EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — In addition to a broken nose, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant suffered a concussion in the third quarter of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday when Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade fouled Bryant across the face.
The 16-year veteran visited Dr. John Rehm, an ear, nose and throat specialist, on Tuesday morning where his nasal fracture was confirmed. Bryant was experiencing other symptoms related to the nose injury and was sent to neurologist Dr. Vern Williams, who diagnosed the concussion.
For more news, notes and analysis of the Lakers, check out the Land O’ Lakers blog from the Kamenetzky Brothers. Blog
The team said Bryant will be re-evaluated by Dr. Williams on Wednesday, and that his status is day to day. The Lakers host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
The NBA enacted a new concussion policy prior to the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. Any player diagnosed with a concussion will have to complete a series of tests to confirm he is healthy enough to return to game action. Once a player is free of symptoms related to the concussion, he must pass a series of physical challenges with increasing stages of exertion — from a stationary bike, to jogging, to agility work, to non-contact team drills — while ensuring the symptoms don’t return after each one. Before the player is ultimately cleared, the neurologist hired to lead the NBA’s concussion program must be consulted. In Bryant’s case, Dr. Williams will have to confer with Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan, who is the inaugural director of the NBA’s concussion program.
Wade said Tuesday that he sent a message of apology to Bryant.
“It’s all I can do,” Wade said of the message to Kobe. “He knows it’s no ill intent of me to do that to him. Talk about me for taking the foul, but I never wanted that kind of outcome.”
Bryant’s teammates weren’t exactly in a forgiving mood and questioned the motivation behind Wade’s foul.
“It was an All-Star Game,” said Andrew Bynum, who was on the Western Conference All-Star’s bench in Orlando at the time of the foul. “I don’t understand what that was all about. It was crazy.”
Added Pau Gasol: “I think it was out of place, out of line, for the moment and the game that it was, but I don’t think he intended to break his nose. He just fouled him kind of hard there and got his nose. But again, I don’t think it was the place to foul like that.”
Gasol was confident that Bryant would play against Minnesota despite the fact that the 14-time All-Star was not present at practice.
“No concerns,” Gasol said before Bryant was diagnosed with a concussion. “We always expect him to be out there. I don’t think a broken nose will keep him from playing.”
Bryant played in all 34 of the Lakers’ games this season prior to the All-Star break after tearing a ligament in his right (shooting) wrist during the preseason.
Prior to the concussion being diagnosed, Lakers coach Mike Brown said he wouldn’t wager an opinion about his star guard’s availability against the Timberwolves.
“I don’t know what the nose injury entails,” Brown said. “I know he’s tough as nails and he plays through a lot of stuff, but I can’t speculate about what’s going on right now.”
Brown said that Bryant reported dizziness following Sunday’s All-Star Game, according to Lakers trainer Gary Vitti. Still, Brown said he is preparing for the Minnesota game as if Bryant would be in the lineup.
“We’ll be prepared either way,” Brown said.
In a move perhaps motivated by the possibility of Bryant being unavailable to play, Devin Ebanks, who began the season as the Lakers’ starting small forward, was recalled from the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers’ D-League affiliate on Tuesday and practiced with the team. Ebanks averaged 18.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals while shooting 55.3 percent from the field in three games with the D-Fenders.
While Bynum only played six minutes in the All-Star Game because of an injection he received in his right knee on Friday limited his action, it ended up being Bryant getting injured.
“That’s the fear of the stuff in the summer time, playing with the USA Basketball team or playing in All-Star Games,” Brown said. “You always want your guys to rest and not have an opportunity to get hurt, but you play in games like that, you play with different teams and, knock on wood, it could happen.”
The Heat are set to take on the Lakers on Sunday, but Wade said the foul won’t change his preparation for it.
“It adds to the storyline, but it won’t change my approach to the game,” Wade said. “From the standpoint of coverage and media attention? Yeah, it makes it interesting.”
Wade’s star teammate LeBron James agreed that the foul would add some extra drama to Sunday’s game, but he didn’t expect Bryant to feed of it.
“I think it’s extra,” James said. “D-Wade didn’t at all go for a hard foul, he accidently hit him in the nose. Kobe doesn’t need extra motivation. He motivates himself. He’s always prepared to play, especially when we go against him.”
Brown would not touch the issue of Wade’s foul on Bryant having any impact on Sunday’s game.
“I don’t know,” Brown said. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Information from ESPN.com’s Tom Haberstroh was used in this report.
Follow Dave McMenamin on Twitter: @mcten
Article source: http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7626903/los-angeles-lakers-kobe-bryant-sent-mri-suffering-broken-nose
Learn MoreU.S. health regulators will add warnings to the labels of widely used cholesterol lowering drugs, such as Lipitor, saying they may raise levels of blood sugar and could cause memory loss.
The Food and Drug Administration announced the changes to the safety information on the labels of statins such as Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor, AstraZeneca’s Crestor and Merck Co.’s Zocor that are taken by tens of millions of people.
Muirkirk Rd FDA Campus, 1, Vansville, MD 20705, USA
Statins have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of heart attack and heart disease, and the FDA said the new information should not scare people into stopping taking the drugs.
“The value of statins in preventing heart disease has been clearly established,” Amy Egan, deputy director for safety in FDA’s Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products, said in a statement. “Their benefit is indisputable, but they need to be taken with care and knowledge of their side effects.”
Lipitor, which became available late last year in generic form as atorvastatin, is the world’s all-time biggest selling prescription medicine with cumulative sales in excess of $130 billion. As a class, statins have helped enrich the world’s largest drugmakers, but most of the major brands are now prescribed as far cheaper generic medicines.
Last year, more than 20 million Americans were taking some form of statin, according to IMS Health.
“These are nuances, tiny little tweaks to the label, and the bigger picture doesn’t change,” said Steven Nissen, chief of cardiology at Cleveland Clinic. “There are few drugs that have saved as many lives as statins and we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater here.
“If you have heart disease, you probably should be on a statin. If you’re at high risk, a statin may be warranted. But we don’t think these drugs should be put in the water supply,” Nissen said.
Asked what prompted the label changes, FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said they were based on the agency’s review of medical literature, clinical trial data and reports of adverse events.
“I wouldn’t point to any one thing,” she said. “We’ve been looking at all the information for some time. It’s part of our ongoing surveillance.”
The FDA said it was aware of studies in which some patients taking statins may have a small increased risk of higher blood sugar levels and of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
The statin labels will also now reflect reports of certain cognitive effects such as memory loss and confusion experienced by some patients taking the drugs, the agency said. It said those reports generally have not been serious and the symptoms were reversed by stopping use of the statin.
One safety warning long associated with the class of medicines will be reversed, the FDA said. Patients taking statins will no longer need periodic monitoring of liver enzymes, since cases of serious liver injury are rare and unpredictable in individual patients.
Other statins, most of which are available as generics, include Livalo, Mevacor, Pravachol, Altoprev and Lescol. There are also combination medicines that include statins, such as Merck’s Vytorin and Abbott Laboratories’ Simcor.
Article source: http://www.ky3.com/news/chi-fda-to-add-diabetes-memory-loss-warnings-to-statins-20120228,0,2617957.story
Learn MoreA gluten-free, casein-free diet may lead to improvements in behavior and physiological symptoms in some children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to researchers at Penn State. The research is the first to use survey data from parents to document the effectiveness of a gluten-free, casein-free diet on children with ASD.
“Research has shown that children with ASD commonly have GI [gastrointestinal] symptoms,” said Christine Pennesi, medical student at Penn State College of Medicine. “Notably, a greater proportion of our study population reported GI and allergy symptoms than what is seen in the general pediatric population. Some experts have suggested that gluten- and casein-derived peptides cause an immune response in children with ASD, and others have proposed that the peptides could trigger GI symptoms and behavioral problems.”
The team — which included Laura Cousino Klein, associate professor of biobehavioral health and human development and family studies — asked 387 parents or primary caregivers of children with ASD to complete a 90-item online survey about their children’s GI symptoms, food allergy diagnoses, and suspected food sensitivities, as well as their children’s degree of adherence to a gluten-free, casein-free diet. The team’s results appeared online this month in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience.
Pennesi and Klein and their team found that a gluten-free, casein-free diet was more effective in improving ASD behaviors, physiological symptoms and social behaviors for those children with GI symptoms and with allergy symptoms compared to those without these symptoms. Specifically, parents noted improved GI symptoms in their children as well as increases in their children’s social behaviors, such as language production, eye contact, engagement, attention span, requesting behavior and social responsiveness, when they strictly followed a gluten-free, casein-free diet.
According to Klein, autism may be more than a neurological disease — it may involve the GI tract and the immune system.
“There are strong connections between the immune system and the brain, which are mediated through multiple physiological symptoms,” Klein said. “A majority of the pain receptors in the body are located in the gut, so by adhering to a gluten-free, casein-free diet, you’re reducing inflammation and discomfort that may alter brain processing, making the body more receptive to ASD therapies.”
The team found that parents who eliminated all gluten and casein from their children’s diets reported that a greater number of their children’s ASD behaviors, physiological symptoms and social behaviors improved after starting the diet compared to children whose parents did not eliminate all gluten and casein. The team also found that parents who implemented the diet for six months or less reported that the diet was less effective in reducing their child’s ASD behaviors.
According to the researchers, some of the parents who filled out the surveys had eliminated only gluten or only casein from their children’s diets, but survey results suggested that parents who completely eliminated both gluten and casein from their child’s diet reported the most benefit.
“While more rigorous research is needed, our findings suggest that a gluten-free, casein-free diet might be beneficial for some children on the autism spectrum,” Pennesi said. “It is also possible that there are other proteins, such as soy, that are problematic for these children.”
The reason Klein and Pennesi examined gluten and casein is because they are two of the most common “diet offenders.”
“Gluten and casein seem to be the most immunoreactive,” Klein said. “A child’s skin and blood tests for gluten and casein allergies can be negative, but the child still can have a localized immune response in the gut that can lead to behavioral and psychological symptoms. When you add that in with autism you can get an exacerbation of effects.”
Klein’s advice to parents of children with ASD?
“If parents are going to try a gluten-free, casein-free diet with their children, they really need to stick to it in order to receive the possible benefits,” she said.
“It might give parents an opportunity to talk with their physicians about starting a gluten-free, casein-free diet with their children with ASD.”
Article source: http://www.sciencecodex.com/glutenfree_caseinfree_diet_may_help_some_children_with_autism-86941
Learn MoreThe New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome Associated Disorders (NJCTS), working in partnership with Raritan Valley Community College, will present Tourette’s, ADHD, OCD Related Disorders on March 9, from 9 a.m.- noon.
Cost: $59
Course: HP113-01
Visit www.raritanval.edu/cce or 908-218-8871 to register.
The workshops are designed to introduce educators to Tourette Syndrome and its most commonly associated disorders (ADHD, OCD, learning disabilities, anxiety, depression and rage) with an emphasis on school-related issues. The criteria for diagnosis/clinical assessment will be explained to help teachers begin to understand the behavior of some children.
NJCTS workshops are designed to enable educators to recognize students’ difficulties, strengths and potential. Interventions and modifications for behavior also will be addressed. Professional Development Credits will be offered for qualified participants.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, as many as 1 in 100 individuals exhibit symptoms of Tourette Syndrome (TS), an inherited neurological disorder that characterized by involuntary physical and vocal tics. Symptoms generally appear before an individual is 18 years old. TS affects people of all ethnic groups, including three to four times more frequently in males than females.
More information about Tourette Syndrome or the work of NJCTS is available by calling 908-575-7350 or by visiting www.njcts.org.
Article source: http://www.nj.com/messenger-gazette/index.ssf/2012/02/tourettes_and_related_disorders_will_be_presented_at_rvcc.html
Learn MoreOperation Homefront has announced the semi-finalists for the 2012 Military Child of the Year Award. There are five semi-finalists from the Fort Bragg area representing the Army in the program’s fourth year.
In the past, just one military child out of the services received the annual top honor.
“It is vitally important to recognize military children,” said Jim Knotts, Operation Homefront’s chief executive officer. “I think kids have gotten overlooked as we’ve recognized the sacrifices of the military, and they are such an important aspect of our military community. They deserve to have their moment in the sunshine as well.”
Each semi-finalist has been interviewed by Operation Homefront staff, and award recipients will be chosen by a committee including active duty military personnel, Family Readiness Support Assistants, teachers, military mothers, and community members.
Marly Kwolek, a 12-year-old from North Carolina, is a semi-finalist representing the Army. For Marly, being a military kid often means saying goodbye to both parents. Her mom and dad both serve in the Army. Recently, Marly spent two years living with her grandparents while her parents had to travel for duty. During the transition, Marly worked with doctors to deal with issues of attention, focus and anger brought on by the dual assignments. Soon, Marly found her own escape from the stress of military life: music. The seventh grader can play 16 instruments, to include the flute, saxophone, piano, drum, guitar and trumpet. Many of them she is able to play by listening, without the help of lessons. Marly’s musical talent has been rewarded at school where she plays in the band and has been named best musician, twice. During the week Marly also volunteers at a local farm where she cleans the stalls and helps feed the animals.
Brandon Gould, a 17-year-old from Hope Mills, NC, is a semi-finalist representing the Army. At the age of seven, Brandon was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome and severe migraines. The long list of issues, coupled with repeated deployments, could have forced many families to collapse. Instead, Brandon and his family fought harder to shine. During his childhood, his soldier father has deployed twice to Korea for year-long tours, spent 15 months in Iraq on a single tour and has hopped between Iraq and Afghanistan for shorter missions. Rather than focus on his father’s absence, Brandon aimed to help build his community. Upon becoming a Boy Scout, Brandon set his sights on becoming an Eagle Scout and earned the accolade in four years. To earn the award, he built a trail in the local botanical garden and was responsible for the design and management of volunteers to make the project a reality. In addition to his Eagle project, Brandon sewed 50 pillows for his church to give to homeless residents and frequently volunteered at the local animal shelter to clean cages and wash the dogs. Brandon said when his father is away, volunteer work helps keep him focused and positive.
“Brandon has somehow picked up a great sense of service to others,” said his dad Kevin in a NBC 17 news report, who is an active duty member of the Army.
Zachary Herbst, a 17-year-old from Pinehurst, N.C., is a semi-finalist representing the Army. As a tot, Zachary’s first soccer coach was his dad. Now, as a student at the prestigious North Carolina School of Science and Math he helps lead his soccer team to victory. His dad misses more games than he sees. With 36 months of deployments and counting, there’s little time to hit the field. Zachary said the lessons his father taught him help him not only endure the deployments but pass on his love of soccer and his father’s good advice to other children. Every summer Zachary teaches at a local soccer camp called Kicking for Hunger. The non-profit camp charges no fee but instead asks attendees to bring canned food donations for needy families. Over the summer he also volunteered for 70 hours at the local center for developmentally disabled children where he played with the attending children, cooked their meals and, he said, leaned a lot about himself. He said when he is volunteering, he often thinks of the lessons his father taught him. With every deployment, he helped his little sister with her homework and tried to make a bigger impact on his local community. Zachary is a high school senior and will attend Georgia Tech this fall to study engineering.
Erika Jones, a 17-year-old from Raeford, N.C., is a semi-finalist representing the Army. Erika Jones’ mother deployed to Afghanistan for one year. In that year, Erika left her childhood behind and assumed not just the duties of the house, but began her path to college and beyond. During the deployment, she lived with several months for an aunt and uncle and then moved in with her 21-year-old brother. In both places, Erika was responsible for most of the household duties such as cooking and cleaning. Unlike other students her age, she not only had the extra responsibilities at home, she took on extra work in the classroom. Erika began pursuing her associate’s degree at Sandhoke Early College High School. During the rigorous program, Erika enrolled in two high school courses and two college courses each semester. The high school junior said she hopes the long hours will pay off when she graduates. She hopes to become a midwife. To round out her already busy schedule, Erika regularly volunteers around her community at various events such as fundraisers and town festivals.
Marquis Hackett, a 17-year-old from Sanford, N.C., is a semi-finalist representing the Army. When Marquis Hackett’s family arrived in North Carolina, he had already attended nine different schools in six states. With this move, he finally landed in a place where he had family and roots. After two years in the local school system, he won a spot on the roster at the prestigious North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. The resident program could have been a gateway to a prestigious college career, but Marquis decided he wasn’t ready to move again. Instead, he chose to stay near his family. In summer of 2011, he was chosen for the People to People Student Ambassador program. After months of preparation, he spent four weeks in Australia, immersing himself in the culture of the continent. The program placed a lot of emphasis on interaction with local families and exposure to the country’s wildlife. Marquis said opportunities such as this trip help to balance the nomadic military lifestyle. In North Carolina, the teen cares for his hometown as though he has lived there forever. He serves as chairman of the Lee County Youth Council which works with the mayor to perform service projects in the area. The group also advocates for teens during school board meetings. Marquis, currently a high school senior, has applied to UNC Chapel Hill and hopes to study computer science.
Operation Homefront will announce five finalists from each branch of service on March 1. The recipient of the Military Child of the Year Award for each branch of Service will be announced March 8. Each award recipient will receive $5,000 and will be flown with a parent or guardian to Washington, D.C. for a special recognition ceremony on April 5, 2012.
Article source: http://fortbragg.patch.com/articles/military-child-of-the-year-local-candidates
Learn More
Recent Comments