Health Care Network Inc.

Free Flu Shots for Uninsured: Health Care Network Inc., 904 State St., will identify uninsured Racine County residents and provide them with a free flu shot voucher which will be good until April 15. These vouchers will be redeemable at any Walgreens location that offers flu shots. For more information, call Health Care Network Inc. at (262) 632-2400.

Kenosha Visiting Nurse Association

Shingles vaccinations: People who have had chickenpox are at risk for shingles. The risk for shingles increases as a person gets older. Shingles is painful and can cause serious problems. There is no way to tell who will get shingles or when it may occur. A single dose of shingles vaccine is recommended for adults age 60 and older and for those who have not had shingles. It is a one-time vaccination. Fee: $235. The Kenosha Visiting Nurse Association offices are at 600 52nd St., Suite 300, Kenosha. Call (262) 656-8400 for more information or to schedule an appointment.

City of Racine Health Department

Immunization Clinics and TB tests: The City of Racine offers walk-in immunization clinics in the City Hall Room 4, 730 Washington Ave., from 1:30-4 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.

Medicaid/Forward Health cards are accepted only for those ages 18 and younger. Medicare cannot be accepted for any services. Cash, check and credit card (Visa and MasterCard) are accepted.

A $10 fee is requested for residents of the City of Racine, Elmwood Park and Wind Point for one vaccine plus $5 for each additional vaccine with a maximum of $20; and $15 for Racine County residents for one vaccine plus $5 for each additional vaccine with a maximum cost of $25.

People should bring their childs current immunization records.

TB skin tests are available for a $10 fee for residents and $15 for non-residents (results available the following Friday afternoon).

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Health & Fitness File, March 28

Newswise Weight loss and increased physical fitness nearly halved the decline in mobility in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes, according to four-year results of the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The results are published in the March 29, 2012, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The largest and longest-running study of its kind, this research confirms how important losing weight and increasing physical activity are in the treatment of mobility-related problems among people with type 2 diabetes as they age, said lead author Jack Rejeski, Ph.D, Thurman D. Kitchin Professor of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. The weight loss and physical activity goals promoted in the study are well within the reach of most Americans. Future research is needed to determine if this sort of intervention can be translated into public health interventions, particularly in light of possible effects on health care costs.

Look AHEAD is a multi-center, randomized clinical trial designed to determine the long-term effects of intentional weight loss on the risk of cardiovascular disease in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Beginning in 2001, a total of 5,145 Look AHEAD participants were randomly assigned to either an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) group or a usual care, or Diabetes Support and Education (DSE) group. The ILI treatment involved group and individual meetings to achieve and maintain weight loss through decreased caloric intake and increased physical activity. The DSE group attended three meetings each year that provided general education on diet, activity, and social support.

Being able to perform routine activities is an important contributor to quality of life, said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of the NIHs National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), which oversaw the study.

To assess mobility, Look AHEAD participants rated their ability to carry out activities with or without limitations. Included were vigorous activities such as running and lifting heavy objects and moderate ones such as pushing a vacuum cleaner or playing golf. Participants also separately rated their ability to climb a flight of stairs; bend, kneel or stoop; walk more than a mile; and walk one block. Both groups were weighed annually and completed a treadmill fitness test at baseline, after year one, and at the end of four years.

After four years of the study, Look AHEAD participants in the intensive lifestyle group experienced a 48 percent reduction in mobility-related disability compared with the diabetes support and education group.

This is the first long-term study to demonstrate that by participating in an intensive lifestyle intervention, overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes can reduce decline in mobility as they age, Rejeski said.

Overweight and obesity affects more than two-thirds of U.S. adults age 20 and older. More than one-third of adults are obese. Many factors contribute to the problem, including genetics and lifestyle habits. Excess weight can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and certain cancers. Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, and more than 7 million of them do not know it.

With nearly two-thirds of participants reporting mild, moderate, or severe restrictions in mobility when Look AHEAD began, it is critical to address to this problem, said Mary Evans, Ph.D., project scientist for Look AHEAD. This study of mobility highlights the value of finding ways to help adults with type 2 diabetes keep moving as they age. We know that when adults lose mobility, it becomes difficult for them to live on their own, and they are likely to develop more serious health problems, increasing their health care costs.

Co-authors of the study are Edward Ip, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; Alain Bertoni, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; George Bray, Pennington Biomedical Research Center of the Louisiana State University System; Gina Evans, Baylor College of Medicine; Edward Gregg, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Qiang Zhang, Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Link:
Weight Loss and Exercise Help Overweight Adults Retain Mobility

Kendal-Crosslands celebrated the groundbreaking of their new Health and Wellness Center last week. For Phil DeBaun, Executive Director of Crosslands, this is an expansion to our community that weve always imagined and now we celebrate it.

For the residents of Crosslands, this will be a new center featuring the latest in health center designs with private rooms, a house like setting, bright and airy spaces, and a small household concept vs. a medical model in design. It will also be home to our new Wellness Center with a new indoor pool, fitness room, a day care facility, and physical and occupational rehab services, says DeBaun. We will showcase many garden spaces, patios, and horticulture aspects as well which fits naturally with our almost 500 acre arboretum-like campus.

Senator Pileggi, State Representative Ross, Pennsbury Township officials, construction management staff, and architects were all together with residents and staff celebrating this long awaited project. And, unique to this endeavor, our residents raised 1.85 million dollars to help build their new center, said DeBaun.

For over 40 years, Kendal~Crosslands is a non-profit provider of programs and services that advocates for and empowers older adults to achieve their full potentials. Nestled on close to 500 acres in the Kennett area, Kendal~Crosslands is a continuing care retirement community and partners with area neighbors.

For the residents of Crosslands, this will be a new center featuring the latest in health center designs with private rooms, a house like setting, bright and airy spaces, and a small household concept vs. a medical model in design. It will also be home to our new Wellness Center with a new indoor pool, fitness room, a day care facility, and physical and occupational rehab services, says DeBaun. We will showcase many garden spaces, patios, and horticulture aspects as well which fits naturally with our almost 500 acre arboretum-like campus.

Senator Pileggi, State Representative Ross, Pennsbury Township officials, construction management staff, and architects were all together with residents and staff celebrating this long awaited project. And, unique to this endeavor, our residents raised 1.85 million dollars to help build their new center, said DeBaun.

For over 40 years, Kendal~Crosslands is a non-profit provider of programs and services that advocates for and empowers older adults to achieve their full potentials. Nestled on close to 500 acres in the Kennett area, Kendal~Crosslands is a continuing care retirement community and partners with area neighbors.

More here:
Kendal Crosslands breaks ground for new facility

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ297fgC7bg

27-03-2012 10:52 A retirement community in Florida caters to retired mail carriers with the US Postal Service. WSJ's Jennifer Levitz finds many prefer mail to email, and no dogs are allowed.

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No More Mail, Dogs: Retired Postal Workers Rest - Video

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Companies that serve 401(k) plans are asking the Labor Department to reconsider its stance on mailed notification, so that they can save costs by using email instead of regular mail to send information to plan participants.

If the agency does not change its position, employees in 401 (k) plans will have to bear the additional mailing costs that can be substantial for plan participants, according to the March 27 letter from 15 industry trade groups.

"Presently, the increased costs attendant to paper disclosure in 401(k) plans could reduce participants' retirement savings, the very savings we are working to increase with enhanced transparency," the groups wrote in the letter.

Some record keepers estimate that the costs of paper-based statements could be $2 to $3 per employee, which would mean tens of thousands of dollars in added expenses for large employers, said Samuel Brandwein, a Morgan Stanley Smith Barney adviser who works with retirement plans.

"The purpose of the fee disclosure rules was to drive down costs for 401(k) plan participants," Brandwein said. "This could have the unintended consequence of driving up those costs."

Under Labor Department rules, employers who send materials through regular mail are safe from reprimand from the agency. But those who use email do not have such protection and could face potential lawsuits without a paper trail record.

This issue has been a thorn in the side of the retirement plan industry for years. It will become a much bigger issue this summer, when 401(k) plan providers will have to start disclosing the fees they charge to employees in these plans.

"With the new fee disclosure regulations, plan participants are going to get a lot more volume of materials," said Judy Miller, director of retirement policy for the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, one of the 15 groups that sent the letter to the Labor Department.

"This issue has really taken on new importance."

Other groups that joined with ASPPA in the letter include the Investment Company Institute, the American Bankers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

See the rest here:
Retirement providers push for email for cost savings

We're taught our retirement years will be a period of unalloyed pleasure, a placid, decades-long stretch seldom roiled by the kinds of concerns, worries, and sleepless nights we face all too often over the course of our work lives.

In truth, the retirement years can be fraught with nervousness and fear. We may see our fixed incomes eroded by inflation, our pensions eliminated by corporate bankruptcy, our nest eggs decimated by stock market downturns, and the value of our homes cut dramatically by the vagaries of the housing market.

Far from being peaches and cream, retirement can sometimes be the pits. That's the lot of those who don't plan well for retirement. But - surprise! - it can also be true for folks who planned meticulously for their Golden Years.

If it takes a bit of the survivor mentality to navigate the years up to age 65, it's equally true that that mindset can come in very handy after retirement.

Retirement poster children

That's why I'd like you to meet a couple who managed to roll with the punches in their early retirement years, only to come out the other side a bit bruised but otherwise unbowed. That couple is Carol and Phil White.

After finding retirement can be a tad thorny, they made the proper adjustments and came out smelling like a rose. The proof? When I caught up with Carol this week for the first time in a year, she and Phil were soaking up some sun on the beach in Kauai while visiting family in Hawaii.

As they approached the idea of retirement, the Whites felt they were well positioned to take the plunge while still in their 50s. Carol had spent her work life in the corporate world, earning a traditional pension and accumulating retirement assets in a 401k, as well as investing in a stock purchase plan. Phil, by contrast, had been an independent businessman. He owned a couple IRAs, and knew he could reap substantial income from the sale of his upscale men's clothing store.

The icing on top of this cake of retirement assets was a pair of single-family homes the Whites had purchased for the rental income they generated.

Retire like it's 1999

Read more:
Roll With the Retirement Punches

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., March 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Pete Swisher, CFP, CPC, TGPC has joined Pentegra Retirement Services as Senior Vice President, National Sales, announced Robert C. Albanese, Pentegra Retirement Services President and CEO.

Mr. Swisher brings more than 15 years of industry expertise to Pentegrawith a background that not only includes in-depth knowledge of retirement plan operations and business models but also vast expertise working with financial advisors to build successful retirement practices.

Stated Mr. Albanese, "Pete is well-known nationally as one of the industry's top retirement plan experts, and is a well-respected speaker and thought leader within the retirement community. With extensive experience in all facets of the business, we believe he will play a key role in helping us take this organization to a new levelparticularly in terms of his ability to help position Pentegra for accelerated growth and expanded presence in the advisor-sold space. We are delighted to have him join our team, and I believe the entire organization will benefit greatly from Pete's knowledge and experience."

Prior to joining Pentegra, Mr. Swisher was with Unified Trust, where he was Vice President of Advisor Services and Senior Institutional Consultant, instrumental in taking the organization from a $600 million provider to a $2.8 billion brand. He is the author of 401(k) Fiduciary Governance: An Advisor's Guide, the textbook for ASPPA's Qualified Plan Financial Consultant credential (QPFC). Through his ERISA Boot Camp Workshop Series, he has helped advisors throughout the United States build successful pension practices based on a transparent fiduciary service model.

As a passionate advocate for the private pension system and national retirement income security, he is actively involved with the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA), ASPPA, and ASPPA's Political Action Committee. Pete is the Chair of the NAPA Government Affairs Committee.

Mr. Swisher graduated from the University of Virginia in 1988, where he was selected for the prestigious Echols Scholar Program. He accepted a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the first Gulf War as Executive Officer of an infantry company. He left the Marines as a Captain in 1993.

He lives with his wife, Shannon, and three children in the horse country of Central Kentucky.

Mr. Swisher may be contacted at 800-872-3473, or by email pswisher@pentegra.com.

Pentegra Retirement Services is a leading provider of retirement plan solutions to organizations nationwide. Founded by the Federal Home Loan Bank System in 1943, Pentegra offers a full range of retirement programs, including 401(k) plans, Defined Benefit Pension plans, Cash Balance plans, 412(e)(3) Fully Insured Defined Benefit plans, Split Funded Defined Benefit plans, KSOPs, ESOPs, Profit Sharing plans, Age-Weighted plans, New Comparability plans, 457(b) and 457(f) plans, 403(b) plans, 401(a) plans, Nonqualified Executive Benefit and Director plans and a broad array of TPA services.

For more information, go to http://www.pentegra.com.

Read more:
Pete Swisher Joins Pentegra Retirement Services

Gymnast Paul Hamm announced his retirement on March 27, 2012, because his body was struggling to complete the necessary training, he said. Hamm's retirement effectively ends an era in American gymnastics.

Who can forget the Hamm twins, who burst onto the international Olympic scene at such a young age, and consistently defied the odds to perform well at big gymnastic meets?

Paul Hamm helped to usher in a new era for men's gymnastics in the United States -- an era in which the American men vaulted from obscurity to prominence on the world scene. With his performances at the 2003 World Championships and the 2004 Olympic Games, Hamm became the first American male gymnast to ever win a world or Olympic all-around title -- and he did both.

In addition, he helped to lead the U.S. team to its first Olympic silver medal in 20 years in 2004, and Hamm was an integral part of the 2001 and 2003 American world championship teams that also won silver.

"Becoming the first world and Olympic all-around champion from the U.S. is a huge statement about his talent," Steve Penny, the director of USA Gymnastics, said in a statement. "It's also made a difference in USA gymnastics emerging from a team that struggled to make the podium to a team that's consistently on the podium. Paul Hamm raised the bar in men's gymnastics in this country and worldwide, and we're continuing to benefit from the role he played."

Hamm's Olympic career is a storied and turbulent one, which includes a judging controversy in 2004 and an injury that kept him from competing in 2008. Hamm hoped that a comeback in 2012 would allow him a strong performance to cap off his Olympic career, but his retirement announcement, just four months before the London Olympic Games, proved that the comeback wouldn't happen.

Hamm returned to the sport in 2010, and by January of 2011, the gymnast had to undergo surgery to heal a torn labrum and rotator cuff. In the end, the injuries simply became too much to handle, Hamm said.

"It's come to that time," Hamm told The Associated Press on March 27, 2012 "Your mind wants an outcome a certain way, and it used to be a certain way, but you can't get your body to perform that certain way. And I can see it."

Hamm added: "I'm able to just look back at the gymnastics and the performance and remember it for a great thing. I understand the things that happened in my life, it's just a part of the whole story. But overall, I feel the journey I had in the sport of gymnastics was a tremendous journey and very productive for me and my life, and the person I've become."

Sandra Johnson is an avid Olympic fan. While working for the United States Olympic Committee and living in the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., Johnson had the opportunity to immerse herself in the Olympic Movement. Follow her on Twitter: @SandraJohnson46

See the original post:
Paul Hamm Announces His Retirement from Gymnastics

SEATTLE, March 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Urbanspoon, the leading mobile restaurant discovery application and reservation management system, today announced its newly designed iPhone app -- featuring a brand new user interface and filters that enable diners to discover great restaurants based on the elements most important to them, including awards recognition from the James Beard Foundation and content from both Eater and the Village Voice.

The new app provides a more comprehensive view of the restaurant experience based on likes, expert content, and visual elements, with an emphasis on user photos. Together, these inputs help Urbanspoon users get an immediate snapshot and find the right restaurant for their preferences, at the right time. Diners can now also filter restaurants by James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award winners and nominees, the essential 38 Restaurants in major cities as selected by Eater ("Eater 38"), and Critics' Top Picks from the Village Voice.

"People are faced with restaurant review overload, so our goal is to give users a quick expert snapshot allowing them to find the right place, based on both their history and what's trending nearby," said Kara Nortman, SVP of Consumer Businesses, CityGrid Media. "Combining valuable content from industry leaders like the James Beard Foundation, with our own food blogger reviews and diner feedback, gives Urbanspoon users a richer understanding of a restaurant's food or experience in just a few taps."

New features include:

The Urbanspoon app for iPhone can be downloaded for free in the iTunes store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/urbanspoon/id284708449

About Urbanspoon

Urbanspoon is a leading online local restaurant guide, aggregating restaurant content from across the Web including newspapers, professional food critics, bloggers and diners. Urbanspoon allows diners to make restaurant reservations through its online booking service, both on the Web and mobile. In addition, Urbanspoon offers restaurants Urbanspoon Rezbook - a complete reservation and table management system built to run on the Apple iPad. Urbanspoon is a subsidiary of CityGrid Media, LLC (www.citygridmedia.com), an IAC (NASDAQ: IACI - News) operating company, and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About the James Beard Foundation

Founded in 1986, the James Beard Foundation is dedicated to celebrating, nurturing, and preserving America's diverse culinary heritage and future. A cookbook author and teacher, James Beard was a champion of American cuisine who helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. Today, the Beard Foundation continues in the same spirit by offering a variety of events and programs designed to educate, inspire, entertain and foster a deeper understanding of our culinary culture. These programs include educational initiatives, food industry awards, an annual national food conference, Leadership Awards program, culinary scholarships, and publications. In addition to maintaining the historic James Beard House in New York City's Greenwich Village as a "performance space" for visiting chefs, the Foundation has created a robust online community and hosts tastings, lectures, workshops, and food-related art exhibits in New York City and around the country. For more information, please visit http://www.jamesbeard.org. Find insights on food at the James Beard Foundation's blog Delights & Prejudices. Join the James Beard Foundation onFacebook. Follow the James Beard Foundation on Twitter.

About Eater

View post:
Urbanspoon Revamps App to Go Beyond the Shake; Users Can Discover Restaurants Based On Personal Filters, Expert Content

The study of bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, was led by Srdan Randic, a Master's student at the University of Massachusetts and supervised by Richard Connor, a Research Fellow at the UNSW Ecology and Evolution Research Centre. The team includes UNSW geneticist Dr Bill Sherwin and Michael Krutzen, a UNSW alumnus now at the University of Zurich.

Male dolphins use physical contact - petting and rubbing each other to cement their personal bonds. Earlier studies had shown that the Shark Bay dolphins form three different kinds of alliances, but the study shows that they also enjoy a unique combination of nested male alliances within an open social network - a pattern not described before in comparable animals or dolphin communities.

Groups of two to three males form first-order alliances that involve close relatives, such as cousins, co-operating to guard or act as consorts to females. Long-running studies by many researchers at Shark Bay have revealed that these small groups may persist for up to 20 years.

Sometimes one of these first-order alliances is seen to assist another to gain access to a female, but on another day the same two groups may be opposed in a contest over a female, says Sherwin.

Teams of four to 14 males cooperate in second-order alliances to attack other alliances and to defend against such attacks. Second-order alliances can persist intact for over 15 years and may be considered the core unit of male social organization in Shark Bay, the researchers say.

Finally, two or more second-order groups may team up from time to time to form a third-order alliance. The study tackled the question of how they choose to make these alliances.

Randics team was able to exclude the so-called community defence model used by chimpanzees, for example, in which semi-closed communities (ones that occasionally accept new members emigrating from other groups) are defended by males ranging across their groups entire range.

Nor do they follow the mating season defence model, where males defend a tighter geographic range only in the mating season. At such times, the range of one male alliance would have little overlap with others but would have considerable overlap with the range of certain female individuals, notes Sherwin.

But the study found that even the largest dolphin alliances do not do this. The key difference with comparable species seems to be that they have an open social network, with a fissionfusion grouping pattern with strongly differentiated relationships, including nested male alliances.

We have now shown that males, like females, exhibit a continual mosaic of overlapping ranges, says Connor. Humans, elephants and other mammals live in semi-closed groups with sex-biased dispersal but have relationships with other groups. So humans and elephants differ from the dolphins in that key respect of living in semi-closed groups, but have in common a nested relationship structure.

The rest is here:
Male dolphins build complex teams for social success