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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1998)
Page B4 FEB. 25, 1998 (Elje ^Jortlaxtù <®bsertier ì k ì R t ! V .9 wmmmvmsaaigGi Downtown Elderly Housing Development Gets Boost The Federal Home Loan Bank o f Seattle awarded a $200,000 grant to Bank o f America, FSB to help fund the construction o f the Macdonald Center, 54 assisted living apartments for very low-income frail, elderly individuals in downtown Portland, announced James R. Faulstich, presi dent and chief executive officer o f the Federal Home Loan Bank o f Se attle. A private, wholesale bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank o f Seattle is providing the grants through its Affordable Housing Program (AHP) which offers targeted grants and re duced-rate loans to help financial institutions support community or ganizations with the development o f affordable housing. The AHP is funded annually with 10% o f the Seattle Banks’ profits. Macdonald Center is a nonprofit social service outreach organization that formed a limited partnership to develop and own the facility which will also be called Mac Donald Cen ter. Located on the downtown transit mall at N.W. Sixth A venue and N.W. Couch Street, the center will provide accessible apartments with assisted- living services to 54 frail, elderly individuals living on social security or disability income and earning no more than 30% o f the median in come in Portland, or $16,200 per year for an individual. Mac Donald Center residents will receivea unique mix o f personal care and mental health services. In addition to the AH P grant, which will be used to reduce the principal on a perm anent loan. Bank o f America will provide construction financing. Additional funding for the $1.5 million development in cludes a loan form NOAH (Network for Oregon Affordable Housing), Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and grants from the Portland devel opm ent Com m ission, the M eyer Memorial Trust and the State o f Or- egon. Construction will begin in February 1998 and be com plete in January 1999. The Mac Donald Center is one o f 60 affordable housing developments across the region that received $9.8 million through the program in 1998. AHP grants leverage additional fund ing through financial institutions, federal, state, and local governments, and private donations. The Federal Home Loan Bank o f Seattle's mission is to expand hous ing and economic opportunities if in the region by providing funding and other banking services essential to community-based financial institu tions. One o f 12 Federal Home Loan Banks in the nation, the Seattle Bank serves 290 financial institutions in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, M on tana, Oregon, Utah, W ashington and Wyoming. The Seattle Bank is pri vately owned and managed and has assets o f $29 billion. LANDLORD TRAINING T h e tra in in g s p ro v id e v a lu a b le in fo rm a tio n and re so u rc e s fo r la n d lo rd s at no co st for the w o rk sh o p , and a $10 fee to the w ritten packet. W e have m oved the tra in in g s to PCC C ascad e to accom m odate the g ro w in g n um ber o f atten d - ees. If you have any q u e stio n s, p le a s e fe e l fre e to c o n ta c t V ictoria A nderson at 2 8 2 -1 9 6 4 . STEWART GROUP REALTY (fo rn m ia u tg ” Fax: 289-3435 E-Mail: fred@sgrealty.com 1. 289-4970 Priced from *122,500 • • • • • 1338 to 1469 sq. ft. 3 & 4 bedroom s 2 1/? baths 2 car garages Fenced with front landscaping Open F ri l = j S a t-S u n -M o n 1 2 to 5 To Visit West on Highway 8 to Cornelius Right on 19th Proceed North mile Right on Holladay Go to Information Center Kinon Development (5 0 3 )3 5 9 -0 9 1 1 GREAT HOUSE, GREAT PRICE & GREAT LOCATION Three bedroom, two baths, vaulted ceilings in living/dining and master bedroom. Large vaulted entry with hardwood & alcoves. Bayed window in living room. On culde-sac, brick accent, real wood trim, fenced & wood deck & large private side yard. Built 1990. $159.900. #HDC12836. Call Debbie (503) 708-5510 or 1-888-288-5432. ^Science Chronic coughs often age- related in children Treatment for children’s chronic cough may be determined by their age. “ Diagnosis for coughs lasting longer than three weeks vary ac cording to patients age,” said Dr. Stuart Abramson, an assistant pro fessor o f pediatries at Baylor C ol lege o f Medicine in Houston. Coughs can indicate a number o f disorders, although the cause can be determined in more than 80 per cent o f cases, said Abramson, a physician at Texas C hildren’s Hos pital. “ It’s frustrating diagnostic and treatment di lemma for both patients and physicians alike,” he said. “ But once the cause is found, treatment is usually effective.” Abramson lists three categories for childhood coughs: * U p t o l 8 months: The most likely causes are gastroesophageal reflux, aortic arch anomalies or cough variant asthma. Gastroesophageal reflux often re sults in vomiting. Treatment includes keeping infants in an elevated posi tion, using cereal to thicken formula, and medicines that control the regur gitation o f stomach contents. Aortic arch anomalies, or an ab normality o f arteries leading off the aorta, may constrict the esophagus. Surgery may be required for this rare condition. Cough variant asthma (CVA) re sults when patients have restricted airways causing a form o f asthma that results in mainly coughing rather than wheezing. Treatment includes regular use o f anti-inflammatory medicines in persistent asthma cases. * 18 months to age 6: These chil dren most likely have coughs due to CVA or sinusitis, an inflammation o f the membrane lining the facial si nuses. Sinusitis is typically treated with antibiotics and decongestants, although surgical drainage may be necessary in some cases. Respira tory allergies may also lead to si nusitis and should be controlled. •A d o le s c e n ts : T eenage coughs u su a lly are the re su lt o f C V A , sin u sitis, o r are stre ss- related. F or the la tte r, a d d re ss ing the so u rce o f stre ss is the best treatm en t. “Annually, more than I6million physician visits by adults and chil dren are due to coughs,” Abramson said. “The majority o f patients have only one underlying cause fortheir cough." Abramson advises parents to see their physician or pediatrician when ever there is concern about achild’s cough. Adult cancer often starts in childhood The long path to adult cancer of ten begins in childhood. E xposure to parental tobacco smoke and increased teen and pre- teen smoking may be contributing to more and more cases o f adult can cers, say pediatric cancer and pulmo nary experts. “ Millions o f U.S. children have been exposed to environmental to bacco smoke,” said Dr. David G. P oplack, d ire c to r o f the T exas C hildren’s Cancer Center (TCCC) in Houston. “These children are at risk for cancer later in life as a result o f these early exposures.” Poplack, chief o f pediatric hema tology and oncology at Baylor C ol lege o f f M e d ic in e and T e x a s Children’s Hospital, says that chil dren are smoking at earlier ages. Statistics suppose this. According to the Texas Department o f Health, each day more than 3.000 American youth try a tobacco product for the first time. More than h alfo f high school stu dent, 27 percent o f sixth-graders and 10 percent o f fourth graders have tried tobacco. They are experimenting with a deadly combination, says Dr. D J. Murry, a pharmacologic expert at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center. “ T h ese kids are often unaw are th at th e re is a co ck tail o f c a r c in o g e n s in to b a c c o ,” he said. “T h a t’s w hy th ese early starters are at g re a te r risk la te r fo r c a n c e r.” Murry and colleague Dr. Marianna Sockrider, a pediatric pulmonologist, hope to study smoking cessation methods for children and teens—a little explored area. “There are few smoking cessation programs designed for youth in Texas or nationally, and potential aids such as nicotine patches have not been tested in this population,” Sockrider said. Sockrider says teens start out ex perimenting and before they realize it, they are "hooked”—often by the late teen years. She offers the fol lowing tips for parents: *Ask questionsabout your child’s friends and their attitudes toward smoking. Discuss peer pressure and their right to make decisions about their health. •Discuss how easy it is to become addicted to tobacco and how diffi cult it is to quit. Clear up any misun derstandings about smoking such as overstimating how many youths use tobacco. •Start early and be persistent. The message may get through. Women’s Health Initiative As the 2 1 st century approaches, American women still have moreques- tions than answers when it come to heart health. One o f the toughest questions is whether to use hormone replacement therapy ( H RT), which has been found to improve some heart disease risk factors by may pose other dangers, including a greater chance of breast cancer. Now the answer to that and other heart-health questions are finally in sight. They will com e from the W omen’s Health Initiative (WH1), a 15-year exploration o f how to prevent coronary heart disease, breast and co lon cancer, and fractures from os teoporosis, a severe thinning of the bones that poses serious problems for older women. WH1 was begun in 19 9 1 by Dr. Bemadine Healy, then director of the National Institutes o f Health (NHl). I n October 1997, the project was trans ferred to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute(NHLBI), whereit is conducted as a consortium effort that is led by the NHLBI in coopera tion with the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute o f Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Dis eases. WHI is one o f the largest stud ies o f its kind ever undertaken in the United States and involves more than 167,000 women, ages 50-79. WHI has three parts: •A clinical study to examine the effects o f HRT, diet and calcium, and vitamin D supplements on heart dis ease, osteoporosis, and cancer risk. •A n observational study to look at the interplay between lifestyle, health, and disease risk factors, and the devel opment o f specific diseases. •A community prevention study to test ways to get women to adopt health- ful behavior. The community study is being done with the Centers for Dis ease Control and Prevention, located in Atlanta, GA. H RT has long been used to treat the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and (lushes, sweats and sleep disturbances. HRT can be taken as an estrogen alone or in combination with another hormone, progestin (progest erone). Earlier research supported by the NHLBI— the Post menopausal Estro- gen/Progestin Interventions (PEPI) Trial— had showed that HRT can im prove some o f the risk factors for heart disease after m enopause, when women’s risk o f heart disease in creases. It’s believed that the increase is linked to the drop in estrogen that occurs at menopause. PEPI found that HRT increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL, the “good cholesterol”), and decreases both low-density lipoprotein (LDL, the “bad cholesterol” ) and fibrinogen (which allows blood to clot), increas ing the risk o f heart disease and stroke. PEPI also found that HRT not only slows the bone loss that occurs with menopause but also significantly in creases bone mass. PEPI helped to establish the first guidelines for HRT use: •W omen with a uterus should con sider a combination HRT therapy that uses both estrogen and a progester one. Those with a uterus who take estrogen alone need to have a yearly eddometial biopsy to guard against an increase risk of endometrial cancer. •W omen without a uterus should consider taking estrogen without a progesterone. But PEP! was not large enough and did not last long enough to answer every question about HRT. For ex ample, it could not explore the effects o f long-term HRT use, including whether the therapy actually leads to fewer cases ofheart disease and stroke. Also, it could not examine whether HRT use increases the risk o f breast cancer. WHI will look at those and other long-term issues. Its clinical trial in volves 67,000 women. Depending on eligibility, the women choose to enroll in one, two, or all three o f the clinical trial’s components— HRT use,dietary modification, and calcium/vitamin D supplementation: •T he HRT portion explores the therapy’s long-term effect on coro nary heart disease, osteoporosis, and breast cancer risk. Women take hor mone pills or placebo, which looks like the drug but has no biological effect. •The dietary modification portion examines the ability o f diet and cal cium and vitamin D supplements to prevent breast and colorectal cancer and heart disease. Women follow their usual eating pattern or a diet low in fat and high in fruit, vegetables, and grains. If this dietary pattern is shown to reduce breast and colorectal cancer as well as heart disease, the study will lead to important recommendaions for Americans’ eating habits. •T h e calcium and vitam in D supplements portion examines their ability to prevent fractures. The calcium and Vitamin D com ponent begins a year after a wom an has started participation in one or both o f the other portions o f the trial. W omen take either calcium and vitam in D supplem ents or place bos. Free Vision Screenings offered for save your vision month March has been proclaimed N a tional Save Your Vision Month. To celebrate, the Pacific University Col lege o f Optometry reminds the pub lic that it’s network o f community Vision Centers are providing free vision screenings as well as free eye health screenings for people with diabetes. Screenings are available by ap pointment and are offered at Pacific University Vision Centers are located in Downtown, Northeast, and South- e ast P o rtla n d ; C o rn e liu s, McMinnville, and on the Pacific University campus in Forest Grove. Vision screenings are offered for people o f all ages— including infants and children. Screenings take about 20 minutes and provide important information about clarity o f vision, eye health, and eye coordination— factors that are essential for good vision and healthy eyes. Screenings are especially benefi cial for younger children whose leam- ing skills-such as reading and writ ing—depend on good vision and healthy eyes. Screenings are also available for area schools, businesses and c o m m u n ity o rg a n iz a tio n s through Pacific'sO ff-Site Screening Program. Free eye health screenings for people with diabetes take about an hour and are critically important as diabetes is the leading cause ofblind- ness affecting people form the ages o f 20 through 75.
