Ongoing effort aims to end child hunger by serving healthy breakfast at school 

BERWYN - October 12, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn today visited Irving Elementary School to emphasize the importance of eating a healthy breakfast and to participate in the school's "breakfast in the classroom" program as part of the 2012-2013 Illinois School Breakfast Challenge. A partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Midwest Dairy Council and the Illinois No Kid Hungry Campaign, the effort challenges every school in the state to make school breakfast a top priority. Governor Quinn sent a letter to superintendents throughout Illinois encouraging them to participate in the challenge earlier this year.

"No child should begin their school day with an empty stomach," Governor Quinn said. "The Illinois School Breakfast Challenge will help children across the state have a nutritious start to their day, so they are ready to learn, grow and play."

Serving breakfast in the classroom is a proven way to eliminate child hunger and help students succeed in school. Studies indicate that children who come to school hungry report headaches and stomachaches more frequently, have trouble focusing in class, make more errors and have slower memory recall. Researchers have also found that just by serving breakfast at school, students perform better on standardized tests and show a general increase in reading and math scores.  "Breakfast in the classroom" programs also help children develop healthy habits for life.

The state of Illinois offers a federally funded School Breakfast Program for children who come from households that struggle with hunger; however, less than 40 percent of the students who qualify participate. The Illinois School Breakfast Challenge encourages schools to take advantage of this program and prevent children from coming to school hungry. Schools with the largest percentage increases in average daily breakfast participation rates for August-December 2012 compared to January-May 2012 will receive awards. There are four tiers of awards, with each tier awarding three prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $1,000. The Challenge kicked-off in Illinois in April 2012 as part of a nationwide effort to close the school breakfast gap.

Since Irving School introduced their classroom breakfast program, students' standardized test scores have dramatically improved. In 2010 - before the program was implemented - only 79% of third graders at the school met or exceeded state standards in math, but in 2011 - the first year of the program - 92% of third graders met or exceeded this standard. In 2012, it went up to 98%. As of Thursday, October 11, 2012, Irving School has served 9,271 breakfasts since the first day of school.

The Breakfast Challenge is part of the Illinois No Kid Hungry Campaign to end childhood hunger in Illinois. Governor Quinn launched the Illinois No Kid Hungry Campaign earlier this year with the Illinois Commission to End Hunger and Share Our Strength, the nation's leading child anti-hunger organization. The campaign is one of the key recommendations made by the Commission to eliminate hunger throughout Illinois.

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Psychiatric hospitals have served as effective settings for some of the greatest films in history; it's where Norman Bates went at the end of "Psycho," and it's where Jack Nicholson's character rallied the patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

But how much of that fiction is based on fact?

"That depends on what kind of facility we're talking about," says Mike Bartos, a psychiatrist with experience at a state institution for mentally ill patients convicted of violent crimes, and author of the new novel "BASH" (Bay Area State Hospital), www.mikebartos.com.

"Some places are private institutions that more closely resemble a country club when compared to state-run facilities. The differences can be startling; however, these are places that are typically rich with characters, drama, and a fair share of staff burnout."

The intended use of state facilities is to control and contain, if not cure, mental illness. Bartos reviews the reasons why mental institutions often fall short of that goal:

• Bureaucracy: The state hospitals, being government institutions, are rife with bureaucratic confusion, Bartos says. These hospitals are inextricably linked to the legal system, which invites all sorts of problems if the goal is to meaningfully treat patients. "The reality is, when offenders straddle the line between criminal intent and questionable sanity, they can end up in a state hospital, which is part prison and part hospital. This is a difficult place to find healing.

• Drugs: Many of his patients at the state hospital had committed crimes while in a drug-induced haze. "Really, we often have patients there who don't have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder - they are criminals who may or may not have a problem with drug addiction." In other words, many hospital patients are not so different from prison inmates; the biggest difference is they can be tempered with psychotropic drugs and therapy.

• Violence: While not as bad as prison, state mental hospitals are often violent because of the criminal element. The majority of patients at state forensic hospitals committed crimes before their admission. This large percentage of convicts drastically increases violence in hospitals and results in staff requests for heightened security, which can be slow in implementation, and frequently considered inadequate by the people who work there.

• Staff burnout: With limited state budgets and a high demand for professional support, state workers at hospitals work long, difficult and often dangerous hours. The result is less effective treatment.

• A challenging population: A community of people with serious mental disorders or drug habits, and misplaced criminals - or combinations thereof - is quite a melting pot. Unfortunately, bad ideas and habits are shared, and instead of improving the mental conditions of patients, they tend to get worse.

"Through my years of experience as a professional and as a human being, I know the very best medicine for mental health is love - whether it's TLC from loved ones or truly compassionate care from doctors and staff," Bartos says. "Unfortunately, that is too small a part of the state hospital equation.

About Mike Bartos

Mike Bartos is currently in private psychiatric practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives with his wife, Jody.  He has several decades of experience in the mental health field, including a stint as chief of staff at a state hospital for mentally ill patients convicted of violent crimes, where he focused on forensic psychiatry. Bartos is a former radio show host and newspaper columnist. While practicing in Charleston, S.C., he served as a city councilman for the nearby community of Isle of Palms.

Runners raise record-breaking $135,000 to advance the understanding and treatment of brain tumors

Chicago, IL, October 9, 2012 - Team Breakthrough, the American Brain Tumor Association's endurance program, had 72 runners cross the finish line of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 7, 2012. In total, ABTA runners raised more than $135,000 in conjunction with Sunday's event - a record for the ABTA in its seven years of participating in the race.

The top three Team Breakthrough fundraisers at the Chicago Marathon were Scott Badskey of Tower Lakes, IL, Oren Sagher of Ann Arbor, MI and Gelsey Steinbrecher of New York City.

"We're so thankful to all of these amazing athletes for not only challenging themselves by competing in this world-class marathon, but for truly going the extra mile by raising funds in support of this important cause," says ABTA President and CEO Elizabeth M. Wilson. "All of this year's participants have been touched in some way by a brain tumor diagnosis. And each one of them is an inspiration as well as an example of what true champions are able to achieve."

Team Breakthrough is the national endurance program for the American Brain Tumor Association, and includes half marathons, full marathons and triathlons across the country. For more information, call the ABTA's Event Line at 800-886-1281 or email events@abta.org.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN BRAIN TUMOR ASSOCIATION
Founded in 1973, the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) was the first national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to funding brain tumor research. For nearly 40 years, the ABTA has provided critical funding to researchers working toward breakthroughs in brain tumor diagnosis, treatment and care, and is the only national organization providing comprehensive resources that support the complex needs of brain tumor patients and caregivers. For more information, visit www.abta.org.

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With more than a third of Americans classified as obese, everyone from first lady Michelle Obama to TV news anchor Katie Couric is advocating exercise to maintain a healthy weight.

That's great, says Dr. Eudene Harry, author of "Live Younger in 8 Simple Steps," (www.LivingHealthyLookingYounger.com), but the benefits of exercise go far beyond fitting into those skinny jeans.

For one, it will give you younger looking, more blemish-free skin.

"The increase in circulation and perspiration that occurs with exercise delivers more nutrients to your skin while allowing impurities and waste to be removed," says Harry, who combines years of emergency-room experience with holistic medicine in her private practice. "The result? A healthier complexion!"

She adds four more hidden benefits of a good workout:

• Natural "feel-good" chemicals: Exercise releases endorphins, the brain chemicals that boost your mood and make you feel happy, as well as relieve stress, and enhance your self-esteem and self-confidence. Exercise has also been shown to increase neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, which gives us a natural high and allows us to sleep better.

• Constipation prevention: Exercise increases the contractions of the wall of the intestine, helping to move things along through the intestinal tract more easily, and decreasing the time it takes to pass through the large intestine. But wait an hour or two after eating before exerting yourself: Exercising too soon after a meal can divert blood flow away from the gut and toward the muscles, weakening peristaltic contractions (and slowing down the digestion process).

• Prevents brittle bones: Walking, jogging, dancing, weight training and yoga are all weight-bearing exercises that help strengthen bones. Swimming and bicycling are exercises that are considered non-weight bearing. During weight-bearing exercises, bones adapt to the impact of the weight and the pull of muscles by building more bone cells, increasing strength and density and decreasing the risk of fractures, osteopenia and osteoporosis.

• Enhanced immunity: Physical exertion increases the rate at which antibodies flow through the blood stream, resulting in better immunity against sickness. The increased temperature generated during moderate exercise makes it difficult for certain infectious organisms to survive.

Don't overdo your exercise, or you won't see all of these benefits, Harry says.

"Check with a physician who can advise you on the right activities and intensity level for your individual needs," she says.

"For all the benefits of exercise, there are down sides if you go at it too vigorously for your physical condition. For instance, you can actually increase stress hormones, which can make you more vulnerable to illness, rather than building your immunity."

About Eudene Harry, M.D.