Health Archives - Page 73 of 89

Victory at Last: Apache Activist Helps Pass HIV/AIDS Confidentiality Resolution

By Eisa Ulen, Indian Country Today Media Network

A resolution in support of the Public Health and Safety Code of the San Carlos Apache Tribe (SCAT) has passed that will directly impact the lives of Natives living with HIV/AIDS. According to SCAT HIV/AIDS Coalition Chair and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Anita L. Brock, this resolution should help curtail the spread of communicable infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS. It offers tribal members “the system needed to continuously address the threat such diseases pose to the San Carlos Apache community,” Brock says. “The implementation of such a Code supports enforcement of public health responsibilities and the authority needed to identify the risk factors associated with the spread of infectious disease.”

According to HIV/AIDS activist Isadore Boni, a SCAT member and key supporter of the resolution, passage of this resolution does much more: “HIV/AIDS confidentiality is now in our health codes.”

Boni explains that this resolution “allows the protection and confidentiality of public health information and patient privacy, especially for those who have been infected by HIV/AIDS.” Another key component of this resolution, according to Boni, is that it renders HIV testing optional for SCAT members. “There was talk of doing mandatory testing,” he says, “but I advocated against it.”

According to Brock, who worked with the primary team in development of the code now in place, this new resolution benefits not just enrolled SCAT members, but Natives throughout Indian country. “The code adds to the infrastructure needed to make decisions that will benefit all tribal members,” she explains. “They will be the benefactors of a system which values their privacy and continuity of care. In addition, Indian country is quite vast with over 500 tribes, and each tribe may make this determination. From a purely public health perspective, the benefits are self-evident.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that American Indians and Alaska Natives ranked fifth in rates of HIV infection in 2011, “with lower rates than blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Hawaiians/Other Pacific Islanders, and people reporting multiple races, but higher rates than Asians and whites.” However, American Indians and Alaska Natives have poorer survival rates than all other ethnicities and races.

Boni believes the official CDC numbers documenting the rates of HIV infection among Natives may be significantly lower than the actual rates of HIV/AIDS throughout Indian country.

“I personally know more people on my reservation that have HIV than what our Indian Health Service has in San Carlos,” Boni claims. “People like me get tested in the city, so our numbers do not get counted, and agencies and even tribes do not share information. So how many people actually have HIV/AIDS? No one really knows.”

Boni was diagnosed with HIV and Hepatitis C in 2002. He relocated to Phoenix, Arizona for treatment. “There was, and still are, no services for tribal members who are HIV positive on the reservation.” He says he was homeless in Phoenix for two years and lived on the streets, in halfway houses, and in shelters. He was beaten, and his medications were stolen. He worked as a laborer making minimum wage by day, to try to put together funds to pay for shelter and food at night. On World AIDS Day in 2004, Boni shared his story for the first time, and he has been a public advocate supporting the lives of HIV positive Natives ever since.

“Confidentiality has always been a problem on my reservation,” Boni says. “Many people have shared with me that their health information was disclosed without their consent.”

Boni, who has a bachelor’s degree in social work from Arizona State University, goes on to say that privacy rules and regulations had not been in practice in San Carlos. “It got to a boiling point for me. I assertively pushed the San Carlos Health Department to do something about this.”

Partly due to his efforts, the resolution passed in time for National HIV Testing Day, in June of this year. “HIV disclosure is painful, not only for the individual but their families,” Boni explains. This new code protects them.

“I know the decision-makers in our health department are still clueless as to the impact HIV/AIDS has on our reservation,” Boni continues. “To them it’s not a priority, but I remind them over and over that this health crisis is serious. No San Carlos Apache tribal member should have to die of AIDS complications in order to prove that this is a problem. Period.”

5 Genetically Modified Foods You Should Never Eat

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Since genetically engineered foods were introduced in 1996, the United States has experienced as upsurge in low birth-weight babies, infertility and an increase in cancer.

Agricultural tech giants like Monsanto have restricted independent research on their crops, which is legal, because under U.S. law, genetically engineered crops are patentable. The studies that have been conducted link genetically modified foods to a vast array of diseases—and long-term effects have yet to be measured.

Below, Indian Country Today Media Network rounds up the five most deadly genetically modified crops or substances on the market that you should avoid at all cost.

1. Corn

This is not our ancestors’ corn. Genetically modified corn contains toxic materials and is at least 20 percent less nutritious for our bodies, according to a report titled “2012 Nutritional Analysis” by globalresearch.ca.

Corn is the worst offender on the GMO list, because at least 65 percent of the U.S. corn production is genetically modified, and it is found in so many products and forms—on the cob, in nearly every processed food with corn syrup, in the corn feed consumed by the chickens and cows you may eat, and the list goes on.

Genetically engineered corn contains the highly toxic gene Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), which Monsanto introduced in the 1990s to make plants immune to Roundup, which is Monsanto’s weed and insect killer that tears into the stomachs of certain pests.

According to Sherbrooke University Hospital in Canada, Bt has been found in the blood of humans, including in 93 percent of pregnant women they tested, in 80 percent of the umbilical blood in their babies, and in 67 percent of non-pregnant women tested.

2. Soy

More than 90 percent of soybeans grown in the United States are genetically modified, and animal studies have shown devastating effects from genetically engineered soy, including allergies, sterility, birth defects, and offspring death rates up to five times higher than normal, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola in the Huffington Post.

Americans typically consume unfermented soy, mostly in the form of soymilk, tofu, TVP, and soy infant formula, which have at least 10 adverse effects on the body, like reducing one’s ability to assimilate essential nutrients and increasing the potential for thyroid cancer.

3. Sugar Beets

Sugar beets comprise more than 50 percent of U.S. sugar production, while sugar cane counts for the remainder, Natural News reports. Last year, the USDA deemed genetically modified sugar beets safe, de-regulating the crop. Now the hazards of an already toxic substance are exacerbated, presenting the likelihood of increased cancer rates, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal tract, allergic reactions, infertility and accelerated aging.

But all sugar is best avoided, according to a specialist in pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, Robert Lustig. “Sugar is not just an empty calorie, its effect on us is much more insidious. It has nothing to do with the calories. It’s a poison by itself,” Lustig says.

4. Aspartame

This fake sugar substitute is made from genetically modified bacteria and is used in basically every diet soda and product on the market.

Aspartame “has been linked to a number of diseases, can impair the immune system, and is even known to cause cancer,” Natural News reported. In one study, of the 48 rats given aspartame, up to 67 percent of all female rats developed tumors roughly the size of golf balls or larger.

5. Canola

Canola—marketed as being void of “bad fats”—is a genetically engineered oil developed in Canada from the Rapeseed plant, which is part of the rape or mustard plant family.

Rapeseed oil is poisonous to insects and used as a repellent.

So while olive oil is made from olives and coconut oil is made from coconuts, canola oil is made from the rapeseed. Canola is short for “Canadian oil low acid.”

Agri-Alternatives, a magazine for the farming industry, notes “By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are… toxic to humans and other animals.”

But, canola oil companies insist that through genetic engineering, it is no longer rapeseed, but “canola” instead.

According to Dr. Josh Axe, “It’s an industrial oil, not a food, and has been used in candles, soaps, lipsticks, lubricants, inks and biofuels. Rapeseed oil is what is used to make mustard gas. In its natural state, it causes respiratory distress, constipation, emphysema, anemia, irritability and blindness.”

Diabetes garden plant give away

Didi Garlow, Master Gardener helps fill planters to take home.Photo by Monica Brown — Didi Garlow, Master Gardener at the Diabetes Garden helps fill planters to take home.
Photo by Monica Brown

By Monica Brown, Tulalip News Writer
TULALIP, WA – The Diabetes Garden at the Karen I Fryberg Health clinic gave away, to their attendees, planter boxes with plants. The Diabetes Garden is a place where patients and community members can come to learn more about plant and garden care for a healthier future.

Community members and patients were invited to come out and fill a planter box to bring home so they can start a small garden. The planter boxes were filled with an assortment of vegetable, herb and flower plants and each person was given a fresh bag of soil to bring home.

This garden event will run until 1:00 pm Tuesday, July 16. But will continue during future, to be announced, garden and health clinic events.

Roni Leahy on right, sorts out plants to take homePhoto by Monica Brown — Master Gardener, Roni Leahy on right, sorts out plants to take home
Photo by Monica Brown

Planter boxes, plants and soil were given to each person.Photo by Monica Brown — Planter boxes, plants and soil were given to each person.
Photo by Monica Brown

The Evolution Of U.S. Tribal Healthcare Centers

July 15, 2013 by Kristin D. Zeit

Healthcare Design Magazine

In the early 1990s, James Childers attended the groundbreaking of the Redbird Smith Health Clinic in Sallisaw, Okla., five miles north of the little town where he lived. Redbird Smith was the first clinic built from the ground up by the Cherokee Nation and—Childers was surprised to see—it was a huge improvement over the typical Indian clinics he was used to.

As an architect, Childers had been doing healthcare projects primarily with the Sisters of Mercy system since 1980. He’d never pursued any government- or publically funded healthcare projects—but the Redbird Smith project got him thinking.

“The architect for that clinic was out of New Mexico,” Childers says. “And that’s what caught my attention. I thought, there’s no need for them to be going to Albuquerque to do clinics in Oklahoma.”

The building, staffing, and maintenance of healthcare facilities for federally recognized Native American tribes have fallen under the jurisdiction of Indian Health Service (IHS) since that department was established in 1955. Traditionally, these IHS clinics haven’t exactly been design-driven, nor have they been particularly reflective of the cultures they serve. Built to meet strict federal guidelines that could be easily replicated from site to site, most of these clinics “were just boxes,” Childers says. “They’re just very functional government buildings.”

Over the past two decades, however, tribes have begun investing more and more money earned through their businesses in improving healthcare for its members. Fueled by joint ventures between the tribes and IHS, healthcare facilities are getting the attention they deserve, with bigger footprints (to better serve the number of patients and house more varied services); thoughtful innovations based on wellness research; and culturally significant touches to celebrate the rich histories of the tribes and provide a positive community resource.

Since 1992, Childers (a member of the Cherokee Nation himself) has been a prolific contributor to these new facilities. Of the 19 joint venture projects between IHS and tribes across the country, Childers has designed seven of them—all publicly bid and awarded separately by each tribe.

Healthcare Design spoke with Childers about the legacy he’s building, as well as the process behind designing facilities that proudly demonstrate the tribal values and cultural wealth of a historically underserved population.

Healthcare Design: Your first tribal project was the Wilma P. Mankiller Clinic in Stilwell, Okla., in 1992. How did you approach that job?
James Childers: That was an Indian Health Service facility. And as we went through the IHS program, we figured out that what it produced was the typical Indian clinic you might walk into anywhere: too small, overcrowded, no waiting room, no people amenities. Indian Health Service did a fantastic job of getting the most out of its square footage, but there were really no provisions for waiting areas.

We’re in a very rural area here in Oklahoma; these people might drive 40-50 miles for healthcare. And when they did, they brought Grandpa and Grandma and the kids. Everybody came. As a result, you’d go into these clinics and the corridors would just be lined with people.

The IHS design guidelines dictated that you be within 10 percent of their square footage limitations. So what we ended up doing was reducing the square footage in the mechanical rooms. By selecting the right kind of systems and putting a lot of this equipment on the roof instead of on the floor, I ended up under their program on total square footage.

So what they allowed me to do—after many meetings and discussions—was to take that additional square footage and put it into circulation. We increased the widths of corridors and increased the size of waiting rooms. This was all an effort to get Indian healthcare environments compatible with private care.

Meth nearly kills 10-month-old boy

Eric Stevick, The Herald

EVERETT — Exposure to methamphetamine nearly cost a 10-month-old Marysville boy his life.

The toddler overdosed on the drug in December and was taken to a Seattle hospital, according to a Marysville Police Department report.

Doctors had to insert tubes down the child’s airway after he stopped breathing on his own,

Police on Friday arrested a man who lived at the home in the 6400 block of 105th Street NE where the baby became deathly ill. The suspect, 26, was arrested for investigation of endangerment with a controlled substance and was booked into the Snohomish County Jail.

The suspect allegedly told a detective, “This is my fault. I almost killed (the boy.)”

The baby first was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. A nurse there told a Marysville officer that the boy had been admitted to the emergency room for an amphetamine overdose. She said his health was quickly deteriorating.

Police said the man had custody of the boy and shared a room with him at the time. The nature of his connection to the child was not clear in redacted police documents.

A search warrant of the suspect’s bedroom turned up the baby’s crib as well as a marijuana pipe beneath the man’s pillow. A meth pipe was found wrapped in a black bandana in a sunglass case in the bottom drawer of a night stand.

The suspect allegedly acknowledged using meth in a garage that was about 12 feet from the living area where the baby was crawling Dec. 27.

Police believe a meth pipe was loaded with meth within six feet of the bedroom where the baby was sleeping.

The suspect allegedly knew that the baby “was in the stage of crawling around the house, picking up things on the floor and putting the items in his mouth,” police wrote.

The man reportedly was well aware of the risks of doing drugs around young children.

An acquaintance told police that the man had a rule of not picking up or touching the baby when he was high.

The Surprising Cause of Most ‘Spider Bites’

By Douglas Main, Staff Writer LiveScience.com

Date: 05 July 2013 Time: 09:01 AM ET

If the thought of spiders makes your skin crawl, you might find it reassuring that the chances of being bitten by a spider are smaller than you imagine, recent research shows.

Most so-called “spider bites” are not actually spider bites, according to researchers and several recent studies. Instead, “spider bites” are more likely to be bites or stings from other arthropods such as fleas, skin reactions to chemicals or infections, said Chris Buddle, an arachnologist at McGill University in Montreal.

“I’ve been handling spiders for almost 20 years, and I’ve never been bitten,” Buddle told LiveScience. “You really have to work to get bitten by a spider, because they don’t want to bite you.”

For one thing, spiders tend to avoid people, and have no reason to bite humans because they aren’t bloodsuckers and don’t feed on humans, Buddle said. “They are far more afraid of us than we are of them,” he said. “They’re not offensive.”

Not very scary

When spider bites do happen, they tend to occur because the eight-legged beasts are surprised — for example when a person reaches into a glove, shoe or nook that they are occupying at the moment, Buddle said.

Even then, however, the majority of spiders are not toxic to humans. Spiders prey on small invertebrates such as insects, so their venom is not geared toward large animals such as humans.

Many spiders aren’t even capable of piercing human flesh. Buddle said he has observed spiders “moving their fangs back and forth against his skin,” all to no avail. [Creepy, Crawly & Incredible: Photos of Spiders]

Only about a dozen of the approximately 40,000 spider species worldwide can cause serious harm to the average healthy adult human. In North America, there are only two groups of spiders that are medically important: the widow group (which includes black widows) and the recluse group (brown recluses). These spiders do bite people, and if they live in your area, you should know what they look like, Buddle said. But still, records show bites from these spiders are very infrequent.

The bite of widow spiders like the black widow is one of the only well-recognized spider bites in North America, with obvious, unmistakable symptoms, said Rick Vetter, a retired arachnologist at the University of California at Riverside. Signs can include intense pain and muscle contractions, which occur because the bite interferes with nerves in muscles.

Nowadays, deaths from the bite are rare thanks to widow spider antivenom. Before this was developed, however, treatments for black widow bites included whiskey, cocaine and nitroglycerine, according to a review Vetter published this month in the journal Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America.

Misidentified ‘bites’

Often, black widow and brown recluse spiders are misidentified, and reported in regions where they are extremely unlikely to actually live, Vetter said. For example, In South Carolina, 940 physicians responding to a survey reported a total of 478 brown recluse spider bites in the state — but only one brown recluse bite has ever been definitively confirmed in the state. Recluses are mainly found in the central and southern United States, according to Vetter’s study.

“I’ve had 100 recluse spiders running up my arm, and I’ve never been bitten by one,” Vetter told LiveScience.

The vast majority of “spider bites” are caused by something else, research shows. One study Vetter cited found that of 182 Southern California patients seeking treatment for spider bites, only 3.8 percent had actual spider bites, while 85.7 percent had infections.

And a national study found that nearly 30 percent of people with skin lesions who said they had a spider bite actually had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Other things that can cause symptoms that mimic spider bites include biting fleas or bedbugs, allergies, poison oak and poison ivy, besides various viral and bacterial infections, Vetter said.

In recent years, doctors have become better at identifying true spider bites, Vetter writes.

But spiders are still widely regarded as dangerous to humans, which is generally not the case, Buddle said.

Spiders are good at killing “nuisance insects,” which may be more likely to bite humans than spiders, Buddle added. “In the vast majority of cases, spiders are our friends.”

Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook orGoogle+. Article originally on LiveScience.com

School Policies Reduce Student Drinking – if They’re Perceived to be Enforced

By Doree Armstrong | University of Washington 07/09/2013 10:39:00

“Just say no” has been many a parent’s mantra when it comes to talking to their children about drugs or alcohol. Schools echo that with specific policies against illicit use on school grounds. But do those school policies work?

University of Washington professor of social work Richard Catalano and colleagues studied whether anti-alcohol policies in public and private schools in Washington state and Australia’s Victoria state were effective for eighth- and ninth-graders.

What they found was that each school’s particular policy mattered less than the students’ perceived enforcement of it. So, even if a school had a suspension or expulsion policy, if students felt the school didn’t enforce it then they were more likely to drink on campus. But, even if a school’s policy was less harsh – such as requiring counseling – students were less likely to drink at school if they believed school officials would enforce it.

“Whatever your school policy is, lax enforcement is related to more drinking,” Catalano said.

The study was published recently in the journal Health Education Research.

The results were similar in Washington, where the legal drinking age is 21 and schools tend to have a zero-tolerance approach, and Victoria, Australia, where the legal drinking age is 18 and policies are more about minimizing harm.

In the study, 44 percent of Victoria eighth-graders and 22 percent of Washington eighth-graders reported drinking alcohol. Victoria students also reported higher rates of binge drinking and alcohol-related harms.

Apart from perceptions about enforcement, harmful behaviors in both states were reduced when students believed policy violators would likely be counseled by a teacher on the dangers of alcohol use, rather than expelled or suspended.

“Schools should focus on zero tolerance and abstinence in primary and early middle school, but sometime between middle school and high school they have to blend in zero tolerance with harm minimization,” said Catalano, director of the Social Development Research Group at the UWSchool of Social Work and principal investigator for the International Youth Development Study. “By the time they get into high school they need new strategies.”

Those strategies could include talking to a teacher or being referred to treatment. The likelihood of binge drinking was reduced if students received an abstinence alcohol message or a harm minimization message, and if they believed teachers would talk to them about the dangers of alcohol. Catalano said such remediation policies are an important predictor of less alcohol use among ninth-graders.

He said the study shows harsh punishment for drinking on school grounds, such as calling the police or expelling the student, doesn’t inhibit alcohol use on campus. Instead, long-term negative impacts of expulsion mean students feel disconnected from school and may subsequently drink more. Calling the police, which gives the student a police record, appears to make things even worse.

“What we’ve seen in other studies from this sample is suspension policies actually worsen the behavior problem,” Catalano said. “What that says to me is, although you want policies and you want enforcement of policies, there are other ways of responding than suspension, expulsion and calling the police: Getting a student to talk to a teacher about how alcohol might be harmful, or a session with the school counselor.”

The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, and Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Co-authors are Todd Herrenkohl of the UW, lead author Tracy Evans-Whipp and Stephanie Plenty ofRoyal Children’s Hospital in Victoria, Australia, and John Toumbourou of Deakin University in Australia.

Source: University of Washington

Alcohol in the Movies: Parents Need to Talk to Children about Consequences of Drinking

Source: Native News Network

WASHINGTON – Given huge problems in and out of the American Indian community with alcohol abuse, it is unfortunate that its usage is glamorized by Hollywood in feature movies.

Movies rated for teen audiences are showing more alcohol.

A recently released study indicates movies rated for teen audiences are showing more alcohol. Elaina Bergamini of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire looked at data on hit movies from 1996 through 2009. She says appearances of branded alcohol in movies rated G, PG and PG-13 rose from 80 to 145 a year.

Bergamini says there are controls on tobacco appearances, and they were not rising, but alcohol lacks similar controls.

She says parents should talk with their children:

“Talk about drinking. Talk about binge drinking. And talk about the consequences of drinking especially in light of the fact that those consequences are not sufficiently represented in the movies.”

The study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The Basics

Talk to your child about the dangers of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. Knowing the facts will help your child make healthy choices.

Parents, what do you need to say when you talk about tobacco, alcohol, and drugs?

Here are some tips that may be useful:

Teach your child the facts
Give your child clear rules
Find out what your child already knows
Be prepared to answer your child’s questions
Talk with your child about how to say “no”

Diet soda won’t save you from obesity or diabetes

By John Upton, Grist

Bad news for everybody who drinks diet sodas instead of the sugary varieties to help stay healthy.

In an opinion piece [PDF] in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Purdue University professor Susan Swithers writes that drinks containing such chemicals as aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin have been found to contribute to excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Her piece summarizes studies on the health effects of artificial sweeteners:

Recent data from humans and rodent models have provided little support for ASB [artificially sweetened beverages] in promoting weight loss or preventing negative health outcomes such as [type 2 diabetes], metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular events. Instead, a number of studies suggest people who regularly consume ASB are at increased risk compared with those that do not.

How is this possible? Swithers describes a number of theories, some of them relating to the effects of such sweeteners on metabolism. “Sweet tastes are known to evoke numerous physiological responses,” she writes. “By weakening the validity of sweet taste as a signal for caloric post-ingestive outcomes, consumption of artiﬁcial sweeteners could impair energy and body weight regulation.”

NPR’s Alison Aubrey put Swithers’ piece into some context:

Not everyone is convinced that diet soda is so bad.

For instance, a study I reported on last year by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital found that overweight teens did well when they switched from sugar-laden drinks to zero-calorie options such as diet soda.

But it’s also hard to ignore the gathering body of evidence that points to potentially bad outcomes associated with a diet soda habit.

One example: the findings of the San Antonio Heart Study, which pointed to a strong link between diet soda consumption and weight gain over time.

“On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years” said Sharon Fowler, in a release announcing the findings several years back.

Another bit of evidence: A multi-ethnic study, which included some 5,000 men and women, found that diet soda consumption was linked to a significantly increased risk of both type-2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

If you’re choosing between a diet soda and a regular soda, then it’s probably healthier to go for the former. But these studies are a reminder that such a choice won’t keep you healthy.

It’s also worth remembering that some scientists have found that artificial sweeteners can be toxic. Some countries even require health warnings on drinks containing such products, such as this one on a can of Diet Coke sold in India:

Warning on a can of Diet Coke sold in India — John Upton

Diabetes Day, July 16

The Tulalip diabetes team is pleased to provide an opportunity for receiving a wide range of diabetic services at one time. Our team is dedicated to assisting you with improving your health thru education, healthy foods, screenings and by having activities available for you to enjoy. If you have access to our services at the health clinic, please arrange to come anytime from 9-1pm. We will have breakfast and snacks available plus some quality incentive items for your participation.