Thursday, January 15,1981
Vernonia Freedom — Page 7
Changing health habits reflected in latest national statistics
con tinued from page 3
many formerly common and often fatal
diseases, antibiotics for the control of
infections, recent improvements in
surgery and radiation, and other fruits,
of medical science substantially enhance
the prospects of avoiding or minimizing
disease. They can contribute significant-
VEKT WEEK: Joann Ellison
Rodgers, science correspondent
for Hearst Newspapers, discusses
the expanded role of medicine in
our society.
levels; better control of high blood
pressure has been achieved through
drugs and other means; medical care of
premature infants has improved; and
more people are exercising regularly.
Yet progress, while widespread, is
uneven.
Certain segments of the
population have not fared as well as
others. For example, black babies born
in certain parts of the country are more
decades ago white men of all ages had
higher rates of coronary heart disease
than black men. Evidently black men
are still suffering the epidemic while
whites are recovering from it.
Other groups, however, have even
better health than whites in the Untcd
States generally. For example, Mor
mons enjoy a longer life expectancy, and
specifically much less mortality from
most kinds of cancer, than the rest of the
white people among whom they live.
.lapanesc-Americans likewise have a
than twice as likely to die during infancy
as white babies. Furthermore, young
black men experience much higher mor
tality overall than your white men, ex-
pecially from deaths due to violence and
coronary heart disease. Yet only a few
very favorable health record compared
with the white.population as a whole.
The explanations for these differences
are as yet little understood, but they ap
pear to lie mainly in the way different
groups of . people live rather than in
UNEVEN PROGRESS
biological differences of differences in
medical care.
Discovering the most important fac
tors in the striking, favorable trends in
the health of the American people — as
well as the differences among segments
of the population — presents an exciting
research opportunity. Applying such
knowledge opens the prospect of ac
celerating the current progress in health
and of moving toward the World Health
Organization’s goal of “Health for All
by the Year 2000.“
ly to better health.
Thus, improving health of the
American people seems to be flowing
from a mix of factors: more than 30
million persons, have quit cigarette
smoking and millions more have never
taken up the habit; improved diet has
resulted in lower blood cholesterol
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LESTER BRESLOW. M.D.,
M.P.H., is professor of health services
administration and dean of the School
of. Public Health at the University of
California, Los Angeles. He also served
as chairman of the department of
preventive and social medicine in
UCLA’s School of Medicine. For more
than 20 years he was with the California
Department of Health, serving as Direc
tor of Public Health from 1965-68.
LIBRARY »NEWS
New encyclopedias arrive
New paperbacks, 220 of them, covering
all areas of interest: fantasy, fiction,
mystery, and western, are awaiting eager
readers!
New encyclopedias have also arrived
in the library. They are The World of
Automobiles and 20th Century which
contains the events in the 20th century.
Library readers should not stop there,
however, but should check behind the
counter where the records and cassettes
are. Cassettes include A Tale of Two
Cities and tapes include one on Edgar
Allen Poe.
The video tape machine is also here and
ready to be used. It has a colored camera
and a TV monitor.
Get to your library soon to get a more in
depth look at its new additions.
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।
ROBERT ANDREW BROWNING
ATTORNEYS PC
in Ballad Towne Square
Box 928—Forest Grove, Ore. 97116
only and do not necessarily reflect those
of the University of California, the Na
tional Endowment for the Humanities,
or the participating newspapers and col
leges.
ATTENTION PARENTS
359-4456
l
The views expressed in COURSES BY
NEWSPAPER are those of the authors
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* 886 Bridge St.,
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429-9191
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Vernonia, Ore. 97064
. Friday, Jan. 23 and 30
Please call for an appointment
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Contact: Sam Ceballos
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Home phone: 429-8661
Hours: 9-5, Fri. and Sat.
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Office phone: 227-3193
Hours: 9-5, Mon.-Thur.
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