11A
LIFESTYLES / The Charlotte Post
Thursday, May 8, 1997
Around Charlotte
News of note
•The Bethlehem Center Head Start
Program is accepting applications for
the 1997-98 school year. Parents are
urged to register their preschool chil
dren bom between Oct. 17, 1994 and
Oct. 19, 1996 as soon as possible. Older
children wiD receive priority.
The program accepts children of fami
lies whose incomes fall below poverty
level. Spa(^ are also open for children
with special needs from families of all
income levels. For more information,
call 376-9401 or 371-7420.
workshop is required. For more informa
tion, contact Shirley Stevenson, 336-
2349.
•The National Coalition of 100 Black
Women of Creator Charlotte will spon
sor. “Suit Up for Success,” a clothing
drive with the Charlotte Housing
Authority’s Self-Sufficiency Program.
Professional attire, including men’s and
women’s suits and shoes, are needed. No
bags of clothing will be accepted.
Clothing drop off will be May 17. For
more formation, call 391-2600.
•Applications will be taken through
today for positions on coimty boards.
Positions are open on the following
committees:
•Central Piedmont Community
College Board of Trustees
• Domestic Violence Advisory Board
•Register of Deeds Advisory
Committee
•Region “F” Aging
To receive an application, call 336-
2559.
•May 15-17, Quilting and needle art
show, Palmetto Expo, Greenville, S.C.
For information, call (412)325-5689.
•May 15-18, “Mudi Ado About
Nothing,” West Charlotte Auditorium,
2219 Senior Drive.
•May 17, “Guess Who’s Coming to
Dinner.” Proceeds benefit the Metrolina
AIDS Project.
Saturday
•The City of Charlotte is accepting
applications from neighborhood based
organization for community improve
ment projects. The deadline for small
grant applications is June 16.
Three workshops are scheduled to
help with the application process.
•May 13, 6 p.m. Old City Hall, 600
East Trade Street
•May 20, 6 p.m. Old City Hall, 600
East Trade Street
•May 27, 6 p.m. Greenville Center,
1330 Spring Street
Attendance at one pre-application
Planned Parenthood will celebrate
Mother’s Day by offering free Pap
smears and breast exams to moms May
14-18. For more information, call 377-
0841 or 536-7233.
•Paint a Cop Tournament of
Champions through Sunday at
Metrolina Paintball off Shopton Road in
southwest Charlotte. Proceeds benefit
the Special Olympics. For more informa
tion, call 529-1699, extension 2.
•May 17, Graduate Greek StepFest,
Grady Cole Center, 7 p.m. Sponsored by
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Thursday
•Free community seminar on child
hood depression, 7 p.m. at Presbyterian
Hospital Auditorium, 200 Hawthorne
Lane.
•Focus On Leadership will present a
worshop on money management for
teens at Garinger High School, 1100
Eastway Drive &om 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Limch will be provided at no charge. For
more information, call 535-7098.
Frid^
Upcoming Events
The deadline for
Around Charlotte is
5 p.m. Monday.
Photos will only be
returned if
accompanied by a self
addressed stamped
envelop.
HEALTHY BODY/ HEALTHY MIND
The Pharmacy
That's All About
Your Health
‘’^^Medicine
Shopper^
Howard Gaines, R.Ph.
6021-C The Plaza
704-537-0191
Wednesday, May 14,1997
10 am-4pm
FEiEE
Diabetes Screening
State & Local Restrictions Apply
Cholesterol Screening
$5.00
Slate & Local Restrictions Apply
50% OFF
On Over Sixty Medicine Shoppes Brand Vitamins
Limit One Per Customer, Not Valid With Other OfTer. Expires 6/30/97
Stretch marks normal part of pregnancy
Aprella
Bridges,
«...
The hormonal changes of preg
nancy may have a variety of
effects on your skin, including
changes in color. Some vv'omen
find that their skin becomes
more oily, others find that it
becomes drier.
■ Skin conditions (such \as
eczema) you have suffered from
before pregnancy may either
improve or get worse. The way
in which your skin is affected
depends dn the balance of hor
mones and on your basic skin
type.
Another common skin change
during pregnancy is stretch
marks. These are marks on the
skin that range in color finm red
to dark brown or black, depend
ing on your natural skin color.
They usually fade, leaving sil
very, scarhke lines. They occur
when the skin is stretched
beyond its normal range of elas
ticity when weight is gained
rapidly. In pregnancy, stretch
marks commonly occur on the
breast and on the abdomen. If
too much weight is gained, they
may also appear on the thighs.
buttocks and upper arms.
The best way to reduce your
chances of developing stretch
marks is to avoid putting on too
much weight. However, even
those who manage to limit their
weight gain to a healthy 20 to 28
pounds may develop some
marks.
Stretch marks may be treated
with vitamin E and vitamin A
oil. Elastin cream is also recom
mended. Using these type of
preparations before stretch
marks appear may help to mini
mize them. Another natural
alternative for treating stretch
marks is the use of sesame oil.
Rubbing the oil on your
abdomen and breast every day
can let the skin stretch at its
own pace and help prevent sub
sequent stretch marks.
The application of any type of
cream or oil does not totally pre
vent or heal stretch marks,
although it may help alleviate
dryness of the skin and help
keep stretch marks to a mini
mum. Remember to use them
early in pregnancy and follow
your doctors recommended
Weight management during this
period..
Aprella Bridges is a registered
nurse in Charlotte.
Immunization important for healthy start
David
Satcher
M.D.
Your 2-year old has had a per
sistent cough and runny nose.
After a couple weeks, you decide
to take him to the pediatrician to
make certain there is nothing
more serious going on. At the
end of the visit, the doctor pre
scribes antibiotics for the child’s
symptoms and you’re happily on
your way, feeling that you’ve
done your job as a parent.
Could you have overlooked
something? If you didn’t inquire
about your child’s immunization
status to the doctor, then the
answer is yes. Timely immu
nizations are critical to all of our
children, for getting them off to a
healthy start in life. And for
African American children, up-
to-date immunizations are even
more critical given the health
disparities between African
Americans and others on a vari
ety of fronts — from cancer to dia
betes to stroke to heart disease.
A disproportionate nutaber of
children who are not immunized
are African American.
As a parent, you must seize
every opportunity to make sure
yoiu- children are caught up on
their shots. If childhood immu
nization rates are going to con
tinue to go up - protecting bur
youngsters against crippling dis
eases - more parents must get
involved. No parent can assume
that someone else - even a med
ical professional - is keeping
constant watch over your child's
immunization status.
It means educating yourself-as-
a parent or a guardian-about the
immunization process. It means
keeping your own record of what
'shots your child has had and
when, and comparing it with
your doctor’s. It means asking
the doctor on every visit—even if
the primaiy purpose for the visit
is to treat a badly scraped knee -
where your child stands on his
shots.
We recently recognized
National Infant Immunization
Week, but it’s always a good
time to remind aU parents just
how critical immunizations are
to childi^n's health. It’s about
the health of entire communi
ties. Why get our children off to
a bad start on health when at
birth, as African Americans,
they are already facing greater
risks for a variety of diseases
later in life? Dr. Martin Luther
Ring often quoted Dr. Benjamin
Mays in saying, “He who starts
behind in the race must forever
remain behind or run faster
than the man in fiunt.” And chil
dren who are not immunized
vriU start behind in a race where
theyTl always trail.
'Thankfully, most of our chil
dren are immunized and we've
achieved an all-time high child
hood vaccination rate of 76 per
cent. And most childhood dis
eases that can be prevented with
vaccines are at an all-time low.
But we are very concerned still
about the one million under age
2 - enough children to pack
about 40,000 classrooms - who
have not had the most critical
vaccinations.
Without proper vaccinations,
10 infectious diseases - some
possibly fatal - are lurking
undetected ready to harm your
child: poMo, measles, diphtheria,
mumps, pertussis (whooping
cough), rubella (German
measle?), tetanus, haemophilus
influenzae type b (a cause of
spinal meningitis), varicella
(ehicken pox), and hepatitis-B.
Some of you parents and
grandparents ihay remember
the days of children breathing
with the help of iron limgs dur
ing the crippling poho outbreak
decades ago.
For the most part, those days
are over. But outbreaks can
always revisit. In fact, just five
years ago, a measles outbreak
resulted in 55,000 cases and 120
deaths, half of which were
infants.
The difference between your
child contracting one of these
diseases and being healthy is
about 12 to 16 vaccine doses by
age two. These shots can be
obtained in about five doctor’s
visits.
My job as Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention is to see that immu
nizations are made available
and that they are safe and effec
tive. We want to ensure that by
the year 2000, at least 90 per
cent of all 2-year-olds have the
full series of vaccines, and we’ll
need the help of parents to
achieve that goal. I cannot walk
you and your child down to the
clinic or to your doctor to get
these shots, but I can, as a gov
ernment policymaker, make it
easier for you to do your
parental duty.
Dr. David Satcher is the direc
tor of the Centers, for Disease
Control and Preventionn
Atlanta.
emms
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