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Forsyth County News - Thursday, January 14,1999
Your Home
& Health
KIDS ARE GETTING FAT
By Thereae Allen
Staff Writer
Typical New Year’s resolutions
that endure year after year are to
lose weight and get in shape.
Local minister J.J. Seay said we
should add a new twist this year,
and resolve to get our kids in
shape.
Seay said that he was over
weight throughout his childhood,
and the effects were profound. In
the last 18 months, Seay has lost
more than 120 pounds. He says he
is concerned for overweight chil
dren because he remembers all to
Well the teasing and insults they
endure.
“It seems like a lot more kids
are overweight now than when I
was a kid,” said Seay. His
assumptions are correct, research
from the National Heart, Lung,
i
Carol Harris at home with her husband, Jeff, and son, Nathan.
eee Eye aaa
gag exam EEE
time
' When should you get
: your eyes examined
The American ... ... J.
Optom etr i c I
Association rec- I _ .
ommends that j ■
I people with no
previous history 111
'vision problems
should be evaluated:
{ • at 6 months of age
• again at age 3
• then before first grade
I . • from ages 6to 18, every two years
• from ages 19 to 40, every two to three years
• from ages 41 to 60, every two years
• from ages 61 and older, annually
j Symptoms that call for an immediate visit to the optometrist
include double vision, sudden blurred or distorted vision, sud
denly seeing floaters or flashes, eye pain, or redness.
“ l"
and Blood Institute indicates that
55 percent of all adults are over
weight, as well as 25 percent of
all children. Statistics from 20
years ago show only 12 percent of
children were overweight.
66 Kids don't go
outside and
play as much
anymore.
“I think that computers and
video games have a lot to do with
more children being overweight.
Kids don’t go outside and play as
much any more,” said Seay.
Experts say that parents encour-
age inactive behavior, such as
computer use, over outdoor activi
ties.
“It would seem that life in the*
information age is not conducive
to physical fitness. A prime exam
ple is that most fitness equipment
is sold now through television
infomercials ... to me it’s a safe
bet to say, the average Joe watch
ing an infomercial at 2 a.m. is
probably not a fitness buff,” said
Webson Boucier, a behavioral sci
entist at Tulane University.
The National Institute of Health
said the diet food that “litters” our
supermarkets is a prime reason for
the expanding of children and
adults. Low-fat or fat-free conve
nience foods may seem like a
See WEIGHT, Page 2B
Business idea allowing
mother to stay home
with son, earn income
By Therese Allen
Staff Writer
Lifelong Forsyth county resident Carol
Gamer Harris has taken her skills, talents,
and wishes and created a unique but valu
able business.
Errands and Extras was bom of a mom’s
simple wish to be at home with her son
and her sister’s suggestion that she do
something she enjoyed. Harris now does
errand running, shopping, elder care and
more so her son Nathan, almost 4, doesn’t
grow up without his mom.
“Sure, I could work a
full-time job, and we
could have a lot more...
but how long is my son
going to be a little
boy?” said Harris.
With a degree in
finance from North
Georgia College, Harris
is certainly skilled and
employable. Errands and Extras is a fairly
new venture for Harris, so the success of
the business remains to be seen. Harris
says, “The success is being able to stay
home with Nathan and do what I like.”
HEALTH Hepatitis C could become
ALERT: decade’s infectious disease
By Thereae Allen
Staff Writer
Doctors are saying that the “hepatitis C virus
(HCV) is going to be the infectious disease of
the next decade.”
All forms of hepatitis are diseases of the
liver, but HCV’s tendency to mutate has
researchers scratching their heads. The Center
for Disease Control in Atlanta reports that
HCV is the leading indication for liver trans
plantation, and treatment is effective only 15
to 30 percent of the time. Unlike hepatitis A
and B, there is no vaccine to prevent HCV.
HCV was first identified 10 years ago, and
because of its mutative tendencies it is very
difficult to monitor the progress and treatment
of the disease.
Thelma Thiel, chairman and CEO of the
Hepatitis Foundation, points out that HCV is a
very slowly progressing disease and a person
could be infected for as many as 20 years
before any sign of liver damage occurs.
Karen (not her real name) is a Forsyth
County resident with HCV. She was unaware
' of the disease until she gave blood and then
received a letter from the Red Cross. Karen
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Photo/ Therese Allen
A walk down the aisle: Are fat-free foods contributing to the poorer nutritional health of our youth?
The reason behind Harris’ interest in
elder care is her late mother. As her
mother’s primary caregiver during an
extended illness, Harris said she was for
tunate to have a lot of support from family
and friends. “Many other people don’t
have the support I had,” said Harris.
Harris is not a nurse, In fact, her friends
tease and call her a “professional hand
holder.” She says that may be true, but the
elder care service is dear to her heart.
“I know in my heart, if you give some
one facing a challenging situation that
extra care, it does make
I know if you give
someone facing
a challenging
situation... it does
make a
a chance for her to make the person feel
worth while.
See HOME, Page 2B
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PAGE 2B Lha|
a difference,” said
Harris.
According to Harris,
people facing illnesses
or injuries often feel
they have little worth dr
they feel like a burden
to their caregivers, she
says her position offers
has been receiving treatment for HCV for
nearly a year.
“The first thing the doctor wanted to do was
a liver biopsy,” said Karen.
Luckily, to date, she has not sustained any
noticeable liver damage. Karen now gives her
self injections of the drug Interferon three
times weekly, as well as an oral medication
called Rebetol. Karen said that although the
drugs have caused severe depression and hair
loss, she remains hopeful that they will work.
Risk factors of HCV
• Injecting drug users
• hemodialyis patients
• health care workers
• sexual contacts with infected
persons
• persons with multiple
sex partners
• recipient of transfusions
before July 1992
• recipient of clotting factors %
made before 1987
• infants born to infected women
Some like it hot -
and they should
'cause it's good
in a health sense
By Therese Allen
Staff Writer <
A growing trend toward eating fiery
foods could impact the health of it’s i
consumers. Chiles (Peppers) are the 1
second most common spice in the world,'
following only salt. Capsaicin, a sub-i
stance found in chile peppers is what'
produces the feeling of heat. Used for
centuries, capsaicin is know for it’s j
unique abilities to heal. The flavor- J
less, odorless chemical can irritate U
without injuring, heat with out
burning and create numbness
without killing nerves. Capsaicin
is beneficial for many aliments, r
and, it has been proven effective
in relieving symptoms of arthritis.
Not only are chile peppers beneficial for health, but
they also add tremendous flavor and variety to ordi
nary dishes. Linda Matthie-Jacobs is the author of
“Light the Fire, fiery food with a light new attitude”
a new cookbook that focus on the hot and spicy
See HOT, Page 2B
On Dec. 31, she was to have a blood test to
find out if the disease had been eradicated. If•
the disease remains undetectable for six
months after therapy has ceased, Karen will
be cured.
HCV is found in blood. Research has been
done with other blood borne diseases, such as
HIV, that indicate that monitoring the amount
of viral particles in a “drop” of blood (referred
to as viral load or RNA) is essential to treat
ment of the disease. This appears to not be the
case with HCV. “It’s hard to make a clear-cut
case for how viral load can be used to manage
patients with HCV,” said Frederick S. Nolte,
PhD, associate professor, Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Atlanta,
and director of the clinical microbiology and
molecular diagnostics laboratories, Emory
University Hospital.
The consensus is that there is no normalcy to
HCV, therefore viral load testing is essentially
like shooting in the dark. Scientists have been
unable to recreate the virus in-vitro, hence the
difficulty in establishing an effective vaccine.
See HCV, Page 2B