| Acupuncture lobby has point, says BC NDP
A bid by practitioners of Chinese medicine to convince the province to fund acupuncture treatments for people on low incomes has received support from the B.C. New Democrats. The Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, which has been regulated by a professional college since 1996, recently made its case to the health ministry. Health-care services such as physiotherapy, chiropractic and routine eye exams were delisted by the B.C. Liberals in 2002, which means most people now have to pay for those treatments unless they have extended medical coverage. Low-income people, however, earning less than $28,000 a year, can still access 10 such professional visits without charge. If traditional Chinese medicine were also covered, it could save the system money, according to NDP MLA Jenny Kwan.
He trains Ugandans to use acupuncture
IBANDA, Uganda -- At a health center in this tiny rural community in southwestern Uganda, an HIV-positive pregnant woman rests on a thin foam mattress supported by a rusting steel bed frame. Needles 15 inches long protrude from her legs, ears, and chest. Leaning over her, a young Ugandan man in an ironed white shirt and brown dress pants waves a smoldering stick of moxa, a sweet-smelling medicinal herb. The practitioner is not a traditional African healer, and the woman is not undergoing some folk medicine treatment -- at least not a Ugandan one. She is receiving traditional Chinese acupuncture, and the Ugandan nurse administering it is a trainee of the Pan-African Acupuncture Project, an organization based in Brookline. Since 2003, acupuncturists volunteering for the project have traveled to this impoverished nation to teach acupuncture to health professionals who treat patients for many of the complications associated with HIV/AIDS.
Web site teams Western doctors with alternative medicine
When Jason Gordon battled cancer, he received treatment not only from a surgeon and an oncologist, but also experts in Chinese medicine, yoga, a cross-cultural nutritionist, a psychotherapist and an energy healer. Encouraging these practitioners to work together in coordinating his care helped put the cancer into remission, Gordon said. Now healthy, the Miami resident has set up Yellow Courtyard, a Web site that creates teams of both traditional doctors and alternative medicine practitioners to set up health care strategies for individual patients. The approach is rare, but growing. Both the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University teach medical school students about alternative practices, such as acupuncture, massage and Eastern herbs. .
Miramar man creates pyramid of pennies for charity and to break record
I can't move this thing out of my house," Bezos said. Once he achieves 500,000 coins, he'll break the structure down to a movable weight and rebuild it in a permanent home, maybe a hospital lobby or community center. Ideally, Bezos would like to see it in one of Ripley's museums.
"I'm looking for that final resting place," he said.
Online Watch a time-lapse video of Marcelo Bezos' penny pyramid being built at Sun-Sentinel.com/penny. More articles Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel .
THE MOST POPULAR PLACE YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
Saluda Shoals Park is a conundrum. How can the best-kept secret in the region also be the second-most-popular daily attraction? Almost daily, visitors to the Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission park off Bush River Road tell park rangers they had no idea it was there or that it offered so much. Yet, the park's attendance of 393,937 in the fiscal year that ended June 30 ranks behind only longtime attendance champ Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, at 899,675, and well ahead of No. 3 EdVenture, at 193,102. Saluda Shoals park ranger Jay Robinson said he gets the "I had no idea this was here" comment often when talking with visitors on the park's trails. "They'll say things like 'This is a brand new park, right?' and you say, 'No, it's been here a while,'" Robinson said.
Tiger wins 13th major
Woods did not have it all his own way and his lead was cut to one stroke with four holes left. But he weathered the storm for a two-stroke victory on another scorching afternoon at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He moved within five major titles of catching all-time leader Jack Nicklaus, carding 69 to finish at eight-under 272, two strokes ahead of fellow American Woody Austin. It was the first major victory for Woods since he became a father in June with the birth of his daughter Sam Alexis, who was at the course to greet Woods after the finished off the victory. "To have her here, it just brings chills to me,'' Woods said. "I was surprised she was here. It's just so cool.'' South African Ernie Els made an impressive charge with a 66, but a late bogey condemned him to third place, three shots off the pace.
She lost a daughter, but not hope
When thousands of people donated blood and money in 1990 in a frantic effort to save the life of 6-year-old Elizabeth Lue, no one had ever heard of stem cells. Today, they represent a hope for curing what killed her. The little girl captured the heart of Canadians with her fight to stay alive. She suffered from aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder, and died Aug. 7, 1990, after a four-month campaign to find her a bone marrow match. Nearly two decades later, her mother, Phillipa Lue, and Dr. Joseph Wong, a community leader who spearheaded the effort to keep her alive, want to revive Elizabeth's legacy. They plan to put $250,000 gathered in her name into helping Canadian Blood Services make stem cells, extracted from umbilical cords, accessible to the general public.
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