This is play week and we will be doing some stage decoration work. In the interim of practicing our lines, we will do helter skelter class work and something new I’ve brought for the older girls. We will be trying out some beading embroidery. It’s a busy time for us.

Thursday, Miss Jana and I will be doing a table at the health fair at Health South. We will be showing off the GS as the premier healthy childcare spot in the city.

Saturday, I did a nutrition workshop for 4-C. I heard about some of the meals served in other childcare facilities in the city. Here’s a tasty lunch: a boiled egg, green beans and kidney beans and white bread. Yuck.

Each one of the components is fine but together it’s a culinary disaster. This week we will be serving hardboiled eggs on Friday, but we will serve them with cubed cheese, homemade bread, and several fresh fruits and vegetables as a picnic. We will serve the eggs with several kinds of dips for fun and food adventure.

Why is this so important? It’s an investment in a child’s whole life. Good habits reduce obesity and other health related problems while they increase brain function, energy and an overall sense of well being.

Group gives Indiana mixed reviews on child care

March 1, 2007 04:30 PM

Tom Walker/Eyewitness News

Washington, DC – Child care is a daily fact of life for millions of working Americans. But who’s keeping an eye on the caregivers? For the first time, a national group surveyed states, and it says what it found is disturbing. Indiana got a mixed verdict.

The statistics say 12 million children under 5 are in the care of someone other than their parents each week. Child care advocates say there’s a common assumption.

“Most parents believe that programs are regulated, that they’re visited frequently,” said Marsha Thompson, Indiana Child Care networker.

Thompson runs a child care referral network in Indianapolis. She helped unveil a report that says parents’ assumptions may well be wrong.

While a few kids do get the highest quality care, it says much of the child care in the US remains unregulated, uninspected and most of the workforce is untrained, too often with no criminal history checks.

The report faults Indiana for not licensing all day care where a fee is involved, for requiring inspections only once a year and for not requiring operators to have college degrees.

The report ranked Indiana 18th, but it said all states could learn from the Defense Department which ranked at the top, partly for the extensive background checks it requires of the workers at its daycare facilities. The department requires daycare workers to go through an FBI fingerprint check, a state criminal history record check and a local agency check as well.

Child care advocates hope this report will help focus attention on making the system better. “On getting providers licensed, helping them meet the standards and get the training,” said Thompson.

Activists are lobbying on Capitol Hill, saying they don’t want Washington to dictate standards for day care.. but they do want states to set higher standards, then be forced by the federal government to live by them.

The report graded Indiana higher than many states, partly due to health and safety training required of day care center staff.

Comment: Problem one: Few people including public officials believe the job of caring for children is important or real work. Secondly, few parents can afford good childcare. Third, few people want or “can” do the job, and lastly, employers of people who do the job don’t want to pay them. Pulling childcare from the dustbin will take more than a few bills in congress. It will take a complete overhaul. It begins not with getting money from taxpayers; it begins with understanding the child and what he needs and rebuilding early childhood places to serve the child first and the investors last.

Newsroom Finland

Finnish social services minister defends day care rights

Finland’s minister of health and social services, Liisa Hyssälä (centre), wishes to see the right of every child to a day care place upheld. Speaking in Helsinki on Thursday following the receipt of a progress report from the advisory committee on early childhood education and care, Ms Hyssälä said that she hoped to see a rise in the availability of open day care centres, part-time care and children’s clubs.

The minister also emphasised her opinion that day care should not be seen as a service to help parents meet the demands of their jobs, but rather as a means to improve a child’s development and well-being.

Prior to the forthcoming elections, the question of a child’s right to a day care place if one of the parents is not working has come under scrutiny.

The ministry for health and social affairs is currently undertaking to formulate a nation-wide report on early childhood education and care. Ms Hyssälä has also called on parents to discuss their day care wishes. The minister noted that often the option of part-time care or a children’s club might meet the needs of certain families better than full-time day care.

EFFORTS TO SALVAGE FAMILY DAY CARE

The future for family day care provision does not look bright, given that approximately 60 per cent of current family day care providers are to retire by the year 2020. Many families favour family day care over nursery for very young children and Ms Hyssälä is directing efforts at encouraging local authorities to improve the remuneration for family day care providers and to ensure effective administration and guidance of the service.

The progress report also found that local authorities are currently failing to provide adequate substitute carer services for nurseries, and notes that local authorities should consider taking on permanent substitute carers to fill the void.

Comment: The right of a child to “have” a childcare spot is a new one on Americans. I thought this was interesting too.

Comment: I thought this was interesting. I get it from a vocabulary program offered by Dr. Kennedy on his medical site.

Dreams:

Thoughts, visions, and other sensations that occupy the mind in sleep. Dreams occur during that part of sleep when there are rapid eye movements (REMs). We have 3 to 5 periods of REM sleep per night. They usually come at intervals of 1-2 hours and are quite variable in length. An episode of REM sleep may be brief and last but 5 minutes. Or it may be much longer and go for over an hour. About 80% of sleep is NREM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, all but maybe an hour and a half is spent in dreamless NREM sleep.

Dreams are penetrable; it has been found experimentally that one can communicate with a person who is dreaming. The content of dreams is sometimes the topic of psychoanalysis. While this method of therapy is less common than it once was, some doctors still look at dreams as a diagnostic clue to medical disorders. For example, children with bipolar disorders have been found to frequently have a particular type of nightmares, and especially lucid dreams are a side-effect of certain medications.

These clues indicate that chemicals in the brain, as well as life events and our own preoccupations, influence our dreams. Dreaming is not uniquely human. Cats and dogs dream, judging from the physiologic features. So apparently do many other animals.

The word “dream” is traditionally traced back to an Anglo-Saxon word meaning joy, gladness, or mirth. However, “dream” more likely came from another word (from Sanskrit) meaning deception.

From World’s Healthiest Foods
The George Mateljan Foundation

Grapefruit

Tart and tangy with an underlying sweetness, grapefruit has a juiciness that rivals that of the ever popular orange and sparkles with many of the same health promoting benefits. Although available throughout the year, they are in season and at their best from winter through early spring.

Grapefruits usually range in diameter from four to six inches and include both seed and seedless and pink and white varieties. The wonderful flavor of a grapefruit is like paradise as is expressed by its Latin name, Citrus paradisi.

Health Benefits

Rich in the Nutritional Powerhouse Vitamin C

Grapefruit is an excellent source of vitamin C, a vitamin that helps to support the immune system. Vitamin C-rich foods like grapefruit may help reduce cold symptoms or severity of cold symptoms; over 20 scientific studies have suggested that vitamin C is a cold-fighter. Vitamin C also prevents the free radical damage that triggers the inflammatory cascade, and is therefore also associated with reduced severity of inflammatory conditions, such as asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. As free radicals can oxidize cholesterol and lead to plaques that may rupture causing heart attacks or stroke, vitamin C is beneficial to promoting cardiovascular health. Owing to the multitude of vitamin C’s health benefits, it is not surprising that research has shown that consumption of vegetables and fruits high in this nutrient is associated with a reduced risk of death from all causes including heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Enjoy Benefits from the Antioxidant Lycopene

The rich pink and red colors of grapefruit are due to lycopene, a carotenoid phytonutrient. Lycopene appears to have anti-tumor activity. Among the common dietary carotenoids, lycopene has the highest capacity to help fight oxygen free radicals, which are compounds that can damage cells.

Limonoids Promote Optimal Health

Phytonutrients in grapefruit called limonoids inhibit tumor formation by promoting the formation of glutathione-S-transferase, a detoxifying enzyme. This enzyme sparks a reaction in the liver that helps to make toxic compounds more water soluble for excretion from the body. Pulp of citrus fruits like grapefruit contain glucarates, compounds that may help prevent breast cancer.

In animal studies and laboratory tests with human cells, limonoids have been shown to help fight cancers of the mouth, skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon. Now, scientists from the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have shown that our bodies can readily absorb and utilize a very long-acting limonoid called limonin that is present is citrus fruits in about the same amount as vitamin C.

In citrus fruits, limonin is present in the form of limonin glucoside, in which limonin is attached to a sugar (glucose) molecule. Our bodies easily digest this compound, cleaving off the sugar and releasing limonin.

In the ARS study, 16 volunteers were given a dose of limonin glucoside in amounts ranging from those that would be found in from 1 to 7 glasses of orange juice. Blood tests showed that limonin was present in the plasma of all except one of the subjects, with concentrations highest within 6 hours after consumption. Traces of limonin were still present in 5 of the volunteers 24 hours after consumption!

Limonin’s bioavailability and persistence may help explain why citrus limonoids are potent anti-carcinogens that may prevent cancerous cells from proliferating. Other natural anti-carcinogens are available for much less time; for example, the phenols in green tea and chocolate remain active in the body for just 4 to 6 hours. The ARS team is now investigating the potential cholesterol-lowering effects of limonin. Lab tests indicate that human liver cells produce less apo B when exposed to limonin. Apo B is a structural protein that is part of the LDL cholesterol molecule and is needed for LDL production, transport and binding, so higher levels of apo B translate to higher levels of LDL cholesterol.

Grapefruit Lowers Cholesterol

Grapefruit contains pectin, a form of soluble fiber that has been shown in animal studies to slow down the progression of atherosclerosis. In one study, animals fed a high-cholesterol diet plus grapefruit pectin had 24% narrowing of their arteries, while animals fed the high-cholesterol diet without grapefruit pectin had 45% narrowing.

Both blond and red grapefruit can reduce blood levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and red grapefruit lowers triglycerides as well, shows a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Israeli researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem first tested the antioxidant potential of blond and red grapefruits and then their cholesterol-lowering potential in humans. The test tube research showed that red grapefruit contains more bioactive compounds and total polyphenols than blond, but both grapefruits are comparable in their content of fiber, phenolic and ascorbic acids, and the flavonoid, naringinen, although red grapefruit contains slightly more flavonoids and anthocyanins.

In this recent study, participants added either red grapefruit, blond grapefruit or no grapefruit to their daily diet. The results indicated that both types of grapefruit appeared to lower LDL cholesterol in just 30 days: total cholesterol by 15.5% in those eating red grapefruit and 7.6% in those eating blond grapefruit; LDL cholesterol by 20.3% and 10.7% respectively; and triglycerides by 17.2% and 5.6% respectively. No changes were seen in the control group (those that didn’t eat any grapefruit).

Both red and blond grapefruits both positively influenced cholesterol levels, but red grapefruit was more than twice as effective, especially in lowering triglycerides. In addition, both grapefruits significantly improved blood levels of protective antioxidants. Red grapefruit’s better performance may be due to an as yet unknown antioxidant compound or the synergistic effects of its phytonutrients, including lycopene.

In response to this rapid and very positive outcome, the researchers concluded that adding fresh red grapefruit to the diet could be beneficial for persons with high cholesterol, especially those who also have high triglycerides. One caveat, however: Compounds in grapefruit are known to increase circulating levels of several prescription drugs including statins. For this reason, the risk of muscle toxicity associated with statins may increase when grapefruit is consumed. (See our Safety section for more information.)

Prevent Kidney Stones

Want to reduce your risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones? Drink grapefruit juice. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that when women drank ½ to 1 liter of grapefruit, apple or orange juice daily, their urinary pH value and citric acid excretion increased, significantly dropping their risk of forming calcium oxalate stones.

Promotes Optimal Health

Not only are grapefruit rich in vitamin C, but new research presented at the 228th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society provides two more reasons to drink grapefruit juice: protection against lung and colon cancer.

In humans, drinking three 6-ounce glasses of grapefruit juice a day was shown to reduce the activity of an enzyme that activates cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. In rats whose colons were injected with carcinogens, grapefruit and its isolated active compounds (apigenin, hesperidin, limonin, naringin, naringenin, nobiletin) not only increased the suicide (apoptosis) of cancer cells, but also the production of normal colon cells. Researchers also confirmed that grapefruit may help prevent weight gain by lowering insulin levels.

Grapefruit Boosts Liver Enzymes that Clear Out Carcinogens

Grapefruit juice significantly increases the production and activity of liver detoxification enzymes responsible for preparing toxic compounds for elimination from the body.

The liver clears out toxins, including carcinogens, using a two step process called Phase I and Phase II detoxification. In the first part of this process, Phase I, enzymes belonging to the cytochrome P450 family, work on the toxin to make it more attractive to enzymes involved in the second part of the process, Phase II. Unfortunately, the action of Phase I enzymes often renders the toxin not only more attractive to Phase II enzymes, but even more dangerous, and some foods contain compounds that only increase the activity of Phase I without also turning up Phase II.

Grapefruit increases the activity not only of the Phase I enzyme CYP1A1, but also that of NAD(P)H:quinone reductase 1, a Phase II detoxification enzyme that protects cells against oxidative stress and toxic quinones. The end result: grapefruit works in both Phase I and Phase II to enhance the liver’s ability to remove cancer-causing toxins.

Grapefruit’s Naringenin Repairs DNA

Naringenin, a flavonoid concentrated in grapefruit, helps repair damaged DNA in human prostate cancer cells (cell line LNCaP), reports a lab study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

The risk of prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the U.S, increases with age since the older we become, the more times our cells have divided and the greater the chance for DNA mutations to occur. DNA repair is one of the body’s primary defense mechanisms against the development of cancer since it removes potentially cancer-causing mutations in cells.

Naringenin helps restore health to damaged DNA by inducing two enzymes that repair DNA during the replication stage. These enzymes, 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase 1 (hOGG1), and DNA polymerase beta (DNA poly beta), are both involved in the DNA base excision repair (BER) pathway.

The scientists in this study exposed cell cultures to 80 micromoles per liter, an amount we cannot achieve by consuming grapefruit since research indicates that only between 2 and 15% flavonoids in the food we consume are absorbed in the GI tract, and plasma concentrations after eating flavonoid-rich foods range from 0.5 to 1 micromole per liter.

Fortunately, however, the researchers also demonstrated that the concentration of naringenin inside the cells that was needed for its beneficial effects was only 5% of the amount in the medium, and this amount is physiologically achievable in our tissues. Unlike many other cancers, prostate cancer is slow growing initially and often remains undetectable for a long time. Enjoying grapefruit regularly may be one way to prevent its progression by promoting the repair of damaged DNA in prostate cells, thus preventing them from becoming cancerous.

Description

The grapefruit is a large citrus fruit related to the orange, lemon and pomelo. Grapefruits are categorized as white (blond), pink or ruby. However, this terminology doesn’t reflect their skin color, which is either yellow or pinkish-yellow, but rather describes the color of their flesh.

Grapefruits usually range in diameter from four to six inches, with some varieties featuring seeds while others are seedless. The wonderful flavor of a grapefruit is like paradise, just as its Latin name Citrus paradisi connotes. It is juicy, tart and tangy with an underlying sweetness that weaves throughout.

History

Grapefruits have a rather recent history, having been discovered in Barbados in the 18th century. Many botanists think the grapefruit was actually the result of a natural cross breeding which occurred between the orange and the pomelo, a citrus fruit that was brought from Indonesia to Barbados in the 17th century.

The resulting fruit was given the name “grapefruit” in 1814 in Jamaica, a name which reflects the way it’s arranged when it grows-hanging in clusters just like grapes.

Grapefruit trees were planted in Florida in the early 19th century, although they did not become a viable commercial crop until later that century. Florida is still a major producer of grapefruits, as is California, Arizona and Texas. Other countries that produce grapefruits commercially include Israel, South Africa and Brazil.

How to Select and Store

A good grapefruit doesn’t have to be perfect in color. Skin discoloration, scratches or scales may affect the appearance of a grapefruit, but they do not impact the taste or texture quality.

Signs of decay include an overly soft spot at the stem end of the fruit and areas that appear watersoaked. These forms of decay usually translate into poor taste-a flavor that is less vibrant and more bitter than a good quality grapefruit.

The fruits should be heavy for their size as this usually indicates that they feature thin skins and therefore a higher concentration of juicier flesh. Those that have overly rough or wrinkled skin usually tend to be thick skinned and should be avoided.

Grapefruits should be firm, yet slightly springy when gentle pressure is applied. While chilled grapefruits do not have an apparent fragrance, those kept at room temperature should have a subtly sweet aroma. Grapefruits can be purchased throughout the year although the height of the season ranges from winter through early spring.

Since grapefruits are juicier when they’re slightly warm rather than cool, store them at room temperature if you are planning on consuming them within a week of purchase. If you will not be using them within this time period, store them in the refrigerator crisper where they will keep fresh for two to three weeks.

How to Enjoy

Tips for preparing grapefruit:

Grapefruits should be rinsed under cool water before consuming, even though you will probably not be eating the peel, since cutting into an unwashed fruit may transfer dirt or bacteria that may reside on the skin’s surface to the edible flesh.

Grapefruits are usually eaten fresh by slicing the fruit horizontally and scooping out sections of the halves with a spoon. To separate the flesh from the membrane you can either cut it with a sharp knife, a special curved-blade grapefruit knife, or a serrated grapefruit spoon. If there are seeds, you can remove them with your spoon before you eat the grapefruit.

Grapefruits can also be eaten like oranges. You can peel them with your hands or with a knife. If choosing the latter method, starting at the top, make a vertical incision that runs downward and then back up to the top on the other side and then repeat so that there will be four sections of similar size.

Be careful to only cut through skin and not into the membrane. The skin can then be peeled back with your hands or with the knife. The membranes can be separated, as you would do to an orange eaten in this manner.

Another way to serve grapefruit is to peel and slice them.

A few quick serving ideas:

Grapefruit sections add a tangy spark to green salads.

Instead of your morning glass of OJ, have a glass of grapefruit juice.

Combine diced grapefruit with cilantro and chili peppers to make a unique salsa.

To enjoy a salad with a tropical flair, combine chopped grapefruit pieces, cooked shrimp and avocadoes and serve on a bed of romaine lettuce.

Safety

Grapefruit and Drug Interactions

Check with your healthcare practitioner about consuming grapefruit juice if you’re taking pharmaceutical drugs. Certain pharmaceutical drugs combined with grapefruit juice become more potent. Compounds in grapefruit juice, including naringenin, slow the normal detoxification and metabolism processes in the intestines and liver, which hinders the body’s ability to breakdown and eliminate these drugs.

These interactive drugs include the immunosuppressent cyclosporine and calcium channel blocker drugs, such as felodipine, nifedipine and verapamil. Other drugs whose bioavailability is enhanced by grapefruit juice are the antihistamine terfenadine, the hormone estradiol and the antiviral agent saquinavir.

Research also indicates that individuals taking statin drugs should avoid grapefruit. Grapefruit increases the amount of statin drug that reaches the general circulation in two ways. First, grapefruit contains a compound called naringenin, which inactivates an enzyme (cytochrome P450 3A4) in the small intestine that metabolizes statin drugs. Secondly, grapefruit also inhibits P-glycoprotein, a carrier molecule produced in the intestinal wall that would normally transport the statin drug back to the gut. The end result of these two mechanisms is that much more of the statin drug enters the systemic circulation than would normally be the case, leading to a build up in statin levels that can be quite dangerous, and may trigger a rare but serious statin-associated disease called rhabdomyolysis. Rhaddomyolysis affects muscle tissue, usually causing temporary paralysis or weakness, unless the muscle is severely injured.

Nutritional Profile

Grapefruit is an excellent source of vitamin C. It is also a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin A, potassium, folate, and vitamin B5. Grapefruit also contains phytochemicals including liminoids and lycopene.

For an in-depth nutritional profile click here: Grapefruit.

In-Depth Nutritional Profile

In addition to the nutrients highlighted in our ratings chart, an in-depth nutritional profile for Grapefruit is also available. This profile includes information on a full array of nutrients, including carbohydrates, sugar, soluble and insoluble fiber, sodium, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and more.

Introduction to Food Rating System Chart

The following chart shows the nutrients for which this food is either an excellent, very good or good source. Next to the nutrient name you will find the following information: the amount of the nutrient that is included in the noted serving of this food; the %Daily Value (DV) that that amount represents; the nutrient density rating; and the food’s World’s Healthiest Foods Rating. Underneath the chart is a table that summarizes how the ratings were devised. Read detailed information on our Food and Recipe Rating System.

In Depth Nutritional Profile for Grapefruit

We have a field trip today. We have been invited to go to Kid’s World by Justin’s parents. It’s a lovely gift. We will leave at 10:00 and return at 1:00. Lunch is included.

We’ve been practicing the play and the older children know a lot of their lines. It’s going to be very cute.

Yesterday we tried artichokes. Some of the kids really liked them, and some kids thought they were really retched. It’s one of my favorites and contains more protein and more fiber than any other vegetable I can find. It was a fun meal.

Currents are next.

We’ve been going outside a lot and we are working on washing hands with soap. This is a very important part of training. We soap our dry hands with liquid antibacterial soap like hand cream right to the elbows, and then we wash it off. By the time a child has done that much rubbing, hands are clean. Please work with children at home. Wrists and forearms should be clean. Please encourage children to ask to have their shoes tied. Please make sure shoes fit.

It’s light jacket weather. Heavy coats are a nuisance because children don’t want to wear them.

Flu is still out there. Please do NOT send children to school who have vomited the night before.

Every day I read about 20 articles about preschool and its misconceptions across the globe. The interest in preschool nationwide is a matter of guilt implemented by government officials who generally don’t know what they are talking about. Everyone wants to implement a free, across the nation first steps program for children with all the bells and whistles with a cost plan nearing the space project.

As a producer of an early childhood project that started with $160.00 and has turned out to be what most people consider a really good program, I’d like to say whoa!

The first problem is that most people who don’t work daily with children don’t understand early childhood, and therefore should probably be quiet while those of us who do should have the floor.

Children don’t need huge places to be. Children don’t need state of the arts; they need commitment. When the cost of the building is more than the cost of the teachers, there’s a problem. When the profits go into individual pockets and not into the art and music program, there are problems.

Building places for young children is really very low cost and very easy to do. I can’t understand the difficulty. A classroom, a teacher, and a lot of donations from parents. It’s possible anywhere! And that’s how you begin. Then you add another teacher and another classroom and more toys and more books and more art supplies…

Across the globe people who don’t know are telling us it’s all impossible to do, too costly, too political – a huge step for man, a bigger step for mankind. Shhhhhhhh – and let the preschool teachers speak, please!

The Heart of a Woman

Guest Column: Heart Disease
— By Karen Gardner, Parenting Writer

Heart disease: It’s not just for men anymore. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart disease kills more 500,000 women annually. In 2001, well over half of the people who died from heart disease were women. That’s right ladies, as far as heart health goes, it is no longer a man’s world.

Yet, “Women still think they cannot have coronary disease,” says Dr. Massimo Guisti of Cardiovascular Associates of Virginia, PC. “They are more afraid of ovarian or breast cancer, but coronary disease is the actually the leading cause of death in women.”

Heart disease often presents itself differently in women than it does in men. That includes the warning signs of a heart attack as well. In addition to the classic heart attack warning signs, such as chest discomfort, shortness of breath and pain in one or both arms, women may experience these less common signs:

• Atypical chest, stomach or abdominal pain.
• Nausea or dizziness without chest pain.
• Shortness of breath and difficulty breathing without chest pain.
• Unexplained anxiety, weakness or fatigue.
• Palpitations, cold sweat or paleness.

The National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute reports that one in 10 American women, ages 45-64, has some form of heart disease. In women over the age of 65, these numbers double. For women, like men, the major risk factors for heart disease include increasing age, heredity, tobacco use, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity and obesity.

While some of these factors, such as age and family history, cannot be modified, there are plenty others that can. The first step a woman can do towards reducing her risk of coronary disease is to take more responsibility for her health. Women must insist on a thorough risk assessment from their healthcare provider, and not be afraid to ask questions.

The American Heart Association suggests that every woman ask her healthcare provider these 10 questions about cardiovascular disease:

• What are my risk factors for heart disease?
• Am I at risk for a stroke?
• What are the warning signs of heart disease and a stroke?
• What should I know about the effects of menopause on my heart health?
• Do I need to lose or gain weight for my health?
• What is a healthful eating plan for me?
• What kind of physical activity is right for me?
• What is my blood pressure, and is it appropriate for my age?
• What is my cholesterol level, and is it healthy or does it need improving?
• Based on my history and risk factors, what can I do to lower my risk of heart disease and stroke?

For mature women, the question of menopause and heart health is particularly important. Long gone is the misconception that estrogen protects post-menopausal women from heart disease. Therefore, mature women need to maintain an open dialog with their primary care physician and gynecologist on the subject, and again do not be afraid to ask questions.

“Women are underrepresented in terms of the workup we do in the cardiac world,” says Henrico Doctor’s Hospital cardiologist Dr. Gary Zeevi. “After menopause all women should have a fairly extensive evaluation of their coronary risk.”

For more information on women and heart disease, visit the American Heart Association Web site.

Comment: It starts in youth, ladies, and good habits continue into grandmahood.

Report points to need for affordable preschool

Feb 21, 2007 04:18 PM

Students at the St. Mary’s Child Center.

Marty Constantine, kindergarten teacher

Rich Van Wyk/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis – A report finds children as young as four and five aren’t ready for school because they aren’t getting the help they need at home.

The United Way report finds low income children starting kindergarten years behind their classmates.

It’s lunch time at the St. Mary’s Child Center, where low income youngsters learn reading, arithmetic and other school skills, even table manners.

Teachers say this is their best meal of the day and on some days, their only meal of the day.

The United Way of Central Indiana insists the state needs additional affordable preschool and day care like this. Its School Readiness report argues that a child’s family environment has an enormous impact on their learning

“Those who are economically disadvantaged often start school a year or two behind in language and other skills,” said Ellen Annala, United Way president.

Annala insists they may never catch up.

The report cites grim statistics: One in five of the state’s preschoolers live in poverty. Forty percent of Marion County’s preschoolers are raised by one parent or other adults and less than half of them receiving assistance to offset the cost of preschool.

“It is very odd to be reading all the facts and say that’s my life. That’s what I deal with every day,” said Marty Constantine, kindergarten teacher.

Constantine is an IPS kindergarten teacher in a low-income, high-crime neighborhood. Assessment tests found three quarters of her students arrived without the basic skills most kids learn at home.

“Hold a pencil, write their first name, recognize colors, shapes, speak in complete sentences,” she said.

None of them, she says, attended preschool.

The United Way hopes its report is a call to action, prompting a debate on how to meet the huge needs of Indiana’s smallest students.

A Critique of Education and Government: By David Brooks

All the presidential candidates this year will talk about education. The conventional ones will talk about improving the schools. The creative ones will talk about improving the lives of students.

The conventional ones, though they don’t know it, are prisoners of the dead husk of behaviorism. They will speak of education as if children were blank slates waiting to have ideas inputted into their brains with some efficient delivery mechanism.

The creative ones will finally absorb the truth found in decades of research: the relationships children have outside school shape their performance inside the school.

The conventional candidates will give the same old education reform speeches, trumpeting this or that bureaucratic reshuffle. The creative ones will give speeches like the one David Cameron, who is reviving the British Tory party, gave last month. They will talk, as Cameron did, about the mushy things, like love and attachment, and will say, as Cameron did, “Family relationships matter more than anything else.”

They will understand that schools filled with students who can’t control their impulses, who can’t focus their attention and who can’t regulate their emotions will not succeed, no matter how many reforms are made by governors, superintendents or presidents.

These candidates will emphasize that education is a cumulative process that begins at the dawn of life and builds early in life as children learn how to learn. These candidates will point out that powerful social trends — the doubling of single-parent families over the past generation, the rise of divorce rates — mean that government has to rethink its role. They’ll note that if we want to have successful human capital policies, we have to get over the definition of education as something that takes place in schools between the hours of 8 and 3, between the months of September and June, and between the ages of 5 and 18.

As Bob Marvin of the University of Virginia points out, there is a mountain of evidence demonstrating that early childhood attachments shape lifelong learning competence.

Children do have inborn temperaments and intelligence. Nevertheless, students make the most of their natural dispositions when they have a secure emotional base from which to explore, and even the brightest children stumble when there is chaos inside.

Research over the past few decades impressively shows that children who emerge from attentive, attuned parental relationships do better in school and beyond. They tend to choose friends wisely. They handle frustration better. They’re more resilient in the face of setbacks. They grow up to become more productive workers.

On the other hand, as Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania has found, students who do not feel emotionally safe tend not to develop good memories (which is consistent with cortisol experiments in animals). Students from less stimulating environments have worse language skills.

The question, of course, is, What can government do about any of this? The answer is that there are programs that do work to help young and stressed mothers establish healthier attachments. These programs usually involve having nurses or mature women make a series of home visits to give young mothers the sort of cajoling and practical wisdom that in other times would have been delivered by grandmothers or elders.

The Circle of Security program has measurably improved attachments and enhanced social skills. The Nurse-Family Partnerships program, founded by David Olds, has produced rigorously examined, impressive results. Children who have been in this program had 59 percent fewer arrests at age 15. (Presidential candidates are commanded to read Katherine Boo’s Feb. 6, 2006, New Yorker article to get a feel for how these programs work.)

It’s important not to get carried away. “Enhancing Early Attachments,” a review of the literature edited by Lisa Berlin and others, is filled with phrases like “marginal success” and “modest but significant benefits.” But these programs can be expanded.

And one thing is clear: It’s crazy to have educational policies that, in effect, chop up children’s brains into the rational cortex, which the government ministers to in schools, and the emotional limbic system, which the government ignores. In nature there is no neat division. Emotional engagement is the essence of information processing and learning.

In Britain, where both David Cameron and Gordon Brown have grappled with this reality, policy is catching up with the research. In the United States, we are forever behind. But that won’t last. This year, some smart presidential candidate will help us catch up.

Comment: This is why I have little hope for “education” or “government” making any real changes in education. I believe the changes will come from individuals doing good work in small places. When a nation gives a nod to any kind of behavior in one breath, and then tries to pay for the consequences with the next, there are moral issues. Moral issues are solved at home. The home is the center of life – not school.