Afiican-American
women in the lead for being at
risk, Stewart is concerned for
those who are primarily getting
infected firan their male part-
Rease see AIDS/2B
©•Oi
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Americans gain about one pound from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. But that can be avoided.
Holidays meals don’t
have to extra pounds
By Cheris F. Hodges
cherts Jtodges^'ihecharlottepost£om
‘Tis the season to be
jolly, but you don’t have to
end up round like Santa
once the holidays are over.
Thanksgiving kicks off
the eating season and
many Americans will gain
wei^t over this period.
And how can you not
when traditional holiday
dinners are dripping in
good taste and fat?
A recent report fix)m the
National Institutes of
Health states that
Americans gain about one
poimd between
Thanksgiving and New
Year’s. However, what the
report doesn’t address is
how those pounds add up
over the years.
Other medical studies,
accoi'ding to an article
fiom Stripe, the Walter
Reed Medical Center
newsletter, the holiday
pounds, unlike the holi
day ham, don’t disappear.
“These findings suggest
that developing ways to
avoid holiday weight gain
may be ectremely impor
tant for preventing obesi
ty and the diseases associ
ated with it,” said NICHD
Director Duane Alexander
M.D.
“Although an average
holiday weight gain of less
than a poimd may seem
unimportant, that weight
was not lost over the
remainder of the year,”
Dr. Jack A. Yanovski said.
When 165 of the study
volunteers were weighed
a year after the study
began, they had not lost
the extra weight gained
during the holidays, and
ended the year 1.4 pounds
heavier than they
were the yea
before.
“This is a goo
news/bad new
story,” sai
Yanovski. “Th
good news is th{
people don’t gaii
much weight as we
thought during the holi
days. The bad news is
that wei^t gained over
Please see HOLIDAY/2B
Cancer survivors inspire screenings
By T. Kevin Walker
niE CHRONICLE
WINSTON-SALEM— Mary Gregg doesn’t suit-up in
combat fatigues each day She carries no assault rifles
or graiades. But Gregg is in battle against an enemy
that she knows all too well.
®My two daughters were diagnosed with breast can
cer. One of them died fix)m it.... She was 38,” said Gre^,
who turned 71 in July
Her daughters’ diagnoses promoted Gre^ to get
checked. She was told that she also had breast cancer.
The news came not long after her dau^ter’s death in
2003. Gre^ has been fitting the disease for about a
year and a half now. Her weapons are her faith,
strength and sheer determination.
Every day I try to put it behind me and keep on mov
ing,” she said. ‘Tt has been so far, so good”
Gre^ is one of 12 local black women featured in the
latest edition of the YWCA Sister, Speak! calendar.
Pictures of the women - all breast cancer survivors - are
featured, as are their personal stories of cx)ping and sur
viving.
‘Tliese are their own stories, in their own words,” said
Betty Meadows, coordinator of Sister, Speaki, a more-
than-5-year-old YWCA program that educates black
women about breast cancer. Sister, Speak! also facili
tates support groups and provides fiee mammograms
Please see CANCER/2B
So what does it mean to be southern?
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARY - The joke
around here is that this
town’s name is really an
acronym for
“Containment Area for
Relocated Yankees.”
As far as Vernon Yates
is concerned, they
haven’t been contained
well enough.
Nearly surroimded by
pricey subdivisions, the
cinderblock Yates
Grocery and Farm
Supply sells neither any
more. As if things wa^’t
bad enough, st>de maven
Martha Stewart has cho
sen this Ralei^ suburb
to build a signature
nei^iborhood of houses
designed after her homes
in Maine and New York.
Holding court near a
potbellied stove, the 69-
year-old man in the sus
penders and NASCAR
shirt laments that his old
customers have been
replaced by fast-talking,
SUV-driving
Northerners who don’t
seem to be able to read a
STOP sign.
‘It’s all gone,” Yates,
pausing for another spit
of tobacco juice, says of
the Southern town of his
youth. “Everything is
completely different fiom
what it used to be.”
Please see WHAT/3B
Comfort
foods not so
great for
women
WE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y.-Comfort food
for women often means snug
gling up with tub of mint choco
late ice cream to wallow in their
blues. For men, it serves as a
rewal’d when life is looking rosy
Just what tri^ers people to
turn to comfort foods—and
which ones they pick— often
depends on whether you are ask
ing a man or a woman, a new
study shows.
It turns out that women are a
bit more likely to choose foods
high in fat and sugar, such as
cake and ice cream—along with
a hefty serving of guilt, loneliness
and depression.
Men, on thfe other hand, are
more likely to turn to hearty
foods like steak and pasta as a
reward when they are feeing
upbeat.
That’s significant because
those who associated comfort
foods with positive
motions were more
:ely to pick healthi-
far e, the study
.tly published in
journal
hysiology &
havior found. The
study was drawn fix)m an online
survey of 277 jieople, more than
two-thirds of them women.
“Comfort foods don’t have to be
high in fat and sugar. Comfort
foods can be healthy,” said
Jordan LeBel, a Cornell
University professor and lead
author of the study “This shows
we can re-educate people so that
comfort foods aren’t always
about negative emotions.”
Foods high in sugar and fat are
more efficient in alleviating neg
ative feelings, according to the
study That finding is supported
by past research.
But the study also found that
those who named comfort foods
low in calories—like soups, fimits
and vegetables—were more
prone to associate them with pos
itive emotions.
“Not everyone uses comfort
foods to alleviate stress,” LeBel
said.
For example, women were 50
percent more likdy than men to
admit feeling guilty about
indulging in comfort foods. At the
same time, 40 percent of the
women picked high-calorie sweet
foods, while 35 percent of men
did.
The steaks, pastas and pizza
that men generally gravitate
toward are not necessarily opti
mal choices, but are better than
the sugary fat-traps chosen by
women, LeBel said.
Dispelling everyday misconceptions about epilepsy
By Joshua C. Johnson
D.MLAS 'AEEKLEY
DALLAS — Tb some, hav
ing just one seizure is a ter-
rijfying experience-whether
it happens to an adult or
child-but being diagnosed
with epilepsy can be even
more fii^tening.
For Dallas native Christi
Phifer, it was all too easy to
tune out the symptoms and
downplay the seriousness of
the deadly and sometimes-
shameful disorder—epilep
sy
‘’Christmas morning 1995
I was getting out of bed and
went into a seizure and I hit
my head on a coffee table
and blanked out for a
minute,” said Phifer. ‘Tt
totally changed my life.”
Now, Phifer isn’t able to
hold a steady job or legally
drive. But she copes.
‘T have learned to deal
with it and take my medica-
tiHi. This is something I
was bom with,” she
explained, adding that she
would like to weak.
‘The last job I had was at
UPS,” she recalled. *1 was
interviewed and hired and
on my first day oS woik I got
up and had a seizure that
morning and bit my lip and
had to get stitches.”
Consequently Phifer is no
longer employed at UPS.
Instead, she stays at home
and is constantly under
supervision by her family
and fiiends.
Phifo^’s story isn’t too dif
ferent fix)m the other
350,000 Afiican-Americans
who suffer fiom epilepsy
Although African-
Americans are enjoying
gains in education, econom
ics and employment, the
racial gap in health is
widening, according to the
Centers for Disease Control.
Epilepsy is a neurologiced
disorder that, fium time to
time, produces brief distur
bances in the electrical pat
terns of the brain. When
someone has epilepsy for
brief periods of time, the
electrical patterns are more
intense d^an usual.
Afirican-Americans are the
largest demc^aphic when
it comes to new cases of
epilepsy According to the
Edelman for Epilepsy
Foundation, about 24,000
new cases are diagnosed
among Blacks every year.
Limited access to health
care, misinformation and
stigma within the communi
ty further compound the
effects of epilepsy
‘’There are many stigmas
that surround epilepsy” said
Stephanie Melson, Greater
North Tfexas Epilepsy
Foundation executive direc
tor. ‘Teople are not aware of
the different kinds of
seizures and the type that
most people know of is ton-
icclonic or convulsions
where people fall on the
floor.”
There are a number of
myths and misnomers
about seizures and epilepsy
One myth is that seizures
and epilepsy are different,
when in fact seizures are a
symptom of epilepsy
‘’One of the major myths is
when a person first experi
ences a seizure there is
something they did to set it
off,” said Dr. Gregory
Steiiing-Caiter, a neurolo
gist at Veteran Affairs
Hospital. ‘’For example:
fatigue, stress or diet.
Something they did rather
than something they could
avoid.”
In about seven out of 10
people with epilepsy, no
cause cem be found. Among
the rest, the cause may be
Rease see DISPELLING/2B