slimming down Rhode Islanders one team at a time

by Camila Crews

It is no secret that obesity is an epidemic in many states including Rhode Island. Increased portion sizes and inactive lifestyles have led to expanded waistlines that cross culture and gender lines. Luckily for us in 2006 Rajiv Kumar, a Brown University medical student created Shape Up Rhode Island, a statewide exercise and weight loss team challenge to fight obesity.

Shape Up Rhode Island is made up of more than 12,000 participants representing every region of the state. Participants organize themselves into teams, based generally on company or organizational affiliations, then craft and implement their own strategies for making lifestyle changes. In the meantime, Shape Up organizers send participants weekly dietary tips, program updates, special gift certificates, and more.

Dr. Alvord incorporates Western medicine and Native American medicine

by Natalie Myers

Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord grew up in a small Navajo community in the northwest corner of New Mexico. It was a place so rural that people outside the town didn’t have running water.

"They lived with wood stoves and lanterns," she said. "So, very, very much similar to how they'd lived for a very long time."

In addition, it was a place where very few of the children went on to college after high school. Dr. Alvord said she didn't really plan to do a whole lot with her life, though she had been a very good student, the youngest in her class, and graduated high school at age 16.

a doctor has a dream

by Reza Corinne Clifton

Dr. Padma Balasubramanian has a lot on her mind. There are statistics she compiled pointing to more than 50 million Americans living day-today without health insurance. There is the Harvard University study she read about how an absence of insurance affects life expectancy. Oh, and there is the fact that her office recently relocated from Attleboro, Massachusetts to Foxboro.

Some doctors might be worried that a move could cause a drop in their patient load. But as an endocrinology and diabetes specialist, Dr. Balasubramanian probably has little to worry about. That is because as the doctor herself is aware, more than 60% of Americans are overweight or obese, a significant risk-factor for diabetes -- and a host of other heart, joint, and breathing problems.

lessons on trust and surrender from a college professor, yogi, and cancer fighter

by Kalyana Champlain

I saw her from the back as I entered through the front door. She was on her bedroom floor with a wooden chair in front of her holding a bottle of glue. As she turned back to greet me she said, "The chair had broken. I'm fixing it so if nothing else I can at least put some stuff on it. Probably books."

It was hardly what you would expect from someone in Stage III colon cancer functioning with a self described "Chemo Brain." It was also far from the incense, chimes and "Om's" that one might envision walking in on a yoga master – or yogi.

But then that wouldn't be Rae Ferguson.

by Dana Wright

The school year may be ending for most kids, but before you know it parents will be immersed in the hustle and bustle of back to school shopping and the anticipation of a child’s first day of the new school year. It may seem like September is far away, but the summer months are also a great time to get your child’s health status up-to-date.

Full-time Mary Kay beauty consultant, Ife Rollins, knows a thing or two about children’s health in schools. She is a former nurse at Gordon School in East Providence and in the Boston Public School system. Rollins is also a mother. She can tell you what schools are looking for.

Project AIDS Khmer (PAK) is a small, humanitarian organization doing big things to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. In Rhode Island, PAK board membershelp with fundraising and project evaluation. But the group's life-changingwork on health and children's advocacy happens far away - in rural communities in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a country "devastated by decades of war," and genocide according to Dr. Kong Bun Navy, a PAK co-founder, physician in women's health, and international specialist on tuberculosis and HIV. Today, says Dr. Navy, "Families live with the continued trauma of AIDS and other diseases and lack of access to health care services." Especially distressing to the doctor, who studied medicine in Cambodia and speaks Khmer, is that in her home country more than 350,000 children "below the age of 15, have lost one or both parents" due to the disease.