News Article of the Week

Proposed 'health regions' discussed

Various representatives of three area nonprofit agencies sat around in a tiered semicircle and discussed the lines on the map of the Lakes Region that will delineate which umbrella agency will be responsible for coordinating public health services for individual communities. (read the complete Citizen online article)

Letters to the Editor
By Lisa Morris, Executive Director, Lakes Region Partnership for Public Health, Laconia

Caring about the health of our community

Editor, The Citizen: We all care deeply about the health and safety of our community. Achieving good health is dependent upon the attention we give it by seeing our doctor regularly, receiving immunizations and a yearly flu shot, healthful eating and regular exercise. Good health is also dependent upon the safety of our drinking water and food supplies, having a safety plan in the event of a pandemic or bioterrorist attack, educating ourselves and our community about disease prevention and health promotion and knowing when disease is threatening the health of our community (Salmonella, EEE, West Nile Virus). This is public health. (read the complete Citizen online article)

Public Health Headlines

CPR confusion

The Associated Press
June 08, 2008 - 12:00 am

We all want to help victims of cardiac arrest. But we don't know how, and we're scared of making the situation worse. An American Heart Association survey said 89 percent of adults would help out if they saw a medical emergency. But more than a quarter said they weren't sure when to use CPR, and almost half said they didn't know when it was appropriate to use an AED, a portable machine that can shock a heart attack victim back into a regular heartbeat. (read the complete Concord Monitor online article)

Auditors taking a closer look at Medicare bills

By KEVIN FREKING
The Associated Press
March 02, 2008 - 12:00 am

Budget would freeze Medicare payments for most health care providers

Alton woman honored for volunteer work with elderly

Sensors help combat underage drinking in Gilford

By CUTTER MITCHELL
Staff Writer
jmitchell@citizen.com
Article Date: Sunday, March 9, 2008

GILFORD —- The administration at Gilford High School will now be equipped with devices that will be able to detect whether students are under the influence of alcohol.

Superintendent Paul DeMinico explained that the new alcohol sensors will be able to detect alcohol consumption by merely placing them in front of a student's face when he speaks.

The sensors are so sensitive that they can detect the alcohol in mouthwash just after rinsing.

"It's an unobtrusive device. Really the whole idea is to keep kids safe," explained DeMinico. (read complete article at Citizen Online)

‘Powerful and Dangerous Drugs’

By Karen Springen | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 21, 2008 | Updated: 6:40  p.m. ET Feb 21, 2008

When it comes to teens and drug abuse, prescription medications (or "pharmies") are now second only to marijuana in popularity. Overall, teen abuse of illicit drugs is down 24 percent since 2001, according to the University of Michigan. But prescription drugs are another story. An estimated 2.1 million teens are abusing them—a figure that has hardly changed since the government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health started tracking it in 2002. In response, the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is spending $14 million on an advertising blitz about the problem, which kicked off on Super Bowl Sunday. (Remember the ad with the drug dealer in the fast-food parking lot complaining that business is down since so many teens have started using drugs from their parents' medicine cabinets?) Over the next three months the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign will run print, online and TV ads about teen prescription drug abuse. "Most teens do not believe that prescription drugs are as dangerous as so-called street drugs," says John P. Walters, director of the ONDCP. "[But] these are powerful and dangerous drugs that can cause dependency and death." (read complete article at Newsweek.com)

And Now, Back in the Real World …

By Claudia Kalb | NEWSWEEK
Mar 3, 2008 Issue

Seth Norman, a criminal court judge in Nashville, doesn't know a lot about dopamine receptors or glutamate. A cure for addiction? "I'd love to see it," he says. But Norman is too busy dealing with a docket full of drug addicts—largely meth and crack-cocaine users—to think much about the science behind their behavior. The judge does believe that drug addiction is a disease, however, and he is adamant about moving nonviolent drug offenders away from prison and into treatment. In 1997 he opened a unique residential addiction program, which has offered intensive rehab instead of incarceration to more than 1,000 men and women. "We got tired of the revolving door, seeing the same person coming through court all the time," says Norman. (read entire Newsweek article)

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