TO YOUR

Midvalley Newspapers

A guide to wellness and healthy living in the Mid-Willamette Valley

HealthApril 2012

HealthQUICK READS ABOUT

HEALTH TOPICS IN THE NEWS

Web weight

A company called Fitbit hasunveiled the Aria Smart Scale— a Wi-Fi-enabled device thatlets users weigh themselvesand automatically publish theresults online.

The raison d’etre of the Wi-Fi scale is not to announceyour weight to the world but,rather, to send the data toFitbit’s website, where it willbe incorporated into chartsand graphs to help you trackyour weight-loss goals. Andalthough you are welcome tomake this information public,the default setting is to keep itprivate.

The Aria Smart Scale canbe pre-ordered online for$129.95.

— Los Angeles Times

Insomnia costs

According to the Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention, about 75 millionAmericans — more than one-quarter of the population — saythey don’t get enough sleep.Almost 30 million say theysuffer from chronic insomnia.

This restlessness, the CDCwarns, can lead to a numberof chronic illnesses and condi-tions, including diabetes, car-diovascular disease, obesityand depression.

It can also take an econom-ic toll. Lack of slumber resultsin an average of 11.3 days, or$2,280, in lost productivityper worker each year, and thetotal cost to the nation ismore than $63 billion annual-ly, according to a recent studyby Harvard Medical School.

— Los Angeles Times

ER guidelines

Americans made morethan 119 million visits toemergency rooms in 2006,according to the NationalHospital Ambulatory MedicalCare Survey. Among the mostcommon causes are trauma,abdominal pain, chest pain,fever and acute upper respira-tory infection.

To help you keep out of theER, experts say you should begetting ongoing care from aprimary physician who maybe able to catch small prob-lems before they escalate. Atthe same time, they say, don’thesitate to go if you are expe-riencing bleeding you can’tstop, gaping wounds, breath-ing troubles, chest pain,extreme pain, vomiting thatwill not stop, extremely highfever or suicidal thoughts.

— Dallas Morning News

It’s hip

Well before the tidal wave ofthe baby boom generationbegan hitting retirement age,the number of hip and kneereplacement procedures morethan doubled between 1996 and2007, according to the NationalCenter for Health Statistics.

Today, Americans undergomore than 1 million of theseknee and hip procedures eachyear, and a growing numberare performed on people intheir 50s and 60s.

For example, almost 5 per-cent of people aged 50 andolder have had knee replace-ment surgery, the AmericanAcademy of OrthopaedicSurgeons says — and so have 10percent of people 80 and older.

— McClatchy Newspapers

Cost of testsDoctors who have access

to computer test results ordermore tests than doctors whodon’t, according to a newstudy that challenges anassumption about electronichealth records.

The study in the March issueof the journal Health Affairsfound that doctors with accessto computerized imagesordered 40 to 70 percent moreimaging and lab tests.

The study authors warnthat pushing for more healthinformation technology mightnot deliver cost savings fromreductions in duplicative orinappropriate tests and coulddrive up costs.

— The Baltimore Sun

STAT

Several members of the Young Adult Cancer Survivors support group participated in Walk for the Cause in Albany last October.From left: Julie Ahrendt, Christine Smith, Brenda Bianchi, Julie Pett Ridge and Christina Jacob with baby Sarah.

PROVIDED PHOTO

hristine Smith, 35, is a schoolsocial worker. She’s a dog-lover. She’s a daughter, a friend,a neighbor. What she’s not issomeone who sits around andfeels sorry for herself.

That’s why, even when in themidst of dealing with a breast

cancer diagnosis at the age of 33, she was notinterested in going to a support group.

She remembers getting a flier in the mailfor a “Young Adult Cancer Support Group”and thinking, “Oh, I so don’t want to dealwith that.”

Brenda Bianchi, 40, an Albany sign lan-guage interpreter and fellow breast cancersurvivor, felt the same way.

“I’m not really a big counseling, support-group type person,” she said. “I’m not intotelling my problems to a bunch of strangers.”

And yet, for one reason or another (Bren-da went “to appease my mother,” she recalls),back in 2010 both women found themselvessitting in the same room at the first meetingof a newly formed young adult supportgroup. What they found there that day sur-prised both of them.

“This place was really relaxed,” Bianchisaid. “We could laugh about things. Andwhen you realize everyone else in the room isgoing through the same things you are, it is arelief.”

Both women have been regular attendeesever since.

Making connectionsJan Spencer, director of the Samaritan

Cancer Resource Center in North Albany,said that’s exactly the kind of connectionthat helps cancer patients through theirdiagnosis, treatment and recovery. Youngadults in particular can feel lost when theyfind themselves living with a disease thatperhaps their grandmothers, uncles, or par-ents may have faced at some point — but

none of their peers.“Most clinical trials are geared more to

older adults or to pediatrics,” Spencer said.“In fact, cancers in young patients are oftencaught later, because physicians don’t expectit. They simply don’t think it could be cancerat that age.”

According to Spencer, cancer is actuallythe leading disease killer for adults betweenthe ages of 20-39, and 70,000 young adultsare diagnosed with cancer in the UnitedStates every year. Last week, April 3-9, wasNational Young Adult Cancer Awarenessweek.

Young adults face unique challenges withcancer when compared to people at otherstages of life, Spencer said. Cancers inyounger adults are often more aggressive,and doctors tend to treat them with more

aggressive methods. At the same time,they’re juggling multiple responsibilities.They’re at the age where they are completingschool, establishing careers and startingfamilies.

“Just staying home to take care of myselfwas not an option,” Smith said. She workedthrough her radiation treatment, and sched-uled her chemotherapy for the summer,when her education job allowed her to taketime off. “I still had to pay my mortgage. Istill needed to keep my health insurance.”

Alienation riskMany young adults say they feel alienated

when they get diagnosed with cancer. Mostoften, they’ve never known anyone their agewith the disease.

Smith said that she’s known older adultswho found themselves with a diagnosis sim-ilar to hers, and they didn’t seem to feel asalone as she did.

“They had more people already naturallyin their lives who had experienced this,” shesaid. “They had this natural support group.”

For all those reasons, Spencer said, start-ing a support group for young adults wassomething she had wanted to do for manyyears, but she wasn’t sure there were thenumbers to support the group in the mid-valley. Then, in 2010, a cancer survivorapproached her about creating such agroup, and the Young Adult CancerSurvivors was born.

Strength in numbersYoung cancer patients, survivors find solace in support groups

C

SEE STRENGTH | A6

By JENNIFER ROUSE

DAVID PATTON | DEMOCRAT-HERALD

Cancer survivor Christine Smith of Albany is a mem-ber of the Young Adult Cancer Survivors, a supportgroup for people ages 18-40.

SUPPORT GROUP INFOWhat: Young Adult Cancer Survivors; a sup-

port group open to adults ages 18-40 at anystage of cancer diagnosis, treatment or recovery.

When: 7 to 8:30 p.m. the second Tuesday ofeach month.

Where: Samaritan Cancer Resource Center,400 Hickory St. N.W., Albany.

To learn more: 541-812-5880.

To Your HealthTuesday, April 10, 2012A6

By JEN MATTEISObstructive sleep apnea affects as

many as 15 percent of men and 10 per-cent of women, and the side effectscan be serious.

During an episode of sleep apnea,your upper airway relaxes too much inthe wrong place, so that you stopbreathing. The brain then wakes up alittle to tell you to take a breath.

“There’s this very low-grade wake-up, just enough to take a few breaths,”explained Dr. Mari Goldner of TheCorvallis Clinic Sleep MedicineDepartment and Samaritan SleepDisorders Center. “The whole thingcycles over and over and over — 10 to 15,20, sometimes way more than 20 timesper hour. That ends up being a wholelot of really unhealthy interruptions toa person’s sleep. That takes a toll.”

Most men with sleep apnea snore,and their partners are usually prettygood at noticing the disruptions intheir sleep. Other symptoms includeday-time sleepiness, issues with con-centration, and slips in short-termmemory and general mental sharpness.

Goldner compared it to a clerk hav-ing to drop everything he’s doing toanswer the phone in the front office —again and again, each time the brainneeds to wake up the body.

“The work that is supposed to begetting done for the brain duringsleep doesn’t get done very well. Theperson wakes up tired.”

Sleep apnea can also lead to hyper-tension, as the body uses adrenalineand other stress hormones to wakeyou up. Goldner described the influxof these hormones as pressing a“chemical panic button,” whichstrains the heart and the cardiovascu-

lar system. Due to this, having sleepapnea can double or even triple yourchances of a heart attack or stroke.The repeated drops in oxygen can alsocause hardening of the arteries, whichcan lead to problems with the bloodvessels such as erectile dysfunction.

Sleep apnea itself usually isn’t fatal,with one exception. People with sleepapnea are much more likely to beinvolved in a fatal car accident — aside-effect of being tired and having adelayed response time.

“Most people would say the caraccident rate in untreated apnea isover four times the general popula-tion rate — that’s huge,” Goldner said.“Bad sleep apnea is very seriousbecause it dramatically increases highblood pressure, stroke and car acci-dent rates, and it doesn’t bring outthe best in people’s personality.”

Easy to fixLuckily, sleep apnea is also easy to

resolve.“It’s really common, it’s really bad

for you — and it’s easy to fix,” notedGoldner.

Most cases of sleep apnea — 85 to90 percent — are weight-related, andlosing the extra weight will often curethe condition.

“If it did come with weight gain, itcan go with weight loss and that’s abeautiful thing,” she said.

That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to loseweight, as the fatigue associated withsleep apnea can lead to eating unhealthyfoods and feeling worse after exercise.The associated stress can also induceyour metabolism to store calories.

A night at a sleep lab will determinethe extent of the condition. Sleepingon your side may be enough to resolvevery mild cases. For severe cases, sur-gery exists, but it doesn’t always workand it’s “excruciatingly painful.”

According to Goldner, the gold stan-dard of care is continuous positive air-way pressure (CPAP), in which appliedair pressure helps keep the airway openduring sleep. The masks may beuncomfortable, but they work — andthey’re a lot more natural than a nightspent snoring, ceasing to breathe, andthrashing around in your sleep.

By GAIL COLEOregon State University’s

Extension Service has reached out toOregon families with its revampedFood Hero initiative, aiming to showhow healthy, inexpensive meals canbe a breeze to prepare.

Using data from a 2009 phone sur-vey of users of the SupplementalNutrition Assistance Program — for-merly known as the Food Stamp pro-gram — and from a U.S. Health andHuman Services Department studyon online media literacy, Extensiondeveloped the easy-to-use websitewww.foodhero.org, filled withrecipes and cooking, shopping andmenu-planning tips, plus accompa-nying Facebook and Twitter pages.Nearly all content is also available inSpanish.

Food Hero targets Oregonians eligi-ble for the SNAP program, and fills aneed for education on inexpensive,healthy food: Oregon has one of the

highest childhood food insecurityrates in the nation.

So far, the website lists over 200recipes developed by Extensionagents over the years and tested byOSU campus nutritionists.

“There are recipes we’ve been usingagain and again in programming,” saidLauren Tobey, anOSU nutritionspecialist. “Wefinally put themall in one place.”

While rangingfrom sweet tosavory, nearly allthe breakfasts, lunches, dinners andsnacks have one thing in common:they incorporate either fresh, frozenor canned fruits and vegetables.Tobey said using all forms of producehelps people reach daily nutritionalrecommendations.

Using fruits, vegetables and low-fatingredients in the Food Hero recipes

makes seemingly unhealthy dishesactually nutritious. For example,cheesy beef pasta calls for leanground beef and zucchini, and applebars calls for whole wheat flour andfragrant cinnamon, nutmeg andcloves along with apples.

Tobey said Extension plans to con-tinue addinginformation thetips section, hop-ing to eventuallylink specific tipsto ingredients anddirections onrecipes — for

example, a link to instructions on howto cook chicken can be found on achicken casserole recipe. The easy-to-find information may be a hugehelp to inexperienced cooks.

“We really want to help them out,so they know you can really cook foodat home and it can be easy to do,”Tobey said.

BY LESLIE BARKER GARCIATHE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Wanted: A perfect exer-cise partner. One whoimproves physical capabil-ities and mental outlook,lowers blood pressure andraises morale, has noqualms going out at anyhour of any day, is alwayshappy to be with you, andwill never call to cancelyour workout.

Plus (added bonus) licksyour face when you’re fin-ished.

“They always want togo,” says Leslie Blake, 57, ofher dogs, Jake and Charley(Cha Cha). “It doesn’tmatter what time it is orwhat the weather is like,and that gets me out whennormally I might skip myrun.”

Studies abound toutingthe benefits of dog walk-ing.

People who walk theirdogs are more likely toengage in additional formsof exercise, according toMichigan State Universityresearch.

A University of WesternAustralia study found thatseven of 10 adult dog own-ers get 150 minutes ofexercise weekly, comparedwith four out of 10nonowners.

A study published inPreventative Medicinereported that dog-walk-ing dog owners are 25 per-cent less likely to be obesethan people who don’town dogs.

“I have many clientswho come in and say, ‘Mydog and I aregoing on anexercise pro-gram togeth-er. We’regoing to walkevery day,’”says veteri-narian LyndaV a nA n t w e r p ,owner of Carrollton WestPet Hospital.

When Van Antwerptalks about the benefits ofexercise — healthy joints,active digestive systems,weight control — the line’sblurred as to whethershe’s talking about thepets or the owners. Both,usually.

“Diet and exercise is ahuge portion of all our(pets’) health problems

like it is with people,” shesays.

When people call the pethospital and are put onhold, they hear not eleva-tor music but informationabout health benefits ofowning a pet.

Alexandria Williams isco-founder with WhitneyPatterson of Sporty Afros(sportyafros.com), anorganization that encour-ages exercise, especiallyin black women. At com-munity events, she toutsthe benefits of exercising

with dogs.“I say, ‘You have a pet?

Walk,’” says Williams, 28.“Fifteen, 30 minutes aday, four to five days aweek. You could lose apound every other weekdoing that withoutchanging anything else.Plus, psychologicallyyour pet enjoys it, andyou’re getting out of thehouse, letting your mindflow.”

EXERCISINGWITH FIDO

Heed this advice beforegrabbing the leash:

■ Get the medical nod.After you get the OK fromyour doctor about startingan exercise program, takeyour pet in for a vet check-up, says James Bias, presi-dent of the SPCA of Texas.“It’s not rocket science,” hesays. “Like people, youneed to build up. If you’regoing to participate in a 5Kwith your dog, build upyour dog’s capacity prior tothe event.”

■ Be smart. Would youwake up one morning anddecide to run five miles?Probably not. Nor shouldyou submit your dog tothat. “If people are makingpoor decisions about them-selves,” Bias says, “itstands to reason they’remaking poor decisionsabout their pets.”

ARE YOU AT RISK?TAKE THE QUIZ

Are you at risk for obstructive sleepapnea?

Snoring: Do you snore loudly?Tired: Do you often feel tired, fatigued

or sleepy during daytime?Observed: Has anyone observed you

stop breathing during your sleep?Blood pressure: Do you have or are

you being treated for high blood pressure?BMI (Body Mass Index): Is your BMI

more than 35 kg/m2?Age: Are you age 50 or older?Neck Circumference: Is your neck

circumference greater than 16 inches ifyou’re a woman, or greater than 17 inch-es if you’re a man?

Gender: Are you male?HIGH RISK: Answering “yes” to three

or more items.LOW RISK: Answering “yes” to less

than three items.If you think you might have sleep

apnea, talk to your primary care providerand get a referral for an evaluation at TheCorvallis Clinic: 541-754-1268 orwww.mycorvallisclinic.com.

ONLINECheck out the OSU Extension Food

Hero program online at this website:www.foodhero.org

SLEEP APNEA: Common, bad for you, and easy to fix

ANDY CRIPE | CORVALLIS GAZETTE-TIMES

Lauren Tobey shows off the Potato Nachos recipe on the meal-planning website created by OSU Extension.

Healthy meals made easyOSU’s extension revamps Food Hero site

Exercise with a doghas great benefits— but be careful

‘You have a pet? Walk.Fifteen, 30 minutes a day,four to five days a week. ’

ALEXANDRIA WILLIAMSSPORTYAFROS

It’s open to any youngadult at any stage of can-cer diagnosis, treatmentor recovery — when peo-ple use the term “sur-vivor,” they don’t justmean people who aredone with treatment, butpeople who are survivingand living their lifedespite the disease.“These people are stillworking, they’re dating,they’re in school,”Spencer said. “They’restill living their lives.”

They meet once amonth, and they talkabout what’s going on intheir lives; conversationranges from topics bothcancer related and non-cancer related. They gettogether for bowling,movies and other events.They encourage eachother to pursue their nor-

mal activities.“We talk about our

fears, our concerns, ourjoys. We might tell eachother when we’re goingin for our annual mam-mogram and they knowwhat that’s like,” Bianchisaid. “Because your fam-ily and your friends arethere for you, but theydon’t have that sameperspective.”

Smith said that going tothe group, especially dur-ing the stages where shewas bald from her treat-ment, was a relief. It’s aplace where you don’thave to constantly dealwith other people’s shockand worry, she said.

“When we get there, it’snot, ‘oh, you poor thing,you have cancer.’” shesaid. “When we get there,we’re all normal.”

StrengthContinued from A5

To Your Health A7Tuesday, April 10, 2012