July 1, 2015



No Image

Your guide to 3 days of July 4th fun

Celebrate July Fourth at local parades, fireworks, festivals and more. The wealth of activities this weekend provide something for everyone. July 2 Destin – This week’s Red, White and Blue Celebration will honor the Air…


No Image

A Dose Of Culinary Medicine Sends Med Students To The Kitchen

University of Chicago medical student Manny Quaidoo adds a pinch of salt to the spinach feta frittata he's learning to cook as part of a culinary medicine class.
4:18

Download

University of Chicago medical student Manny Quaidoo adds a pinch of salt to the spinach feta frittata he’s learning to cook as part of a culinary medicine class. Monica Eng/WBEZ hide caption

itoggle caption Monica Eng/WBEZ

When it comes to premature death and disease, what we eat ranks as the single most important factor, according to a study in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. Yet few doctors say they feel properly trained to dispense dietary advice. One group, at least, is trying to fill that knowledge gap.

In a bustling kitchen at one of Chicago’s top cooking schools, a student cracks an egg into a wide, stainless steel bowl. But he’s not an aspiring chef. His name is Emmanuel Quaidoo, and he’s a first-year medical student. Quaidoo is working on a spinach and feta frittata, one of the healthy breakfast alternatives he has learned to make.

Quaidoo and about a dozen of his University of Chicago classmates are here on a stormy spring night taking a culinary nutrition class they won’t even get credit for.

Their medical school — like most across the nation — doesn’t offer this kind of hands-on training. In fact, only about a quarter of American med schools offer the 25 hours of nutrition training recommended — but not required — by the National Academy of Sciences.

So the students are here at night learning from Drs. Sonia Oyola and Geeta Maker-Clark. Maker-Clark did study culinary medicine. But it wasn’t at med school.

“This training was something that I pursued on my own after I graduated from residency,” Maker-Clark says. “I really received none of that kind of nutritional information during medical school.”

So this spring, she and her colleagues launched a pilot based on a culinary medicine course taught at Tulane University. There, med students are required to take it.

The four-week culinary nutrition class in Chicago starts with about an hour on diet-related disease and how to treat it with food, followed by a healthy dose of hands-on cooking. Studies show this kind of personal experience makes doctors much more likely to pass along health and nutrition information to their patients. But no medical board requires doctors to study it.

Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark (center) talks to medical students during a culinary medicine class she co-taught with Dr. Sonia Oyola (left) this spring in Chicago. On the right, student Maggie Montoya.

Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark (center) talks to medical students during a culinary medicine class she co-taught with Dr. Sonia Oyola (left) this spring in Chicago. On the right, student Maggie Montoya. Monica Eng/WBEZ hide caption

itoggle caption Monica Eng/WBEZ

Those governing the first four years of med school say this kind of training is really more appropriate for later residency programs. But Mary Leih-Lai, who oversees residency standards at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, says no, it’s not their job either.

“We don’t dictate the detailed requirements,” Leih-Lai says. “We leave it up to the programs.”

But few programs are eager to add these courses on their own. And that buck passing frustrates Stephen Devries.

“I did a four-year, extra-intensive training program in cardiology and didn’t receive one minute of training in nutrition,” Devries says. “That’s gotta stop.”

A few years ago, Devries left his cardiology practice to lead the Gaples Institute, aimed at expanding nutrition training in medicine. This summer he’s launching an online nutrition course for doctors. But he also wants to reach students. So he recently met with fellow nutrition advocates who want to add nutrition questions to medical board exams, change accreditation standards and tie medical training grants to nutrition education.

David Eisenberg, with the Samueli Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health, was also at the summit. He says he’s also frustrated by the situation but sees it largely as a slow institutional response to what he calls a tsunami of obesity and diabetes.

“I don’t think we could have predicted that health care professionals would need to know so much more about nutrition,” he says. “Nor did we expect that we’d need to know more about movement and exercise or being mindful in the way we live our lives or eat or how to change behaviors.”

Back at the Chicago cooking class, changing behaviors is exactly what they’re trying to do. In just two hours, students like Erik Kulenkamp have mastered 12 new dishes to share with patients. “We don’t get a lot of devoted curriculum time to this issue,” Kulenkamp says. “I feel like it’s one of the things that patients are most curious about and have the most questions about: things that they can do to prevent things from happening rather than treat them once they occur.”

For now, this class is just a small, grant-funded pilot, but Maker-Clark envisions a day when it’s standard fare at all American med schools.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.


No Image

As The NBA's Free Agency Period Begins, LeBron James Has All The Power

3:28

Download

NPR’s Rachel Martin talks to sportswriter Bob Ryan about the start of NBA free agency Wednesday, and the man with the most power in the NBA — LeBron James.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

LeBron James has been given some lofty titles over the years – the King, the Chosen One, Best Basketball Player on the Planet. You may add to that list de facto GM of the Cavaliers. The NBA’s free agency period started today. James is a free agent. That means he could go and play anywhere he wants. Now, no one thinks he’ll leave Cleveland, but he hasn’t signed yet. And the word that trickles from his camp is that he’s waiting to see if the Cavaliers can build a championship team around him. Joining us now is longtime NBA reporter Bob Ryan. Hey, Bob. Thanks for being with us.

BOB RYAN: Well, you’re welcome.

MARTIN: We don’t know specifically how much input LeBron James has here, but he does have sway. Is it safe to say no NBA player has had this much power over a team?

RYAN: Yes, it is. There’s a unique circumstance here, which is that he’s hometown. And there’s a mutual circumstance here. I think one reason why most of us think he will not leave Cleveland is that he has now recast himself in a positive light after having cast himself in a very negative light the way he departed Cleveland. And now he’s back, and he’s the savior. Of course, he’s from Akron. He’s local. And would he risk sullying his long-term reputation, his ultimate reputation, by being cast as a villain again by abandoning Cleveland in the lurch, leaving the bride at the altar a second time? I don’t think so.

MARTIN: You think not.

RYAN: No.

MARTIN: (Laughter). So is this a testament to the immense stardom of this man – this singular player, LeBron James – or is this a sign of something that could happen elsewhere with a different player?

RYAN: Having said what I said about the power that Cleveland has over him, his power is unprecedented because he is the best player in the game with multiple skills. And he can help anybody out there be a, quote, unquote, “better player” by the nature of his game and the vast array of his skills. And he’s someone that anyone would want to play with. And he also is a showman. He’s a pitch man. He’s a walking public relations advertisement for Northeast Ohio. He makes money for people. You know, they’re talking in terms of when the new NBA contract kicks in in a couple of years and a new TV deal takes hold, that his next contract – not this one; this is going to be a one-year bridge contract – would be for upwards of 40 – I said four zero – million a year. That’s how valuable he is.

MARTIN: Is a player having this much power a good thing for a team?

RYAN: Oh no, no. I mean, there – not – no, it certainly isn’t. Number one, he has, apparently, overruled the coach on numerous occasions during this past season, and there’s an open question as to whether or not coach Dave Blatt will even return. Not that he isn’t under contract, not that he didn’t take a team within two games of winning a championship, but because he has incurred LeBron’s displeasure to the extent that we hear – and it has been reported that he has – it would be an easy call who you would retain. You would retain LeBron James.

MARTIN: The Cavs were two wins away from an NBA title this year. That was with a ton of injuries on their team. So do they really have to do that much work to build up a team that can win a championship?

RYAN: They do not. They need tinkering on the edges. And in fact, I am one of the many who believe that had Kyrie Irving specifically not gotten hurt, that they may have had enough wherewithal to win the championship this year. They’re right there.

MARTIN: Former Boston Globe columnist, long-time NBA reporter, Bob Ryan. Thanks so much, Bob.

RYAN: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.


No Image

As The NBA's Free Agency Period Begins, LeBron James Has All The Power

3:28

Download

NPR’s Rachel Martin talks to sportswriter Bob Ryan about the start of NBA free agency Wednesday, and the man with the most power in the NBA — LeBron James.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

LeBron James has been given some lofty titles over the years – the King, the Chosen One, Best Basketball Player on the Planet. You may add to that list de facto GM of the Cavaliers. The NBA’s free agency period started today. James is a free agent. That means he could go and play anywhere he wants. Now, no one thinks he’ll leave Cleveland, but he hasn’t signed yet. And the word that trickles from his camp is that he’s waiting to see if the Cavaliers can build a championship team around him. Joining us now is longtime NBA reporter Bob Ryan. Hey, Bob. Thanks for being with us.

BOB RYAN: Well, you’re welcome.

MARTIN: We don’t know specifically how much input LeBron James has here, but he does have sway. Is it safe to say no NBA player has had this much power over a team?

RYAN: Yes, it is. There’s a unique circumstance here, which is that he’s hometown. And there’s a mutual circumstance here. I think one reason why most of us think he will not leave Cleveland is that he has now recast himself in a positive light after having cast himself in a very negative light the way he departed Cleveland. And now he’s back, and he’s the savior. Of course, he’s from Akron. He’s local. And would he risk sullying his long-term reputation, his ultimate reputation, by being cast as a villain again by abandoning Cleveland in the lurch, leaving the bride at the altar a second time? I don’t think so.

MARTIN: You think not.

RYAN: No.

MARTIN: (Laughter). So is this a testament to the immense stardom of this man – this singular player, LeBron James – or is this a sign of something that could happen elsewhere with a different player?

RYAN: Having said what I said about the power that Cleveland has over him, his power is unprecedented because he is the best player in the game with multiple skills. And he can help anybody out there be a, quote, unquote, “better player” by the nature of his game and the vast array of his skills. And he’s someone that anyone would want to play with. And he also is a showman. He’s a pitch man. He’s a walking public relations advertisement for Northeast Ohio. He makes money for people. You know, they’re talking in terms of when the new NBA contract kicks in in a couple of years and a new TV deal takes hold, that his next contract – not this one; this is going to be a one-year bridge contract – would be for upwards of 40 – I said four zero – million a year. That’s how valuable he is.

MARTIN: Is a player having this much power a good thing for a team?

RYAN: Oh no, no. I mean, there – not – no, it certainly isn’t. Number one, he has, apparently, overruled the coach on numerous occasions during this past season, and there’s an open question as to whether or not coach Dave Blatt will even return. Not that he isn’t under contract, not that he didn’t take a team within two games of winning a championship, but because he has incurred LeBron’s displeasure to the extent that we hear – and it has been reported that he has – it would be an easy call who you would retain. You would retain LeBron James.

MARTIN: The Cavs were two wins away from an NBA title this year. That was with a ton of injuries on their team. So do they really have to do that much work to build up a team that can win a championship?

RYAN: They do not. They need tinkering on the edges. And in fact, I am one of the many who believe that had Kyrie Irving specifically not gotten hurt, that they may have had enough wherewithal to win the championship this year. They’re right there.

MARTIN: Former Boston Globe columnist, long-time NBA reporter, Bob Ryan. Thanks so much, Bob.

RYAN: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.




No Image

Huntley shopping center spot sold to Heartland Dental

Based in downstate Effingham, Heartland Dental acquired the land in the Huntley Grove Shopping Center, a retail center at Route 47 and Kreutzer Road anchored by Wal-Mart. Tucker Development in Highland Park announced the deal…