HealthrXWellness
Issues concerning the well-being or we African-Am commu
Joint venture brings health
and fitness to the Intefcet
CHARLOTTE ? Carolinas
HealthCare System and
GoCarolinas.com have joined to
create a website that they say
may make healthy lifestyle
choice, 3 little easier.--?^.
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On the GoCarolinas interactive
website (www.gocarolinascom)
will include women's health
issues a Carolinas HealthCare
System calendar of events,
fitness programs, recipes and
diet tips Visitprs to the site also
can participate in live chats
about current health issues like
how to avoid the holiday high
fat dilemma. Health quizzes and
fitness tests will ensure visitors
are well-Informed.
"As one of our sponsors
Carolinas HealthCare System
has been involved with
GoCarolinas.com from our
launch date," observed Sandhi
Kozsuch, Cox Interactive Media
studio manager in Charlotte.
"Our goal of providing
quality health care services
throughout the Carolinas begins
with education and awareness,"
said Alan Taylor, vice president,
marketing for Carolinas Health
"*40 million aduIitT
Internet, it's a good place to
start that education process."
Carolinas Health care
System is a not-for-profit, self
supporting public organization.
It is the largest health care
system-in the Carolinas with
more than 3,000 licensed beds,
and approximately 32,000
employees.
1 * GoCarolinascom, launched
in August, provides interaction
and information about Carolina
sports, travel and news, free of
charge, to consumers. The site
features around-, the-clock
sports updates, breaking news,
and extensive interactive
communications iqcluding
message boards, chat
rooms and surveys
covering activities
throughout the
Carolinas.
Hypertension control is program's focus
y
Wake Forest University Baptist
Medical Center's Hypertension and
Vascular Disease Center is out to reduce
deaths from cardiovascular disease in the
South. It will develop pilot programs in
Southern communities to screen people Tor
hypertension and high cholesterol, educate
them about their risk and work with physi
cians, employers and managed care plans
to help control the problem.
Death rates from both stroke and heart
disease tend to be higher in the
Southeastern United States than elsewhere
in the country. Nationwide, about 23 per
cent of the adults over age 40 have high
blood pressure, which is associated with
both strokes and heart disease. In the
South, close to 40 percent have the disease.
Eight Southern states (the Carolinas,
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi and Tennessee), known as the
stroke belt, have the highest incidence of
stroke in the United States.
"The excess risk of cardiovascular
death in the South shows there is a com
pelting need for an aggressive approach,"
said Carlos Ferrario, M.D., professor of
surgical sciences and director of the
Hypertension and Vascular Disease
Center.
With a $100,000 grant from the Merck
Company Foundation, the Medical Center
will help develop cardiovascular centers in
two or three communities in the Southeast.
The project's long-term goal is to develop
additional centers ? all that will be
regional models for managing cardiovas
cular disease.
Aids awareness program at UNCG earns honors
GREENSBORO - The Wellness Center
yri The University of North Carolina at
Greensboro has won an award for its sexual
Responsibility program.
The center's "Romance and
kesponsibility" program won the 1997
Award for best single event in the "Hope
Jleeds Help" HIV awareness competition
?if the Bacchus and Gamma Peer
Education Network. The award carried a
$500 prize.
*
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The UNCG program emphasized
individual rights and responsibilities
regarding sexual decisions. The event
provided information about alternatives to
sexual intercourse, sexually transmitted
diseases, HIV and AIDS, condom use and
support for people who choose not to be
sexually active., ?
The Wellness Center co-sponsored the,
event with the UNCG Campus Activities
Board and the Triad Health Project. It was
presented on Feb. 14, 1997.
The Wellness Center is an arm of
UNCG Student Health Services that
operates programs to educate students,
faculty and staff about issues related to
health.
The Bacchus and Gamma Peer
Education Network is an international
collegiate alcohol awareness and health
education organization.
..." ? i
Parenting classes offered ?
The Women's Hospital of Greensboro offers a series,
; "Parenting 101," on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the
Exercise Room on the ground floor of The Women's Hospital
of Greensboro.
Parents are invited to bring baby and enjoy this ongo
ing group. Registration fee $15.
; Diabetes education classes scheduled
The Forsyth County Department of Public Health offers
! free classes on diabetes. The Health Department is located at
799 N. Highland Ave. TJie Jan. 13 class will address the topic,
"What is diabetes?" On Jan. 20, the class will be "Diet for
I Health."
Get help finding a doctor
Whether you are new in town or a long term resident, you
can take advantage of InforMED. A trained staff has the expe
rience, knowledge and resources to put you in touch with the
physician who is right for you. InforMED can provide physician
referrals for a number of specialties such as family medicine,
general surgery, dermatology, gynecology and psychiatry. For
free, expert help* call InforMED at 574-8000.
Important breastfeeding tips shared
The Women's Hospital of Greensboro will offer
"Breastfeeding Basics"from Jan. 7 through Jan. 19. The classes
will be held from 7 p.m. to 9.p.m. at the Women's Education
Center at the hospital. There is no charge. To preregister, call
574-6909.
Day care center plans sick bay to segregate ill kids
' HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) ? A planned
day-care center with a sick bay hopes to
help out parents who can't afford to miss
work because their children are ill.
Dawn Byington, a registered nurse and
mother, plans to open a day-care center in
April that will have a sick?feay and an on
duty registered nurse to serve ill children in
Butler County.
A state agency this month approved the
opening of Kids 'n' Kaboodle Learning
Center, near Hamilton.
The sick bay will be open to children
who have illnesses that schools and regular
day-care centers are mandated by law to
exclude. It will have four separate rooms to
house children with chicken pox, mild
fevers, gastrointestinal illness, respiratory
illness and non-contagious illness.
Byington said her center was designed
to prevent ill children from infecting each
other.
"The sick bay is totally enclosed, with
its own entfjHtfie and exit and its own
heating and air conditioning system," she .
said.
The rooms for children with the most
contagious illnesses ? chicken pox and
gastrointestinal illness ? will have their
own bathrooms, Byington said.
State officials said they will be keeping
an eye on the sick bays.
"We're going to try it for a year, look at
the statistics and see how well things are
working out," said Virginia Haller, medical
director for the Ohio Department of
Health.
Children with high fevers, symptoms of
meningitis, tuberculosis or other serious
illnesses will not be admitted to the sick
bay.
Gail Johnson, president of the National
Association for Sick Child Day Care in
Richmond, Va., said there is no
documented increase of cross-infection in
sick-child facilities.
About 300 licensed sick-child, day-care
programs are in operation across the
nation, up from about 100 in 1991, Johnson
said. The first program is believed to have
started during World War II at a steel plant
in California.
With the number of working mothers
increasing, interest in sick-child day care is
on the rise, Johnson said.
"Fifty-five to 60 percent of mothers
with children under a year are returning to
the work force," she said. "This profoundly
impacts the whole sick-child care notion."
Many working parents take their sick
children to day care without
acknowledging symptoms because they feel
thfey can't afford to miss work, Johnson
said.
"I have a Down's syndrome child, and
he is sick all the time," said Debbie Bellas, a
full-time working mother from Sycamore
Township, a Cincinnati "suburb. "I am
constantly being called to come get him
from day care, so I can really appreciate
this.
"I have to work. My husband works
and I work. I don't have the luxury of
staying home."
Irradiation of red meat destroys
harmful microorganisims
GREENSBORO ? Widely publi
cized occurrences of contamination have
brought food safety issues into the pub
, lie forefront.
From the apple orchards of Oregon
to the packing plants of Nebraska, pro
ducers of America's food have fallen
under increased scrutiny, and new safety
measures are being enacted. ?
versial methods to enhance the safety of
the nation's food supply, was recently
approved for use with red meat.
"Food irradiation is perhaps the only
food preservation method that has been
extensively studied for safety for over 40
years, before people began to use it," said
Dr. Aubrey Mendonca, a microbial food
safety research scientist with North
Carolina A&T State University's School
of Agriculture. "It has been found to be
safe by a World Health Organization
expert committee on the wholesomeness
of irradiated foods,"
According to Mendonca, the World
Health Organization committee
reviewed over 200 well-designed studies
involving humans as well as animals,
before concluding that irradiated foods
did not cause any toxic or genetic defects.
"The committee recommended irra
diation of food up to a dose level of 10
kilograms," said Mendonca. "Many
countries have permitted the use of this
dose level for irradiation of meat,
fish,.vegetables, fruits and grains, but, in
the United States, the Food and Drug
Administration only recently approved
irradiation for red meat."
Though limited amounts of irradiat
ed fruits, including mangoes, papayas,
and strawberries, are being marketed in
the United States, Mendonca attributes
the hesitancy of the United States in
approving the method for red meat to
misdirected consumer fears.r
"It is well known among scientists
that each modern food processing
advance, such as pasteurization, can
ning, and freezing, produced criticism,"
said Mendonca. "By far the greatest bar
rier to the more extensive use of food
irradiation is not technical but sociologi
cal. This sociological barrier exists in the
form of consumer resistance and dis
trust, much of which can be linked to
inadequate information as well as false
information."
Specific 0 fears mentioned by
Mendonca include that irradiation will -
make food radioactive, and that it might
be used by food processors to treat poor
quality.
"Irradiated food is not radioactive,
and food irradiation, just like any other
food preservation process, cannot pro
duce superior quality food from inferior
quality raw material," said Mendonca,
who pqmts out that similar objections
were raised by some groups opposing the
use of pasteurization for treatment of
raw milk.
"It was believed that pasteurization
would be used to mask inferior quality in
preparation practices, Mendonca said.
"However, this did not prove to be trtie
because the use of milk pasteurization
by the food industry has caused produc
tion standards and microbiological qual
ity of raw milk to be higher than they
have ever been."
Mendonca does acknowledge that
high doses of radiation can cause unde
sirable changes in foods, such as rancidi
ty in foods containing fats and oils and
softening of fruits and vegetables.
However, irradiation of foods in a frozen
state has been shown to minimize ran
cidity. In addition, efficient regulation,
similar to regulatory methods for other
food processing technologies such as
heating and freezing, can be important in
minimizing undesirable changes in foods
subjected to irradiation.
The food irradiation process involves
exposing foods to gamma rays from >
radioactive source such as cobalt-60, dr
to electron beams and X rays from linear
accelerator machines. ? )
When food is irradiated, it absorbs
energy from irradiation. This absorbed
energy destroys harmful microorganisms
by penetrating microbial cells and
destroying their ability to reproduce,
which results in death for the microor
ganism.
"It is important to note that irradiat
ed foods are not radioactive, and food
irradiation does not change the molecu
lar structure of foods any more than
cooking, canning, or freezing," said
Mendonca. "Irradiated foods also bear a
special logo with the words "Treated
with Radiation" or "Treated by
Irradiation" so that consumers can make
informed buying decisions.
According to Mendonca, food irradi
ation offers important benefits for both
consumers and the . food industry,
because it extends the shelf-life of food
and enhances food safety by destroying
spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms
in food. This translates into safe whole
some foods for consumers, and reduced
economiq loss due to spoilage for food
producers, since between one quarter
and one third of the world's food supply
is lost due to post harvest spoilage.
Heart drug reduces risks
associated with surgery
(AP) ? Patients who take the drug
amiodarone for at least a week before
open heart surgery are half as likely to
suffer a dangerous heart rhythm disorder
afterward and can go home from the
hospital sooner, a study found.
However; the medicine did not
improve the patients' overall chances of
survival during the seven weeks after
surgery, according to a study in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Atrial fibrillation is a common and
potentially deadly complication of open
heart surgery. Fibrillation occurs when
the heart's muscle fibers contract at
random, causing the heart to stop
pumping blood effectively.
Amiodarone is a fairly new drug used
to prevent heart rhythm disorders. The
study by researchers at the University of
Michigan Hospital and, Wayne State
University looked at 131 patients who
had heart surgery that was scheduled at
least one week in advance.
Half the patients were randomly
assigned to take amiodarone for at least
seven days before surgery; they continued
on the drug until they were released from
the hospital. The rest got a dummy
medication. *,
Twenty-five percent of those taking
amiodarone had atrial fibrillation duriAg
or shortly after hospitalization, versus 5 J
percent of those in the placebo group
Patients taking amiodarone were released
from the hospital an average of a day and
a half earlier.
Because amiodarone can have serious
side effects or even cause death at higfc
doses, it is usually recommended for only
the most serious disorders. But the lotf
doses used in the study caused very fety
serious side effects, the researchers said.
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