The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 13

News-Leader ealith Tuesday January 3, 2012 To report a news tip, call 417-836-1199 or email Men face decisions amid screening debate Learn more with this story online: Read the report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Some experts question benefits of prostate-cancer screening. By Ed Peaco FOR THE NEWS-LEADER As medical professionals fiercely debate the merits of prostate-cancer screening, men who care about their health have some decisions to make. For the past two decades, men at some point dation discouraging the use of the PSA test may lead patients to discount the seriousness of prostate cancer and obstruct physicians' efforts to help patients make informed decisions. There's no risk whatsoever in the PSA test itself, said Jim Blaine, M.D., an independent Springfield physician in family practice serving Ozarks Technical Community College full-time employees and their depen CDC decision guide to prostate screening American Cancer Society prostate cancer guide Graphic: How the prostate works Prostate cancer and the PSA test Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United States, not counting skin cancer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

It lists prostate cancer as the second most common cause of cancer death in men. However, many cases of prostate cancer take so many years to become threatening that they never harm the lives of affected men, who will likely die of some other cause, according to the American Cancer Society and many other organizations. See CANCER, Page 4C dents. "It's like a lot of other things; it's what you do with the test results," he said. Without PSA testing, many dangerous prostate cancers would not be diagnosed early, he said.

Dr. Bruce Roth, professor of medicine at Washington Univer in middle age have been encouraged to have a screening test for prostate cancer as part of their annual primary care visits. Now that a federally sponsored task force has found that the test not only fails to reduce the death rate for prostate cancer, but also can lead to harm, men must do Anderson Blaine sity in St. Louis, said he welcomes the task force's report, citing numerous hazards along the path that begins with screening. If nothing else, it's clear that prostate health is no longer a matter of routine.

their homework and insist on nuanced medical advice about how to proceed, health-care experts say. Dr. David Anderson, a urologist at Cox-Health, said the task force's draft recommen- HEALTH CALENDAR St. John's Women's Heart Center 2012 Cooking School, 5-6 p.m. or p.m.

today, St. John's Women's Heart Center, 1235 E. Cherokee. Cost: $10. 820-3666 Healthier Together, 4-5 p.m.

Wednesday, Fountain Plaza, Cox North, 1423 N. Jefferson Ave. Learn about depression, chronic pain and self-care. Free. 269-881 7 Advance Directives, p.m.

Jan. 9, Ozark Room, Cox Walnut Lawn, 1000 E. Walnut Lawn St. Learn about and complete a living will and durable power of attorney for health care. Notary service provided.

269-3616; 888-354-3618 Shape Up: Getting Organized, 7 p.m. Jan. 9, Republic Branch Library, 921 N. Lindsey St. Get tips on organizing your house, car and life, and write a plan to get organized in the new year.

Free. 732-7284 Explain Pain Class, 6 p.m. Jan. 1 0, Conference Room Meyer Center, 3545 S. National Ave.

Learn self-management techniques and more. Free. 269-4636 BabySense, p.m. Jan. 1 1, Turner Center, Suite 130, 1000 E.

Primrose St. Learn basic baby care and safety, including bathing, diapering, baby-proofing your home, car seat safety and more. Fee: $25. 269-5239 Leaner Life, p.m. Thursdays beginning Jan.

12, Diabetes Center, Suite 203, CoxHealth Surgery Center, 960 E. Walnut Lawn. A 12-week weight loss program. Fee: $170; registration required. 269-3900 Osteoporosis Screening, Jan.

13, Turner Center, Suite 1 10, 1000 E. Primrose St. Osteoporosis risk assessment and bone density screening for $25. Age 21 and older. Appointment required.

269-4636 Prepared Childbirth Class, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Jan. 14, Lake Regional Hospital, 54 Hospital Drive, Osage Beach. Cost: $25; registration required, www.lakere-gional.comevents; 573-348-8244 CarePartners-Take Five, p.m. Jan.

18, Conference Room Meyer Center, 3545 S. National Ave. Develop techniques to take some stress out of caregiving. Free. 269-3616; 888-354-3618 Prenatal Care Class, 7-9 p.m.

Jan. 19, Lake Regional Hospital, 54 Hospital Drive, Osage Beach. Free; registration is required. Participants will receive $5 off Lake Regional's prepared childbirth class, www.lakere-gional.comevents; 573-348-8244 Learning to Eat the Trim Kids Way, 7 p.m. Jan.

19, Lake Regional Clinic, 1870 Bagnell Dam Lake Ozark. Free; registration required, www. lakeregional.comevents; 573-365-2318 Volunteer Orientation, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Jan. 19, Lake Regional Hospital, 54 Hospital Drive, Osage Beach.

Paperwork and an interview must be completed in advance. Contact Terri Hall by Thursday at 573-348-81 53 to schedule an interview. MEDICAL MOVERS Donn E. Sorensen, chief operating officer with Mercy Clinic, has been named to the executive com -f Wj-A J. i I- 1 1 CHRIS O'MEARA ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO In this Dec.

14 photo, 91-year-old Bernice Bates teaches her weekly yoga class at the Mainlands Retirement Community Center in Pinellas Park, Fla. Bates is the world's oldest yoga teacher, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. World's oldest' yoga teacher At 91, woman credits good health to yoga. Bernice Bates teaches her weekly yoga class at the Mainlands Retirement Community Center in Pinellas Park, Fla. Bates says yoga involves an individual's mind, body and spirt.

CHRIS O'MEARA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS mittee of the American Medical Group Association's board of directors, beginning rv r-i rrrs rrrr agspaa. LI 113 I IM III If CIV.V.UI un ly to a press release from St. John's HosDital. Sorensen The AMGA's Board of Directors is composed of five officers and 1 1 at-large directors, who serve three-year terms. The AMGA represents medical groups and organized systems of care.

More than 1 13,000 physicians practice in AMGA member organizations, providing health care services for 1 10 million patients in 49 states. St. John's Hpalth rJ System recently By Tamara Lush THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PINELLAS PARK, Fla. The yoga teacher in the front of the room lay on the floor, her hands resting on her upper thighs. She lifted her right leg high in the air, foot flexed.

Then she grabbed her right foot in her right hand and brought her leg toward her face as she raised her upper body a few inches off the ground. Students in class smiled in amazement as they watched the teacher's knee graze her nose. It wasn't just the pose that was amazing it was the teacher's age. Bernice Bates is 91 years old, and she's more flexible than people who are a third of her age. "If you can't quite meet your knee, that's all right," Bates told her class, gently.

Guinness World Records recently awarded Bates the title of "Oldest Yoga Teacher." While there might be other, older yogis somewhere in the world, Bates completed the lengthy documentation process required by Guinness. She was nominated earlier this year by her daughter. Bates first began practicing yoga 50 years ago, after she saw it on a television program. As a younger woman, she taught swimming in Ohio at a YWCA. These days, the great-grandmother teaches once a week at the community center of her retirement village located on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Her students are usually a announced tnat David Matlock, M.D., joined St. John's Clinic-Emergency Medicine. Matlock received his medical education Matlock improve hip extension and increase stride length in a group of senior citizens who participated in the research. "In general the idea that just because you are older you have less of a range of motion, that is really not correct," he said. Bates credits yoga for her good health she doesn't take medication or have any health problems and says it gives her the ability to enjoy the things she loves: flower gardening and worshipping at her Methodist church.

She also lifts weights, walks, swims and does tai chi. Now widowed, she enjoys talking about the Tampa Bay Rays and how the team's third baseman, Evan Longoria, practices yoga. She starts stretching the moment she wakes up, with a series of poses to get her blood flowing. "It gives you a good outlook. It involves your mind," she said.

"Your mind, your body and your spirit. They all work together and they're all coordinated. Whereas when you're on a treadmill, that's all you're doing, and you're tired when you're done. We build energy in our body, we don't take it out." into a plow pose lying flat on her back, raising her legs all the way over her head and rolling back so her toes touched the floor. "It loosens up my muscles," said Techier, who shrugs at the suggestion that she is flexible.

Gentle exercises like yoga and tai chi can be especially good for seniors because they build balance, which can help prevent falls, medical experts say. "One of the main reasons why people become non-functional or even die is because of falls," said Dr. Fernando Branco, the medical director for the Rosomoff Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center and Brucker Biofeedback Center in Miami. "Those things can be catastrophic when you're 85. When you're 85 and you go into bed for several weeks or months because of a slow healing fracture, you're taking a lot of risks." Branco said that more folks should follow in Bates' yogic footsteps.

Yoga also has other benefits, he said. In a study published by the National Institutes of Health in 2005, yoga was found to decade or two younger than she is. Each class begins with a short discussion on a recent day, Bates talked about the importance of flexing and caring for one's feet and then Bates takes the class through a series of about a dozen vinyasas, or yoga poses. She uses a soft blue mat and wears black ballet slippers while teaching. She ends with a guided relaxation while playing New Age music on her portable cassette player.

Bates believes in gentle yoga: no sweaty, strenuous or competitive stretching in her classes. "You may not do it perfect, but there's no perfect person," she said. She talks about her students who have benefited from her teaching: two women in their 80s, a couple in their 90s, a handful in their 70s. "They feel great," she said. "It makes your whole body whole again.

It's good for anybody. It's good for chair sitters, it's good for pregnant women. Anybody." Kathleen Techier, 86, has been taking Bates' class for five years. She can easily go from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed his residency training at OSF St. Francis Medical Center, University of Illinois College of Medicine-Peoria.

He is board-certified in emergency medicine. Email items for Medical Movers to Cliff Sain at Photos may be submitted. TOYOTA toes 0i)sMWCnTO(ferr Silfe S333'ni.