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Get your cholesterol and glucose levels tested from 7-9 a.m. Wednesday at the Mason Community Center.

TriHealth specialists will be available to discuss screening results, which will be available the day of testing. Those participating are recommended not to have food from midnight the night before the test. Food and refreshments will be available after screening.

The event is presented as part of a Live Well in Mason series sponsored by Partners in Wellness, a collaboration of the City of Mason, Group Health Associates and Bethesda Physical Therapy.

Cost for both screenings is $19 for Community Center premier members; $22 for basic members; $28 for Mason residents and $33 for non-residents.

To register, call the Mason Community Center Wellness supervisor at 513-229-8555, ext. 5546or register online at www.imaginemason.org (activity number 186200).

Posted in: Events, Health & Fitness |

Tags: Tags: bethesda physical therapy, cholesterol, city of mason, glucose, group health associates, live well in mason, mason, mason community center, screenings

Get your cholesterol and glucose levels tested next week at the Mason Community Center.

The center will hold fasting cholesterol and glucose screenings from 7-9 a.m. Wednesday, May 23.

TriHealth specialists will be available to discuss screening results, which will be available the day of testing. Those participating are recommended not to have food from midnight the night before the test. Food and refreshments will be available after screening.

The event is presented as part of a Live Well in Mason series sponsored by Partners in Wellness, a collaboration of the City of Mason, Group Health Associates and Bethesda Physical Therapy.

Cost for both screenings is $19 for Community Center premier members; $22 for basic members; $28 for Mason residents and $33 for non-residents.

To register, call the Mason Community Center Wellness supervisor at 513-229-8555, ext. 5546or register online at www.imaginemason.org (activity number 186200).

Posted in: Events, Health & Fitness |

Tags: Tags: bethesda physical therapy, cholesterol, city of mason, glucose, group health associates, live well in mason, mason, mason community center, screenings

Jose Cerda Navarro, a senior at Sycamore High School, died Oct. 26, 2010, his 18th birthday, after a medical emergency during swim practice. / Provided

The first round of free heart screenings for high school athletes will take place at Cincinnati Children’s Mason Campus on Sunday.

The screenings are made possible with a $5,000 donation from Simon’s Fund, a Philadelphia-based organization that seeks to prevent sudden death in infants from heart abnormalities.

Montgomery native Darren Sudman started the organization with wife Phyllis in memory of their infant son, Simon, who died about six years ago in his sleep from a possible undetected heart condition.

After reading about the death of Jose Cerda Navarro, a passionate swimmer and water polo player who attended Sudman’s alma mater, Sycamore High School, Sudman offered a donation from Simon’s Fund to fund free heart screenings for Cincinnati area athletes.

Navarro collapsed on his 18th birthday at swim practice about a year ago and died.  Doctors believe he had an unidentified heart defect.

“After doing what we’ve been doing for five years, a kid who sat in the same classrooms as I did dropped dead,” Sudman said. “It struck a chord with me, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to bring this to my hometown.’”

• Mason’s Martinez wins Jose Cerda water polo award

The donation was awarded last November to Dr. Jeffrey Towbin of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Heart Institute, where doctors had already been considering a study on the topic, said Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, a cardiologist there.

Enquirer reporter Whitaker has more details of the screening — and the controversy around them:

(more…)

Posted in: Events, Health & Fitness |

Tags: Tags: athletes, cardiologist, cardiology, cincinnati children's hospital medical center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Heart Institute, cincinnati children's mason campus, darren sudman, dr. jeffrey anderson, dr. jeffrey towbin, health, heart condition, heart defects, high school, jose cerda navarro, phyllis sudman, screenings, simon sudman, simon's fund, sports, swimmer, sycamore township, water polo

Mason City Schools is among a growing list of Ohio school districts to opt out of a controversial unfunded state mandate requiring body mass index screening of students.

Mason’s Board of Education voted unanimously Sept. 13 to ask the Ohio Department of Education to waive its requirement that Mason measure the BMI of students and report those numbers to parents and the state.

“While I understand that we want to make sure children are healthy, this is an invasion of students’ privacy and is a private conversation best left to families and their physicians—not our schools,” said Connie Yingling, board member.

The BMI requirement is part of the Ohio’s Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act, which took effect in June 2010.  School districts annually must take BMI, a measure of body fat based on a person’s height and weight, in kindergarten and grades 3,5 and 9.

The number helps determine whether a child’s weight could place him or her at risk for chronic health conditions, such as diabetes or heart problems.

The law requires schools to report aggregated student BMI, along with demographic data, to the ODH.  No information can identify an individual child.

Under the law, schools, including private and charter schools, can request a waiver to the screenings.  The law also allows parents to opt their children out of the screenings.

An analysis by The Enquirer in February found that about half of Ohio’s 614 schools districts had filed for waivers.

Districts have been critical of the screenings, citing a lack of staff, time and expertise.  Others say that the unfunded mandate cuts into class time and that BMI screenings are not the school’s job.

Discuss: Are school BMI screenings helpful and necessary?
Why or why not?

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: bmi, body mass index, childhood obesity, connie yingling, healthy choices for healthy children, mandate, mason city schools, mason school board, obesity, ohio, ohio department of education, report cards, sb210, screenings, senate bill 210, students, waiver, weight