Informative Health and Wellness Fair Held at Dowling College
April 15, 2008
(Oakdale, N.Y.) Dowling College Continuing Education recently held a Health and Wellness Fair at the Rudolph Campus in Oakdale that was free and open to the public. This informative event hosted various informational booths featuring chiropractors, massage therapists, nutritionists, acupuncturists and herbalists.
Good Samaritan Hospital representatives were also present at the event, including the departments of Breast Health, Radiology, Nutrition and Rehabilitation. They handed out helpful literature and brochures to all participants.
To learn more about other upcoming Continuing Education events, please visit www.dowling.edu.
About Dowling College
Dowling College is an independent, coeducational college that serves more than 6,500 students at its historic Rudolph Campus on the banks of the Connetquot River in Oakdale, NY, and the 105-acre Brookhaven Campus in eastern Long Island and a business center located near the Nassau-Suffolk border in Melville. Dowling offers Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees in several disciplines through its four schools: Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Education.
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Kelly Kazemier
Director of Communications
631-244-3318
Organ Transplant Waiting List Reaches High in U.S.
April 11, 2008
(Belleville, Ill) Donate Life America and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) are using the month of April to educate Americans about the number of lives that could be saved and improved through organ, eye and tissue transplants. Organizations, including Allsup, which represents people nationwide for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, are helping raise awareness about the growing need.
The number of patients on the U.S. waiting list for organ transplants has grown at a steady rate, reaching 97,670 as of Dec. 31, 2007. In comparison, five years ago, there were 80,790 patients on the waiting list as of Dec. 31, 2002. And 10 years ago, there were 53,167 patients on the waiting list as of Dec. 31, 1997. The result is an increase of nearly 84 percent in 10 years.
In 2007, nearly 6,000 people died while on the waiting list, and more than 26,000 people received organ transplants. According to UNOS, the longest organ-specific waiting list is for kidney donations, with more than 75,000 people currently waiting for an organ transplant.
One method for meeting this need is encouraging donation sign-up at the state level. Many states provide simple methods for designating organ donation on drivers’ licenses or state identification cards. Donate Life America offers a directory with details by state online at www.donatelife.net.
“State donor registries play an essential role in the donation process by enabling an individual to make a decision that gives procurement agencies full authority to procure their organs and/or tissues upon their death,” said Sara Pace Jones, Donate Life America chairman. “These legally binding donation decisions are critical for the nearly 100,000 people who are on the National Waiting List for organ transplants and the many more awaiting cornea and tissue transplants to restore their lives and health.”
One misconception about organ transplants is that most recipients survive only a few years. According to Donate Life America, long-term survival is becoming more common. For example, a number of kidney recipients are living 30 years or longer after transplant. Recipients of other organs have survived more than 20 years after transplant.
Each day in the U.S., there are about 79 organ transplants taking place and an average of 132 people being added to the nation’s organ transplant waiting list.
Allsup is observing Donate Life Month with free posters available to hospitals, clinics and other community groups by calling Karen Hercules-Doerr at (800) 854-1418, ext. 5770.
Media contact:
Donate Life America
Aisha Huertas
(804) 782-4966
www.donatelife.net
Allstate Grant Enables VIBS Program
April 9, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) The Allstate Foundation recently provided VIBS Family Violence & Rape Crisis Center with a $5,000 grant for its “Every Penny Matters” financial education program. Recognizing that survivors of domestic abuse often lack the economic skills and resources to sustain themselves and prepare for futures of economic independence, the Allstate funding will further enhance VIBS services to its clients. Allstate recognizes that women who have economic skills are more likely to be able to leave abusive situations and sustain themselves and their families on a long-term basis.
VIBS currently offers a three week education program for victims of abuse that includes safety planning and self-care. The issue of financial self-care will now be introduced and 150 clients will learn how to assess their financial status, become financially literate and take steps to protect their assets. The “Every Penny Matters” program will help domestic violence survivors repair damaged credit, learn to budget and develop personal financial management skills. The user-friendly program is geared towards people who may be assuming financial responsibility for the first time.
By incorporating the “Every Penny Matters” curriculum into existing, successful VIBS programs, clients will develop an additional sense of hope, independence and empowerment in order to realize their own futures free of violence.
Additional information about this program can be obtained by calling VIBS at 631-360-3730.
ABOUT VIBS Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center - For over thirty years VIBS has worked towards creating communities of safe, loving homes and healthy, abuse-free relationships. This vision has inspired innovative programs for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Through counseling and advocacy, VIBS works to help survivors realize the power they have over their own lives. Through outreach, education and community awareness, VIBS works to create a social climate that discourages abuse and restores dignity to survivors. www.vibs.org
State Highway Engineer Battles Lou Gehrig’s Disease with Help from Support Group
April 8, 2008
(Rochester, N.Y.) Even though he has lost the use of his hands, Jeff Dunlap still uses a computer in his job as resident engineer at the New York State Department of Transportation. That’s because his employers have provided him with a computer-generated speech recognition program, a hands-free optical mouse, and handicapped-accessible furniture to allow him to continue to work.
Dunlap has had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) since 2005. Commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, ALS is a progressive, neurodegenerative muscular disease that usually has a survival rate of two to five years from the time of diagnosis.
Although he depends on a wheelchair for mobility, Dunlap likes to remain busy in battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The 54 year-old Rochester resident actively participates in The ALS Association’s Upstate New York Chapter’s patient support group with his wife and caregiver Pam, 53.
“The Dunlaps wholeheartedly espouse our chapter’s support group meetings,” said Christine Zippi, executive director of the chapter. “They enthusiastically provide assistance to other patients living with ALS.”
The chapter has proclaimed the Dunlaps the family that best exemplifies the spirit of “ALS Across America” for the chapter during ALS Awareness Month in May. The “ALS Across America” national campaign recognizes courageous individuals with ALS and their caregivers who are role models to people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. These special individuals reflect the spirit of the organization as they make a positive difference in their community by expanding awareness of ALS and embodying the spirit of living life to the fullest.
“A positive outlook is the best therapy for coping with this disease,” said Dunlap, father of four grown children. He also believes knowledge about ALS and his physical state empowers his wife and children in his having Lou Gehrig’s Disease. “It is important to me to keep my family abreast of all that I am dealing with physically, and I feel that information helps them deal with the disease.”
Throughout May, The Association and its nationwide network of 41 chapters will reach out to communities across the country to educate the public about Lou Gehrig’s disease and urge people to join The Association in the fight to make ALS a disease of the past.
The Association’s National ALS Advocacy Day and Public Policy Conference, which has grown to be the single largest gathering of the ALS community, and is part of ALS Awareness Month, will be held this year on May 11-13 in Washington, D.C.
The Dunlaps believe putting a face on the disease is one of the ways to get the recognition and awareness needed to support legislation to track and provide research to combat ALS. They have attended Advocacy Days in Albany, N.Y., and have visited local legislators in the Rochester area. They have also attended prior Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C., to tell their story along with other people with ALS and their caregivers from the upstate area. The more people that tell their stories, the more recognition and awareness is generated. “It is important for me to show them the progression of this disease each year,” Dunlap said.
The Association is the pre-eminent leader in the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The mission of the organization is to lead the fight to cure and treat ALS through global, cutting-edge research, and to empower people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and their families to live fuller lives by providing them with compassionate care and support.
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Senator Sampson Calls for Life-Saving Surgeries to Help 10-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Jewel Sulker
April 2, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) Jewel Sulker should not be alive. She has a corrupt digestive tract, brittle bones throughout her body and lives daily attached to medical equipment. She has a deformed bladder the size of a dime and has also lost both of her kidneys. Yet, the 10-year-old Brooklyn girl clings to life daily with the slim hope of receiving life-enhancing surgeries. But those close to her fear that time is running out.
For this reason, State Senator John L. Sampson (D-Brooklyn) today is making an appeal to local, national, and international medical community for help in identifying doctors able to perform the procedures needed to correct Jewel’s life-threatening health disorders.
“We are praying that the media will help us draw attention to the plight of Jewel Sulker,” said Senator Sampson, the ranking member of the New York State Senate Committee on Health. “Jewel may be the only child in the world living with so many medical abnormalities.”
About 150,000 babies are born with defects each year in the United States. There are more than 4,000 different known birth defects ranging from minor to serious and although while many of them can be treated or cured, they are the leading cause of death in the first year of life.
“My daughter continues to defy medical logic,” said Dianne Brown, mother of Jewel Sulker. “We are at a point where we’ve completely exhausted all options and time is running out. There has to be a medical specialist out there that can offer my baby hope and improvement in her quality of life.”
Prior to conception, Jewel’s mother publically disclosed that she was prescribed a hormonal-based drug to combat the irregularity of her menstrual cycle. She’s been taking the medication for approximately 10 years. After a routine check-up with her doctor, it was discovered that she was unexpectedly pregnant. The excessive hormones in her system, especially during the first trimester, may have contributed to Jewel’s birth defects.
“Not only am I trying to save my baby, but after 10 years of this blight, I’m reaching out to everyone thinking of having a child in hopes of protecting them,” Brown said. “If you are currently taking menstrual-regulating drugs, you must become aware of the potential impact on pregnancy and the risk involved. Lack of information to me shouldn’t mean lack of information for expectant mothers. You may find yourself in a similar situation like Jewel and I, where doctors refuse to see you, can’t look you in the eye and doors slam in your face.”
“The family is not asking for pity but help,” Sampson said. “In this country, the medical community will fly children in from around the world to save their lives with unimaginable operations and medical breakthroughs, but we have no solution for someone in our own backyard. I believe in our medical community and I know they will step up to help this family.”
Senator Sampson is asking specialists or health organizations interested in assisting with this matter to immediately call his district office at (718) 649-7653.
Texas Patient Wins Landmark Acquittal in Medical Marijuana Case
March 27, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) A Texas patient who uses medical marijuana to treat the symptoms of HIV won acquittal on marijuana possession charges March 25 based on a “necessity defense.” Though such a defense - which requires the defendant to establish that an otherwise illegal act was necessary to avoid imminent harm more serious than the harm prevented by the law he or she broke - has rarely been successful in Texas, the jury took just 11 minutes to acquit Tim Stevens, 53. The trial was hotly contested.
Stevens had never been in trouble until Amarillo police arrested him for possessing less than 4 grams of marijuana. As a result of his HIV infection, Stevens suffers from nausea and cyclical vomiting syndrome, a condition so severe that he has required hospitalization and blood transfusions in the past.
Extensive research has established medical marijuana as an effective treatment for nausea and vomiting associated with HIV/AIDS and cancer chemotherapy, uses recently acknowledged by the prestigious American College of Physicians. Key in establishing Stevens’ medical necessity was the testimony of Dr. Steve Jenison, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Bureau for the state of New Mexico’s Department of Health.
“This case proved to be a testing ground for public attitudes toward medical marijuana,” said attorney Jeff Blackburn, who represented Stevens. “Even in a very conservative part of a very conservative state, jurors were willing to listen to the facts about medical marijuana and give Tim a break, and I hope this case will help to create a trend in Texas.”
“The common sense and decency exhibited by this Amarillo jury is typical of what we see from voters around the country,” said Ray Warren, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., and a former North Carolina Superior Court judge. “The American public doesn’t want to see seriously ill patients arrested and jailed for simply trying to stay alive with the help of medical marijuana. It’s time for legislators in Texas and around the country to follow the public’s lead and take action to protect patients, so that no one battling a life-threatening illness has to live in fear of arrest.”
With more than 23,000 members and 180,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.
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Parkinson’s Disease Drug “Dopamine” Might Treat Cancer As Well
March 17, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) In a research study performed on Laboratory rats, scientists at Mayo Clinic where able to determine that the drug “Dopamine” which is primarily used as a treatment against Parkinson’s disease can help diminish the development of new blood vessels which could aide cancer patients in the future as it stops advancement of the cancer.
“Researchers can now test this concept in solid tumors where angiogenesis which is a formation of new blood vessels plays a critical role in the growth and progression of these cancers,” He also added that, “sometimes new drugs may not be the answer. We looked instead at a novel use for an established product, and have found very promising results, this is the very first time it has been shown that an important neurotransmitter like dopamine is regulating the mobilization of these progenitor cells from the bone marrow. This is very important, and represents why these findings are so unique,” Dr. Sujit Basu, a Mayo Clinic Oncologist, said in a prepared statement.
Dr. Basu and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic published its findings last Monday at the Journal Of Clinical Investigation Online Edition. In their publication, researchers summarized that the drug Dopamine can prevent endothelial progenitor, which are cells that helps in forming new blood vessels in our body, from escalating further to the bone marrow and the circulatory system in effect controlling the growth of cancerous cells to other parts of the body not initially infected.
In general, the drug Dopamine has been marketed in the US and approved by the Bureau of Food and Drug Administration as a form of medication that helps in treatment for diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, pituitary tumors and heart attack. Parkinson’s disease is described as a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system which diminishes the person’s ability to speak and to move freely. Currently, it is one of the most devastating forms of disease that affects thousands of Americans.
Study Concludes: Dementia Patients Better Off Knowing Their Diagnosis
March 14, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) University of Washington medical researchers in St. Louis proved in a recently conducted study among patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of Dementia that the respondents with such fearing diseases in their body prefers to be knowledgeable of the situation rather than kept in the dark of their current condition.
The research shows that patients with this disease can do better and are more equipped mentally in coping and fighting their condition if they are aware to the full extent of their medical status rather than the anxiety and uncertainty the patient experiences without proper diagnosis by a qualified physician.
“It’s not good news. No one is pleased to find out they have dementia,” said Brian Carpenter who served as a co-investigator and associate professor of psychology at Washington University and was a big part of the research project. “But some people find comfort in getting resolution to their anxiety and concerns, and knowing that people can help them.”
The study involved measuring the depression status of a patient two days before and after the patient receives prognosis from a physician of their condition. The research was conducted due to the alarming rate which currently stands at 50 percent of doctors who fear to divulge full details of their findings to their patients.
“This study is interesting, because it shows a lot of the paternalistic fears are not supported by the data.” said Scott Roberts who is an Alzheimer’s disease researcher at the University of Michigan but was not involved in the research itself.
Dementia is a condition in which a patient suffers a progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging. The disease can cross all age barriers upon adulthood and it affects the person’s memory, attention, language and their problem solving skills. There are several forms of dementia broken down into two main categories called cortical and subcortical dementia which includes Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Vitamin B12 deficiency, Subdural hematoma, etc.,
“Window Dressing” for Failed Strategy, MPP Charges
March 14, 2008
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Drug Czar John Walters’ scheduled appearance at a press conference this morning to announce a new SAMHSA report on the dangers of teen inhalant abuse flies in the face of his office’s misplaced priorities, officials of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. said today. MPP noted that Walters’ just-released National Drug Control Strategy virtually ignores deadly inhalants while continuing Walters’ obsessive focus on marijuana, the least dangerous of illicit drugs.
“It’s long been known that inhalants kill, but John Walters has ignored the problem since he became drug czar, while maintaining an obsessive focus on marijuana,” said Aaron Houston, MPP’s director of government relations. “The 2008 National Drug Control Strategy mentions inhalants exactly twice, once in a graph and once in the acknowledgments section — but it mentions marijuana 116 times, 28 in the introduction alone.
“As a parent, I’m appalled at the drug czar’s priorities,” Houston continued. “As the media advisory for Walters’ press conference points out, inhalants can kill the very first time you use them, and their use often comes before marijuana or other drugs. We absolutely think kids shouldn’t smoke marijuana, but marijuana has never caused a fatal overdose, and it doesn’t cause the sort of permanent damage to the brain, liver and other organs that inhalants like solvents and paint thinner can. The lives of our children are being sacrificed to John Walters’ obsessive crusade against marijuana, and one window-dressing press conference isn’t enough to change that.”
Walters is scheduled to appear with SAMHSA officials and others at a 9:30 a.m. National Press Club news conference today to discuss the new inhalants report.
With more than 23,000 members and 180,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.
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CDC Studies Findings: 1 In 4 US Teen Girls Have An STD
March 12, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) A new study conducted by Centers of Disease and Prevention in Atlanta found that one in every four teenage girls in America protract and are carriers of a sexually transmitted disease.
The study was commenced after researchers enrolled 838 American teens across the nation ranging from 14 to 19 years of age. Results show that over 26 percent of the total number of respondents has an STD translating to over three million teenage girls nationwide if the study represents the whole geographies of the US. Only half of the total number who was polled admitted to having sex and of that 50 percent figure who admitted sexual activity, a startling 60 percent of them have an STD.
Dr. Elizabeth Alderman who serves as an adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital in New York said, “This is pretty shocking, To talk about abstinence is not a bad thing, but teen girls — and boys too — need to be informed about how to protect themselves if they do have sex.”
Sexually Transmitted Disease or STD is described as an infection that has a considerable probability of transmission between humans or animals by means of sexual contact which includes vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex. STD can easily be transmitted through the mucous membranes of the penis, vulva, and through the mouth. The visible membrane covering the head of the penis is a mucous membrane, though it produces no mucus. Health officials have long advised the use of condoms when performing sexual activities to reduce risk of incurring the disease.
“Those numbers are certainly alarming, this figures reflect the sad state of sex education in our country. Sexuality is still a very taboo subject in our society. Teens tell us that they can’t make decisions in the dark and that adults aren’t properly preparing them to make responsible decisions.” said sex education expert Nora Gelperin.
