If only answering that question was easy. The test indicates one thing and yet you have people all over the country weighing in with why it might be false or why is definitely positive. I think no matter what happens the damage is done.

What do you think?? Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com

Dr. Goldberg is a wealth of knowledge on doping and told me about all the creative drugs labs create for athletes. The old school way of doing it involved transfusing blood to pump the system full of oxygen carrying cells that could better feed starving muscles. Now there are drugs that do that.

There is also a drug that fits between your cheek and your gum and works for about 2 hours and then dissapears from your system. And there are tons of "designer' drugs out there that no lab can detect because no one knows what to look for. Need proof?? Check this out: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/steroids/

But you know who makes up A SIGNIFICANT group of steroid users in the country??? Your teen. Numbers from the CDC show that while steroid use and performance enhancing drug use dropped among high school students in the past few years... it is still at an alarming rate. Dr. Goldberg says in 2005 some 550,000 high schoolers did it. In 2003 that number was 850,000. Man. I had no idea. I had always heard you need to talk to your teen about illegal drugs that make you high. I had no idea you also needed to address steroid use.

I snagged this off an OHSU press release. It covers some of Dr. Goldberg's work in this area.

ATLAS (Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids), a multi-component program for male high school athletes, first instituted in 1993, is scientifically shown to reduce risk factors and use of anabolic steroids, alcohol and other illicit drugs while promoting healthy nutrition and exercise behaviors. Proven results include: new substance use decreased 50 percent; new anabolic steroid use decreased 50 percent; occurrences of drinking and driving declined 24 percent; a lower index of alcohol and drug use; reduced use of performance-enhancing supplements; and improved nutrition and exercise behaviors.

ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise and Nutrition Alternatives), which began reaching high schools for female athletes in 1997, features the promotion of healthy nutrition and effective exercise training as alternatives to harmful behaviors. The objectives are: reduce young women athletes' disordered eating habits; deter use of body-shaping substances; improve sport performance with guidelines targeting the specific needs of young women. Proven results include: less use of athletic enhancing substances; less use of diet pills; less riding in a car with a drinking driver; greater seatbelt use; less new sexual activity; improved nutrition behaviors and reduced long-term use of alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.

Okay. Responses on the door to door blood testing story...

Karen writes: I would do it. Going to the doctors office for these test can be a pain in the butt. I think the health people coming to your house would be much better. I think that it would be stressfull.

Sue writes: Would I participate in such a poll? Hell, no. The results are anonymous and that's supposed to be of use to me in finding out if I have heart disease or diabetes or too much mercury in my body?

This is a stupid, invasive idea. Somebody got a grant.

What a waste of everybody's time and money.

CT writes: I am against door to door anything. Since they are giving out $45 gift cards, it wouldn't be difficult to get people to go to a clinic to have blood drawn.

Anyone can appear "official" with fake ID cards made on home computers, a yellow vest, and some sort of bag. It would allow people access to someone's home since they would have to come in to draw the blood. It would be an ideal set up for being assulted and/or robbed.

If you want to test this out, make a fake ID, get a yellow vest and a bag, and have someone from the news station go door to door to see how many homes he or she can access. Most people wouldn't know what an official ID card would look like.

An alternative would be to have an official van go to fire stations or have the Health Dept. Drs. go with fire paramedics, door to door, in a fire rescue ambulance and have the people go to the vehicle to have the blood drawn. It would be difficult to fake a fire rescue vehicle and it would not allow the person access to an individual's home.

Dennis writes: My question would first be: Why go door to door? Why not setup the facility in a clinic or hospital setting, with the proper procedures and processes? Why not talk to local Doctors and Physicians and see if they could get the patients currently in their care to submit this type of information during the regular visit to the Family Doctors office?

In this unsettling time of database theft, identity theft, the push for a new forms of identification such as imbedded chips and retinal scans, that every day leads down the path of civil and personal rights violations, why would anyone give up their blood from a stranger at the door? Money?
$45.00 may not seem like a lot to you or me, but to some folks having trouble barely managing to get to work and feed their households, that $45.00 could be the difference between eating and having electricity.

I realize this sounds like a conspiracy paranoia, but that doesn't mean it is not what this is about. We as a country have given away so many rights dealing with privacy, and to have an unknown person show up and take a sample of the blood....well, that just makes this fellow nervous about the entire system.

Regardless of what is said and "promised", too many people have mishandled information, mishandled processing with this information, for anyone to feel secure that their information would not be misused. Look at what happened with the Veterans database system. While that was recovered, that was 30 years worth of information sitting on a CD in a stolen notebook. Now, lets replace SSN with DNA. All it takes is one little mistake.

Yes, this is a bit much. However, in this time of world wars, and identity theft, email scams, credit fraud, where no one in any position of authority seems to be able to get a handle on any of it......Well, I would feel much safer knowing that I was not a willing participant in the next step to making 1984 a reality. Even though, in my opinion, it is already too late.

To paraphrase a cliched statement......They can have my blood by taking it out of my dead body.

~~~~~

Oh yeah.. remember the picture of the raging fire on the BBQ grill (hint, scroll down to previous post). Well, here is the next one in a series of three. I'll explain how I messed up this recipe soon... come on, you KNOW you want me to cook dinner for you!!!

Email me!! sstricklen@kgw.com

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 4:38 PM | Permalink

Yeah, Dr. Craig Nichols is not a fan of all this hype surrounding the so-called "Lance Armstrong effect". Why he agreed to interview with me I don't know.. but it makes me very very very happy.

Here is the full interview which explains the one benefit Dr. Nichols sees in all of this. The weird times you see in there are my timecode. It's basically information embedded into the tape that tells me where that snippet of sound actually lives on the tape. We have special machines that can read it ((similar to the counter on your DVD or VHS player)). PS. I don't have spellcheck. ;-)

1:24 "I've read it fairly carefully and discussed it with a number of colleagues of mine and 1:31 I think my initial impression remains unchanged that this is very highly speculative. 1:39 There really isn't a thread of connection presented nor that I'm aware of that heat sensitivity of germ cells has anything to do with the efficacy of treatments." 1:56

5:38 "That's one of the things that dissapoints me the most is that they've taken advantage of his celebrity to hype this discussion and attribute his successful outcome to their their theory or effect." 6:00

More on cancer? Click here: http://www.cancer.org

Still to come: I snapped a picture of Cosmo Kramer which I will share.. YOU sounded off about the "Knock knock can I draw your blood story?"... and find out how my latest attempt to cook turned into THIS:

How embarrasing. Definitely worse than what happened to me today. I could SWEAR I saw Lance riding up Terwilliger on my way back from the interview. I asked phojo Kurt to double back because I wasn't sure. It was sooo not him. And I think the poor guy on the bike thought I was crazy. By the way, even if it was I would have totally left him alone... I hear Lance dislikes the media stuff and besides, he'd be out riding!! Who wants to be pestered then?? I just wanted to know if it was him.

Email me!! sstricklen@kgw.com

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 4:47 PM | Permalink

Okay, it won't go like that.. but I was so struck by this idea that I was THRILLED when the bosses told me I could cover the story.

It's actually about 1pm and I have to fly to an interview for this story.. so this blog will be short. Um, actually they are never really "short".. how about shortER!

This link gives you the basic info on what the state wants to do:
http://www.doh.wa.gov/cfh/heart_stroke/wahs.htm

This is the press release from the state which gives you all kind of background information on the project, including the additonal states doing it and what they hope to accomplish.

Adult health survey gets to the heart of health in Washington
Statewide program takes ‘health fair’ to the homes of more than 1,000 people

People who participate in the survey will receive important information about their health, including whether they are at risk for diabetes or have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Participants will also receive a $45 gift card. More information about the survey is available online (http://www.doh.wa.gov/cfh/heart_stroke/wahs.htm) or at 1-888-438-2247. Participants will be selected to represent the state’s population; the department is not looking for volunteers.

Would you participate in a survey like this?? Why or why not?! Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com

From previous stories:

Jan wrote asking if my interest in the morning sickness story might be because I'm pregnant.. You know, looking back at it I can totally see how it would look like that. Nope, not "preggers" as my friend Kim calls it... but I promise you my bedside will have raisins and saltines all over it if I do get pregnant! :-)

Chuck wrote: Hi,Stephanie, I appreciated your story today on how excessive heat can effect those that take medication. I take several medications that have the potential to negatively effect my body if I experience too much heat. The story was well done and well edited. Thank you very much.

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 12:55 PM | Permalink

Okay.. what do insulin, medicated eye drops and asthma inhalers have in common?

They are medications that people tend to carry with them and then tend to leave in the car. Frankly, it's not that good of an idea to leave any medications in your car when it's hot outside because it'll cook 'em. But, with these meds (particularly asthma inhalers and insulin) the last thing you need is to find out thier effectiveness is compromised after baking in your 150 degree car for the past few hours.

Tonite's story came to us via the PR team at Providence. They sent along a few ideas.. a few times during the day when folks were available.. and we basically looked at the list and picked one. I liked this medication/sun story because it was timely and different than the ususal "drink lots of water and stay in the shade" story that I do when we hit a heatwave.

Hmm, I just realized I haven't done my annual sunscreen story yet either.

Here is a picture I took with my phone's camera of the back of phojo Jim C. He's grabbing an "exterior" as we call it. It's basically the outside of whatever building we're shooting in.. and makes it into the piece as cover video about 50% of the time. He heard my phone make that fake camera sound as if it shot on film and he asked me what I was up to. I told him nothing. He soo didn't believe me.

He has this thing with fish. I snapped this while sitting in the car while he grabbed an exterior. The little cards hang on a chain around his steering wheel and the fish I'm holding is a keychain.

And this is his new take on the bobblehead. Love it!

I should take a photo of one of the phojo's car I rode in yesterday. The cupholder where I put my water bottle is full of spent sunflower seed shells. Awesome. :-)

Mark writes that I should get pest strips to get rid of the ants. I keep hoping they just get bored and go away. To be so lucky, right?

Email me!! sstricklen@kgw.com

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 3:45 PM | Permalink

I'm writing this from home and I'm about to whine. It's about 4:10pm and I got to work at 4:15 this morning. When I wrapped up my mini-version of this story for 6pm and looked up at the clock and saw that it was 3pm.. I just didn't want to stay one more second in the newsroom. I knew when I left I'd hit a wall of traffic (which I did). Nothing like turning in a simple 17 minute commute into a 50 minute ordeal. It's allright, I'm home now and happy to spend a few minutes telling you more about heat stroke.

Here's the thing: I do a story on heat stroke every year. EVERY year. And every year it's a little hard to get super fired up about it, only because I've covered it so many times before. This year was different.

Molly (who works on our assignment desk) was fishing for a story just like this and landed it with the Canby Fire & Rescue folks who knew about a woman who suffered heat stroke who was also willing to share her personal story. Believe me, to get BOTH of those variables covered is remarkable. So, Molly passed it along to me this morning about 9:30am and I was off and running to Canby with phojo Steve.

Ms. Collins story goes a long way to highlighting the potential dangers of the heat. It is so amazing she is alive. Tighe (one of the firefighter/paramedics) said that with a core temperature around 107, like what she had... it can easily kill you and most certainly lead to brain damage.. neither of which happened to Ms. Collins!!

By the way, I didn't have time to include it in my story, but she doesn't remember a thing about that day... all of it-- gone!!

The bottom line is this: check on your older parents, friends, neighbors and make sure they get some relief from the heat. Her family found her after she didn't pick up the phone at home. Close call!!

This is from the Clark County Health Department:

Heat stroke can cause death or permanent disability if emergency treatment is not provided. Warning signs of heat stroke vary but may include the following:

An extremely high body temperature (above 103°F, orally)
Red, hot, and dry skin (no sweating)
Rapid, strong pulse
Throbbing headache
Dizziness
Nausea
Confusion
Unconsciousness

If you see any of these signs, have someone call for immediate medical assistance while you begin cooling the victim. This can be done by placing the victim in a tub of cool water or in a cool shower, by spraying the victim with cool water from a garden hose, sponging him or her with with cool water, wrapping him or her in a cool, wet sheet and faning vigorously. Do not give the victim fluids to drink. If emergency medical personnel are delayed, call the hospital emergency room for further instructions.

And here is a good resource from the CDC:

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/faq.asp

Okay, here are a few tips from mom's about morning sickness! I hope they help...

Amy writes: I do have one friend who in her 2nd pregnancy kept a box of raisins at her bedside because she would feel really sick first thing in the morning and so she ate a couple of raisins to stablize her blood sugar and then she could actually go about most of her day. thinking back now I think she kept raisins in her purse all of the time too!

Christina writes: My morning sickness was twice as bad with my second. My first who is now 2 years old is a boy who only knows two speeds, off and full blast. I had heartburn for the first 10 weeks and that was it. The second who is a girl will show herself (hopefully she will wait that long) at the end of September. My morning sickness was extremely bad. I lost 5 pounds even through I was only nauseous. My stomach protested anything I wanted to eat. This included water and my prenatal vitamins. Of course, I gained the weight back and more during the second trimester. Baby girl and I are doing just great but the first trimester was hard. I am glad with my first, the morning sickness wasn't that bad because I would have had second thoughts on having my second. I am also glad my partner and I only wanted two children because I don't want to do the pregnancy thing again. Take all of the time you can after the baby is born because you won't have another chance to have three months off from your job unless you have another child. My son and the one on the way are the best things to happen to me. Have fun!

And Lynn writes: Ginger tea helps, as does keeping something on your stomach at all
times. The advice about eating before you get out of bed is spot on,
except i kept saltines next to the bed. In fact, I kept saltines
everywhere. I lived on saltines the first trimester of both babies.
As for that tile, hey! it's only money! you only live once! ;)

And Ryan, thanks to you too for the support on my ridiculously expensive tile that I'm in love with. :-) Maybe I'll just buy one and put it in a frame or something. And, that pic of your two little kiddos is really super cute!! Can I post it?

One more random observation: various corners of my house are crawling with ants. Tiny, industrious ants. Little, unwelcome, rascally ants. Ants that I am just going to have to learn to ignore because there are way more of them than me. I live in an older home so ants are just part of the deal. It was the same at our other old home, too, but right now I feel like they are everywhere!! And, I'm anal about cleaning so that's not it. I think they must be looking for water or like the fact that our home is air-conditioned.
:-)

As always, feel free to email me!! sstricklen@kgw.com

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 4:07 PM | Permalink

Happy Friday!!

After this crazy mixed up schedule I was on all week, I'm super excited to have the weekend off.

Now, let's get down to this business of morning sickness. My girlfriends have told me horror stories of catching a whiff of food and spending the next 30 minutes hovering over the commode. After hearing that, it's hard to believe that morning sickness is a good thing.. but it is! The doctor we interviewed today (Dr. Richard Lowensohn at OHSU) says it is a sign of a strong implantation of the fetus, and the appropriate hormonal flucuations that come with it.

One great tip the doctor offered: if you are pregnant and have morning sickness-- try keeping some dry toast at your bedside. Before you even lift your head off the pillow, take a few bites and let it settle for a little bit. The doctor says many women start to feel sick the moment they sit up. Also, as many of you probably know.. morning sickness is a bit of a misnomer. It can happen at all hours, but sticking to bland foods in small quantities throughout the day is your best bet. And, the doctor says it should clear up once you are out of your first trimester. Oh yeah, don't sweat it if you lose some weight in that first trimester. Just make sure your healthcare provider knows what is going on.

I emailed the lead researcher in Liverpool.. here's a bit more on the study:

Dr Craig Roberts, from the University’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “We reasoned that if certain foods induce pregnancy sickness, then dietary patterns across the world might reflect incidence of pregnancy sickness. To test this, we collected rates of nausea and vomiting in pregnant women recorded from studies across the world and looked at the average diet of women in these countries. We found that high overall food intake (calories etc) was correlated with pregnancy sickness, but also that the amounts of certain types of food predicted the incidence of pregnancy sickness. To account for other differences across parts of the world, we repeated the analysis restricting it to studies from countries in Europe and North America. In this more controlled analysis, we still found that incidence of pregnancy sickness was correlated with oilcrops, sugars, alcohol and meat, and with low cereal intake. This suggests that some or all of these foodstuffs could play a part in inducing pregnancy sickness.

“Let me first say that I think any change in diet should always be in consultation with a GP. However, our interpretation of the data is that while there may be no particular harm in eating, say, meat, now that we have refrigeration and best before dates, our bodies may be pre-programmed by evolution to avoid these particular foodstuffs in the first trimester. It may be that the nausea women feel towards certain foodstuffs could be helpful, and that although it is inconvenient and miserable, their nausea could be nature's way of avoiding problems in pregnancy for both mother and foetus.”

Any mom's out there have tips and tricks to share?? Or particularly good horror stories ((like my friend who got sick in the movie theater))? Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com

Mercury & Tuna story update: A gal with the PR firm for the agency that represents tuna manufacturers asked if I'd share a link to its website as a counter to those who feel tuna is unsafe. Happy to!!!!

http://tunafacts.org/

And finally, I have to share this picture I took. We are remodeling our house and I walked into a local tile showroom and immediately fell in love with this tile.

Guess what.

It's $170.00....... A TILE!!!!! ((and they are 8 inches by 8 inches)).

Oh well. Maybe if I win the lottery.

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 1:21 PM | Permalink

You clicked here because you want to see the full meal deal on OSPIRG's report and I am happy to deliver. :-)

Head to the OSPIRG website and then look about halfway down the page where it says "Paying the Price". That will give you the full report.

http://www.ospirg.org/

And here is a link to Oregon's prescription drug buying program. Follow it to find FAQ's (frequently asked questions) and applications.

http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/OHPPR/OPDP/index.shtml

Questions, comments, random thoughts? Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com

Here is a picture of one of my best friend's kids. No, he doesn't normally watch TV that way. He was pretending to ignore me and we were both cracking up.

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 2:42 PM | Permalink

What kind of tuna is in your pantry??

Typically, many who looked at the issue considered albacore to potentially have more mercury because the fish were bigger and older when harvested (and further up the food chain which means more mercury collects in the tissues of the fish).

Some groups recommended eating tuna labelled as "light" (not in terms of calories) since the type of tuna was a smaller, typically younger fish and theoretically would contain less mercury. This latest testing suggests even some light tuna contained levels of mercury it found troubling.

I think Dave Stone, the public health toxicologist has sound advice.. don't stop eating fish and seafood because, for most of us, the benefits outweigh the risks.. but do limit how much tuna you eat if you are in that 'highly susceptible' group of women of childbearing age, pregnant or nursing women, or a small child.

Here are a few links for you...

This is the environmental groups testing results:
http://www.defenders.org/tunamercury/

Here is what Oregon has to say about all things related to fish consumption:
http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/envtox/fishconsumption.shtml

Here is what the EPA says:
http://www.epa.gov/ost/fishadvice/advice.html

The newsroom is crazy right now!! We have breaking news and I think Kyle Iboshi will end up fronting a story Bruce Sussman wrote while Bruce flys in the chopper over breaking news. Never dull!!!

On to responses: so many of you were kind enough to respond to the story we did on concierge medicine I just couldn't keep up with posting all of your responses. It was actually really cool that so many people took the time to write. About 60% of you did not like the idea of a doctor charging a fee for specialized services like same day doctors appointments, etc while the other 40% wantd to know where you could sign up.

And the Disabled Bike Camp story got a HUGE response too!! Here are a few:

Marcy writes:
Stephanie, 19 years ago, my (now) 24 year old son with Down syndrome took the training wheels off of his own bike, much to the dismay of his brother and the neighbor kids. Better yet, he started riding that little red bike (no brakes) all around the cul-de-sac! No falls (that day). He progressed to a mountain bike and still rides. It doesn't take an expert to tell you how the motion stimulates the brain. He's still a jock today.
Thanks for a great story.

Kathryn writes:
I'd just like to say that I saw your piece tonight on the Learning to Ride without Training Wheels and LOVED IT. What a great opportunity for those kids! Why is it they're only able to do it one week a year? Perhaps I should check out their web sit. I most definitely will. I'd love to volunteer my time next year.

I am an aunt to a 9 year old niece, 6 year old nephew, and grandmother to a 4 1/2 year old grandson all of which I have had a blast teaching to ride without training wheels. There's just something about the look on a child's face when they gain that confidence and independence of being able to ride out training wheels that truly warms my heart.

Thanks again for the story. Keep up the good work.

Troy writes:
"Lose the Training Wheels".

My wife and I both have cerebral palsy. We attended Holiday Center in Portland as kids and we used to ride the three and four wheelers there. I rode a three wheeler through my days at OSU. After college, voc rehab help me get my driving license.

Now I wish I had time to bike again.

Thank you for your wonderful story!

God bless

And Greta writes:
Great to see this story! The founder of this organization is my Uncle, Richard E Klein. His passion for teaching kids to ride bikes is unbounded. I've gotten many a letter from about his latest experiments in bike design over the years, but in spite of the many letters, I was unaware of how far his enthusiasm had spread. I knew he had gone outside his immediate area, but that he has turned into nation-wide program, too? wow! I was delighted to see the story aired, and wished that you had been able to give it more than what seemed to be a mere snippets airtime. ~~I agree Greta!! I could have talked about that for the entire half hour!! :-)

Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 4:36 PM | Permalink