Before you begin, explain to your child that clean-up time is part of the artistic process.

Set out a sponge so your child will be ready to help with any spills. You will both find projects more relaxing if you can clean as you work. More tips:

Give your child a kid-sized broom and shovel.

Keeping a dedicated plastic work mat handy helps keep art projects under control and teaches your child the good habit of careful set up before using art materials.

It is best to have one for each person, including you.Use water-soluble and washable markers.

To clean stray crayon marks, try washing with warm water or a diaper wipe.

Yet, according to Sara Meeks, a physical therapist who specializes in the treatment of osteoporosis, this is not just a condition affecting older women. “My patients include young women, children, teens, men and people of all ethnic origins,” she said.

Chair of the American Physical Therapy Association’s special interest group on osteoporosis, Meeks is author of the book “Walk Tall!” which teaches isometric exercises intended to strengthen the bones that are most likely to break.

Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D., author of “Strong Women Stay Young,” discovered, from a number of studies including one published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that strength training helps combat osteoporosis and its effects in several ways. Strength training:
Halts and even restores bone loss.
Improves balance.
Helps prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures.

In the JAMA study, those in the training group got an average of one percent of bone density in the hip and spine while women in the control group (who did not exercise) lost 2 percent to 2.5 percent of bone density. Furthermore, the study showed that the women who worked out with weights increased their balance scores by an average of 14 percent.

In her book, Nelson recommends engaging in a progressive resistance exercise program on a regular basis because it not only increases bone mass but also reduces the risk of falling by improving balance and strength. Nelson points out that osteoporotic fractures in the vertebrae can cause bent-over posture, which impairs a person’s balance.

People who have spinal fractures may be in pain and have trouble breathing. Improving body alignment makes them taller and that relieves pain and other symptoms.”
Meeks offers the following tips to help combat the effects of osteoporosis:
Test your balance. Can you stand on one leg for 12 to 15 seconds?

Practice mental imagery to correct posture. If you pretend you are taller, you can actually be taller because most people do not stand up to their full body height.

Walk correctly. Learn heel-toe walking, and walking with “long legs” so you use the large muscles on the back of the hip to push off.

Avoid certain exercises if you suffer from osteoporosis, including straight leg raises, bending over to touch your toes and any exercise that twists the trunk.

Analgesics can be successful and effective in treating a lot of types of pain, such as pain after surgery, earaches, pain from arthritis and back pain. Medication for pain are remedies that you may order no prescription.

Facility owners and managersalsolearned that banks had final decision-makers whom they might never meet; they related only to the local loan officer (analogous to a salesperson), who would turn over the files to analysts and underwriters, who would then make the final decision on the loan and specific terms. So, educating the loan officer did not always guarantee the ideal end result.

Many of those surveyedsuggested starting early and using local professionals (lawyers, accountants) and senior business executives for high-level bank introductions. All recommended working with more than one bank, and several strongly suggested keeping two banking relationships at all times, with at least 80 percent of the company’s assets placed with one bank.

Many club owners found that there were a series of elements of a loan that could be negotiated (collateral, up-front points, personal guarantees, prepayment penalties, covenants, etc.).

Several smaller clubs suggested that graduating from a SBA loan (or SBA-guarantee) was significant.
All agreed that refinancing was worthwhile, and often ideal when the overall business climate was somewhat unfavorable.

What the club came up with is a monthly class called Tag Team. Corbett explains: The group fitness instructors get together and choose a theme for the class, including music and class content. The theme is then used as a backdrop for the class, which includes more than one instructor. The class typically starts out with a warm-up, then a hi/lo-impact segment, moves into kickboxing, thento step,then toa weight segment, and ends up with yoga or a Pilates mat class segment.

The Tag Team class lasts about two hours. It starts at 5:30 p.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m. Says Corbett, “We choose one evening the last week of every month to offer the class. The day varies so that participants who may not be able to attend, for example, on a Wednesday, can still have the opportunity to try the class.”

To make the class festive, the room is decorated to go with the chosen theme, and instructors wear coordinating outfits. Sometimes refreshments are served.

Some of the Tag Teams Westmoreland Athletic Club has offered include the following:

Rock and Jam through the Decades. Each instructor chose a decade from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s or today. Music and the instructors’ outfits fit that particular era. The room was decorated with old 45s, albums, posters, cut-out music notes, etc. “We had instructors from a Madonna look-a-like, to a Disco dresser, to [one] with bobby socks and a pony tail,” says Corbett.

Boot Camp. This class had a military theme, from the camouflage decorations and outfits, to music from the Village People (“In The Navy”). Nets, Army duffel bags and Army rations decorated the room, and promotional signage throughout the club read, “We Want YOU to come to the Tag Team class,” and depicted a large finger pointing. “We held this class around Memorial Day, tying in the patriotic feel and USA spirit,” says Corbett.

Fiesta Tag Team. “Latin music is very popular, and [we had] a hit [with] our Fiesta Tag Team class,” says Corbett. Sombreros, crepe paper and pinatas adorned the room, and light refreshments were served, including sangria punch (fruit juice and Crystal Light), fat-free tortilla chips and salsa.

Beach Party. This class playedBeach Boys music, and people actually sang along. Beach towels, beach chairs, sunglasses and paper mache suns decorated the room, and sliced fresh fruit was served afterward.

Tag Team Goes to the Movies. Corbett explains, “We chose music from favorite movie soundtracks for this one. A local video rental store donated the large promotional movie release posters for our decorations. We also hung videocassette boxes from the ceiling.” Popcorn was available during “intermission” (when instructors or classformats changed), and at the end of “the show.”

Plans for future Tag Team classes at Westmoreland Athletic Club include a country/western theme with music from country artists. Decor will include hay bales and cowboy hats.

A Disco Day will feature “glitter and glitz” and include neon lights, a strobe light, a disco ball and music from the late ’70s. Also, a Halloween party will have instructors in costume, and class participants whowear a costume, festive T-shirt or any type of mask will be awarded a treat. Also, a club water bottle will be given to anyone who participates.

Corbett offers advice for clubs who want to increase their group exercise participation numbers by beginning such a program: “Using your imagination, the possibilities keep growing. [Our program] started out with lower participation, but it is growing. About two weeks before the class, signs are posted throughout the club advertising the class. Instructors announce at their classes when the next Tag Team will be held. Members are encouraged to bring a friend. The class is open to all of our members, regardless of the type of membership they have. (This encourages membership upgrades.) The atmosphere in the classes is exciting and motivating, even for those not brave enough to enter!”

Yet even with improvements in mammography over the years, many tiny tumors are still barely visible. As mentioned, part of the answer relates to the density of the breast tissue being imaged.

In pre-menopausal women, the tissue of milk production pervades the breasts and appears opaque, or white, on a mammogram. Unfortunately, so do tumors. In post-menopausal women, breast tissue gives way to fat, which mammographically appears grayish. Thus, tumors — no matter their size in post-menopausal women — show up in sharp contrast to fatty tissue, making the tumors much more visible to the diagnostic radiologist.

CAD, its developers say, helps ensure against human error by directing radiologists’ attention to obscure tumors and microcalcifications, the potentially pre-cancerous deposits that sometimes can be overlooked.

“The next challenge for CAD is diagnosis,” Doi said. “We have already developed algorithms that guide our system in distinguishing benign from malignant lesions. I believe that in time, as we fine-tune these algorithms, CAD will also become an important tool in helping women avoid unnecessary biopsies.”

Even with computer-enhanced detection of tiny tumors on mammograms, doctors say there is still a need for tests that focus on biomarkers. With respect to breast cancer, a biomarker would be any chemical or cells in the blood, tissue or other fluid that would signal impending cancer development. Such tests, doctors say, could potentially be far more precise than mammography in revealing evidence of cancer’s building blocks. The hope is that these building blocks would be detected years before a tumor ever begins to develop.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, for example, are working on a potential biomarker test for breast cancer that targets metabolites of estrogen. Lifelong exposure to estrogen is a long established link to increased breast cancer risk. While scientists are still uncertain exactly why estrogen exposure boosts the risk for breast cancer, some scientists hypothesize that metabolites — breakdown products of estrogen — might trigger DNA mutations, leading to tumor formation.

Dr. Douglas E. Stack and colleagues at the University of Nebraska are studying ways to detect these metabolites. Though the research is still in its early stages, if the scientists are successful, an effective biomarker for the early detection of breast cancer will be created. Screening could eventually become as simple as any standard blood test.

Ideas for new methods of screening and early detection abound.

Another potential test is minimally invasive and involves sampling cells from the same breast ducts over time in women who are at high risk for breast cancer, either as a result of personal history of breast cancer or inheritance. For years scientists have known that most breast cancers begin in the ducts. However, there was no way of sampling cells within the ductal system.

Famed breast surgeon and author Dr. Susan M. Love may have found a way. She is leading a study at the University of California, Los Angeles that has mapped the ductal system of the breast and has also developed a device that is minimally invasive and capable of retrieving ductal cells.

“With this device we can find cells that are just thinking about becoming cancer,” said Love, author of “The Breast Book,” an international bestseller.

Despite all of the work-in-progress, Visco sounds a note of reality. Though she and others would like to see the use of biomarker-testing and minimally invasive diagnostics, “mammography is the best we have right now,” she said.

Here’re numerous great and strong advantages of generic prescription drugs. The medicines that are available at an online store are normally more economical than which are available in a nearest drugstore.

And even if mammography must stick around, women ask if there is a way to make it more precise.

There have been many instances in which mammography has failed to detect tumors in those with dense breast tissue. Because tumors and the dense breast tissue of younger women both appear white on a mammogram, doctors sometimes miss cancers-in-development.

As it turns out, there is progress on multiple fronts to improve screening and diagnostics for breast cancer.

Computer technology is being developed to improve the use of mammography. Further down the road, minimally invasive tests, which are being researched, will seek out biological markers for breast cancer in blood or other fluids long before a tumor takes hold. With an emphasis on biomarkers, doctors say, mammography could become a technology of the past.

“Mammography does not detect all breast cancers and it cannot distinguish well among the various kinds of breast cancer,” said Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, an advocacy group for breast cancer patients with headquarters in Washington. What Visco and other advocates would like to see is a screening technique that is more precise and ultimately eliminates the use of radiation.

At the Era of Hope breast cancer conference held recently in Atlanta, researchers presented data on the progress of computer-aided diagnosis, or CAD. The meeting attracted hundreds of scientists, doctors and patient advocates, and was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense’s breast cancer research program.

CAD does not eliminate the use of radiation in screening, but it provides enhanced computerized pictures of breast tissue already imaged mammographically. The technology can help doctors spot early-stage breast cancers, which might otherwise go undetected. It works this way: At a CAD workstation, a laser scanner is used to transform the mammography film into a detailed matrix of digital data. Precision-driven computer programming guides the system’s vision and artificial intelligence to scan the digital matrix. In so doing, it can sift out background images, such as those of normal soft tissue, and emphasize patterns that are most likely to be cancerous lesions.

Suspect areas highlighted by the program are instantly and automatically flagged with arrows. This is what can draw a radiologist’s attention to unusual patterns in a new way, doctors say.

“CAD cannot pick up lesions that are invisible to mammography, but it can compensate for some cases of radiologist oversight,” said Dr. Kunio Doi, professor of radiology at the University of Chicago. “We believe the increasingly positive results with CAD demonstrate it can serve as a ‘second opinion’ for traditional screening mammograms.”

Under a contract from the University of Chicago’s Defense Department grant, radiologists there are now using CAD as a second opinion in a study of all screening mammograms conducted at one Illinois diagnostic radiology facility. Doi and his team of researchers will analyze data from that study after information has been collected for about two years. At that point they will determine whether CAD indeed helps improve detection of breast cancer. Positive results from the study could help speed CAD into more generalized use, researchers say.

For most of individuals, ordering cheap prescription drugs presents benefits not affordable from a local drugstore, including: the greater handiness and wide assortment of products, etc.

A friendly, casual atmosphere at the event is enhanced by the healthy snacks and beverages provided for the new members and their guests, explains Caroline DeLongchamps, club director. “By the end of the presentation, the members have had a good look into each one of our departments, as well as personal contact with each department head,” she says.

While a social event, the group orientation still provides the education about LifeQuest services and personal contact with staff members that an individual meeting would.

And by inviting guests to the event, the club continually expands its member referral base. “The orientation produces a well-informed member at the very least, and a well-informed member is usually a happy member,” DeLongchamps says.

NCPA (The National Community Pharmacists Association) and NACDS (The National Association of Chain Drug Stores), which collectively represent more than 55,000 community pharmacies and 130,000 pharmacists, allege that the administration violated federal rules by failing to hold public hearings and by setting standards for the program in secrecy.

The complaint, filed in US District Court in the District of Columbia, attacks the administration’s drug discount plan over the “unlawful” way it was allegedly developed and over aspects of the program itself that the groups say violate federal law.

President Bush’s Medicare drug plan, unveiled last week, allows seniors to sign up with private companies to get cards bearing the Medicare logo that will enable them to receive discounts of up to 25% on prescription drugs. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) will negotiate the discounts and administer the program.

“The whole business of the Medicare program — the sacrosanct Medicare program — and even the utilization of the name Medicare has been handled with kid gloves since 1965, and any time a private entity was involved in Medicare, it was explicitly authorized by Congress,” said John Rector, the NCPA’s general counsel. “What you have here is quite the opposite,” he told Reuters Health.

The groups contend that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) illegally delegates all power to a private company by having the PBM consortium create, administer and enforce standards for the program.

The complaint, which names HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Thomas Scully, seeks to block the discount program from taking effect.

HHS spokesman Bill Pierce declined to comment on the suit, but reiterated the administration’s contention that the program is a “first step” aimed at helping potentially 40 million seniors get access to drug discounts.

“What this issue is about is providing seniors with immediate relief that many other citizens have access to, including many of their fellow seniors, on an issue–high prescription costs–that they want action on,” Pierce told Reuters Health.

But NCPA’s Rector suggested that the program is designed by the PBMs to feed their own mail order programs. He said pharmacies make a net profit, on average, of just 1% to 2% on prescriptions, while the Bush plan promises drug discounts of 15% to 25%.

“There’s no way any online pharmacy could be forced to take that kind of discount and survive,” he insisted. “So in a way it’s built to assure that the people who get the card go to the mail order programs.”

“This plan provides false hopes to our seniors when they walk into their neighborhood pharmacy,” added Craig Fuller, president and CEO of NACDS. “The possibility exists that there are no real discounts on the drugs that their doctors prescribe, their pharmacy does not participate in the plan, or that they must take a different type of medication than that which was prescribed by their doctor.”

A number of interest groups have raised concerns about the drug plan, but pharmacy groups are among the program’s fiercest critics. On Tuesday, members of Congress joined representatives of pharmacy groups in opposing the plan.

At congressional hearings on Thursday, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson told Reuters Health that he was not surprise by the lawsuit and that it will not slow down the administration’s goal of offering the discounts by January 2002.

“I’ve looked at the lawsuit and I think that we are on very strong grounds,” he said.

A reputable coach or sports instructor:

* Is diversified in his/her teaching skills.

* Is certified to ensure members are provided the best, consistent, quality instruction.

* Is personable, patient and provides eye contact.

* Creates an environment that makes participants feel excited instead of intimidated.

* Helps participants set realistic goals for a positive, successful experience. This builds confidence to tackle more difficult skills, more challenging terrain, etc., without fearing failure.

* Always listens attentively.

* Uses “transfer of learning” to find out what other activities members participate in and relate as much as possible to those past, positive experiences. For example, if a member has experience playing racquetball and is taking tennis lessons, you’ll draw on those experiences to enhance the lesson.

* Teaches logical and safe movement progressions, ensuring the mastery of one skill to make the next easy to learn, and explains directions with demonstrations, checking for understanding, giving time to practice, offering immediate feedback, checking again for understanding, demonstrating again, practicing again, and reviewing what was learned.

* Possesses “kinesthetic empathy” to feel physically and relate mentally to what members are going through; instructors with empathy communicate respect for their members and get respect in return.

* Gives lots of positive reinforcement.

* Gives handouts, “homework” and resources to reinforce what members have learned.

* Always has participants sign a release of liability or waiver; members are educated to question the professionalism and background of an instructor who doesn’t.

The result is the Equipment Cleaning Program, which involves the facility’s entire staff in a teamwork effort to keep the facility’s 200 machines clean and in good working order. Each month, the equipment inventory is divided evenly among staff members who are required to clean equipment at least twice a week. Equipment assignments are changed monthly, with the staff member achieving the highest equipment rating being excused from cleaning duty for the next quarter. Staff is held accountable for weekly cleanings by recording dates in a log book, and by weekly equipment checks made by supervisors. At the end of the quarter, if the staff has a collective average evaluation of “good” or better, a party is held at a staff meeting, with management providing refreshments.

Since the program was created in March 1996, the number of negative comments about equipment maintenance has dropped to their lowest to date, and, last year, maintenance requests dropped from 42 in January to 12 in December. By using a team approach and available resources, costs were kept to only cleaning supplies and refreshments for staff parties.

“Prospective members comment often during tours of the club that our facility is very clean compared to other places they have visited,” says Siegfried’s Juli Atkinson. “This promotes our reputation for health and wellness and the likelihood they will choose to join our facility.