www.hchoicenet.com

HomeChoice Network, Inc. is a locally owned and operated Licensed Home Care Agency. The owners are hands on operators with over forty years of long-term care experience. Our mission is to provide services that will enable seniors to cope with the requirements of independent living while remaining in the familiar surroundings of home, wherever they call home. HomeChoice Network caregivers are employees of the agency. Caregivers are selected for their compassion, competence, and experience. All are carefully screened, orientated, and receive ongoing training. As an employer, the agency maintains liability insurance, workers compensation coverage, and withholding tax responsibilities for all caregivers.

Our services are available twenty four hours a day – seven days a week. We are very proud to provide the following areas of service for clients:

● Companionship

● Personal Services

● Nutrition Services

● Housekeeping Services

● Transportation Services

● Clerical Services

● Personal Care Services

● Additional Services Upon Request

Please contact us. We will be glad to answer any questions you may have. A trained representative is available to answer questions at all times. Or, you can visit us on our website at www.hchoicenet.com

James R. Berenson, MD
Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research
http://imbcr.org/

Ryan Gordon
Program Coordinator
Aberdeen Parks and Recreation Department
(910) 944-5902
rgordon@townofaberdeen.net

NEW YORK (Feb. 18, 2010) – Columbia University Medical Center researchers studying the link between emotions and heart disease believe that their recent study, published in the latest issue of the European Society of Cardiology’s European Heart Journal, is the first to show a relationship between positive emotions and coronary heart disease.

In other words, being happy may be good for your heart, says Karina Davidson, Ph.D., the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine & Psychiatry and director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, who led the research. Although it was observational research in a trial population that had suffered cardiac events, the study suggests that it might be possible to help prevent heart disease by enhancing people’s positive emotions.

Over a period of 10 years, Dr. Davidson and her colleagues followed 1,739 healthy adults (862 men and 877 women) who participated in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey. At the start of the observational study, trained nurses assessed the participants’ risk of heart disease and the degree of expression of positive emotions, which is known as “positive affect.”

Positive affect is defined as the experience of pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment. These feelings are usually stable and trait-like, particularly in adulthood. After taking into account age, sex, other cardiovascular risk factors and negative emotions, the researchers found that, over the 10-year period, increased positive affect was associated with less risk of heart disease by 22 percent per point, on a five-point scale measuring levels of positive affect expression (ranging from “none” to “extreme”).

“We also found that if someone, who was usually positive, had some depressive symptoms at the time of the survey, this did not affect their overall lower risk of heart disease,” Dr. Davidson said. “As far as we know, this is the first prospective study to examine the relationship between clinically-assessed positive affect and heart disease.”

The researchers speculate about the possible mechanisms by which positive emotions might help confer long-term protection from heart disease. These include influence on heart-rate variability, sleeping patterns and smoking cessation.

“We have several possible explanations,” said Dr. Davidson. “First, those with positive affect may have longer periods of rest or relaxation physiologically. Second, those with positive affect may recover more quickly from stressors and may not spend as much time ‘re-living’ them, which in turn seems to cause physiological damage.”

“If trials support our findings, then these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and patients could do to improve health,” Dr. Davidson said. “However, it would be premature to make clinical recommendations without clinical trials to investigate the findings further.”
An observational study draws inferences about the possible effect of a treatment on subjects, where the assignment of subjects into a treated group (in this case, the group measured in the Nova Scotia Health Survey) versus a control group is outside the control of the investigator. However, randomized controlled trials of interventions to increase positive affect in patients with cardiovascular disease are now under way and should help determine the effectiveness of increasing positive affect on cardiovascular outcome.

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Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia’s College of Physicians & Surgeons was the first institution in the country to grant the M.D. degree and is now among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and state and one of the largest in the United States. For more information, please visit www.cumc.columbia.edu.

For More Information, Contact:
Sue Gillis, Program Coordinator
(9l0)692-2463 Fax: (9l0)692-l835

For Immediate Release
Southern Pines Recreation & Parks Department

Southern Pines Recreation & Parks Department offers you a multitude of opportunities to get up, get moving, and enjoy yourself. Whether you are walking for fitness, taking the dog out, or checking out the latest storefronts in downtown Southern Pines, we applaud you. Thanks to the generous support of Moore Regional Hospital Auxiliary, Southern Pines Recreation & Parks Department has mapped out several walking routes for you, your family and friends.

Pick up your own copy of Southern Pines Walkways brochure which details three walking routes ranging in distance from 1 mile to 2 miles. Each route takes you past various parks, playgrounds, and downtown highlights which will make this a fun venue for adults and children alike. The colorful and glossy brochures is available in the Recreation Office, Southern Pines Library, or visit our website at www.southernpines.net

Sandhurst Park boasts the newest addition of Southern Pines Recreation & Parks Departments greenway trail system. This section loops along a split rail fence close to Indiana Avenue before heading back to the parking lot, playground, and covered picnic shelter.

Southern Pines Recreation & Parks Department encourages you to enjoy the great outdoors with our many walkways and greenways.

Pre-registration is required for the activities. Contact the Southern Pines Recreation & Parks Department at 692-2463 for details or visit us on the web at southernpines.net/recreation.