It may be tougher than ever to be a young person in America. Yes, these kids today have conveniences and technology that some previous generations could hardly have imagined – cellphones, computers, cable TV. But two Georgia newspapers have reported on two areas in which threats to adolescent health appear greater than ever. The Columbus…
Jay Bowers, then a senior at the University of Georgia, was waiting for a campus bus when he noticed a female student sobbing through a swollen, bruised and bloodied eye. “It looked like she’d been punched straight in the eye,” said Bowers. “I [had] this feeling that I needed to do something and that I…
Football recently has made us much more aware of concussions, but these brain injuries occur in many other youth activities and sports. Some of the increase in concussions comes from greater sports participation by girls. State legislators this year considered a bill that would require school teams to remove any player showing signs of a…
Dr. Evelyn Johnson was overcome by a “sense of emptiness” when she got the call from the coroner about an infant’s death. Johnson, a Brunswick pediatrician, had just seen the month-old baby two days before. The child was nursing well, and its development was right on track. The mother, after breastfeeding, fell asleep in a…
Southeastern states got poor grades last year in a report card on their rates of premature births, with Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana earning F’s. Georgia scored a D, coming in 45th among states in the “preterm” birth report card, based on 2009 data presented by the March of Dimes. According to the most recent data, though,…
By 2030, one of every five people in metro Atlanta will be 60 or older. It’s a statistic that has helped spark an initiative by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) to bring more housing and transportation options – and healthy lifestyle features – to area communities. The goal is to make it possible for individuals…
Like a lot of other people, Winda and Tim Perdue ran into rough times when the economy faltered a few years ago. They lost their home and their handyman company, and since then have been getting by on odd jobs and living with relatives. Both of them have also had serious vision problems, and for…
Through a state contract, Hemophilia of Georgia is helping dozens of patients get or keep health insurance and lifesaving medication for the inherited bleeding disorder. The money “saves lives and saves money,’’ said Jeff Cornett of Hemophilia of Georgia. He noted Tuesday that an uninsured patient with hemophilia can run up huge emergency room bills. But…
In the small towns and rural counties of Georgia, telemedicine has become a viable alternative to the shortage of physicians willing to provide health care to a seriously underserved population. With physician assistants and nurse practitioners doing the hands-on work, doctors using computer monitors and specialized medical instruments can diagnose and treat many common ailments for…
“It was the last time I ever smoked a cigarette on the golf course.” The speaker is the man whom many consider the greatest golfer ever, Jack Nicklaus. Fifty years ago, he was watching a recent film of himself winning his first major golf championship, the U.S. Open. What upset him were not the missed…