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FEBRUARY 20, 2014 • BOONE COMMUNITY RECORDER • A11
COMMUNITY
RECORDER
Marc Emral, memral@communitypress.com, 578-1053
EDITORIALS | LETTERS | COLUMNS | CH@TROOM
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HPV vaccine offers cancer protection When you talk about medical breakthroughs, a cure for cancer rises to the top. While a cure for cancer is yet to be discovered, we have a tool to prevent certain types of cancer – the HPV vaccine. Yet, vaccination rates for pre-teens, who are recommended to get the three-dose series, are surprisingly low. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only 33 percent of girls and 8 percent of boys had been fully vaccinated in 2012 (the rate for boys is lower because the vaccine was more recently recommended for them). HPV is short for human papillomavirus. About 79 million people in the United States, most in their teens and early 20s, are infected with HPV. Not only does HPV cause
almost all cervical cancers in women, it is also responsible for other types of cancer. HPV causes cancer in a variety of Lynne M. places in both Saddler men and womCOMMUNITY en, including RECORDER GUEST COLUMNIST the mouth/ throat, anus and genitals. In the United States each year, there are about 18,000 women and 7,000 men affected by HPV-related cancers. Kentucky has the eighth highest rate of cervical cancer in the country. So how do we improve our vaccination rates so we can change this trend? Timing is important: HPV vaccination is recommended at
Evolving the debate toward humanness The spirit of John Scopes recently descended upon our beloved Bluegrass in the form of debate between Creation Museum founder Ken Ham and Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Nothing like a good debate to rouse the troops comfortably entrenched in their intellectual foxholes (two-thirds of Americans identify more or less as evolutionists and one-third as creationists according to a recent Pew survey). Verbal barbs between camps have been traded since the famous “Monkey Trial” sparked by Scopes – a native Kentuckian by the way. Nye’s participation interestingly drew the ire of evolutionary scientists who likened it to intellectual condescension on par with debating Cro-Magnon. Nye contends that adherence to evolution is integral if not foundational to good science. Never mind that the Biblical worldview held by Pasteur, Pascal, Copernicus and Newton didn’t impede their scientific pursuits. Nor did it inhibit modern scientist Raymond Damadian from discovering magnetic resonance imaging as Ham pointed out. There is no doubt in Nye’s mind that the universe is really old and began with a Big Bang, yet he couldn’t answer where the consciousness that allows him to think that thought comes from in the first place. To exalt science as the arbiter of all truth and reality is to coronate scientific man as more powerful than he really is. Scientists are people. People are finite. By definition, a finite creature is limited in his knowing. Even his observations are limited by the constraints of the human condition and subject to change with the gathering of new information. This is not an excuse
to be ignorant. It is instead a challenge to temper humanity with a good dose of humility – the kind on Richard par needed Nelson by the afCOMMUNITY flicted Job RECORDER GUEST when inCOLUMNIST dignant with God over his suffering. God responded, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know!” (Job 38:4-5a) Evolution has yet to explain where matter and energy come from and how living things spring from non-living matter. It has not answered where intelligence or morality come from. And it is completely silent in explaining how “survival of the fittest” comports with compassion and care for the sick and dying – of total strangers. These conundrums are evolving the debate and raise questions of who and what makes us human anyway. Science has helped us greatly understand our physical world. Coupled with technology, it has helped to make life better and more livable. It has fought disease and hunger and eliminated many toilsome burdens. It can measure the chemical makeup of our bodies but it cannot tell us what comprises the soul. Science is good but it is not God. Richard Nelson is the executive director of the Commonwealth Policy Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy group. He lives in Trigg County with his wife and children.
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age 11 or 12. Because the HPV virus can be spread through sexual activity, the vaccine offers the greatest health benefits to individuals who receive all three doses before having any type of sexual activity. Eleven and 12 year olds are already required to get other immunizations: a Tdap to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis; and a meningitis vaccine. The first dose of HPV can safely and easily be given during the same visit as the other two shots (and odds are the amount of protest or eyerolling from your pre-teen won’t rise too drastically from shot No. 2 to No. 3). We’re missing opportunities for HPV vaccination, though. Nationally, 74 percent of preteens got a Tdap vaccination and 84 percent got one for
meningitis. Let’s not think of HPV vaccination as optional – the benefits are far too great for families to delay or decline this vaccination. Cost was once a concern, but it is no longer. The vaccine is covered by Medicaid and many health insurance plans. For the uninsured the vaccine can be expensive, but through a special grant, the health department is offering the vaccine to those ages 19 to 26 years for just $4 per dose at our county health centers and those 18 and under can receive the vaccine through the Vaccines for Children program. Many parents hesitate to give their son or daughter the HPV vaccine because they worry it might encourage sexual activity. A study in Pediatrics released this month found that getting the HPV vaccina-
tion does not lead to riskier sexual activity among young women. Previous studies have also shown that the HPV vaccine is not linked to increased promiscuity at an earlier age. As it is with so many other conditions, vaccination is the best prevention tool available. Consider this: If 80 percent of pre-teens were vaccinated against HPV, we’d prevent 4,400 future cases of cervical cancer and 1,400 cancer deaths. Simply put, the HPV vaccine is cancer prevention. Help protect your son or daughter by making sure that he/she gets all three doses of HPV vaccine, starting at age 11 or 12. Lynne M. Saddler, MD, MPH, is the district director of health for the Northern Kentucky Health Department.
WELCOME
State Sen. John Schickel (R–11th District) welcomes Florence Mayor Diane Whalen and her grandson, Bradlee Reed-Whalen, to the Kentucky Senate. Bradlee is a student at Erpenbeck Elementary School and served as a Senate page on Jan. 23.PROVIDED
February good time to start protecting your heart Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of illness and death for North American women and kills more women than all forms of cancer combined. February is Women’s Heart Health Month, and it is a great time for women to start taking better care of their hearts all year round. It’s important to know your personal risk for heart disease and family history. Common risk factors for heart disease include elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, smoking, diabetes, a sedentary lifestyle and overweight or obesity. Obesity increases women’s risk for at least five leading causes of death including heart disease, stroke, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and some types of cancer. Two of the best ways to improve your heart health is to change your diet and to exercise. You have many different options to change your diet for the better. Most of them include incorporating more vegetables and fruits and fiber sources into your diet. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s My Plate encourages people to fill half of their plates
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with fruits and vegetables. Fiber not only helps prevent heart disease but also can help prevent diabetes, manage weight and imKathy R. prove digestion. Byrnes Good sources of fiber are beans, COMMUNITY RECORDER GUEST barley and oats. COLUMNIST You can also start incorporating more Mediterranean meals into your diet. People in Mediterranean countries tend to have lower rates of heart disease because they eat a diet rich in monounsaturated fat and linolenic acid. They consume more olive oil, fish, fruits and vegetables. High blood pressure can be a major contributing factor to heart disease and arteriosclerosis. If you have high blood pressure, learning to control it can greatly reduce your risk of developing heart disease. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet has been proven to significantly lower blood pressure. This diet involves limiting your salt intake and consuming plenty
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of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, fiber, and lean meats. More information about the DASH diet is available on the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s website, bit.ly/kentondash. More than two-thirds of Kentuckians are not active and 71 percent of women in the state report being sedentary. You can become more heart healthy by incorporating more movement into your day. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend hours at the gym. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, you can start small by doing things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away from a store entrance, playing tag with your kids or walking around your neighborhood. Every bit of movement helps. For more information on ways you can get healthy and protect your heart, contact the Kenton County office of the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service at 356-3155. Kathy R. Byrnes is the Kenton County Extension Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences.
Boone Community Recorder Editor Marc Emral memral@communitypress.com, 578-1053 Office hours: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday See page A2 for additional contact information.