health health in sexual walk

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Chambersburg Memorial YMCA 2007 Power-lifting Meet will begin Saturday, Dec. 8. The event will provide individuals ages 15 and older with an opportunity to test their strength in any one or all three power-lifting events: squat, bench and dead-lift. No need to be an experienced competitor, but training is highly recommended. Awards will be provided for female and male divisions and classes. This is a non-sanctioned preliminary meet. For information, call Leigh Cordell at 717-263-8508 or go to www.chbgy.org for invitation and registration.

The Healthy Weight is a weight management program for kids, toddlers through teens.

Keeping cat burglars out of the bird feeder

Dear Dr. Fox: I would like to offer a suggestion to C.B.S. of Salisbury, Md., who had the problem of neighborhood cats hanging around the birdhouses and feeders.Try laying down chicken wire on the ground under them in whatever diameter needed. It's said that cats don't like the feel on their paws; and the birds can still feed off the ground.My birds have learned to be somewhat aware of my cats -- I have eight. Luckily, the cats have outgrown stalking the birds, but I still try not to encourage ground feeders.I used the chicken wire a few years ago when a Carolina wren insisted on nesting on my kitchen window ledge. All seven babies flew off safely, so it must have at least helped.It's worth giving the chicken wire a try; but, truthfully, controlling outside cats is next to impossible.-- S.R.C, Great Falls, Va.Dear S.R.C.: Thanks for the good advice.

Dixfield seeks money for repairing road

DIXFIELD - Town Manager Tom Richmond hopes to get Severy Hill Road fixed once and for all.

Assisted by public works Director Tim Hanson, Richmond is applying for a premitigation grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for about $300,000 to get the job done.

The 1.7 mile long road has been paved and patched for years. If the grant comes through, Richmond said not only will the road be ditched and paved, but it will also receive a new base.

Hanson said the town would likely have to come up with about 10 percent of the cost if the grant comes through.

The application must go into the federal agency, via the Maine Emergency Management Agency, by Jan. 31.

Richmond said the hill is already on the Oxford County mitigation listing.

A Belt for Your Aching Back

A battery-powered belt that fires tiny electric currents through the skin could help to beat back pain. The belt uses a technique called microcurrent therapy to stimulate the body's natural healing process.

Although similar devices are already in use in sports medicine, the equipment tends to be bulky and suitable only for use in clinics.

Now the same technology has been converted into an easy-to-wear belt that allows patients to get pain relief while they are at work, out shopping or relaxing at home. It's reason people visit their doctor -- the thought the device could help improve the quality of life for thousands of sufferers.

Up to 80 percent of adults in Britain suffer back pain at some point in their lives. It's the largest single reason for taking time off sick from work and at least half of those affected have long-term recurrences.

Questions And Answers - Thursday, November 2007

14;Reports

1. Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Labour—Wellington Central) to the Minister for Tertiary Education: Has he received any reports on the proportion of New Zealanders holding a tertiary qualification?

Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister for Tertiary Education): Yes, I have. The Ministry of Education advises me that almost 40 percent of all New Zealanders—that is, all New Zealanders—now hold a tertiary education qualification, compared with 25 percent a decade ago. Similarly, about 14 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification, compared with just 8 percent around a decade ago. .

Sonoma West News

Alarming statistics surrounding what health officials have tagged an epidemic are revealed in a new report from the Sonoma County Asthma Coalition."Asthma in Schools," the eye-opening two-page document, will be sent out to parents of students enrolled in various Sonoma County schools, as well as every law enforcement agency, fire department, superintendent, and elected official in the county, in an attempt to improve asthma-related health conditions for students, staff and community members.School nurses, libraries, past volunteers of the American Lung Association, and the media will also be among the 5,000 recipients of the report, which states that nearly one in five school-aged children - or about 20 percent of students in the county have asthma."Asthma is a chronic disease that produces recurring episodes of breathing problems, including coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath," the SCAC states in its report.

Medical facilities snuff out smoking

The road signs, bright and conspicuous, will be posted Thursday at all driveway entrances to Providence Alaska Medical Center. Outside its doors will be more signs with the polite but firm message: "This is a no smoking campus." And, in places where smokers used to huddle, near entrance-way trash cans, reminder stickers will be placed where cigarette butts were once crushed.

Michael Fumento: The anti-vaccine lobby makes us sick -- literally

THE VACCINE preservative thimerosal has jumped the safety hurdle. Again. So indicates a recent large epidemiological study in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Again" is the problem, though. One huge study after another has cleared thimerosal as a cause of child developmental disorders, and specifically autism, but there is a powerful lobby that couldn't care less.

In this latest study, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers evaluated more than 1,000 children between the ages of seven and 10 who were exposed to various levels of thimerosal at different early stages in life.