YMCA tackles Americas health crisis
Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:38:05 GMTBy DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
NEW YORK - Founded in the mid-19th century, the Young Men's Christian Association has expanded far beyond its name in the United States. It welcomes all faiths, half the 20.2 million people it serves are female, and more than half are adults.
With that diverse clientele in mind, the Y is again redefining itself. A new strategic plan envisions the organization as America's paramount fitness and anti-obesity crusader, combatting what it calls "the nation's ongoing lifestyle health crisis."
While maintaining its varied youth programs and vast child-care network, the Y is aggressively expanding health-related initiatives, notably through a program called Activate America.
At hundreds of local Ys nationwide, officials are retraining staff, redesigning facilities and revising activities to better serve the millions of Americans who find it hard to stick with weight-loss and fitness regimens.
"Our history has been one of taking a lead on key issues facing our society," said Neil Nicoll, who since May 2006 has been president of the YMCA of the USA — the parent group that coordinates activities of the 967 independently run YMCA associations across the country.
Founded in Britain in 1844 by Christian evangelicals, the YMCA opened its first U.S. branch in Boston in 1851 and soon adopted as a goal "the improvement of the spiritual, mental, social and physical condition of young men."
It established hotel-like residence halls, organized summer camps, and oversaw the invention of volleyball and basketball. During both world wars, it deployed thousands of volunteers to provide services for U.S. troops and war prisoners.
One by one, barriers to participation fell — women and non-Christians were welcomed, and in the 1960s the Y greatly expanded inner-city operations. By the 1980s, it was embracing the fitness boom, and building many new facilities.
Now, more than 370 of its associations already have joined Activate America, which Nicoll said is targeted at the 40 percent of Americans who crave a healthier lifestyle but waver in their pursuit of it.
"A lot of our population doesn't respond to what your gym teacher told you," he said.
"They're looking for personal support, done in a more holistic way. We want programs geared to group activity so people can develop connections instead of just running in and out."
One example: the YMCA of Greater New York in September began offering a 12-week, personalized exercise program — free to members — that includes four individual sessions with a fitness coach.
In Anderson, S.C., the Y is holding monthly weigh-ins as part of a communal weight-loss drive. Other Ys are reassessing the nutritional value of food offered in their vending machines and at their child-care centers.
Karen Leslie, CEO of YMCA of Greater Providence in Rhode Island, said the initiative means her nine-branch association will focus less on gung-ho fitness buffs and more on those who struggle to achieve good health.
"We have to retrain our staff so they will actively listen to what the needs are," Leslie said. "We want to move away from prescribing what we believe individuals need."
In a related effort, Pioneering Healthier Communities, the Y is working with other civic groups in more than 110 cities and towns to combat obesity, poor nutrition and physical inactivity community-wide.
"When the YMCA looked at a changing America, what they saw was a lifestyle that was getting out of control," said Wes Alles, a Stanford University School of Medicine researcher who has helped design the Y's initiatives.
David MacLeod, a Central Michigan University historian who has studied American nonprofits and youth groups, said the new health initiative might baffle some of the Y's 19th century founders but suggested it fit with a long tradition of change.
"The YMCA is an excellent case study of adaptation and survival," he said. "They have a history of openness to new ideas."
That may help explain its steady growth. Its revenue of $5.7 billion in 2006 — from donations, government support and user fees — was topped only by the American Red Cross among U.S. nonprofits.
Many Y participants benefit from financial assistance, and even full membership fees usually are less than commercial health clubs. Yet a survey of 10,000 gym users, just released by the independent watchdog group Consumer Reports, found that health facilities at Y's and other nonprofit centers were generally better rated than big health-club chains.
Overall, the Y hopes to expand its clientele by 25 percent, to 25 million, within four years. Yet though its full, formal name no longer describes the YMCA's mission or participants, there's no serious thought of changing it.
"The name 'YMCA' is so widely recognized across the country — it's up there with Coca-Cola and IBM as a symbol and a name," Nicoll said. "But we continually need to work to help people understand how much broader we are than that name."
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On the Net:
http://www.ymca.net/
EU report says cloned food probably safe
Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:31:05 GMTBRUSSELS, Belgium - Meat and milk from cloned animals is probably safe for humans, the European Union's food safety agency said in a preliminary report released Friday. The report, by the European Food Safety Authority, seems likely to fuel new debate over whether the EU should allow cloned animals to enter the food chain.
The 47-page draft cautioned, however, that there was "only limited data available" on animal cloning. It urged consultation with scientists and consumer groups, which have in the past objected to allowing such products onto the market.
The EU's Food Safety Authority, which is based in Italy, was directed by the EU's executive office in Brussels last year to investigate what risks were involved in making projects for human consumption from cloned animals.
The 27-nation union currently has no laws regulating animal cloning and food. The European Commission is trying to decide whether legislation is needed, said Nina Papadoulaki, spokeswoman for EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.
"Based on current knowledge, there is no expectation that clones or their progeny would introduce any new food safety risks compared with conventionally bred animals," the preliminary report said.
Papadoulaki said the commission hoped the report would help EU officials determine whether there is public support for allowing cloned food onto supermarket shelves.
She said the commission would seek further advice from an ethics group specializing in science and new technologies, which includes 15 scientists, philosophers, theologians and lawyers.
That group is scheduled to issue its own report on the "ethical aspects of animal cloning for food supply" on Jan. 16.
Some countries outside the EU are moving to permit cloned animals to enter the food chain.
The United States is expected to allow food from cloned animals onto the market sometime this year. A poll conducted in 2006 found, however, that 64 percent of Americans were uncomfortable with animal cloning.
The issue is also under review in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada.
Scientists across Europe have for years investigated different animal cloning techniques. The most famous example was the cloning of Dolly the sheep in Britain. Dolly was euthanized in 2003 after she contracted a common livestock disease and her cells showed signs of premature aging.
Italian scientists cloned a racehorse in 2005, hoping to pass on genetic lines of champion thoroughbreds.
Proteins found that AIDS virus preys on
Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:42:10 GMTWASHINGTON - The AIDS virus has to hijack human proteins to do its damage, but scientists until now have known only a few dozen of its targets. On Thursday, Harvard researchers unveiled a surprisingly longer list, an important first step in the hunt for new drugs.
HIV is on its face a simple virus, consisting of just nine genes. Yet it makes up for that bare-bones structure in a sinister and complex way — by literally taking over the cellular machinery of its victims so it can multiply and then destroy.
The proteins it exploits have been dubbed HIV dependency factors, and 36 had been discovered. The new research, published online Thursday by the journal Science, found 273 of these potential HIV targets.
Led by geneticist Stephen Elledge of Brigham and Women's Hospital, the team used a technique called RNA interference that can disrupt a gene's ability to do its job and make a protein. One by one, they disrupted thousands of human genes in test tubes, dropped in some HIV, and watched what happened. If HIV couldn't grow well, it signaled the protein that the gene that had failed to produce must be the reason.
It will take far more research to figure out the role each of these proteins plays in HIV's life cycle.
But most of today's AIDS drugs work by targeting the HIV virus itself. In August, the government approved sale of the first drug that works by blocking an HIV dependency factor, a cellular doorway called CCR5. The hope is that this longer list of those factors will point toward spots where similar drugs might work.
