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Health Care PlanHits Rich With Big Tax Increases

The typical family would be spared higher taxes from the HouseDemocratic plan to overhaul health care, and their low-incomeneighbors could come out ahead. PAGE 8

A Hospital Carol ......................................................................................2The Forgotten Foot - Fungal Nails ..........................................................322nd Annual Wellington Dinner Dance & Auction ..................................4Looking Young May Mean Living Longer ................................................5Celebrating Christmas at Palomino Park Medical Plaza ........................6Center Caters to Children’s Special Needs ............................................7The Silent Killer ......................................................................................8Study: Decade Drop in Teen Pot Use Stalls..........................................1112 Simple Tips for Relationship Bliss....................................................12Sleep Apnea Raises Risk of Death, Especially for Men ......................13Menthol Cigarettes More Addictive to U.S. Minorities ..........................14Teens Lose More Weight Using Healthy Strategies..............................15

22nd Annual Wellington Dinner Dance &Auction. PAGE 4

Celebrating Christmas season at PalominoPark Medical Plaza. PAGE 6

Viva Italia! The 2009 Medical Society Gala.PAGE 10

Also in this issue12 Simple Tips For Relationship Bliss.PAGE 12

2 DECEMBER • 2009 FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Contexto Latino, ARA Content, Hispanic PR Wire,

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

METRO Editorial Services, Family Features,

Florida Health News is a newspaper published every month

in Broward, Palm Beach, and surrounding areas. Copyright

2009, all rights reserved by SEA Publications, Inc. Contents

may not be reproduced in any form without the written

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By Dr. Mark Schor

A Hospitalist Carol

At this time of year we enjoy Dickens’s AChristmas Carol with it’s vision of Christmaspast, present and future. Can this inspire us tohave a vision of the future of the HospitalistConcept?

Hospitalist Past

Hospital medicine is a relatively new phenomenon inAmerican medicine. Dr. Robert Watcher and Dr. Lee Goldmancoined the term “hospitalist” in a 1996 New England Journalof Medicine article. Almost unheard of when I began practicein 1988, hospitalist now represent one of the most rapidlygrowing forms of medical practice in the US.

The hospitalist movement grew because of these twoforces:

�Many primary care physicians find they can generate morerevenue in the office during the hour or more they would havespent on inpatient rounds, including traveling to and from thehospital.� The adverse side of specialization sometimes means that apatient with multiple problems might be receiving medicationsfrom one specialist that create adverse events due to anotherproblem. And, different specialists might order the same testrepeatedly, or a needed diagnostic test might be ignored, witheach specialist thinking someone else would order it.

As there were no specialty training for hospitalist, generalinternists were pressed into service to provide dedicatedhospital care. The percentage of general internists who arehospitalist tripled from 1995 to 2006, an indication of thecontinued growth in hospitalist care.

Hospitalist Present

According to the Society of Hospital Medicine there arecurrently 28,000 practicing hospitalist in the United States.

The chief advantage of using hospitalists is to improvecost and clinical outcomes.

This is achieved because the hospitalist presentlyfunctions as a type of case manager. Due to thetremendous growth in medical knowledge and resultantnumber of medical specialists sometimes no onephysician is in charge. The hospitalist concept places theresponsibility for treatment management on a fullyqualified person who can write orders. In addition topatient care duties, hospitalist are often involved indeveloping and managing aspects of hospital operationssuch as inpatient flow and quality assurance.

So What is The Future of the Hospitalist Concept?

As noted above, presently a large proportion ofhospitalists are recently-graduated residents, whocontinue familiar duties for a few years, and physicianswho were trained as internists. However, it is now timeto move on to develop Hospital Medicine as it’s ownspecialty.

This process has barely begun. For example, TheSociety of Hospital Medicine began in 2003 and beganpublishing the Journal of Hospital Medicine in 2006.

If this specialty evolves as emergency and intensive caremedicine did, it will become a formal specialty with itsown residencies and board certification within a decadeor two. A few distinct residency and fellowship trainingprograms are currently operating at major universities.

Harvard is an example of an academic medical centerwhich is providing a dedicated program withopportunities in research and academic training forhospitalist physicians. Other Medical Centers willfollow. Next we can expect progress in boardcertification programs.

How to Attack HolidayStress Head-On

Swine Flu InfectionRates Continue to Fall

With pressures from the economichard times, dysfunctional familiesand countless other factors, theholidays can contribute toemotional stress and depression.

But there are ways to cope with thevarious scenarios that people ex-perience at this time of year, ac-cording to Dr. Laura Miller, di-

rector of women's mental health in thepsychiatry department at Brigham andWomen's Hospital in Boston.

For instance, she suggests:

If seasonal depression gets worse in fall andwinter ...

A therapeutic light box, which providespowerful light beyond what you can comeup with yourself, might help in the morning.A doctor can help obtain one.Exercise can also make you feel better.If you're busy and stressed out ...

Take time for fun activities such as walking,meditating, exercising and hanging out withfriends.Consider buying prepared foods instead oftrying to make everything yourself.In general, reduce the number of activitiesthat are more stressful than joyful.If you can't afford the gifts you'd like togive ...

Remember that people who care about youwill be more interested in the fact that youthought of them than in the cost of yourgift. Find a poem someone would enjoy andframe it. Or, bake something special forsomeone.If you get anxious at social gatherings ...

Self-help workbooks can help you developskills to conquer social anxiety. Start now,though; don't wait until the day of the event.If you've lost a loved one, and the holidaysare especially tough ..

Find a way to remember your loved one.Play the person's favorite music, for ins-tance, or visit his or her grave, making sureto bring along family or friends who canhelp you cope.

Swine flu infection rates continue todrop, U.S. health officials said, withonly 14 states reporting widespreadH1N1 activity, down from 25 states

last week and 48 states at the height of theoutbreak in October.

Virtually all of the influenza viruses identi-fied so far continue to be H1N1 swine fluvirus. And the H1N1 vaccine continues tobe a good match for the virus, as do the an-tiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Preventionreported on its Web site.

The states still reporting widespread H1N1swine flu activity are: Alabama, Alaska,Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware,Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, NewJersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont,and Virginia, the CDC said.

CDC officials reported that the H1N1 swineflu has sickened nearly 50 million Americans,sent more than 200,000 people to the hospitaland killed nearly 10,000 -- more than 8,000 ofthem children and young adults.

"About 15 percent of the entire country hasbeen infected with H1N1 influenza. Thatmeans about one in six people," Dr. ThomasR. Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, said duringan press conference.

The swine flu continues to hit children andyoung adults the hardest, Frieden said.

Among those who have died since the virusfirst surfaced in April, an estimated 1,100were children and 7,500 were young adults,he noted. This is the reverse of seasonal flu,which tends to strike hardest at people 65and older.

The swine flu has also been particularly vi-rulent among the Native American andAlaskan Native populations, Frieden said.

Frieden said that, as has been noted before,the rate of H1N1 flu infections has subsidedin recent weeks, but it's impossible to pre-dict what the winter and spring might bring.About half of the experts interviewed by theCDC think there will be many more cases,while the other half is taking the oppositeview. "The truth is we don't know," he said.

Meanwhile, the supply of H1N1 vaccinecontinues to grow, Frieden said. There arenow 85 million doses of vaccine available,up another 12 million doses.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM DECEMBER • 2009 3

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The Forgotten Foot - Fungal Nails

Toenails....why do we have them?Sometimes it seems that all theyare good for is snagging our socksand running our stockings.However, our toenails are actuallysomewhat complicated parts ofhuman anatomy that are oftenforgotten. Forgotten, that is, untilthey become diseased,traumatized, or painful.

Just like hair and skin, nails are a partof the epidermis and primarily serveas protection. Specifically, to protectthe ends of our fingers and toes. Nails

can also make fashion statements whentrimmed, buffed, and painted. But for thoseof us who suffer from thickened and disco-lored toenails they make anything but a fa-shion statement. They become so hard theyare difficult to trim, so long and thick they arepainful, and sometimes they can even smell!

These changes in our toenails can be causedby disease, trauma, infection, biomechanicalabnormalities, hereditary or genetic factors,and the effects of aging. One of the mostcommon causes of thickened, discolored,and painful toenails is a fungal infection.

Fungus is all around us and all over us. It isnormal to find some amount of fungus onour nails. However, under certain circums-tances, the fungus either gains the ability toinvade the nail or is provided with an envi-ronment conducive to it's growth and it ac-tually infects the nail. Any individual who

warmth and humidity you have got a cocktail for one happy fungus. The fungusbegins to breed faster than your nail cangrow and invades the nail. Once the fungusinvades and the conditions are good infec-tion may develop. The fungus also has thepotential to spread to other toenails andeven to the skin around the nails.

A fungal infection of the toenail is very di-fficult to get rid of and can even be with youall of you life! However, once a physicianhas diagnosed your fungal infection, thereare several forms of treatment available.

long as nine months to a year to see results.

There are also prescription oral anti-fungalmedications that your doctor can prescribe.However, these have adverse side effectsand are usually not prescribed for nail fun-gal infections since the side effects may beworse than the infection itself.

If regular nail debridement and meticulousapplication of the topical anti-fungal me-dications fails to show results your physi-cian may opt to remove the infected fungalnail with the hope of it regrowing withoutthe fungus. Another option is when remo-ving the nail to also remove or kill the ma-trix (what makes the nail grow). Doing thiswill usually cure the fungal infection sincethe toenail will no longer grow. These aresurgical procedures and do require localanesthesia.

A fungal infection of your toenails can bevery painful and interfere with your dailyactivities. If you think you may be sufferingform a fungal infection of you toenails getit under control. And remember, don't forgetyour feet, they have a lot of walking to do.

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Proper debridement or cutting of the nailwith the utilization of a Dremel. There areseveral over-the-counter and prescriptiontopical anti-fungal drugs that can be used onthe nails. These work best when applied tothe affected nails when the nail is soft, suchas after a shower or bath. They work evenbetter if the top of the nail is filed and buffedbefore applying. The medication is usuallyapplied two times a day and it may take as

might be slightly immuno-compromised,who experiences trauma to the nails, orwhose feet always seem to be warm andmoist is prone to a fungal infection of thetoenails.

Fungus prefers a warm, dark, moist environ-ment to live. Shoes provided the darknessand when mixed with our infamous Florida

Fungalinfection ofthe toenails

4 DECEMBER • 2009 FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM

LAISSEZ LES BONTEMPS ROULEZ!

“Let the good times roll”

22ND ANNUALWELLINGTON DINNER DANCE & AUCTIONto benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Wellington

The Boys & Girls ClubWellington DinnerDance, themed “MardiGras Masquerade”,took place the evening

of Saturday, December 5th atWycliffe Golf & Country Club. Itbegan with a cocktail reception andsilent auction followed by dinner,dancing and a spectacular liveauction. The Boys & Girls Club ofWellington was delighted with Dr.Arthur Hansen and Dr. Lori LaneHansen chaired this years galaevent.

Dr. Arthur Hansen and Lori Lane Hansen, Maria and Dr. Edward Becker.

Keely Salotek, Mrs. O’connor, PatriciaMcDermott, Al Salotek and Tim O’connor.

Dr. and Mrs. Venugopal.

John and Julie Klime, Mrs. Bradshaw andSheriff Rick Bradshaw.

Jessica Wittenbrink.

Joanna and Ben Boynton.

Lilibeth Triana and Manuel Castro.

Lauren Schneiden, Dr. Andrew and JenniferGoldstein.

Carina Bayer, Kate Klebonis, David Klebonis,and Perry Lancianese.

Stephen and Leslie Schmidt.

Dr. Daniel Ghiragossian, Kelly Conroy andDr. Arthur Hansen.

Lori Baumel, Dr. Baumel and Dr. Kirchner.

Liz Ligeti, John Waddington, Debby Waddand Earnie Kepler.Dr. Pandit, Dr. Sukienik and Cari Sukienik.

Dr. Jeff and Charlene bishop.

Dr. Benny Mendez, Dr. Edward Becker, Dr. Jean Foucauld and Dr. Martin Harland.

Cody Brown and Dr. Maureen Whelihan.

Dr. Howell Goldfarb, Barri Goldfarb, Darleneand Woody White.

Dr. Shekhar and Ranjita Sharma, ElizabethBenaquisto and Mohan Pillai.

Dr. Castellon, Dr. Castro and Dr. & Mrs. MarkPerman.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM DECEMBER • 2009 5

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Looking young maymean living longerLONDON – Those baby-facedpeople now have another reasonto be smug: a new Danish studysays looking young apparentlymeans a longer life.

Research published online in theBritish medical journal BMJ sug-gests that people who lookyounger than their years also live

longer.

In 2001, Danish researchers conductedphysical and cognitive tests on more than1,800 pairs of twins over aged 70, as well astaking photos of their faces. Three groups ofpeople who didn't know the twins' real agesguessed how old they were. The researchersthen tracked how long the twins survivedover 7 years.

The experts found that people who lookedyounger than their actual age were far morelikely to survive, even after they adjustedfor other factors like gender and envi-ronment. The bigger the difference inperceived age within any twin pair, themore likely it was that the older-looking twin died first.

They also found a possible biologicalexplanation: people who looked

younger also tended to have longer telo-meres, a key DNA component that is linkedto aging. People with shorter telomeres arethought to age faster. In the Danish study,the more fresh-faced people had longertelomeres.

The authors said that perceived age,which is widely used by doctors as ageneral indicator of a patient's health,is a good biomarker of aging that

predicts survival among peo-ple over age 70.

Studies show obesity takinghold in Africa and UKLONDON (Reuters) – Obesity isbecoming more common amongpoor city dwellers in Africabecause of easier access tocheap, high fat, high sugar foods,scientists said.

Researchers looking at data from sevenAfrican countries found the number of peo-ple overweight or obese increased by nearly35 percent between the early 1990s andearly 2000s and the rate of increase in obe-sity was higher among poor people."Given the chronic nature of most diseasesassociated with obesity and by extensionthe huge cost of treatment, the prospectslook grim for the already under-funded andill-equipped African health care systems un-less urgent action is taken," said AbdhalahZiraba, who worked on the research with theAfrican Population and Health ResearchCenter in Nairobi.The study, published in the BioMed CentralPublic Health journal, found that while richpeople in urban areas of Africa were morelikely to be overweight or obese than others,the rate of increase in obesity was higheramong the poor.The data chimes with findings from theWorld Health Organization, which said inOctober that being overweight has nowovertaken being underweight among theworld's leading causes of death."Despite being the least urbanized conti-nent, Africa's population is becoming in-creasingly urban and its cities are growingat unprecedented rates," Ziraba said in thestudy."In spite of rampant poverty in urban areas,access to cheap foods with a high content of

fat and sugar is commonplace."Obesity levels are rising across the worldand threatening to overwhelm health caresystems and government health budgetswith the costs of handling the high numberof cases of diabetes, heart disease and can-cer that being overweight can cause.The number of people with diabetes -- oneof the major chronic diseases caused by ex-cess weight -- is already reaching epidemiclevels, with an estimated 180 million peoplesuffering from it around the world.A second study published on Tuesday focus-ing on the problem in England found one in10 children there will be obese by 2015,with the poorest at far greater risk than therich.Researchers said the gap between the mostand least well off sectors of society was setto widen, with more children from poor andless educated households caught in the obe-sity trap."If trends continue as they have been be-tween 1995 and 2007 in 2015 the numberand prevalence of obese young people isprojected to increase dramatically, and theseincreases will affect lower social classes toa larger extent," Emmanuel Stamatakis, ofthe epidemiology and public health depart-ment of University College London said inthe study.

6 DECEMBER • 2009 FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM

Celebrating Christmas atPalomino Park Medical Plaza

Marge Metcalf, Candy Beasley, Lucy Gardner,Dottie Copper and Annet Hernandez.

Dr. Jose Gonzalez, Dr. javier Prettelt, Dr.Maria Lopez and Dr. Jack Newcomer.

Dr. Arthur Hansen, Dr. Marzziotta, Dr. Lori Lane and Anthony Hansen.

Christopher Cook, Dr. Kishore Dass, Joe Pauldine, Dr. Shekhar Sharma, Heather Carmichael,ARNP and Dr. Raj Bansal.

Eduardo Pantoja, Samantha Levy, DavidKlebonis, Veronica Pedro, M.D. and KirkAlexander.

Lorraine Souk and Simon Ashe.

Maria Lopez, M.D., Jean Foucauld, M.D.,Jackie Fignar (Exec. Director Coral BayHealth Care), Vicky Greene-Bornia, ClinicalLiaison Coral Bay.

Keith Dietruck M.D., Wilbert Pino, M.D. andMisty Basil-Pino, R.N.

Elizabeth Conte and Daniela Ghiragossian.

Mr. Viñas, Dr. Yvette Laclaustra and Dr. RaulOrtega.

Gail Impemba, Ranjita Sharma and GraceEdwards.

Buddy & Shelley Lincoln.

Craig Cuden, Humberto Candero and Dr.Daniel Ghiragossian.

Martha Gonzalez, Emily Abbadessa andMarlene Troskey.

Dr. Castellon, Dr. Pedro Nam, Dr. DamianPortela, Dr. Jose Gonzalez and Dr. EliezerHernandez.

Staci Martin and Jessica Camacho.

Ana Chabria, Raj Solanti and AlejandraRodriguez.

Bill Dalton, C.O.O. Cardiology Partners, KellyA. Conroy, Administrator Independent Imaging,Bobby Chahal, Enginer KB Technologies.

On December 13th doctors and other professionals at the Palamino Park Medical Plazashared in the Christmas spirit with the community.

The desserts for the evening were presented in a festive manner.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM DECEMBER • 2009 7

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Center Caters to Children’sSpecial Needs

For more than 38 years, BrowardChildren’s Center, Inc. has servedthe most fragile and at-risk infants,children, and young adults in our

community. The Center offers a range ofhealth, wellness, education, recreation, ther-apeutic, daily living and advocacy servicesat its facilities in Pompano Beach and DaniaBeach, and from a satellite location at theJewish Community Center in Davie. Duringmore than three decades of service thou-sands of children and their families havebenefited from the Center’s programs.

Services include:• Pediatric sub-acute skilled nursing facility

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The Center provides a home to some of themost technologically-dependent children inthe country and addresses the educational,

social and medical needs of both typicallydeveloping and special needs children. Theneeds of these children have led the Centerto pioneer the development of community-based residential facilities and school pro-gramming for children who are medicallyfragile and/or developmentally delayed.

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By Denise Wronowski

Kids should get movingto avoid obesityNEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Vigorousexercise may be an especially good way tokeep kids lean, but sitting around, in and ofitself, doesn't appear to have a major role inmaking them fat, new research shows.Nevertheless, there are still plenty of rea-sons to avoid too much sedentary "screentime," Dr. Ulf Ekelund of the MRC Epi-demiology Unit in Cambridge, UK and co-lleagues say, given potential negatives in-cluding "violence and aggressive behavior,poor academic performance, and poor bodyimage."To help tease out the role of time spent indifferent types of activity in making chil-dren fat, independent of screen time andotherwise being a couch potato, Ekelundand his team looked at 1,862 children 9 to10 years old, 23 percent of whom wereoverweight or obese.Using a wristwatch-like device to measurethe amount and intensity of activity childrengot throughout the day, the researcherslooked for associations between this activityand children's waist size, amount of bodyfat, and body mass index (BMI). Kids alsoreported how much time they spent watch-ing TV or using a computer.Sixty-nine percent of the children were get-ting at least an hour of moderate physicalactivity a day, while 58 percent reportedhaving less than two hours of screen timedaily.While children who spent more time notmoving had bigger waists and a larger per-centage of body fat, much of this relation-ship could be attributed to the fact that theyspent less time engaging in moderate phy-sical activity.But the time children spent engaging in vi-gorous activity, and their combined mode-

rate activity-vigorous activity time, had thestrongest ties to waist circumference andfat mass.For instance, every 6.5 minutes a child spentdoing vigorous activity like playing ball,bicycling, or running around outside wasassociated with a 1.32-centimeter reductionin waist size, the researchers found. But 13.6minutes of moderate physical activity onlyreduced waist size by half a centimeter.Based on the findings, the researchers say,children should still be encouraged to limittheir sedentary time, but this alone won't beenough to tackle childhood obesity."Interventions may therefore need to incor-porate higher intensity-based activities tocurb the growing obesity epidemic," theyconclude.Boys in the study got an average of a half-hour of vigorous activity each day, whilegirls got 22 minutes. "There is no clear cutanswer" as to how much vigorous activity isoptimal, Ekelund noted in an email toReuters Health."For most health outcomes, the more acti-vity you do the better." But, he added, peo-ple who do lots of strenuous activity maystill put on too much weight if they take intoo many calories.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM8 DECEMBER • 2009

Shekhar V. Sharma M.D.Board Certified in Internal Medicine

The Silent Killer

There are several medical conditions in somepeople that may not manifest itself. In otherwords, certain people may have hidden medicalconditions that are not diagnosed because they

are asymptomatic which means that they do not have anysymptoms of their hidden medical condition. In mypractice I have encountered patients who may havediabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypercholesterolemiawithout even knowing it. The following are two scenariosfrom my practice.

A 60 year old female patient calls and complains ofheartburns and wants to be prescribed Zantac. I tell herover the phone that she needs to see me ASAP since therecould be an underlying heart condition. She is skepticalof this situation and states that her neighbor has the samecondition that goes away with Zantac, and therefore whycouldn't she get the same. I tell her that each person's casehistory differs. She anyway refuses to seek medicalattention. The next day I receive a call from the hospitalER physician who tells me that my patient has had a heartattack. The outcome of this scenario speaks for itself.

Ask Dr. Sharma:

Q: I have Diabetes Mellitus and kidneyproblems. I was told not to take any test

with Iodine Contrast.Why? Can you pleaseexplain this doctor.Marjorie, West Palm Beach

A: You have 2 conditions above,that togetherpose a danger for acute kidney failure if you

take intravenous Iodine Contrast. I do not knowhow bad your kidney functions are. Also,youshould exercise immense caution in taking whatwe know as Non Steroidal AntiInflammatoryDrugs or NSAIDS because these drugs couldcause worsening of kidney problems. Examplesof these drugs are Advil, Motrin, Aleve,Ibuprofin etc which are used for arthiritis.Consult your primary care doctor for furtherunderstanding of the above.

Q: I get frequent headaches what should Ido about it?

Samuel, Wellington

A: First of all you should check your BloodPressure. It could be high. Secondly,you

could be having simple tensionheadaches,muscular pains of the back of theneck, migraines or in the worst case scenario itcould also be a brain tumor. Sleep Apnea canalso cause headaches in the daytime. Youtherefore need to consult your primary carephysician to guide you in this matter.

Questions to Dr. Sharma can be mailed to P.O. Box 542527

Lake Worth, FL 33454-2527

or by email:info@floridahealthnews-online.com

The next scenario is about a gentleman who hasuncontrolled hypertension. On examination he is found tohave high blood pressure. This patient has no symptomswhatsoever. I advise him to increase his anti-hypertensivemedication dosage. He believes that since he feels fine hedoes not need to increase his dosage for fear of sideeffects. I tell him that the very reason that thesemedications are manufactured is to prevent complicationsof hypertension. I feel that the benefits of an increase indosage in some cases far outweighs the risks of some sideeffects. He tells me that he just needs to stay on a low saltdiet and this will correct the problem. He is informed thata low salt diet is surely the way to go, but that would notbring the blood pressure down immediately and that thereis a possibility of a stroke. A few weeks later he has astroke with paralysis of one side of the body.

One can definitely learn from the above scenarios andheed the advice of one's physician. To stay healthy is theultimate goal that we all need to strive for.

Washington - The typical family would bespared higher taxes from the HouseDemocratic plan to overhaul health care, andtheir low-income neighbors could come outahead.

Their wealthy counterparts, however, face big taxincreases that could eventually hit future genera-tions of taxpayers who are less wealthy.

The bill is funded largely from a 5.4 percent tax on individ-uals making more than $500,000 a year and couples makingmore than $1 million, starting in 2011. The tax increasewould hit only 0.3 percent of tax filers, raising $460.5 billion over the next 10 years, according to congressionalestimates.

But unlike other income tax rates, the new tax would not beindexed for inflation. As incomes rise over time because ofinflation, more families -- and more small business owners-- would be hit by the tax."Twenty years from now, we'regoing to see more and more small businesses ensnared intopaying higher taxes," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan,the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways andMeans Committee. The tax would hit only 1.2 percent oftaxpayers who claim business income on their returns, ac-cording to the estimates by the nonpartisan Joint Committeeon Taxation. But that percentage would grow as businessowners' nominal incomes rise with inflation.

In 2011, a family of four with an income of $800,000 a yearwould get a $24,000 tax increase, when the new tax iscombined with an increase in the top two tax brackets pro-

posed by President Barack Obama and other scheduled taxchanges, according to an analysis by Deloitte Tax. That's a12.5 percent increase in federal income taxes.

A family of four making $5 million a year would see a$434,500 tax increase, about a 32 percent increase, accord-ing to the analysis. "These are very big numbers and veryhigh effective tax rates," said Clint Stretch, a tax policy ex-pert at Deloitte Tax. The new health care tax would comeon top of other tax increases for the wealthy proposed byObama. The top marginal income tax rate now is 35 percent,on income above $372,950. Obama wants to boost the toprate to 39.6 percent in 2011 by allowing some of the tax cutsenacted under former President George W. Bush to expire.

House Democrats said they are proud that they found a wayto finance the health care package largely from a tax on thewealthy. There is, however, little appetite for a millionaire's

tax in the Senate, and some tax experts think it is a mistaketo tap only rich people to pay for services used by all. "If health care is a benefit that is worth having, then it'sworth paying for," said William Gale, who was an adviserto President George H. W. Bush's Council of Economic Ad-visers and is now co-director of the Tax Policy Center."This gives the impression that it's only worth having ifsomeone else pays for it."

Obama promised during the presidential campaign that hewould not increase taxes on couples making less than$250,000. However, the health care bill would impose newtaxes on people who don't buy qualified health insurance,including those making less than $250,000 a year. Under thebill, individuals are required to obtain health insurancecoverage or pay penalties, which are described as taxes inthe legislation. The penalty would be equal to the cost of anaverage insurance plan or a 2.5 percent tax on incomesabove the standard threshold for filing a tax return,whichever is less. There would be waivers for financialhardships.

To help afford insurance, families with incomes up to fourtimes the federal poverty level would qualify for subsidies.The poverty level for a family of four is $22,050 this year.Republicans argue that the penalties violate Obama's taxpledge, and they liken the millionaire's tax to the AlternativeMinimum Tax, which Congress enacted in 1969 to ensurethat wealthy Americans cannot use loopholes to avoid pay-ing any income taxes.

The AMT was never indexed for inflation, so Congressmust enact a fix each year to spare about 25 million mid-dle-income families from being hit with big tax increases."They're going down the same road by not indexing thistax," said the Republican lawmaker Camp.

Health Care Plan Hits RichWith Big Tax Increases

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Viva Italia!The 2009 Medical Society GalaAn evening of Italian art, music, wine and cuisine

The Palm Beach County Medical Society held its 2009 gala at theKravis Center, Cohen Pavilion, West Palm Beach. The evening wasa tribute to the past and celebrated the outstanding

accomplishments of Palm Beach County Physicians. Dr. LawrenceGorfine, M.D. was sworn in as the incoming president for 2010. The 2010 Excellence in Medicine Award was presented to Dr. StephenBabic, M.D. The Gala included a silent and live auction and entertainmentwas provided by Michael Matone and the Masters of Jazz.

Mrs. Cheryl Dolan, Dr. James B. Nolan, FMA President(Florida Medical Association) Mas G. Massoumi, M.D. PastPresident of Palm Beach County Medical Society.

Scott and Cyndi Ruehrmurd, Paul Sohlden, Barbara McGinley.

Lou & Linda Bozzuto, Lou Fuoco and Krysta Lyon. Members of Alzheimer’s Community Care: Taryn & Rob Flint,Geoff & Carrie Kufta.

Stephanie & Peter Lamelas, M.D., M.B.A., Ronald &Jayclyn Zelnick.

Trevor Raborn and ManuelaFriedman.

Michelle Wolf, Kelly Hafferly, Rosemarie Hayes.

Dr. Marganiols, Dr. Sirjh, Dr. Familant Bernick & Dr. Brian Bernick, VickieRaphs and Dr. Theodore Raphs.

Dr. Himang Kaushal, Ranjita and Dr. Shekhar Sharma.

Dr. Trevor Feinstein, Dr. Diego Rubinowicz, Dr. ShekharSharma and Dr. Jeff Buchsbaum.

Sherry and David Beckey.Maureen Whelihan, M.D., with medical students: JenniferConmey, Jessica Greenfield, Isabel Leonor and Cecilia Perez.

Silvio Garcia, M.D., Odalys Garcia, Vincent De Genarrd,M.D., Ghignone Marco, Alan Pillersdorf, M.D.

Lawrence Gorfine, M.D., 2010 PBCMS President, Mrs. Kathleen Gorfine,James Dolan, M.D., President Florida Medial Association, Mrs. CherylDolan and Tenna Wiles, Chief Executive Officer.

Joseph Abruzzo, Representative, Ronald Zelnick, M.D.,Alan Pillersdorf, M.D. and Dave Aronberg, Senator.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM DECEMBER • 2009 11

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Dr. Kishore Dass and Dr. Ben Han spearhead a team of eighthighly trained radiation oncologists practicing advanced cancertreatment techniques. We deliver inspired, compassionate care.Our physicians have been trained at esteemed institutions includingCleveland Clinic, National Cancer Institute, MD Anderson, MountSinai, Beth Israel, University of Washington, and Stanford. Wecombine compassionate care and state-of-the-art technology to give you confidence to move on.

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Cancer care begins with us.When you’re facing cancer, you want the latest treatment techniques and the best physicians available so you can getback to living your life.

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Dr. Kishore Dass and Dr. Ben Han spearhead a team of eighthighly trained radiation oncologists practicing advanced cancertreatment techniques. We deliver inspired, compassionate care.Our physicians have been trained at esteemed institutions includingCleveland Clinic, National Cancer Institute, MD Anderson, MountSinai, Beth Israel, University of Washington, and Stanford. Wecombine compassionate care and state-of-the-art technology to give you confidence to move on.

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DETROIT – A decade-long declinein teens' use of pot has stalledand some teen attitudes on howharmful marijuana can be may besoftening, according to a federalsurvey on teen drug use released.

The findings were based on a sur-vey of roughly 47,000 eighth, 10thand 12th-graders conducted by theUniversity of Michigan for the

National Institute on Drug Abuse.The national debate over medical use ofmarijuana could be making the drugs seemsafer to teenagers, researchers said. In addi-tion to marijuana, fewer teens also viewprescription drugs and Ecstasy as danger-ous, which often means more could usethem in the future, said White House drugczar Gil Kerlikowske."These latest data confirm that we must re-double our efforts to implement a compre-hensive, evidence-based approach to pre-venting and treating drug use,"Kerlikowske, the director of the Office ofNational Drug Control Policy, said in re-marks prepared for his Monday speech atthe National Press Club in Washington.Marijuana use across the three gradesshowed a consistent downward trend start-ing in the late 1990s. But the decline hassince stopped, and use rates for the threegrades showed a slight uptick between 2007and 2009, from about 12.9 percent to about14.3 percent, lead researcher Lloyd Johns-ton said Monday night.In the 2009 survey, reported past-year ma-rijuana use was 32.8 percent of 12th graders,26.7 percent of 10th graders and 11.8 per-cent of eighth graders, generally not muchchanged from 2008.Marijuana was at its recent peak in 1997,when 17.7 percent of eighth-grade students,34.8 percent of 10th-grade students and 38.5percent of 12th-grade reported using thedrug at least once within a year of being in-terviewed.Students were asked how much people riskharming themselves if they smoke mari-juana occasionally or smoke marijuana re-gularly. Fewer eighth-grade students saidthat people who smoked pot put themselvesat great risk than a year ago."When the perception of the danger goes

down, in the following years you see an in-crease in use," said National Institute onDrug Abuse Director Nora Volkow.A group backing legalization of marijuanasaid the figures show the futility of trying toban pot, rather than regulate its use."Clearly, regulation of tobacco products hasworked to curb access by teens, and it'stime to apply those same sensible policies tomarijuana," said Bruce Mirken, spokesmanfor the Washington-based Marijuana PolicyProject.The survey also found that in the past fiveyears, a drop in methamphetamine use in thepast year was found among all three grades.From 2004 to 2009, alcohol use across thethree grades also dropped. By all measures,alcohol remained the most widely usedillicit substance among teens, with 43.5 per-cent of 12th-graders reporting taking a drinkin the past month. That's a little changefrom the same period last year, but downfrom 52.7 percent in 1997 — a year thatshowed high percentages of substanceabuse. All three grades reported drops inbinge drinking from 2004 to 2009.Cigarette use continued its dramatic dropfrom a decade ago. In 1997, 19.4 percent ofeighth-graders reported smoking within amonth. That fell to 6.8 percent last year and6.5 percent this year. The rate for 12th-graders dropped from 36.5 percent in 1997to 20.1 percent this year."There's not going to be much further im-provement unless policies change," such ashigher taxes to discourage kids on a budgetand further limits on public smoking, saidJohnston.

Study: Decade drop in teen pot use stalls

This photo provided by National Institute onDrug Abuse (NIDA) shows NIDA Director Dr.Nora Volkow, left, accompanied by NationalDrug Control Policy Director R. GilKerlikowske, announcing the results of the2009 Monitoring the Future survey, at theNational Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/John Harrington, NIDA)

Stress From Prostate CancerDiagnosis May Be Fatal

Emotional stress can put newlydiagnosed prostate cancer patientsat increased risk for cardiovascu-lar events and suicide, a new study

has found.

Researchers analyzed data on 168,584Swedish men diagnosed with prostate can-cer between 1961 and 2004. Of those men,10,126 (6 percent) experienced a cardio-vascular event within a year of cancer diag-nosis and 136 (0.08 percent) committed suicide.

Before 1987, prostate cancer patients wereabout 11 times more likely to experience afatal cardiovascular event during the firstweek after diagnosis than men withoutprostate cancer. During the first year afterdiagnosis, prostate cancer patients werenearly twice as likely to have a cardiovascu-lar event as men without prostate cancer, theresearchers found.

After 1987, the risk of fatal or non-fatalcardiovascular events in men with prostatecancer was about three times higher in thefirst week and slightly higher in the firstyear after diagnosis, compared to men with-out prostate cancer, they noted.

Although only 136 of the nearly 170,000men included in the study committed sui-cide, the relative risk of suicide associatedwith prostate cancer was 8.4 during the firstweek and 2.6 during the first year, accordingto the report published online Dec. 14 in thejournal PLoS Medicine.

12 DECEMBER • 2009 FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM

12 Simple Tips ForRelationship BlissOne of the most commonquestions we hear is, "How do wemake our relationship work?" Theanswers are complicated, varied,and, after a while, can start tosound like muddled platitudes.But these commonplace sayingsget repeated because they work.With this in mind, we pulledtogether 12 cliches that, in fact,reveal simple, tried-and-trueadvice for having a healthy, happyrelationship.

1Mind your manners. "Please," "thankyou" and "you're welcome," can go along way in helping your partner re-member that you respect and love

him and don't take him for granted.

2Variety is the spice of life. Studieshave shown that dullness can lead todissatisfaction with a relationship.Trying something new can be as

simple as visiting an unfamiliar restaurant oras grand as a backpacking trip through SriLanka. Discoveries you make together willkeep you feeling close. Video Advice: MyWife Won't Tell Me Her Fantasies

3The couple that plays together, staystogether. Find a sport or hobby thatyou both love (no, watching TVdoes not count) and make that a pri-

ority in your relationship. Camping, biking,building model trains... whatever it is, findsomething you enjoy doing together.

4Fight right. In order to have pro-ductive arguments, keep these rulesin mind. Don't call your spousenames. When things get really

tough, take a break from the argument. Letthe other person finish his/her sentences.Don't initiate a discussion when you're an-gry. 9 Things To Say During A Fight

5I'll scratch your back if you scratchmine. No one likes demands, buteveryone can appreciate a compro-mise. If you want your lover to do

something and you're not sure he'll be agree-able, the quickest way to avoid a confronta-tion is to sweeten the deal. For example:"Sure, I'll watch Monday Night Football ifyou take me to see the next movie of mychoice."

6Two heads are better than one. Beingin a relationship basically meansyou've made a merger; you've notonly joined assets but inherited the

other's problems as well. Rather than look-ing at his problems as merely his own,tackle them together. For example, if he'sgaining weight, rather than pushing him todiet on his own, enroll in an exercise pro-gram together. Fun And Free: The ExerciseDate

7Distance makes the heart growfonder. Maintain your own friend-ships and occasionally have a nightout without your significant other.

Doing things without your s.o. not onlymakes you miss him or her, it also keepsyou sane. And, in case the relationship does-n't work out, you'll still have your friends.

8Sound it out. It other words: commu-nicate! Talking out the tough sub-jects—money, religion, fidelity, rais-ing kids—will not be the most fun

you've had, but it'll be valuable.

9Laughter is the best medicine. Learnto laugh at yourself and at silly mis-takes. If he throws your $300 cash-mere sweater in the dryer, laughing

it off is, in the long run, better than gettingangry. It's is just a $300 cashmere sweater,not the end of the world.

10. Keep your eyes on the prize.Yes, he forgot your co-worker'sname for the tenth time, but itprobably doesn't mean he

doesn't care about you. If you keep your per-spective fixed on the goal—to be in a happy,functioning partnership—you're less likely toget tangled up in every minor annoyance. Re-member, you both want the same thing. SevenWays To Stay Happy (All Year Long)

11uitters never win. Find a ritualand keep it alive, no matterwhat. Whether it's alwayskissing each other good night,

renewing wedding vows every year, sleep-ing in as late as you want once a month orcommitting to having sex once a week, picksomething that makes you both feel goodand stick to it, even when you're tempted toskip.

12When the going gets tough,the tough get going... to ther-apy. Studies show that cou-ples who seek counseling

during rocky periods are more successful inresolving their issues than those who don't.Whether its from a religious figure, coun-selor or mental health professional, gettingan expert to help sort out strife is as wise asforgoing self-installation and hiring aplumber to put in a new sink.

What keeps your relationship strong?

Cutting TV Time Burns More CaloriesJames Crouse was watching 25 or26 hours of television a week untilhe enrolled in a study thatrequired him to cut his tube timein half.

During his enforced period of dep-rivation, Crouse burned consid-erably more calories each day,and not necessarily through

strenuous exercise, although he did find hisrunning increased.

Much of his newly freed time was spentreading and working on the computer, saidCrouse, 52, a semi-retired math teacher liv-ing in Essex Junction, Vt.

Crouse was one of 36 participants takingpart in a study to see what turning off theTV did to lifestyle habits.

On average, participants burned 120 morecalories a day and spent about 50 percentless time plunked in front of the TV thanthey had before starting the study.

"That's the equivalent of more than a mile ofwalking a day," said study author JenniferOtten. The research, which appears in theDec. 14/28 issue of the Archives of InternalMedicine, was conducted while Otten wasworking at the University of Vermont.

Most reported filling the extra time not with

grueling periods on the treadmill, but with"light" activities such as housework, garden-ing, yoga or organizing photos.

The finding -- that less time watching TVmeans more calories burned -- is hardly sur-prising but may provide clinicians with anew tool to stem the tide of overweight andobesity.There was no reduction in calorie intake inthose watching less TV.

This three-week study wasn't long enoughto see major changes in body mass index orweight although, Otten said, "they appearedto be going in the right direction."

Of course, the perennial challenge is how tomotivate people to actually make thesechanges.

"It's always good to have information likethis but unless people actually change their

lifestyle then all the information and all theresearch in the world is not going to help,"pointed out Eugenio Lopez, a diabetes edu-cator with the Texas A&M Health ScienceCenter Coastal Bend Education Center.

But experts are hoping that the micro-mag-nitude of this change -- simply cutting TVtime -- may be manageable for some people."It's easier to think about turning off theTV and seeing what happened than en-rolling in a weight-loss class and attending,"Otten said.

"It was a small change, and I think a smallchange is how we start to make a biggerchange," added Dr. Marina Kurian, medicaldirector of the program for surgical weightloss at NYU Langone Medical Center inNew York City.

As for Crouse, he didn't lose any weight inthe study but has shed 15 pounds since itended.

But he attributes it not to less TV watching,which he has resumed, but to the fact thatthe study tuned him into the number of calo-ries he was consuming.

"I learned how much I ate. I was burning upalmost 4,000 calories a day, but I was eating4,000 calories a day," he said.

He cut back to 3,000 calories a day and lostweight.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM DECEMBER • 2009 13

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Sleep Apnea Raises Risk of Death, Especially for Men(HealthDay News) -- The classicmanifestations of sleep apnea --loud snoring, interruptedbreathing and sleep disruption --nearly double the risk for chronicdisease and premature deathamong middle-aged and elderlymen, according to major newresearch.

Even patients with moderate sleepapnea face an increased death risk,as much as 17%, compared withthose who do not have sleep-disor-

dered breathing problems, the decade-longU.S. study finds."The primary finding of our study is thatsleep apnea can increase the risk of death byabout 40%, even after other factors havebeen accounted for," said study lead authorDr. Naresh Punjabi, an associate professorof medicine at the Johns Hopkins UniversitySchool of Medicine in Baltimore."Our study also shows that it is the decreasein oxygen levels during sleep from sleep ap-nea that explains the increased risk ofdeath," added Punjabi. Men with sleep ap-nea between the ages of 40 and 70 are par-ticularly at risk of death from any source,but especially from cardiovascular disease,the researchers found.Punjabi and his colleagues published theirfindings in the online Aug. 18 issue of thejournal PLoS Medicine. The research effortis the largest ever to explore associations be-tween sleep disturbances and illness, theysaid.Sleep apnea is a common, chronic conditionthat affects about one in four men and aboutone in 10 women, the authors note. Leftuntreated, it can lead to excessive sleepi-

ness, difficulties with daytime alertness andan increased risk for driving accidents.For their study, the research team at JohnsHopkins Bayview Medical Center focusedon more than 6,400 men and women be-tween 40 and 70 years old who had mild tosevere sleep apnea or had no such sleepingdifficulties. Many participants describedthemselves as "snorers," a prime feature ofsleep apnea.During home monitoring of sleep patterns,the team amassed almost 10,000 in-depthrecordings of breathing patterns, heartrhythms and brain activity during sleep.

apnea -- during which blood oxygen levelsdipped to below 90% of normal -- appearedto roughly double the risk of death amongmen.The small number of women with severesleep apnea who died during the study ruledout similar conclusions about women.Nonetheless, Punjabi and his colleaguesstressed that the findings were alarmingenough to warrant diligent physician atten-tion to patient sleeping habits, in order to in-tervene quickly when appropriate."With such mounting evidence indicatingthe range of clinical effects of sleep apnea,

lapsing.People with clinical symptoms of sleep ap-nea, which include loud snoring, sleepinessduring the day and fatigue, should discusstheir symptoms with a physician, Punjabiadvised. "Effective therapy for sleep apneacan improve such symptoms and lead to abetter quality of life," he said.Jim Cappuccino, a 49-year-old sleep apneapatient living in the Baltimore suburbs whowas part of Punjabi's study, agreed.Cappuccino, the owner of a surgical equip-ment and medical device sales company,knew he had high blood pressure, high cho-lesterol and type 2 diabetes before enrollingin the study.Although he can trace the onset of sleepapnea difficulties, such as disruptive snoringand breathing pauses, back to his mid-30's,it was only when he enrolled in the studythat he was finally diagnosed with sleep ap-nea, he said."When you're in that career mode, andyou're on the go-go-go, you put your healthissues on the back burner," he said. "But asI got older, I realized that this is probablysomething that I should have addressedyears ago. I was shocked by the correlationbetween sleep apnea and heart disease anddiabetes, and actually even death, but get-ting tested and diagnosed and treated hasmade all the difference. It's actually allowedme to wake up not feeling tired, which has-n't been the norm for me for a few years.""So the only thing I can say," Cappucinoadded, "is people who feel that they arehaving trouble should get tested, becausesleep apnea is going to deteriorate your sys-tem and lead to many other health prob-lems."Similar findings that linked severe sleep ap-nea with a greater risk of dying were re-ported last year in studies out of Australiaand the University of Wisconsin.

After determining that about half the pa-tients had moderate to severe sleep apnea,the researchers went on to track the inci-dence of sickness or death from high bloodpressure, heart disease and/or stroke.Over a tracking period of a little more thaneight years, on average, the research teamfound that 587 men and 460 women diedduring the study.Stacking the death tallies against the sleeppattern recordings, the team found that ex-periencing just 11 minutes of severe sleep

awareness amongst health care profession-als and the general community needs to in-crease," Punjabi said.Losing weight sometimes reduces sleep ap-nea, and some sufferers get relief using a de-vice that keeps them from rolling on theirbacks while they sleep. For serious cases, acurrent treatment is the "continuous positiveairway pressure" (CPAP) device, whichfunctions as a kind of oxygen mask wornover the nose to help force air into nasal pas-sageways and prevent airways from col-

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM14 DECEMBER • 2009

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Menthol Cigarettes MoreAddictive to U.S. MinoritiesMenthol cigarettes appear to bemore addictive for black andHispanic smokers than regularcigarettes, a U.S. study has found.

Researchers from the School ofPublic Health at the Universityof Medicine and Dentistry ofNew Jersey (UMDNJ) analyzed

data on 7,815 current and former smokerswho'd reported at least one attempt to quit.The information came from the 2005 Na-tional Health Interview Survey.

Among adults who smoked menthol ciga-rettes, just 44 percent of blacks and 48 per-cent of Hispanics were able to kick thehabit. But blacks and Hispanics whosmoked regular cigarettes had higher quitrates -- 62 percent and 61 percent, respec-tively. Those rates were similar to quit ratesfor white adults.

The data also showed that non-whitestended to smoke fewer cigarettes a day andwere about three times more likely than

whites to smoke menthol cigarettes, thestudy authors noted.

"Historically, tobacco companies have tar-geted minority populations when marketingmenthol cigarettes," study co-authorCristine Delnevo, director of the Center forTobacco Surveillance and Evaluation Re-search at UMDNJ, said in a university newsrelease.

"Although whites and non-whites have sim-ilar smoking prevalence rates, the fact thatnon-whites are more likely to smoke men-thols, and those who smoke menthols areless likely to quit, could explain why minor-ity populations continue to suffer dispro-portionately from tobacco-caused diseaseand death," she said.

Study author Daniel Gundersen said in thenews release that "with the substantial num-ber of smokers smoking menthol cigarettes,particularly among minorities, this is seriouscause for concern." The findings are pub-lished in the December issue of PreventiveMedicine.

Playground Surface Playsa Role in Kids' InjuriesThe chances that a child willbreak an arm in a fall are muchlower on playgrounds with granitesand surfaces than on those withwood fiber surfaces, new researchhas found.

Researchers at the Hospital forSick Children in Toronto lookedat 19 schools that had playgroundsurfaces of either granite sand or

engineered wood fiber. Their findings werereported online Dec. 14 in PLoS Medicine.The risk of a broken arm resulting from afall from some height was nearly five times

higher for wood fiber surfaces than granitesand surfaces. There was no difference inrisk when the researchers looked at brokenarms that resulted from falls that did not in-volve height.

Based on their findings, the researchers con-cluded that updating safety standards to rec-ommend the use of granite sand surfaces forplaygrounds would "reduce the most com-mon and severe injuries seen on modernplaygrounds, without limiting children's ac-cess to healthy outdoor play."

Each year in the United States, about200,000 children are treated for playgroundinjuries, they noted.

FLORIDAHEALTHNEWS-ONLINE.COM DECEMBER • 2009 15

Teens Lose More WeightUsing Healthy StrategiesIncreased exercise, reduced sodaconsumption and self-weighingare among the most effectiveweight control strategies foradolescents, a new study shows.

Researchers surveyed 130 adoles-cents about their weight-controlstrategies and lifestyle habits.Sixty-two had succeeded in los-

ing weight and 68 had not. The responseswere grouped into four categories:Healthy weight control behaviors, whichincluded eating fewer calories, increasingexercise, eating less high fat and junk food,drinking less soda, drinking more water,weighing oneself, eating more fruits andvegetables and doing different types of ex-ercise.Unhealthy weight control behaviors, whichincluded laxatives, vomiting, diuretics,smoking and fasting.Extreme dietary changes, which includeduse of liquid diet supplements, the Atkinsdiet, a structured diet, fasting and increasingprotein consumption.Structured behaviors, which included eatinga certain amount of calories, counting calo-ries, recording food intake and working witha professional.Overall, a higher percentage of participantswho lost weight used six or more of thehealthy weight control behaviors, comparedto those who didn't lose weight. A minorityof adolescents who lost weight reported us-ing any of the structured weight control be-haviors or extreme dietary changes."First of all, our findings provide a glimpseof optimism that adolescents can lose a sig-nificant amount of weight and maintain this

weight loss," wrote Kerri Boutelle, of thedepartments of pediatrics and psychiatry atthe University of California San Diego, andcolleagues."Second, our findings suggest that there areno magical solutions, and that behaviorssuch as eating more fruits and vegetablesand eating less fat and decreasing sedentarytime seem to offer the most promise forsuccess... Self-weighing may be a helpfulmonitoring tool for overweight adolescents;in the current study, the largest percentageof adolescents who lost weight reportedweighing themselves on a weekly basis,while the largest percentage of adolescentswho did not lose weight reported weighingthemselves less than monthly. Lastly, un-healthy weight control behaviors were notassociated with being in the group that lostweight. Adolescents would benefit fromhearing this information from dietitians andother health care providers to prevent devel-opment of unhealthy weight control behav-iors. Findings from the current study havethe potential to guide both future researchstudies and clinical interventions on obesityin adolescents."

Keep Asthma, Allergiesat Bay for the HolidaysThey're not Scrooges, but peoplewith allergies and asthma canhave bad reactions to certainholiday traditions and need totake special steps to preventsneezing and wheezing, accordingto the American College ofAllergy, Asthma and Immunology(ACAAI).

Those who are allergic to live ever-greens may choose to decoratewith artificial plants, but both liveand artificial trees can trigger

symptoms, experts say. They offer the fol-lowing hints to help people avoid allergyand asthma symptoms over the holiday sea-son:Some allergies are triggered by terpene,which is found in the oil or sap of live ever-green trees, wreaths and garlands. Other al-lergy sufferers may react to mold or pollen

on trees and natural decorations. TheACAAI suggests washing pollen and moldoff live trees, especially the trunk, with agarden hose and leaving the tree in a bucketof water in the garage or a covered porchwhile it dries. Wear gloves when handlingthe tree to protect against contact with sap.For those who are allergic to dust and mold,even artificial trees can be a problem if theyhaven't been stored properly. Because dustand mold can accumulate on these items, itis a good idea to wash the tree outside be-fore setting it up inside the house for deco-rating. The best way to store an artificial treeis to place it in an air-tight bag or container.Ornaments and other decorations can alsogather dust and mold and are best stored inair-tight containers. Thoroughly clean eachitem before putting it on display.Artificial snow spray shouldn't be used in-doors because it can trigger asthma and al-lergy symptoms. Other potential triggersinclude scented candles, potpourri and otherscents, and wood-burning fireplaces, theACAAI warns.Food allergies are another potential problemduring the holidays. Those with food aller-gies should ask party or dinner hosts aboutthe ingredients used in each dish. It is alsoa good idea to prepare a dish you know is"safe" for you to eat and bring it along toshare. When hosting a gathering, talk toguests in advance about food allergies.When traveling, remember to pack yourasthma and allergy medications. If the triprequires air travel, keep those items in acarry-on bag. Bringing a pillow and mat-tress cover is recommended for those af-fected by dust mites.

Visit us online to learn how you can:

1. Get a kit 2. Make a plan 3. Be informed

Contact your local Red Cross chapter or visit www.redcross.org/BeRedCrossReady

for more information about disaster preparedness, emergency preparedness kits and creating a family communication plan.

Preparing for a disaster before it strikes is vital.

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you can’t predict an earthquake.

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