ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220045
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: health notes
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
Everywhere you turn these days, there is discussion of alternative ways to improve our mental and physical well-being. Some people say alternative health and healing ways are going mainstream; others say they're quackery. No matter which side you fall on, or if you're in the middle, events planned in Roanoke Saturday and Sunday can help you make up your mind.
"Health & Healing Weekend" begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at Lifestream Center on Brandon Avenue in Southwest Roanoke. It goes on until 8 p.m. that evening and opens again on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Lifestream Center was started in 1994 by Carolyn Bratton and Nancy Maurelli and now has a mailing list of about 1,500 people. The center's tabloid-sized newspaper is distributed at a variety of places throughout the valley.
Quite frankly, the place has been so successful that its budget has been strained, and the weekend is a fund-raiser to replenish the treasury.
Regular events at the center include a "Healing Circle" on Monday nights, belly dancing on Wednesday nights, American Indian chanting on Friday nights and a once-a-month "Writing From Spirits" session. A bookstore that also features music and videos is open whenever volunteers are available during the week, which is regularly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and generally 1-4 p.m. on Thursdays.
The special weekend will acquaint visitors with Lifestream's ongoing classes or gatherings and a chunk of other different experiences such as reflexology, hypnotherapy, rolfing, homeopathy, and feng shui.
Feng shui (pronounced "fung sway") is perhaps the lesser known of the topics. Hollins College graduate Joanne Wazny will lecture on this Chinese art of placement at 1 p.m. Saturday. The idea behind feng shui is to bring balance to our surroundings by creating an atmosphere that allows a flow of ch'i, or life force. In its simplest form it could be the practice of softening the corners of a wall by putting some sort of decoration over the edges.
A ticket for both days costs $20; or you can attend Saturday for $15 or Sunday for $10.
Every 45 minutes each day, an expert will lecture on special interest topics.
Visitors also are encouraged to bring a potluck dish. It can be for breakfast, lunch or dinner, depending upon when you're showing up.
For tickets, contact the center at (540) 344-3031 or mail a request to center at P.O. Box 4329, Roanoke, Va. 24015.
Too much pain relief
One-third of the bleeding ulcers we get are caused by the medicines we take for pain for problems that aren't life-threatening. Every office has an informal medicine chest. We take medicine for backache and headache and foot aches. We pop a lot of pills.
Our short-term view of pain increases our lifetime pain, says Dr. James Fries, professor of medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
First, people take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs, for muscle pain. Then, some of them get a stomach ache from the medicine and treat it with antacids, which mask the symptoms of a bleeding ulcer.
The data Fries gave during the 15th Annual Science Reporters Conference last month was impressive in a negative way.
"An excessive concern with pain relief gave us an epidemic of 10,000 to 20,000 deaths from bleeding ulcers each year, and hospitalizations from the same condition for another 100,000 to 200,000," Fries said in a copy of his remarks released by the American Medical Association.
Pain gives us a message that shouldn't be covered up with drugs, Fries said. Pain tells us to take our hand off of a hot stove or not to move an injured body part.
Fries says recent studies suggest that low back pain responds best when you do nothing. Pain relievers allow muscles to relax, preventing back spasms that hold the spine immobile and prevent reinjury.
Patients need to be comfortable with a doctor's advice to take an aspirin or acetaminophen "rather than the strong dangerous stuff."
"Raising our pain threshold as an individual is one of the best things we can do for ourselves to reduce the need for pain medication," Fries said. He points to marathon runners as an example of a group of people who have raised their pain levels through exercise.
Men's breast cancer hot line
The husbands, partners and male friends of women with breast cancer can ask those questions they have, but haven't asked, through a toll-free hot line run by Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.
Dr. Phil Reidda, a Chicago psychologist who is also the husband of a breast cancer survivor, says women with cancer recover more quickly if the men in their lives make a commitment to go through the diagnosis, treatment and recovery as a partner.
Men, however, have been left out of the loop, Reidda said. The hot line gives them a chance to talk about ways to support the women they care about. Hot line volunteers are men whose partners have had breast cancer.
Physical therapy hot line
From 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, physical therapists will answer health and fitness questions on a "Healing the Generations" hot line, 1-800-955-7848. The event is sponsored by the American Physical Therapy Association and its California and Massachusetts chapters.
Callers also can request brochures on a variety of topics from the treatment and prevention of sprains, tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome to special exercise programs for children and seniors.
You can reach Sandra Brown Kelly at (800) 346-1234, ext. 393, outside the Roanoke Valley or at 981-3393 or through biznews@roanoke.infi.net.
LENGTH: Long : 103 linesby CNB