Jan. 15–Andy Holcomb never served a day in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Yet the 21-year-old Akron man is patiently waiting to hear from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where the war’s most severely injured are treated, to learn whether he will be admitted there.

Andy, who lost the lower half of his body two years ago today in a horrific industrial baler-shredder accident, believes the military hospital, no stranger to unimaginable injuries, may hold the key to controlling the pain that continues to hold him hostage.

Andy — he of amazingly strong faith as well as a quirky sense of humor — sees the military hospital as a good fit all around.

“I believe they can help me. And I can help them,” Andy insisted.

“You know, PR,” he added in a business voice.

Certainly, no one would ever doubt the positive effect Andy has on the morale of others. His mantra all along the way — after surviving the impossible — has been: “I don’t need legs to walk by faith.”

I visited Andy at his Akron home last week to catch up on things.

Still confined to a hospital bed, he showed off his muscular, upper-body physique in a blue Superman T-Shirt.

He was flanked by members of his family: his mother, Sheila; older brother, Gary Jr., and Gary’s girlfriend, Marsha Kosir, of Akron; and Andy’s home health aide, Amy Eddleman, who also is his aunt and godmother. Newlywed brother Clifford and his wife — not present this day — visit regularly.

New to Andy’s inner circle is Clarabell, a frisky, three-year-old Jack Russell/beagle mix rescue dog — a gift from the Greater Akron Humane Society. “She’s good therapy,” the forward-thinking Andy happily reported.

She’s able to take his mind off the excruciating pain — real in his upper body and phantom in parts that are no longer there.

It was hoped that a pain pump, surgically implanted at the Cleveland Clinic several months ago to deliver medication to his spine, would make the misery more manageable. “It did for a while,” he said, “but it’s not working anymore.”

Even so, Andy — whenever possible — has chosen to focus on the positive.

“I’ve never given up hope. And I never will,” he volunteered. “God is still an awesome God. I thank him every day.”

Andy, who served three years as the mascot, Eric the Viking, at his alma mater, Akron North High School, still likes to entertain and inspire. “I’m still the same person I was two years ago, a year ago, a day ago,” Andy said of his one-day-at-a-time philosophy.

In fact, he still makes public appearances, whenever possible, delivering inspirational speeches at houses of faith.

Although he’s yearning to be with the wars’ wounded at Walter Reed, he doesn’t watch the war reports on TV.

“I don’t like watching sad stuff,” he reasoned. It would feed his occasional depression.

“I watch the Cartoon Network. Family Guy is my favorite. And I play video games.”

He’ll be doing a lot of that today.

“We’re trying to make it a happy day,” Sheila Holcomb said of the second-year anniversary of the tragedy that haunts both Andy and Gary Jr., who was working with his younger brother at the accident site and held onto him with enough force to prevent the machine from claiming any more than it did. The matter is still in litigation.

“It’s my second birthday,” Andy was quick to label it today.

“It’s my rebirth.”

No objection, I’m sure, from all those involved in saving his life. The 14 firefighters and paramedics who fought to extricate Andy from the industrial shredder at Akron’s Neoshred and the emergency room staff at Akron General Medical Center, where he was transported, still have difficulty believing he survived.

Not Andy. He knows it was the grace of God.

“Yes, I still believe in Jesus…. My faith has increased every day since,” Andy volunteered. “God is a big part of my life. He gets me through the hard times.”

Andy also remains buoyed by the cards and letters of encouragement he gets from near and far. “I still get a letter every week from Ronin,” he shared about the humor-filled correspondence penned by a local woman in the character of her dog.

He also periodically receives large quantities of stuffed animals — monkeys (one of his favorite things to collect, along with Princess Jasmine art) — from Pamela Adams and friends in Gulf Breeze, Fla., folks who have been following his phenomenal journey.

Some of the monkeys are displayed on the large Christmas tree in Andy’s special room, the one built for him with state-of-the-art equipment through community donations, volunteers and members of the Subcontractors Association of Northeast Ohio. The idea was to give him privacy and more mobility.

Without question, he has that.

Here’s hoping his rebirth continues.

Dr. James Canterbury, the uncle of Joe Triola, Andy’s best friend, is advocating on Andy’s behalf with the staff at Walter Reed, which doesn’t normally take on civilian cases. Canterbury, an Akron podiatrist, recently retired as a major from the 256th Combat Support Hospital in Brooklyn, Ohio.

“I hope Walter Reed can assist Andy because doctors there are so experienced with severe amputations,” Canterbury said knowingly.

Here’s hoping.

Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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The students are designing prosthetic legs for people in developing countries.

A college student from Tulsa is among a team of engineering and health students in Texas who are designing, making and testing better, cheaper prosthetic legs for people in developing countries.

The team also is training residents of three countries in Africa and Asia to make the legs out of local materials using common tools, said Ryan Norton, a mechanical engineering student at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.

LeTourneau has a four- to five-year goal of starting two or three overseas hubs that will train people to make the limbs, according to biomedical and mechanical engineering professor Roger Gonzalez, executive director of the prostheses program LeTourneau Engineering Global Solutions.

Two years ago, Gonzalez challenged students to design a durable prosthetic leg, and the project remains in the research and development phase, entirely funded by donations, according to Gonzalez and the LEGS Web site, www.legsresearch.com.

Now students apply to join the 10-person team. Norton, a junior, is receiving one credit hour and working more than 10 hours a week on the project. Seniors on the team usually work 20 to 30 hours a week, he said.

Norton wanted to participate because he gets to help implement his designs, not just do the work for academic purposes.

He also was attracted to the intense work required, the opportunity to present his research at engineering conferences and the chance to use his talent to help people.

He said he has learned that “nothing ever works right the first time,” so he has to redesign and test his creations.

“Our leg is meeting the standard we use in the U.S.,” he said. “We don’t believe in giving them second-rate anything.”

The team’s prosthetic legs, which stretch from above the knee to the foot, cost about $65 and are made out of plastic or other readily available materials using a band saw, drill press and sander, Norton said.

U.S. versions cost $10,000 or more because of expensive materials, high-end computerized manufacturing and labor costs.

The LEGS team makes the prostheses durable because people in developing countries primarily walk wherever they go, he said. People lose their limbs because of war, foot infections and accidents.

The students are working with hospitals in Bangladesh, which abuts India, and Sierra Leone and Kenya, both in Africa. They are tentatively planning trips next year to all three countries to outfit patients with legs and to train local workers to make the legs, Norton said.

April Marciszewski 581-8475

april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com

How you can help

Donations to the prosthetics project can be sent to LeTourneau University: LEGS, 2100 S. Mobberly Ave., Longview, TX 75602; or online at www.legsresearch.com by clicking on the “Students” link and clicking on the “Donate Now” tab.

Donations can be made to Ryan Norton, who is raising $3,500 for his travel expenses, by e-mailing him at ryannorton@letu.edu.

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

He found them at a Wicker Park shoe boutique _ and didn’t think twice about paying $150 for the purple hightops. In a bag beside him sat the white pair he had bought hours earlier.

“I only have about 20 pairs of shoes right now,” said the 21-year-old Chicagoan. “But I’m working on it.”

Martinez is a sneaker head, doting over rare shoes the way some covet baseball cards. Scouting for the latest versions of hot shoes from Nike, adidas or Converse, sneaker heads help create a buzz in the crowded, $20 billion athletic shoe market.

The popularity of sneaker culture spans races and incomes, drawing in a largely male population from across the globe: punk rockers, hip-hoppers and skateboarders alike. It is a renaissance of the mid-1980s, when the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan signed with Nike and his shoes were all the rage.

Forget pedestrian footwear concerns such as function; some don’t even wear their shoes. Rather, sneaker heads are driven to find and collect the latest and most hip offerings, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group in New York.

“I compare it to the woman’s quest for the designer handbag,” Cohen said. “It’s about the collectible, about getting the ungettable. This new generation has designated the sneaker the ultimate collectible.”

Sneaker head culture, already established on the U.S. coasts and abroad, is growing in Chicago, collectors and store owners say.

“A bunch of people come in two or three times every week, just checking in to see what’s new and hot,” said Chane Wilson, 33, co-manager of Saint Alfred in Wicker Park, where Nike, including the limited Jordans, adidas and Reebok are sold.

When a limited pair is released, it is not uncommon for sneaker heads to spend the night outside the store, which receives four or five shipments a week, Wilson said. Extremely rare shoes arrive once or twice a month and usually sell out in a day, Wilson said.

Bryan Lorenzana, 30, a Chicago collector, admits to having had as many as 1,000 pairs of shoes at one point, though he has scaled back to around 600.

“If I had a house and a Porsche, then I wouldn’t mind how much I’ve spent on shoes over the years,” Lorenzana said. “But I have neither of those.”

It’s hard to quantify how many collectors are out there, but there are enough that a communications network _ Web sites, magazines and books _ has sprung up.

Niketalk.com, an unlicensed chat room, has nearly 55,000 subscribers, according to the Web site. Then there are sneaker magazines _ like Sole Collector and Sneaker Freaker _ that track release dates for new shoes and keep enthusiasts informed. There’s even a documentary, “Just for Kicks.”

“It’s so much bigger than it was even two or three years ago because you’ve got all these young people … supporting the culture,” said Dave Jeff, the owner of Hyde Park sneaker store Phli, which opened in 2003.

To keep collectors interested, shoe companies are hiring artists, animators, rappers and other figures with urban street credibility to create new looks for their shoes.

Like the Nike Dunk, a classic model sneaker, designed by venerated New York graffiti artist Stash. Lorenzana, who owns a pair, said Nike made only 40 pairs, which were released at the ultra-exclusive boutique Collete in Paris.

Chicagoan Anton Murphy, who said he owns almost 300 pairs of shoes, owns a pair of Nike Ueno Air Force Ones, released in Japan for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Murphy, 35, reckons he can fetch about $1,500 for them online.

Other shoe companies have adopted similar strategies.

Adidas has an all-white Stan Smith model that can be hand-colored with washable markers, while Puma has paired up with high-end designers Neil Barrett and Alexander McQueen. Adidas has released NBA Superstar model editions with team colors and logos printed on the shoes.

Dave Ruta, 31, a collector and desk manager at the Chicago Board of Trade, said companies have changed the tastes by making the more limited and desirable stuff colorful, which meant there was demand to make the regular stuff look that way too.

“It’s kind of a lifestyle thing,” said Ruta, who said he has about 75 pairs. “It’s the rumor of rarity, and everyone wants to be special.”

Cohen describes the importance of the sneaker head culture in terms of the “trickle down effect,” meaning the impact the buzz has on the commercial consumer.

“It’s about associating yourself with the upper echelon of fashion, getting the urban consumer to influence the … commercial consumer,” he said.

Starting this month, Nike will be releasing more than 15 new pairs of limited Air Force Ones through the end of the year to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the shoe, according to Mohammad Khan, co-owner of Snyx Galleria.

Khan opened his high-end sneaker store about eight months ago on Chicago’s South Side, selling a variety of sneakers, including limited adidas and Nikes.

For Nike, which controls an estimated 40 percent of the athletic shoe market, distribution strategy plays a major role in sneaker popularity. The company staggers releases, creating a shoe hierarchy, store owners say.

Quick Strike releases are sent across the globe to most cities, large and small. Tier-One releases are sent to a more select group of stores in a handful of cities, including Chicago. Tier-Zero shoes are sent to only about 10 cities in the world, according to storeowners. Hyper Strike releases, such as the Nike Ueno, are the most exclusive, with sometimes fewer than 50 pairs produced.

Nike declined to talk about its marketing strategy.

Local store owners say their customers come from as far as Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan to buy shoes because their cities don’t have the selection Chicago does. Meanwhile, Chicago sneaker heads look to the coasts or overseas for their next score.

A more universal problem for sneaker heads? Cash flow.

Murphy, who said he has friends all over the world after a decade of collecting, wants to go to Japan to visit a contact.

“I want to go, but the money is an issue,” he said. “Every day I go home and I’m faced with two walls of sneakers, and I think, `Would I really miss 25 pairs of the rarest sneakers in this world?’”

Murphy paused and shuffled some loose change in his pocket. “Probably.”

__

(c) 2007, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

_____

PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): sneaks

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Jan. 22–No one meeting me for the first time today would ever suspect it. But long, long ago, in a world where Sonny and Cher Bono had their own prime-time TV show, I was a fashion-forward kind of guy.

The ’70s were a dangerous time to be in the avant-garde, and the convergence of popular culture and my own sartorial taste occasionally made for a ghastly spectacle. I remember, in particular, a pair of honey-colored shoes — patent-leather uppers with lizard-skin inlays and brass chains across the insteps — that I bought on sale one day after seeing them in Gentleman’s Quarterly.

I can’t remember what reaction I was hoping to elicit when I slipped the shoes on for the first time and sauntered into the busy newsroom of my campus daily, where I was one of the newer reporters on staff. But I got only a few steps past the doorway before the editor in charge that day, a denim-and-work-boots-clad senior named Mickey Zielenziger, hopped atop his desk and yanked me up beside him.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MAY I PLEASE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?” Zielenziger bellowed. When the newsroom fell silent, he gestured expansively toward my gleaming feet and continued: “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR … BRIAN DICKERSON’S SHOES!”

What followed was one of the most sustained displays of sarcastic applause I’ve ever witnessed.

Needless to say, I never wore the honey-colored shoes again. But I think about them from time to time — most recently Thursday, when the man-child known as Nathaniel Abraham emerged from years of state custody in an outfit his haberdasher must have conceived during an LSD flashback.

Two steps back?

Every component of Abraham’s ensemble — from the ivory-and-pink pinstriped suit to the rabbit fur coat he assured reporters was “100% genuine” — was remarkable. But his shoes — made of hot-pink alligator skin — were the coup de grace.

For many Free Press readers, those shoes were all that was needed to answer the question — Whither Nate? — that has tantalized us ever since Abraham was arrested in 1997. In their eyes, the young parolee’s choice of footwear bespoke a lack of remorse and common sense, an internal guidance deficit that all but guarantees a recidivist future.

Some of that reaction is frankly racist. But even Abraham’s champions were dismayed. One woman I know — a thoughtful and compassionate African-American mother who was critical of Oakland County’s decision to try Abraham as an adult — confided her fear that Abraham’s dress was “a sobering harbinger of things to come.”

I wonder what Abraham makes of all this fuss. Is he reveling in it? Or is he feeling the same queasiness I experienced standing atop Mickey Zielenziger’s desk, my cheeks burning as my colleagues’ mocking applause washed over me?

Also, I can’t stop thinking about those shoes, which seem like the sort of thing you can only break out a couple of times a year. I sure hope he got ‘em on sale.

Contact BRIAN DICKERSON at 248-351-3697 or bdickerson@freepress.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Detroit Free Press

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QUINCY - Samantha Goldthwaite started volunteering for the Quincy nonprofit Cradles to Crayons three years ago at age 8. She learned then that the average age of a homeless person in Massachusetts was also 8, and it made her think about children who didn’t have as much as she did.

Since then, the Braintree resident has sorted clothes and shoes, counted puzzle pieces, cleaned and inspected toys and stuffed backpacks for poor children. She’s also processed donations for Hurricane Katrina victims, raised money at a walk to fight childhood poverty and helped organize donation drives at her elementary school.

Yesterday, she returned with her mother and younger sister, and several dozen other youngsters, to volunteer in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s 78th birthday.

“It just gave me a connection with the kids I was helping,” said Samantha, 11, during a pizza break. “In the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., he was a person who encouraged people to serve their communities.”

The charity, based on Myrtle Street, collects donations of clothing, toys and supplies,- including cribs, car seats, board games and other items - for children up to age 12.

Last year about 7,000 volunteers donated time in its warehouse, one-third of whom were youngsters, not including those in community drives. They helped about 25,000 children.

Yesterday’s event was a kickoff for distributing shoes from the Inaugural Children’s Footwear Drive, which has collected more than 10,000 shoes in pledges, including about 2,000 during an inaugural event for Gov. Deval Patrick on Jan. 3 in Worcester and the inaugural gala Jan. 4.

“Our goal is Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a day on, not a day off,” said Jennifer White of Milton, director of development. “We are all about service here.”

“It’s the best way, I think, to respect him today,” added Kristy- Ann Eldridge of Plymouth, who led a group of volunteers from Bridgewater State College. “To be able to give up their time is so important.”

More than 125 volunteers turned out yesterday, including about 40 from Bridgewater State College and several dozen families, to sort and process sneakers, boots, socks and other essential goods for needy children.

“It’s just a great opportunity to get kids involved. They feel empowered. They come in here and feel they’re helping kids,” said Michelle Goldthwaite, Samantha’s mother.

Before lunch, volunteers loaded 500 shoes, as well as socks and winter gear, into a truck for New Bedford children.

“I want to say thank you to all of you because these children really need these shoes,” said Karen Regan, supervisor of nurses for the New Bedford schools.

Sydney Schwartz may be reached at sschwartz@ledger.com.

(c) 2007 Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Jan. 23–January and February can be key months for bulge battlers and cellulite fighters trying to tighten up their post-holiday curves.

Health club devotees begin to increase their number of weekly visits, and fitness managers are busy showing their workout areas to new prospects.

“It’s prime time right now,” said Molly Fahrmeier, account manager for Xtreme Fitness in Lee’s Summit. “We call them our New Year’s resolutioners.”

Resolutions and employer incentives are popular reasons for couch potatoes to get up and get moving, but they’re also being lured by an increasing number of centers offering new approaches to getting fit and staying healthy.

Clubs are adding one-on-one consultations, massage therapy and body composition testing to attract fitness buffs that may be searching for specialized health information or particular routines.

Two fitness megacenters, with more than 100,000 square feet of space, opened last year in Johnson County. HealthRidge Fitness Center in Olathe has a full spa, cafe and 25-liter indoor lap pool, in addition to racquetball, basketball and volleyball courts.

Life Time Fitness in Overland Park is open 24/7 and offers rock climbing, child care and indoor/outdoor aquatics. The center has corporate wellness programs and sponsors day and sports camps.

Rex-Ann Pfister, an owner of Fitness Together in central Overland Park, said members design a program based on their fitness goals and work out with a trainer in a private room. Individuals don’t have to wait for equipment, she said.

Fitness centers also cater to the needs of large companies that have a vested interest in the health of their employees. Fitness Source, based downtown, offers fitness assessments and exercise consultations, but innovative wellness programs and strategies are a priority.

The center is owned by the city of Kansas City and managed by St. Luke’s Hospital.

Many Kansas City sites, including the 17 centers operated by the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, continue to offer weight training, swimming, martial arts and other familiar activities. Others promote their fitness activities by targeting a specific demographic or lifestyle.

To reach Robert Cole, call (816) 234-4296 or send e-mail to rcole@kcstar.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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NYSE:LTM,

Put away your scale and take out a tape measure. This is the advice of Drs. Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz, authors of the book, “You on a Diet,” featured on the “Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Measure the circumference of your waist at the point of your belly button to determine a healthy physique. The ideal for women is 32 1/2 inches, for men 35 inches. Health risks, like heart disease, diabetes, and stroke increase at 37 inches in women and 40 inches for men.

In their humorous but well researched book, the authors liken fat to real estate: it’s all about location, location, location. Fat stored in the belly, specifically in the omentum, an organ that lies next to your stomach, is more dangerous than fat stored on your thighs.

If you gain fat in your omentum, your waist size increases. Chronic stress plays a significant role. Abnormal levels of the stress hormone cortisol increases appetite, lowers metabolism and promotes fat storage in the omentum. The authors suggest that the size of your waist corresponds with your stress level.

Belly fat is dangerously close to vital organs and is shipped out rapidly and constantly from the omentum to your liver. It travels through your arteries to your heart and other organs wreaking havoc along the way - inflammation, high blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels.

Fat on the thighs or buttocks is harder for the liver to access and contains anti-inflammatory properties.

In addition to managing stress, waist management relies on controlling the hormones that influence hunger and fullness.

Leptin is the primary hormone that tells our brain we are full. It signals other hormones to increase metabolism, reduce appetite, and deliver energy to muscle cells rather than be stored as fat.

Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, does the opposite; it signals the brain to increase appetite and slow metabolism. Lifestyle factors can greatly influence these processes.

Choosing foods and beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup is bad because, for unknown reasons, hormonal signals are not produced to signal fullness and shut off appetite.

Americans ate virtually none in 1960 but now eat an estimated 128,000 calories annually. High-fructose corn syrup is in soda, some juices, processed cookies, salad dressing, breads and other foods. Check food labels and avoid it.

Simple sugars, and refined flour and breads also mix up hormonal messages and should be limited.

Saturated fats, found in fatty meats like hot dogs, along with cheese, whole milk, and baked goods produce lower levels of the fullness hormone. Choose low-fat meals made with healthy fats, like olive or canola oil, nuts and seeds.

Exercise is essential because it makes brain cells receptive to leptin’s signals. Walk 30 minutes daily and build muscle with weights, the authors suggest.

Fiber-rich fruits and vegetables provide powerful antioxidants that decrease appetite and inflammation. Both limit abdominal fat storage.

The bottom line: healthy foods help your body produce hormones that regulate appetite and limit belly fat. Rather than focus solely on calories for weight loss, aim to improve the quality of your diet to help the waist-buster, leptin, do its job.

Note: For additional information on Waist Management Strategies, the dietitians at Fitness Unlimited will provide a seminar in late January and early February. Space is limited. Call 617-698-0260 to reserve a spot.

Joan Endyke is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition and food science, and also a certified personal trainer. She is the nutrition director at Fitness Unlimited.

Readers may send questions about nutrition to Endyke at Fitness Unlimited, 364 Granite Ave., Milton, MA 02186 or by E-mail to jendyke@fitnessunlimited.com.

The information in this column is not intended to diagnose individual conditions. Readers should see their doctors about specific problems.

(c) 2007 Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

When’s the best time to exercise? Emma Bailey investigates.

A s the sun dawns around South Canterbury, feet can be found pounding the pavement, jolting the body awake with early morning exercise.

Then as the sun sets a different group of fitness-conscious people are out aerobically exorcising the stresses of the day.

The amount and the way they exercise may be the same, but which is more effective? Morning or evening?

Research suggests that early morning may have more physiological benefits, but the jury is out for Timaru health advisors.

Exercising in the morning kick starts your metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours, sometimes the entire day.

Blowing away the cobwebs early in the morning can also help regulate appetite.

Getting out in the morning at the same time to exercise helps the body begin to adjust, and get used to being physically awake. Your circadian rhythms will also adjust.

One of the more persuasive arguments for exercising in the morning is you are less likely to find excuses not to. Come the end of the day when you are tired other things can conveniently get in the way. However in the morning you have no excuses.

While the above theories may make sense, Sports South Canterbury fitness co- ordinator Lee King believes it is important to exercise in accordance with your personality.

“I am a morning person and that is when I prefer to exercise, but some people are night people and have more energy for exercise at night.

“I understand it will kickstart your metabolism but you need to do so what you are most likely to stick to.”

Exercise needs to work in with your lifestyle, and for some people it is too difficult to get out of the bed in the morning.

“If it fits in well with your life you are much more likely to sustain it.”

Variation in the type of exercise you did was important too, she said.

“For health benefits most people need aerobic exercise like walking, running, swimming or cycling.

“Aerobic exercise is easier to incorporate whereas it is important muscle strengthening take places to.”

Bone mass equates to muscle mass, so the more muscles you create the denser your bones, she said.

Muscle also burns more fat, so adding in muscle training can improve the benefits of your aerobic exercise.

“Strength and resistance exercise is harder to include in your exercise routine as often people need to go see someone to get started.

“Simple things like running up stairs can help, something where you are working against a force.”

Better Bods fitness trainer Rachel Tomkinson says while excising first thing in the morning may be more beneficial, anytime is better than no time.

“Before breakfast is a great fat burning time as you have been fasting all night and it is good for aerobic exercise.

“Early morning is not good for resistance training as your body needs food for this.”

She prefers exercising later in the day because she is “not a morning person” and also recommends people exercise when it works for them.

Whatever time you choose, the main goal is to stick at it. Fitness relies on keeping up your exercise, be that morning or night, get moving.

(c) 2007 Timaru Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Assistant Professor Biswarup Mukhopadhyay is one such scientist providing information for researchers designing drugs for type 2 diabetics.

His study investigated ways to control the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase — a key enzyme involved in the metabolic pathway used by the human body to produce glucose. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase helps control blood sugar levels during fasting and an overproduction of the enzyme, among other events, might lead to type 2 diabetes.

The research is a proof of concept study showing that it is possible to alter the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase without directly interfering with catalysis, said Mukhopadhyay. Because the research pertains to surface residues on the protein molecule, this approach could be used to design a compound that can prevent the enzyme from participating in the overproduction of glucose in the liver of a person with type 2 diabetes.

The study was detailed in the Dec. 22 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

By ANNETTE WELLS

REVIEW-JOURNAL

Joslin Diabetes Center, one of the nation’s leading diabetes research and education institutes, ended its one-year partnership with Fremont Medical Center on Friday.

In addition, Fremont Medical Center, a group of health care providers in Las Vegas, has closed the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate office at 9280 W. Sunset Road in the Southern Hills Hospital medical office building.

The center provided diabetes training to endocrinologists and nurses, and diagnosis, treatment and support services to people with the chronic disease.

“We’re obviously very saddened by this,” said Ernest Barela, president and chief operating officer of Fremont Medical Center. “We feel like we let the community down.”

Barela said the affiliation ended because the medical center could not meet expectations Joslin had set forth.

The partnership allowed the medical center to use Boston-based Joslin’s name and access all of its resources such as training of endocrinologists, dietitians and registered nurses specializing in diabetes treatment as well as its network affiliates.

But the medical center lost money on the facility and was unable to generate enough patient volume to support the cost of the facility, she said.

“We just couldn’t afford to operate that facility,” said Greg Griffin, chief executive officer of the medical center. “I’m disappointed because there was a lot of work and back-and-forth between us and Boston to create this facility. We were hoping to attract more endocrinologists, especially pediatric endocrinologists, into Las Vegas through the use of Joslin’s name.”

Griffin and Barela said the name drew some nurses and educators but no physicians.

While the diabetes center was open, diabetes treatment was provided to more than 1,000 patients, Barela said.

Responding by e-mail, Marge Dwyer, a spokeswoman for Joslin Diabetes Center, said the partnership did not end because of quality care issues or failure of Fremont meeting Joslin’s guidelines. Dwyer did not comment any further.

Joslin has more than 20 satellite campuses throughout the United States and one in Bahrain. In the diabetes community, Joslin is known for research, care and education, and its affiliation with Harvard Medical School.

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