Health Archives - Page 53 of 89

Complicated relationship with tobacco puts American Indians at high risk for cancer

By Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio News on Jul 8, 2014 at 2:31 p.m.

The American Indian Cancer Foundation holds a Powwow for Hope each year to raise money for cancer education, including smoking prevention efforts, on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. Jennifer Simonson/MPR News

Minneapolis – Inside the cavernous Base Camp facility at Fort Snelling, a long line of cancer survivors made a slow procession around the perimeter of the former cavalry drill hall where a century ago Army troops trained their horses. Their presence at a gathering of American Indians is solemn, supportive and startling.

“A lot of survivors,” an MC announced over a drumbeat. “So survivors come on out.”

Cancer has devastated Minnesota’s American Indian population, stripping families of breadwinners and robbing children of their parents and grandparents.

Nowhere is the scale of the problem more evident than the annual spring Powwow for Hope, where dancers dressed in vibrant traditional costumes escorted the survivors until their line morphed into a vast circle.

Overhead a projector cycled through dozens of photographs and names of American Indians who have lost their cancer battles in the past year. The tribute also included stories of hope and cancer remission.

Among the cancer survivors whose picture flashed on the screen was Robert DesJarlait, a 67-year-old member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Ten months earlier, doctors removed a cancerous tumor from his colon.

“It’s kind of ironic that I was at this powwow last year and didn’t know for sure that I officially had cancer,” he said.

When it comes to cancer — Minnesota’s number one cause of death — American Indians are almost always on the wrong end of the state’s data on the health disparity that exists between whites and minorities.

Their risk of dying from lung cancer is more than two times higher than it is among non-Hispanic whites. Their rates of cervical and larynx cancer are four times higher.

American Indians also have the state’s highest rates of colorectal, kidney and oral cancers.

While the statistics are grim, they are not immutable. Striking new research has revealed that more than half of the state’s American Indians smoke. Their smoking rate is so high it likely explains much of their excess cancer burden.

The stark data are making it easier for some native people to question their community’s complicated relationship with tobacco. The research is also providing much-needed direction on where native people can most effectively focus their cancer-fighting efforts.

DesJarlait, a visual artist, is among those who have changed their lifestyles.

During a break in the program DesJarlait said he considers himself fortunate. His cancer was detected at an early stage and his treatment has been successful. After being weakened by the disease and treatment, he felt strong enough to dance at this year’s powwow.

One of the biggest lifestyle changes he made was quitting tobacco. He switched to electronic cigarettes after his doctor warned him that his cancer could return, if he didn’t quit his two-pack-a-day smoking habit.

“And I said, ‘You mean smoking caused the tumor in my colon?’ And she said, ‘Yes, well it’s one of the factors.'”

While there are many potential causes of cancer — from genetics to poor diet and lack of exercise — tobacco use is strongly related to the cancers that most affect Minnesota’s native people.

“We can’t talk about cancer in American Indian communities without addressing the high rates of tobacco and the rates of second-hand smoke exposure in our communities,” said Kris Rhodes, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and executive director of the American Indian Cancer Foundation. The non-profit organization sponsors the Powwow for Hope and is one of the community’s biggest voices in urging Indian people to quit smoking.

A recent tribal tobacco use survey found that 59 percent of Minnesota’s native people smoke. Nearly 3,000 people completed the questionnaire, making it the largest tobacco survey ever conducted among American Indians in Minnesota.

Jean Forster, co-author of a report on the survey, said a 59 percent smoking rate is “an unbelievable number” because it is nearly four times higher than Minnesota’s overall adult smoking rate of 16 percent.

“Fifty-nine percent means that most people smoke, most adults smoke. Most kids see that most adults smoke,” she said. “It’s a normative behavior for those communities.”

The survey wasn’t designed to reveal why the smoking rate is so high in American Indian communities.

But Forster, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, said it’s obvious that Minnesota’s anti-smoking campaigns have either failed to reach native people, or have had little effect on them.

“What we’re doing for the population just is not working,” she said. “This is the same smoking rate that the population as a whole experienced at its peak in the ’60s.”

By that measure, Forster said, it could take decades for American Indians to change their minds about smoking.

A few days before Mother’s Day, 24-year-old Ricki LaMorie of Hayward, Wis., grabbed her pack of cigarettes and headed toward the back porch of her grandmother’s Minneapolis home.

“I’m gonna go smoke my cigarette,” she said. “That sounds bad.”

Ricki LaMorie, of Hayward, Wis., smokes a cigarette outside her grandmother Margie LaMorie's home while visiting during Mother's Day weekend Thursday, May 8, 2014 in Minneapolis. LaMorie said she knows that smoking is bad for her health and tries not to do it often. Jennifer Simonson/MPR News — Ricki LaMorie, of Hayward, Wis., smokes a cigarette outside her grandmother Margie LaMorie’s home while visiting during Mother’s Day weekend Thursday, May 8, 2014 in Minneapolis. LaMorie said she knows that smoking is bad for her health and tries not to do it often. Jennifer Simonson/MPR News

Her grandmother, Margie LaMorie, objects to her smoking habit, but understands how hard it is to quit. LaMorrie, 75, has been a smoker for over six decades. She started smoking before she was even in her teens.

“My grandma bought me my first pack of cigarettes when I was 11,” she said. “So I had to go to the neighbor kids to teach me how, because she thought I was sneaking, and I wasn’t sneaking.”

LaMorie’s grandmother did ask her to follow a few smoking rules. But they were designed to prevent the 11-year-old from burning down her family’s outhouse, or possibly even their home, on the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin.

“There was no smoking before breakfast in the morning,” she recalled. “There was no smoking after dinner. There was no smoking upstairs. There was no smoking by oneself without someone paying attention.”

LaMorie said no one in her community knew anything about smoking’s link to cancer back then. It was just something that everyone seemed to be doing and it made her feel grown-up and glamorous.

She still smokes and is not sure why she hasn’t quit. Even her colon cancer diagnosis a few years ago wasn’t enough of an incentive.

Still, LaMorie believes anyone can quit — if they want to.

“Some days I can go without any until someone will come along and, ‘Oh I’m gonna go sit out. Oh, I’ll go join you,'” she said. “For me it’s a social thing.”

Jackie Dionne, the American Indian Health director at the Minnesota Department of Health, has heard that many times before.

“It’s just so commonly accepted, that it’s, ‘Yeah, I know these are going to kill me, but I’m going to smoke anyway,'” said Dionne, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe and a former smoker. “It’s just that ’cause everybody else is smoking.

“We have to really go through a social change like the state did in the mid-’80s when people stopped smoking and then didn’t want to be around people who did smoke,” she said. “And so then it becomes socially unacceptable.”

Dionne said anti-tobacco advocates don’t fully understand the reasons why native people smoke. In part, she said, that explains why anti-tobacco strategies that have worked well in the general population have not been particularly effective in the American Indian community.

A Health Department report released in February attributed health disparities in American Indian communities to government efforts to uproot them from their land and destroy their way of life. The report concluded that the displacement has led to high rates of unemployment, poverty and high-risk behaviors among native people.

Smoking, Dionne said, is a coping mechanism for many American Indians.

“You have trauma that is generational, you know, my grandma, my mom and then me,” she said. “Highly traumatized people and populations tend to report higher levels of depression and anxiety. And when you’re reporting higher levels of depression and anxiety in a population, nicotine is one of those drugs that will relieve it almost immediately.”

The use of ceremonial tobacco may be another factor that has influenced American Indian smoking rates.

Tobacco is considered a sacred medicine given by the Creator, said Rhodes, of the American Indian Cancer Foundation. Tobacco is used regularly in ceremonies, but it also is common for American Indians to use leaves from other plants. On occasion, herbs are burned in a vessel.

However, she said there has been some debate within the community about whether it is appropriate to translate that spiritual meaning to smoking commercial tobacco.

Rhodes said it has also been challenging to send a strong message about the ills of commercial tobacco when it affects the livelihoods of so many people. In the age of the Indian casino, cigarette sales are an important part of the tribal economy. They have helped impoverished tribes build new roads and schools.

“Those of us that work in tobacco control in tribal communities know that the economics associated with tobacco in our tribal communities are really sensitive issues,” she said.

To a certain degree, American Indians already know what they need to do to reduce the terrible toll that cancer has taken on their communities. Better data has revealed that reducing the smoking rate is an obvious start. But it will be a complicated journey.

Some native leaders acknowledge feeling a bit overwhelmed by the task.

But in the same breath, they’re optimistic — they’ve noticed many more people talking about the link between smoking and cancer in the months since the tobacco use report was released. That, they say, is a good start.

Study finds widespread oral health problems among Navajo

By Medical Press

A new study from Colorado School of Public Health shows that despite some modest improvements, poor oral health remains a major problem in the Navajo Nation and among American Indians overall.

“The oral health among Native Americans is abysmal with more than three times the disease of the rest of the country,” said Terrence Batliner, DDS, MBA, associate director of the Center for Native Oral Health Research at the School of Public Health. “The number one problem is access to care.”

The study, published recently in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry, showed that 69.5 percent of Navajo children had untreated tooth decay. While that’s better than the 82.9 percent in 1999, it’s still unacceptably high.

“The percentage of children with untreated decay appears to have declined in the past decade, although it remains today substantially higher (three to four times) than national averages,” the study said.

Batliner and his colleagues, including Patricia Braun, MD, MPH, who directed the study on the Navajo Nation, looked at 981 children in 52 Head Start classrooms on the reservation. Of those, 89.3 percent had oral disease in the past and 69.5 percent had untreated tooth decay.

That 69.5 percent of untreated decay compares with 20.48 percent among all other race and ethnic groups.

The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the country, stretching over 25,000 square miles. Much of it is remote with 22 dental clinics serving 225,639 residents. The dentist-to-patient ratio is 32.3 dentists per 100,000 residents, among the lowest in the country.

The researchers found that half of all Native American children need to be treated in the operating room due to the severity of their oral disease.

To increase access to care, Batliner advocates the creation of dental therapists for the reservation.

“They learn how to do fillings and extractions along with providing preventative services,” Batliner said. “This program has proved to be a raging success among tribes in Alaska. The quality of care is good.”

The American Dental Assn. opposes dental therapists and has filed suit to block their use on tribal lands.

“The American Dental Association is fighting the idea of dental therapists,” Batliner said. “But many of us perceive dental therapists as a Native solution to a Native problem. Children and adults are suffering and this is a solution that can help.”

A Misspent Youth Doesn’t Doom You To Heart Disease

327355979 — Had a bit too much fun in your 20s?
iStockphoto

By Maanvi Singh KPLU.org

Originally published on Tue July 1, 2014

We all know that a healthy lifestyle can keep heart disease at bay. But if like many of us you spent your 20s scarfing down pizza, throwing back a few too many beers and aggressively avoiding the gym, don’t despair.

People who drop bad habits in their late 30s and 40s can reduce their risk of developing coronary artery disease, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Circulation.

“And by the same token, if you get to adulthood with a healthy lifestyle, that doesn’t mean you’re home free,” says Bonnie Spring, director of the Center for Behavior and Health at Northwestern University and the lead author of the study. Those who pick up unhealthy behaviors in middle age up their risk of developing heart disease, the study found.

The researchers looked at data from 5,000 participants in the larger Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. They evaluated the participants’ body-mass index and diet, checked how much they exercised and whether they smoked or drank excessively.

To gauge heart health, the researchers also measured calcium buildup in people’s arteries and the thickness of inner artery walls — both early signs that heart disease may be on its way.

The participants were first assessed when they were between 18 and 30 years old and then again 20 years later. Forty percent picked up bad habits as they aged. But 25 percent made heart-healthy lifestyle changes. And that’s great news, Spring tells Shots.

“These changes were not that dramatic,” Spring says. Even slight increases in physical activity or slight adjustments in diet had an effect. “These are the kinds of things mere mortals can do,” she says. In other words, there’s no need to suddenly take up CrossFit or go vegan.

This also doesn’t mean that 20-somethings should give up on exercise and start on an all-bacon diet. “To be continuously having a healthy lifestyle is the best,” Spring says. “But the problem is, almost nobody does.”

Only 10 percent of young adults in this study were healthy by all five measures the researchers evaluated.

Too often, Spring notes, medical professionals think that by middle age the damage has already been done. “That kind of perfectionism can be very demoralizing,” she says. “We wanted to give a more encouraging message.”

Putting Native Vets to Work, IHS Launches Veterans Hiring Initiative

Indian Health Service Release

The Indian Health Service (IHS) has launched a Veterans Hiring Initiative with the goal of increasing veteran new hires from 6 percent to 9 percent over the next two years. Veterans hired by the agency would increase by 50 percent with this initiative.

The IHS will recruit veterans by setting hiring goals, engaging in active outreach, and using existing and new partnerships to create additional career opportunities. Earlier this year, the IHS and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to assist veterans in finding employment and help achieve President Obama’s National Strategy to Hire More Veterans.

As part of its Veterans Hiring Initiative, the IHS will collaborate with the VA on federal recruitment events targeting veterans. Additionally, the IHS will partner with the Department of Defense on recruitment of separating active duty service members through the Transition Assistance Program and through marketing and media outreach campaigns. The IHS will also partner with tribes in recruitment outreach efforts targeted at tribal members who are active duty or veterans. Finally, the IHS is developing its own nationwide public service announcement radio and print campaign customized to markets with large populations of military personnel.

The agency website will be updated with more resources and information for veteran candidates, and the IHS will post recruitment information on the Native American Veterans website hosted by the VA. The IHS will also be interviewing veterans who have successfully transitioned from the military to the IHS or tribal positions and post these stories on IHS and partner organization websites.

The IHS, an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.1 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of federally recognized tribes.

A Wonky Decision That Will Define the Future of Our Food

Governor Inslee Is Now Weighing the Acceptable Cancer Rate for Fish Eaters Against Business Concerns

By Ansel Herz, The Stranger

Washington State has two choices: a 10-times-higher rate of cancer among its population, particularly those who eat a lot of fish, or a bedraggled economy. That is, assuming you believe big business in the long-running and little-noticed debate over our “fish consumption rate,” a debate that Governor Jay Inslee is expected to settle, with significant consequence, within the next few weeks.

The phrase “fish consumption rate” sounds arcane and nerdy, for sure, but it really matters, and here’s why: There are a plethora of toxic chemicals—things like PCBs, arsenic, and mercury—that run off from our streets, into our waters, and then into the bodies of fish. The presence of those pollutants puts anyone who eats fish (especially Native American tribes and immigrants with fish-heavy diets) at higher risk of developing cancer.

Knowing this, the state uses an assumed fish consumption rate (FCR) to determine how great cancer risks to the general population are and, in turn, to set water-cleanliness standards that could help lower cancer rates. Currently, Washington’s official fish consumption rate is just 6.5 grams per day—less than an ounce of fish. Picture a tiny chunk of salmon that could fit on your fingertip. That’s how much fish the state officially believes you eat each day. But that number is based on data from 40 years ago. Everyone admits it’s dangerously low and woefully out of date.

Three years ago, Oregon raised its FCR up to 175 grams (imagine a filet of salmon), the highest in the nation. Now it’s up to Governor Inslee to update Washington’s FCR. Jaime Smith, a spokesperson for the governor, says he’ll make the final call in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, as with anything else, there are groups lobbying Inslee on either side. The business community—including heavyweights like Boeing, the aerospace machinists, local paper mills, the Washington Truckers Association, and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce—want our FCR to be lower. In a letter to Inslee on April 1, they warned that a higher FCR would result in “immeasurable incremental health benefits, and predictable economic turmoil.” In other words, the letter says, a one-in-a-million cancer risk for people who eat a lot of fish would hurt the economy, while a one-in-a-hundred-thousand risk is more reasonable.

Smith, the governor’s spokesperson, says the governor wants to raise the FCR in a way “that won’t cause undue harm to businesses. Obviously business has a stake in this.”

But, Smith says, “at the same time, we have people who eat a lot of fish.” Businesses have hired consultants who’ve painted worst-case scenarios, she explains, “that probably aren’t realistic.”

At the end of the day, does the governor’s office have any evidence that raising the fish consumption rate would actually kill jobs? “Not necessarily,” Smith says. She hinted that Inslee will raise the rate to a number close to Oregon’s.

In fact, businesses like the Northwest Pulp and Paper Association made the same dire predictions before Oregon increased its FCR to 175 grams per day. What happened? “We are not aware of any business that has closed that was directly attributable to those rules,” says Jennifer Wigal, a water quality program manager for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Were there job losses? “Not that I’m aware of,” she says. Broadly, Oregon employment rates have continued to trend upward since the recession, while the job availability in the paper and pulp industry, she says, has long been slowly declining.

Opposite the business community are Native American tribes, environmental groups, public-health experts, and the Seattle Human Rights Commission. (In a strongly worded March resolution, the commission said the state should raise its fish consumption rate to same level as Oregon’s.) Jim Peters, of the Squaxin Island Tribe, says the waters of Puget Sound, where tribal members have always fished, need to be better protected from pollutants. “It’s part of our life,” he says. “It’s part of our culture.” The tribes are “pro jobs,” Peters says, but “Boeing has been unwilling to come and talk with us.”

This is a defining moment for Inslee: Where he sets this number, the FCR, will send another signal about his willingness to stand up to Boeing (after his support of $8.7 billion in taxpayer subsidies for the company last year). It will also show whether or not he’s serious about following through on his commitments to do battle on behalf of the environment, promises he ran on. So keep an eye out. And in the meantime, says University of Washington public-health professor Bill Daniell, don’t eat the fish near Gas Works Park.

How Food Companies Trick You Into Thinking You’re Buying Something Healthy

Which would you pick?CREDIT: University of Houston — Which would you pick?
CREDIT: University of Houston

By Tara Culp-Ressler

June 18, 2014 Think Progress.org

“Gluten free.” “Organic.” “Natural.” “Wholegrain.” “Antioxidant.”

Those nutrition-related buzzwords can effectively mislead Americans to believe they’re buying healthy food, even when the product in question isn’t actually very good for them, according to a new study conducted by University of Houston researchers. Those words create a “false sense of health” that can override other warnings on the nutrition label.

“While many individuals may be trying to increase the health of their diets, food marketers are taking advantage of them by misleading those consumers with deceptive labeling,” the study’s lead researcher, Temple Northup, writes.

To reach those conclusions, Northup developed an online survey that showed images of food products with and without nutrition buzzwords. The survey was based on real packaging for products you can buy in the grocery store — like “organic” Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks, “whole grain” Chef Boyardee Beefaroni, “heart healthy” Chocolate Cheerios, and Cherry 7-Up “with antioxidants.” Participants consistently rated the products that included the buzzwords as healthier.

“When people stop to think about it, there’s nothing healthy about Antioxidant Cherry 7-Up — it’s mostly filled with high fructose syrup or sugar. But its name is giving you this clue that there is some sort of health benefit to something that is not healthy at all,” Northup, who is an assistant communications professor at the University of Houston and the co-director of the University’s Gulf Coast Food Project, noted in a news release.

Previous research has also confirmed that Americans are swayed by food packaging. People are more likely to assume that products with green labels are more nutritious. One recent study found that when chocolate is labeled “fair trade” — something that reflects its ethical business practices and has nothing to do with its nutritional quality — people assume it must also be healthier. Thanks to effective advertising tactics, kids are now more likely to be able to identify junk food brands compared to healthier brands.

Deceptive marketing may be particularly persuasive to Americans because most people don’t know how to read nutrition labels. When Northup asked participants to rate products on their healthfulness solely by looking at their FDA-approved nutrition label, many of them couldn’t do it accurately. About 20 percent of people picked Spam as a healthier product over salmon.

Advocacy groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have been pressuring the FDA to crack down on misleading advertising claims for years, particularly for products that make overreaching claims about their health benefits. But the agency is slow to make meaningful policy changes to protect public health. Although the FDA released proposed tweaks to its iconic nutrition label in February, in an attempt to make it easier for people to understand, it will be several years before that regulatory change will actually take effect.

Sometimes, CSPI tries to take matters into its own hands. Last year, 7-Up agreed to stop selling sodas that tout antioxidants after the group filed a federal class action lawsuit against the company.

How Big Tobacco Has Made Cigarettes So Much Deadlier Than They Used To Be

“The cigarettes sold today are quite different from the cigarettes that were on the market five decades ago, according to the new report, and that’s because tobacco companies have done extensive research to figure out how to make smoking appealing for new customers. “

By Tara Culp-Ressler for Think Progress | June 24, 2014

(AP/Dave Martin)

Fifty years ago, the U.S. surgeon general tied tobacco to lung cancer for the first time. Since then, additional scientific research has linked smoking with a host of other health issues, and efforts to publicize those harmful side effects helped spur a historic decline in the number of Americans who regularly smoke. Nonetheless, more than 42 million adults remain addicted to cigarettes, and the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that tobacco is still the greatest public health challenge of our time.

Why is tobacco still at the top of the CDC’s list? Why haven’t we moved past this yet? Largely because cigarette manufacturers have worked hard to keep their products relevant even in the midst of aggressive public health campaigns to crack down on smoking, according to a new report released on Monday by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The cigarettes sold today are quite different from the cigarettes that were on the market five decades ago, according to the new report, and that’s because tobacco companies have done extensive research to figure out how to make smoking appealing for new customers. They’ve essentially made it easier to get hooked on their products by increasing the levels of nicotine — the addictive chemical in cigarettes — and using new additives to help enhance nicotine’s impact. They’ve also added flavoring, sugars, and menthol to mask the effect of inhaling smoke, ultimately hoping that will make it more pleasurable to use cigarettes:

Cigarettes have evolved over the past 50 years to make smoking more desirable

“Most people would think that 50 years after we learned that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, cigarettes would be safer. What’s shocking about the report we issued today is that we’ve found that a smoker today has more than twice the risk of lung cancer than a smoker fifty years ago, as a direct result of design changes made by the industry,” Matt Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in an interview with ThinkProgress.

On top of that, Myers’ organization notes that these corporations have made calculated moves to create the next generation of smokers, according to internal marketing documents from tobacco companies that have been made public as a result of litigation against them. Brands like Marlboro, Newport, and Camel have specifically worked to attract younger customers in order to remain viable, citing statistics that most regular smokers pick up the habit before they turn 18.

Most people know that cigarette makers have historically worked to target young people with their advertising. Indeed, before increased regulation attempted to rein in this practice, it used to be even more explicit than it is now. For instance, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company infamously used the cartoon character Joe Camel to help sell their cigarettes in the 1990s, a practice that mobilized anti-tobacco advocates to fight hard against marketing aimed at younger Americans.

But the new report finds that tobacco companies have actually gone even further to woo teens. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company didn’t just rely on its camel; it also looked to change its cigarettes to appeal to a younger demographic. “Two key areas identified for improvement were smoothness and sweetness delivery. Smoothness is an identified opportunity area for improvement versus Marlboro, and sweetness can impart a different delivery taste dimension which younger adult smokers may be receptive to,” a 1985 product development plan for the company noted.

“We would have thought, with the tobacco industry claiming they don’t market to kids, that they wouldn’t be making design changes that increase the number of our kids who smoke,” Myers said. “But they have, quietly and behind the scenes.”

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report was released to coincide with the five year anniversary of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, historic legislation that gave the FDA power to regulate tobacco products and marketing efforts. At the time, that measure was hailed as the “toughest anti-tobacco bill in American history” — and Myers’ group wants the government to use it to undo some of the changes that have been made to cigarettes over the past several decades.

“At a very minimum, the FDA should act swiftly to require the tobacco industry to reverse all the steps they’ve taken to make these products more dangerous, more addictive, and more appealing to our kids,” Myers said. “I think this report tells us that the tobacco industry has not reformed over the last 50 years.”

Shoot Hoops, Not Drugs: Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations Teaches Prevention on the Basketball Court

Jack McNeelCoach Lee Adams demonstrates defense as youngsters and other coaches look on. — Jack McNeel
Coach Lee Adams demonstrates defense as youngsters and other coaches look on.

Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today

The gymnasium floor at Paschal Sherman Indian School on the Colville Reservation was filled with young basketball players, dozens of players, all between the ages of 6 and 11. Each wore a T-shirt which will become a prized possession.

Older players, from 12 to 18, would fill the gym the following day. One-hundred-and-thirty kids, boys and girls, would attend during the two days.

Several coaches worked with the youngsters, teaching passing skills, defensive maneuvers, shooting techniques and footwork.

Craig Ehlo signs shirts and photos as Tavio Hobson looks on. (Jack McNeel)

Former NBA basketball player Craig Ehlo was also there to talk with them and sign autographs, but the day and Ehlo’s presence was about much more than just basketball. It was also about drugs and the negative impacts they can have on one’s life and how a passion for sport can help avoid those negatives.

The clinic was jointly sponsored by The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations in Spokane and a Seattle organization called A Plus Youth Program. Dr. Martina Whelshula is Executive Director of the Healing Lodge and she commented on how the two programs have complimentary missions and similar programs in many respects. The Healing Lodge works primarily with Native young people dealing with drug addiction while A Plus uses sport to surround kids with character development, mentoring, and educational services.

During the day the youngsters were asked to answer a brief 6-question survey. “It’s an assessment tool to measure the risks of addiction for children,” Dr. Whelshula explains. “There’s an adult there to help if they have questions about the questions.”

“Harvard Medical School folks attended one of our clinics on the Spokane Reservation,” Dr. Whelshula said. “They loved it and thought it was an amazing tool on so many different levels.” So now the information gathered at the basketball clinics is sent to Harvard, they analyze it, and it’s returned to the tribe and Indian Health Service.

Tavio Hobson, Executive Director for A Plus, founded the organization five years ago with funding coming mostly from private individuals, grants and corporate sponsorships. They have some major contributors and are expecting significant growth in coming years. “One of the goals was to look at ways we could continue to expand programming in areas where there was high need and have folks with similar visions, passions, and missions. Areas where we felt we could make a significant impact. That’s where our Native Initiative came from. Our ultimate vision is to have this program on every reservation.”

Kids listen attentively as former NBA player Craig Ehlo tells of his career. (Jack McNeel)

They will be going to New York City this fall. “There are 60 to 70 thousand kids in public high schools with zero access to sport. They need mentoring support, including character development, financial literacy, leadership skills and implement substance resistance and prevention, in addition to adding sports,” Hobson explained.

Speaking of partnering with Healing Lodge, he said, “We want the exact same thing for Native youth. The power of sport is transformative. Being able to tie in with the Healing Lodge and their expertise, especially around substance abuse resistance, education, and prevention is something we’re passionate about.”

Three more reservations in the northwest, Umatilla, Kootenai of Idaho, and Kalispel, will have similar basketball clinics this summer. Puyallup has already signed up for the next fiscal year which begins in September. There is no charge to tribes. It’s funded with a grant from Indian Health Service. “Now that funding is done, this is where sustainability comes in because of our partnership with A Plus Youth Program and their financial backing. With the merging of the two programs we can go national,” Dr. Whelshula said.

Left to right: Tavio Hobson, Dr. Martina Whelshula, and Brad Meyers are persons most responsible for these basketball clinics. (Jack McNeel)

The interaction with professional athletes adds to the excitement for the youngsters. “Just about every professional athlete out of Seattle who played basketball has supported us at one time or another,” Hobson said. Magic Johnson was keynote speaker at a dinner two years ago, talking of the need that exists in many communities across the nation.

Craig Ehlo encouraged the youngsters at Paschal Sherman Indian School to develop a strong work ethic, as he did in watching his parents and which carried over into his basketball career. “Listen to your parents and to others like your coaches. They have wise words for you. Everything you learn now is going to shape your life.”

Dr. Whelshula and Hobson strongly agree that to reach young people one needs to start with what the kids are passionate about. “You’ve got to go meet them,” Hobson said. Sport is one of those passions for many young people.

Traditional Cooking, the Salish Way

By: Dina Gilio, Indian Country Today

The Pacific Northwest is known by indigenous peoples for its natural bounty, spanning from the rich mountain forests and salmon-filled rivers to the vast abundance of seafoods provided by Mother Ocean. Such a wide nutritional variety paves the way for a cuisine that is distinctly Salish, showcased in the recently released second edition of an ebook called Salish Country Cookbook: Traditional Foods & Medicines from the Pacific Northwest. Written by Rudolph C. Rÿser (Taidnapam Cowlitz) originally in 2004 and published by Daykeeper Press, the updated version includes new dessert recipes, expanded information about ingredients (in their Latin and Native names), and additional full color photos. The author draws on his experience growing up eating traditionally gathered and hunted foods such as deer, elk, bear, duck and beaver.

The 146-page volume features recipes for everything from appetizers to salad dressings, and main dishes to sweet treats. There is also a section for teas and juices. As a holistic project, however, it also includes sections dedicated to traditional Salish cooking knowledge, the basic Salish pantry, the importance of Oolichan oil, the cultural aspects of Salish cooking, and the dangers of modern contamination. The book wouldn’t be complete without a compendium of commonly used plants in Salish country, with details about harvesting techniques and culinary and medicinal uses.

With a forward written by Leslie Korn, Ph.d., MPH, author of Rhythms of Recovery: Trauma, Nature, and the Body and director of the Center for Traditional Medicine in Olympia, Washington, the central organizing theme of the book is restoring Native health and community through a return to traditional foods. Recognizing the connection between escalating rates of modern illnesses like diabetes and heart disease and the loss of traditional foods, the book emphasizes the destructive force of many modern ingredients. As Korn writes: “We have tried to maintain the integrity of each dish by using foods that do not raise the glycemic level or use gluten-based products, both sugar and gluten being harmful to most indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere (as well as peoples from other parts of the world including Europe).”

Food gathering and preparation is a central aspect of traditional knowledge, as Rÿser writes. For example, being in the right frame of mind is imperative for the life-giving force of traditional foods to ensure that food is infused with happiness and calmness. Cooking methods further contribute to the health-imparting benefits of traditional foods. Microwave ovens and high temperature cooking, for instance, should be avoided in favor of slower, lower temperature cooking to protect food’s nutritional integrity.

Adapting traditional foods in a contemporary context is also a creative process and is reflected in the recipes offered in the book. You won’t find fry bread here, but you will find healthy ingredients such as stevia and berry juices (instead of refined sugar), rice or cattail flour (instead of processed white flour), and coconut or olive oil (instead of conventional vegetable oils).

Salish Country Cookbook can be purchased for $9.99 through the Center for Traditional Medicine at www.centerfortraditionalmedicine.org.

Teen Smoking Hits A 22-Year Low, But Other Tobacco Uses Rise

By Rob Stein NPR

June 12, 2014

A teenager finishes her cigarette in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.Darren McCollester/Getty Images — A teenager finishes her cigarette in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.
Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Cigarette smoking among U.S. high school students has dropped to the lowest level in 22 years, federal health officials Thursday.

The percentage of students who reported smoking a cigarette at least one day in the last 30 days fell to 15.7 percent in 2013, according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a large federal survey that has been tracking youth smoking since 1991.

That’s the lowest rate since the survey began, and it means the United States has met the federal government’s of cutting teen cigarette use to 16 percent or less, officials said.

But officials say the fight against tobacco use remains far from over.

“We’re encouraged to see high school students are making better choices in some areas, such as smoking,” , director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters during a briefing Thursday. “But we still face big challenges in reducing overall tobacco use.”

Too many kids still smoke cigarettes, and there are other disturbing trends in tobacco use, Frieden said. More kids are using hookahs, for example, and more are using electronic cigarettes. In addition, too many still use smokeless tobacco, and the decline in cigar use among teens has slowed.

In addition to the decline in cigarette smoking, the survey also found the percentage of kids getting into physical fights has dropped, as has the percentage who are sexually active. But 41 percent reported texting or emailing while driving, and condom use among those who are sexually active has fallen.