Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir and colleagues at deCODE Genetics Inc. in Reykjavik discovered the risk variant through a large-scale survey in Iceland. In that survey the researchers compared the frequencies of several hundred thousand common genetic variants in healthy individuals with those suffering from type 2 diabetes.

The scientists subsequently replicated the association between the disease and a variant in CDKAL1 in samples from several independent populations of European or Han Chinese ancestry.

Individuals with two copies of the risk variant were found to be at increased risk for developing the disease compared with individuals with only a single copy of the risk variant. Such individuals also had approximately 20 percent less insulin response than did those with only one copy or non-carriers, suggesting the variant may confer risk of type 2 diabetes through reduced insulin secretion.

The study appears online in the journal Nature Genetics.

WASHINGTON - Young adults beginning treatment with antidepressants should be warned about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, federal health officials said Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration proposed labeling changes that would expand a warning now on the antidepressants. The current language applies only to children and adolescents. The expanded warning would apply to adults 18-24 during the first month or two of treatment with the drugs, the FDA said.

The proposed labeling changes also would note that studies have not shown this increased risk in adults older than 24, and that adults 65 and older taking antidepressants have a decreased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, it said.

The proposed expanded warnings emphasize that depression and certain other serious psychiatric disorders are themselves the most important causes of suicide.

“Antidepressant medications benefit many patients, but it is important that doctors and patients are aware of the risks,” said Dr. Steven Galson, the FDA’s drugs chief.

The proposed changes came with the endorsement of FDA expert advisers. Some experts have argued that the changes are overdue while others maintain they could keep drugs from those who need them.

Last month, a comprehensive analysis of antidepressants for children and teenagers found the benefits of treatment trump the small risk of increasing suicidal thoughts and behaviors in some patients. The Journal of the American Medical Association study also found that risk is lower than what the FDA identified in 2004, the year the agency warned the public about the risks of the drugs in children.

May 2–BELLINGHAM — St. Joseph Hospital is warning local residents to beware of an automated telephone message that advises recipients they have a past due account at the hospital.

Hospital spokeswoman Nicci Noteboom said the hospital is not using such a system to contact its customers.

The automated message provides an e-mail address that the recipient is supposed to use to contact the hospital to arrange payment.

That e-mail address is not one that is used by the hospital, Noteboom said.

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Global Alliance salutes Tulsa World, teacher Susie Tattershall

The Tulsa Global Alliance will honor good world citizens at its 12th annual awards dinner May 9 in the Great Hall at University of Tulsa’s Allen Chapman Activity Center.

The Tulsa World and Susie Tattershall will be recognized for their contributions to citizen diplomacy and international understanding.

The awards are given annually to an outstanding individual and institution in the community who have made significant contributions to those missions and political stability, or have made cooperative efforts to solve international health, economic, social or environmental challenges.

The Tulsa World, represented by publisher Bobby Lorton, will receive the award for its support and promotion of international awareness and understanding. The alliance values the decades of consistent support the newspaper has provided for the Kids’ World International Festival as a sponsor and “working” partner.

TGA particularly wants to recognize the World’s Newspaper in Education program for presenting numerous workshops on diversity, tolerance and Kids’ World. The newspapers provided to classrooms over the years have been invaluable in supplementing education throughout the state and informing teachers about Kids’ World programs.

Susie Tattershall, a Chinese and Japanese language teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, will be honored for her work in maintaining school exchanges with sister schools in Beihai, China, and Utsunomiya, Japan.

Tattershall has almost single-handedly changed the lives of hundreds of students through travel and study abroad.

The evening will include international cuisine representing fare from 10 cultures.

Marcia Heronemus-Pate is the 2007 Global Vision chairwoman. KOTV, channel 6, news anchor Terry Hood will be the emcee.

Lorton will be introduced by Eisenhower International School Principal Stacy Strow. John Waldron — a Booker T. Washington social studies teacher and the 2007 National Council for International Visitors Educator of the Year — will introduce Tattershall.

The 2007 Global Vision Committee includes Stephen Eberle, Sarah Horton, Deidra Rees, Millicent Adu-H’Torah, Joel Embry and TGA staff members Jocelyn Wood and Becky Collins.

2007 Global sponsors are the Tulsa World and Williams Cos. Vision sponsors are the Bank of Oklahoma, College of Business Administration at TU, Helmerich & Payne, and the Office of the Provost at TU.

Award sponsors are Booker T. Washington Foundation for Excellence, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, CloseBend Inc., HM International, Jayzee Foundation, Marcia Heronemus-Pate, the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, AEP-PSO, F&M Bank and Trust Co., Tulsa Community College, and Jana and Michael Boyd.

Friends of Global Vision are Ken Busby, J.M. Brown and Associates, Lobeck Taylor Foundation, Raymond and Nancy Feldman, Rogers and Bell Attorneys, Phil and Emily Wood, and J. Markham and Becky Collins.

Past Global Vision winners include Jessica Stowell and Williams Cos. in 2006; Sister Cities Mayors and Mayor Bill LaFortune in 2005; Nancy Feldman and TU in 2004; the Boeing Co. and Priscilla Harris in 2003; Emily and Phil Wood in 2002; T.D. Williamson Jr. and Richard Williamson in 2001; Rodger Randle and Eisenhower International School in 2000; Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in 1999; Rosie and Charlie Brown and Bob Portiss in 1998; Sara Sanditen in 1997; and Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother in 1996.

Event goes to the heart of things

Tulsa is seeing red, crimson, vermilion and all hues in between.

It’s the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” luncheon, set May 10 at the Doubletree Hotel Downtown.

The Go Red for Women campaign is the American Heart Association’s national call to increase awareness of heart disease and to inspire women to take charge of their heart health.

Guests at the luncheon will hear keynote speaker Dr. Mary Bauman, play a “Game of Hearts” and bid on items in a great live auction.

Bauman is featured daily on Oklahoma City’s KWTV, channel 9, and has been syndicated nationally. Her book, “Fight Fatigue — Six Simple Steps to Maximize Your Energy,” helps women tackle this all- too-common problem. Her emphasis, delivered with humor, is on taking action to identify and eliminate personal energy thieves. Bauman is Medical Director for Women’s Health & Community Relations at Integris Health Inc.

The live auction will offer an “Afternoon with Ellen DeGeneres” package, with air fare for two to Los Angeles, hotel stay and two show tickets to see “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

Also up for auction is a trip to Savannah, Ga., and a party with cookbook author and Food Network star Paula Deen. Four will travel by private jet, tour the city, and attend a taping of Deen’s cooking show and then enjoy a fun time with her at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House.

And here’s how the Game of Hearts works: Five facts about heart and stroke will be announced. The audience will then be asked whether they have a specific item.

For example, “Fact: 63 percent of women who die suddenly of heart disease had no previous symptoms of this disease. Question — who here has a pair of red lacy underwear in her purse? A red pill box?”

Each winner will receive a treasure from Miss Jackson’s, such as a pair of Faberge Flutes, William Yeoward’s book “Perfect Tables,” Natura Bisse Diamond Cream Kit, Burberry leather goods, and Bond No. 9 West Side fragrance.

So bring a big, well-stocked tote bag to the luncheon!

A silent auction will include the following categories: diva, sports and leisure, kids corner, home and garden and travel. Shop for Mother’s Day, graduation, Father’s Day, and shop early for Christmas.

Lew Erickson is event chairwoman. Advisers are Gae Bachle and Barbie Blue.

Chairwomen include Kim Owen, Teresa Burkett, Ann Weatherly, Tracey Norvell, Dr. Melanie Blackstock and Sherry King.

Brandy Flewellen is the Go Red director.

St. Francis Health System and the St. Francis Heart Hospital are presenting sponsors. Jackie Cooper Imports is the Platinum sponsor.

Gold sponsors include SemGroup, Senior Star Living/Burgundy Place and Woodland Terrace.

Silver sponsors are Cherokee Casino and Resort, Guaranty Title, Midwest Dairy Council, QuikTrip Corp., SouthCrest Hospital and Stillwater National Bank.

Media sponsors are the Tulsa World; radio station KBEZ, 92.9 FM; television station KJRH, channel 2; and Oklahoma Magazine. Miss Jackson’s is the sponsor of the Game of Hearts. Tickets are $100 per person.

Danna Sue Walker 581-8342

dannasue.walker@tulsaworld.com

information

“Go Red for Women” luncheon events schedule

9:30 to 11 a.m. — Breakout sessions presented by St. Francis Health System/St. Francis Heart Hospital and Senior Star Living: “Clean Pipes for Women & the Men in Their Lives,” “Engage Life: Mind Matters Brain Fitness Program,” and “Women & Heart Disease”

9:30 a.m to noon — Health Expo and silent auction

11:45 to 1:15 p.m. — Lunch, keynote speaker Dr. Mary Ann Bauman, the third annual Game of Hearts presented by Miss Jackson’s, and the live auction

(c) 2007 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

The country doesn’t show that it’s ready to ease the burden on parents, he says.

Americans can alleviate the pressure that working parents experience, but the country has yet to show the desire to change the cultural expectations, said an internationally acclaimed physician and expert in early childhood development.

The expert, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, said the stress and pressure families face today are much greater than those of previous generations.

“We’re concerned about how that pressure on parents transmits itself to children,” Brazelton said. “We have solutions for each of these stressors, but we don’t have the national will to carry out what we know.”

Brazelton will give a presentation Tuesday geared toward parents of infants and toddlers. With an interactive session, he will offer child-rearing strategies that will build confidence and self-esteem in the parents and child.

Brazelton and his co-author Dr. Joshua Sparrow will speak Wednesday at a professional seminar, offering sessions on emotional competence in babies, models for early intervention and how to help children cope with stressful events.

Brazelton has appeared before many congressional committees to advocate stronger family medical leave policies and improved child- care access and quality for working parents.

The expectations for women to be successful in the workplace and as mothers can be overwhelming, he said.

“We’ve asked women to split themselves in two,” he said. “We’ve said: ‘Go out in the work force, we’ll make it so for you to rise to the top. But we expect you to go home and take care of the family at the end of the day.’

“That is really two major jobs. How can any woman do those without stress? And what have we done to back women up? We haven’t done a damn thing.”

Brazelton has written more than 200 scholarly papers and books including “What Every Baby Knows,” which became a cable television show.

He teaches and conducts research as an emeritus clinical professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He is also a professor of psychiatry and human development at Brown University.

He developed the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale in 1973 to evaluate newborns. Widely used in major hospitals, it assesses the physical and neurological responses of babies and their emotional well-being and individual differences.

Brazelton says 90 percent of the U.S. child-care system is not tolerable. It increases stress when parents must leave their children in sub-par care, he said.

“We know how to make child care better,” Brazelton said. “It would take money and attention, but we could do it.

“We need to upgrade child care all over, particularly for working parents who have been pushed into the work force. They are working not by choice but by the stressors we’ve created, especially in our underserved populations.”

Family medical leave in the United States falls short of what is allowed in European and Asian countries, he said.

“We’ve got to demand of big business that you pay attention to family issues,” Brazelton said. “It is not just women’s issues, but it’s about families. Allow a mother or father to attend a soccer game or be present at a child’s major event.

“We have to think about what we are doing to people in the work force, mothers and fathers. We have to put family before business.”

Ginnie Graham 581-8376

ginnie.graham@tulsaworld.com

Child-rearing forum with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton

Parents’ Night:

7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa Auditorium, 700 N. Greenwood Ave.

Professional seminar:

8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Doubletree Hotel Downtown, 616 W. Seventh St.

Tickets:

$7.50 for Parents’ Night and $100 for the seminar. Buy online at www.ccrctulsa.org or call the Child Care Resource Center at 834- 2273. Seating is limited.

(c) 2007 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Albuterol inhalers with CFC propellants are becoming harder to find, area asthma sufferers discover.

As the deadline to phase out a commonly used asthma inhaler nears, Tulsa asthma sufferers are feeling the squeeze, officials say.

“We are hearing that the phase-out is already impacting Tulsans,” said Marshan Oliver-Marick, program director for the American Lung Association of Central States.

Albuterol inhalers that use chlorofluorocarbons as a propellant will no longer be produced in the U.S. after Dec. 31, 2008, in an effort to lessen ozone depletion.

These inhalers have been the industry standard for 25 years in providing relief to an estimated 17 million Americans with asthma, a chronic lung disease characterized by restricted or inflamed airways.

As manufacturers begin phasing out their CFC inhalers ahead of the ban, asthma patients and others who use these albuterol inhalers are having difficulty finding them and must switch to higher-priced hydrofluoroalkane inhalers.

The cost of CFC inhalers averages between $5 to $25, compared with HFA inhalers that cost from $30 to $60, Oliver-Marick said.

“To me, the effect of the chlorofluorocarbons from inhalers is infinitesimal,” said Dr. James S. Seabass, a Tulsa pulmonologist and public health physician.

But a 1987 landmark international agreement, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, called for a complete phase-out of the use of chlorofluorocarbons and similar substances by 2000, he said.

After several medical extensions for albuterol inhalers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would ban CFC inhalers as of the end of 2008.

“They’re becoming less and less available to people,” Seabass said.

But he notes that the use of albuterol for the temporary relief of asthma symptoms “is like putting a Band-Aid on a cut.”

“It’s only rescue therapy. It doesn’t treat the underlying cause,” Seabass said.

While the switch over from CFC inhalers to HFA inhalers may cause some inconvenience and a larger dent in the wallet, Seabass said the change may have a silver lining.

“This might force people into going to their doctor and getting better medical care for their condition,” he said.

New guidelines for the treatment of asthma focuses less on relieving symptoms and more on controlling the disease, Seabass said.

According to a study cited by the American Lung Association, 72 percent of men and 86 percent of women with asthma had symptoms 15 years after they were first diagnosed with the disease.

Only 19 percent of these people were still seeing a doctor for their condition, and only 32 percent continued to regularly use medication to manage their asthma, the study said.

Seabass said such studies are alarming because people who control their asthma have better health outcomes than those who do not.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when people control their asthma, they will not have symptoms like wheezing or coughing, they will sleep better, will not miss work or school, can take part in all physical activities, and will not have to go to the hospital.

“This situation may be a double-edged sword,” Seabass said. “On one hand, it will cost more. But hopefully, more people will get in to see their doctor and get the proper treatment.”

Kim Archer 581-8315

kim.archer@tulsaworld.com

Do you have control of your asthma?

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you are advised to see your physician:

Do you use a quick-relief inhaler more than two times a week?

Do you wake up at night with asthma more than two times a month?

Do you refill your inhaler prescription more than two times a year?

Source: Baylor Health Care System Rules of Two

For more information about controlling your asthma or to take the Asthma Control Test, go to www.asthmacontrol.com.

(c) 2007 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

This is one of the first studies to look at the risk of dementia in people who never smoked, but were exposed to secondhand smoke, said Thaddeus Haight, a senior statistician at the University of California at Berkeley.

These results show that secondhand smoke is associated with increased risk of dementia, even in people without known risk factors for dementia related to diagnosed cardiovascular disease, he said at the 59th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston.

Haight identified 985 subjects from the sub-study on cognitive function of the Cardiovascular Health Study. The subjects were mostly women, ages 70 to 74, and at enrollment, the subjects had no underlying dementia, no clinical cardiovascular problems and were non-smokers.

He scrutinized results after six years and found that the subjects who progressed to dementia tended to have underlying cardiovascular disease as determined by ultrasound examination of the carotid arteries in the neck — and lived with a smoker for more than 30 years.

He found little correlation between dementia and living with a smoker for less than 30 years.

Haight said people with the greatest underlying cardiovascular risk who lived with smokers for longer than 30 years were about 2.5 times more likely to have developed dementia than those who had the lowest cardiovascular problems and had lived with a smoker for less than 30 years.

May 2–State legislators, reacting to the recent spate of suicides in Massachusetts prisons, sought assurances from prison officials yesterday that they were taking greater precautions with mentally ill inmates to prevent further deaths.

But public safety officials, who promised more training and better-equipped units, acknowledged those changes will cost millions and that money has yet to be approved.

One concrete change for troubled inmates: Those who hurt themselves or try to commit suicide are no longer punished with a disciplinary report in addition to being moved to segregation. In the past, those inmates have been denied telephone calls to family, contact with lawyers, outdoor time, and even clothing and showers.

In segregation, “Almost all prisoners were stripped of their clothing… and issued a safety smock,” said Lindsay M. Hayes, the author of a suicide study commissioned by the state last year, during testimony yesterday.

Now, mental health clinicians will judge whether each suicidal inmate in segregation can have those rights, Veronica Madden, associate commissioner at the state Department of Correction, told members of the joint committees on Public Safety and Homeland Security and Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Madden said the department is adopting virtually all the recommendations in the Hayes report. But the biggest change — the establishment of residential treatment units, or alternative housing units for mentally ill inmates — can come only if the Legislature approves millions of dollars in its 2008 capital budget to build them. The Correction Department wants to create more than 140 beds for inmates with serious mental illnesses and behavioral problems.

James R. Pingeon, litigation director for Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, which represents inmates, said residential treatment units have been proposed before but haven’t materialized. The current conditions in segregation, he said, are contributing to the state’s high suicide rate.

“Segregation is in itself an extreme stressor that makes it more likely there will be suicides,” Pingeon said. Of the 15 suicides in the state over the past three years, he said, seven inmates were in segregation, and five were in cells with segregation-like conditions.

Dr. David G. Power, a Cambridge psychologist who has consulted to the state, described some segregation cells as “gothic” and said mental health watch cells were in “alarmingly poor condition,” often dirty, overheated, and with poor ventilation.

“It’s difficult to walk through Cedar Junction and not feel like you’ve descended into Dante’s Inferno,” he said.

Mary Beth Heffernan, undersecretary for criminal justice in the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety, which oversees the Correction Department, tried to assure lawmakers yesterday that $30 million in new funding in the governor’s proposed budget would help improve inmate healthcare, including mental health services.

Part of the funding is to go to better training of correction officers, as called for by Hayes, and for overtime. The latest class of officers, which graduated last Friday, received eight hours of training on dealing with mentally ill prisoners, up from four hours in the past, according to Madden. Those officers will be part of a new protocol to check on suicidal inmates every 15 minutes, instead of every half hour, she said.

State Representative Michael A. Costello, cochairman of the Public Safety Committee, asked whether the department would stick to its promises of more training. “I’m hoping that we don’t hear back from the DOC that we cut back on training due to financial considerations,” he said.

Heffernan pledged that that would not happen.

But the problems of handling mentally ill inmates are deep and extend to the UMass Correctional Health Program, which provides mental health care in state prisons and is bidding to renew its contract. Hayes said, during his investigation, clinicians told him they often had no choice but to approve inmates for segregation — even those at risk — because there was nowhere else for them to go.

“Few if any inmates were ever diverted from segregation, because there were no alternative housing options,” Hayes said.

When asked by a legislator whether the state has stopped segregating inmates with serious mental illnesses for months and years at a time, Madden said the practice had not stopped.

By Beth Healy and Michael Rezendes

—–

To see more of The Boston Globe, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.boston.com/globe.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Boston Globe

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir and colleagues at deCODE Genetics Inc. in Reykjavik discovered the risk variant through a large-scale survey in Iceland. In that survey the researchers compared the frequencies of several hundred thousand common genetic variants in healthy individuals with those suffering from type 2 diabetes.

The scientists subsequently replicated the association between the disease and a variant in CDKAL1 in samples from several independent populations of European or Han Chinese ancestry.

Individuals with two copies of the risk variant were found to be at increased risk for developing the disease compared with individuals with only a single copy of the risk variant. Such individuals also had approximately 20 percent less insulin response than did those with only one copy or non-carriers, suggesting the variant may confer risk of type 2 diabetes through reduced insulin secretion.

The study appears online in the journal Nature Genetics.

The western African nation’s government wants the HIV victims to, instead, try an unproven herbal remedy.

The HIV Medicine Association, based in Alexandria, Va., is urging Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to stop making unproven claims that the treatment ‘cures’ AIDS.

The International AIDS Society and the Society for AIDS in Africa have joined the association in expressing concern regarding the practice.

There currently is no cure for HIV/AIDS, said HIVMA Chairman Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes. President Jammeh is giving people false hope, while at the same time making them stop treatment that has been demonstrated to save lives. Any treatment that claims to alleviate this devastating disease must be subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny.

Kuritzkes added: It is highly unethical to stop a proven therapy to try an unproven one. We are extremely concerned that President Jammeh would recklessly experiment with his people’s lives.

The HIVMA is an organization of more than 3,600 physicians, scientists and other healthcare professionals dedicated to the field of HIV/AIDS.