New family practice office in Hermon

HERMON – Sunbury Medical Associates has opened its newest state-of-the-art family practice office in Hermon. The new, 2,550-square-foot facility, located at 2370 Route 2 in Hermon, is equipped with the latest medical diagnostic equipment.

Darla Coombs, family nurse practitioner, formerly of Carmel Family Medicine, will serve the health care needs of Hermon patients. During the completion of the Hermon building, Coombs had been seeing patients at Sunbury Hampden.

The Hermon administrative and clinical staff have several years of Sunbury experience, so many of their faces will be familiar.

Sunbury Hermon is one more step in several that Sunbury Medical Associates is taking to provide quality and innovative care for its patients.

Sunbury Hermon is accepting new patients. You can reach their experienced and caring staff at 848-9084.

Educational forum on opiate abuse

BANGOR – Parents, teens and other interested adults are invited to attend an educational forum on opiate abuse at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the Old Town High School cafetorium.

Opiates such as prescription drugs OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, and the illicit drug heroin have a high potential for addiction. Area treatment providers and law enforcement officials say they are seeing an increase in young people using these drugs.

As part of Red Ribbon Week, The Acadia Hospital has teamed up with the Old Town-Orono Rotary Club and the River Coalition to offer a special evening of education featuring The Acadia Hospital director of Substance Abuse Services, Brent Scobie.

Learn more about these drugs and what makes them so addictive. Learn the warning signs of abuse and things to do if someone needs help.

The program is offered as part of Acadia’s Close to Home campaign.

The free program will include a PowerPoint presentation, viewing of the short film “Falling” and a question-and-answer session. The presentation is expected to last no more than 1 1/2 hours.

A door prize and other giveaways will be awarded, including tickets to UMaine hockey games. Refreshments will be served.

There is no need to RSVP. For information, call 973-6166.

Pink Tulip Garden

ORONO – October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the University of Maine is planning its annual Pink Tulip Garden to benefit the Maine Cancer Foundation.

Volunteers will gather at noon Thursday, Oct. 30, to plant a ribbon-shaped bed of 1,000 pink tulips in front of Fogler Library on the University of Maine mall. The garden has grown from a square shape the first year to a ribbon shape for year two and now year three to reflect the pink ribbon of hope for a cure for breast cancer.

Additional tulip and daffodil beds will be planted during this time.

University student groups, faculty and staff are helping to organize, fundraise and promote the event to make it a success. Fundraising is still going on via the Web site for the UMaine Garden at http://snipurl.com/umotulips08.

Anyone interested may join in planting the garden and fundraise if they wish. Minimum donation is $1 per bulb. Donate online with a credit card or mail a check made out to the Maine Cancer Foundation and send it to Victoria Blanchette, College of Engineering, University of Maine, 5796 AMC Building, Room 209, Orono ME 04469-5796.

Call Vicky Blanchette at 581-2204, e-mail Victoria.blanchette@umit.maine.edu, or call Mary Rumphro Kennedy at 581-2806 or e-mail mrumpho@umit.maine.edu for more information.

Ladies Day Out

BANGOR – Caring Connections invites women to Ladies Day Out for Breast Health from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Isaac Farrar Mansion at the Bangor Y on Second Street. Learn about breast health, including risk factors and healthy living, sample healthful snacks and take home a free gift.

For information or to attend, call Robin Long at 941-2808.

Caring Connections is a cooperative program of the Bangor Y and Eastern Maine Medical Center, supported by the fundraising efforts of Healthcare Charities.

Blood pressure screenings

BANGOR – High blood pressure can happen to anyone at any age. Those at risk include those with a family history of high blood pressure and those who smoke, are overweight, have little physical activity or high amounts of stress.

Because uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to a stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure, Eastern Maine Medical Center and the Bangor Y will provide free blood pressure screenings to the Bangor community.

The public is invited to attend the event. A special invitation is made to those who may be experiencing symptoms of high blood pressure, including headaches, dizziness and blurred vision.

The screenings will be held 8-9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 27, at the Bangor Y, Second Street. For more information, call Alyssa Hanson, EMMC work site wellness coordinator, at 973-7089.

Cardiac wellness

BANGOR – Cardiac Wellness of Maine, located on the second floor of the Irving Kagan Building at Eastern Maine Medical Center, has scheduled community events:

. Women at Risk for Heart Disease, 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29. Free, and open to the public. One in every three women dies of heart disease. Women share some cardiovascular similarities with men, but there are differences. Learn how to reduce your risk.

. Vegetarian-Flexitarian: Are there more plant foods in your future? 5:15-6:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30. $10 per person. Considering a change to a more vegetarian lifestyle? Guidelines, myths and recipes will be presented.

Grant to Warren Center

BANGOR – The Warren Center for Communication and Learning has received a $10,000 grant from the Rite Aid Foundation in support of the center’s audiology program.

The grant will help the Warren Center expand its audiology department by adding an additional audiologist and front office staff to the growing program.

The Rite Aid Foundation, founded in July 2001, is a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to helping people in the communities Rite Aid serves.

Gayles Rife, Rite Aid Foundation administrator, wrote in the Warren Center’s grant acceptance letter, “The Rite Aid Foundation is pleased to be able to partner with worthwhile organizations such as The Warren Center to reach our neighbors.”

Mary E. Poulin, the Warren Center’s executive director, said, “We are grateful to the Rite Aid Foundation in helping with the expansion of our audiology department. It is important in our effort to continue service to our growing list of clients.”

One adult in seven has hearing difficulty that affects her or his ability to communicate easily with others. The ability to communicate is central to what we do, who we are, how we learn, how we relate to each other and participate in society.

Disabling problems with communication can affect a person’s ability to access educational, social, economic and career opportunities. In addition, one baby in 500 has permanent hearing loss that may have a profound effect on the development of speech and language.

Hearing loss has been shown to affect negatively on household income – on average up to $12,000 per year depending on the degree of hearing loss.

However, the use of hearing instruments is shown to mitigate the effects of hearing loss by 50 percent. For America’s 24 million hard of hearing who do not use hearing instruments, the impact of untreated hearing loss is quantified to be in excess of $100 billion annually. The cost to society could be in excess of $18 billion due to unrealized taxes, according to the Better Hearing Institute.

Rehabilitation for hearing loss may include the provision of hearing aids, information and advice on assistive listening devices, or for the most severely affected, cochlear implants.

Evidence suggests that, as in other areas of health care, provision of equipment is more effective when the behavioral changes required to make use of the equipment are addressed. Thus the audiologist’s role includes providing information and support in making these important emotional and behavioral changes.

For more information, call 941-2850.

New genetics researcher

BREWER – The Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health has announced the appointment of Dr. David Smalley, a research scientist who will lead the proteomics group in studying the structure and function of proteins.

The excitement around proteomics discovery in medical research is that identification of key proteins in cancer and other diseases can lead to innovative development of new diagnostic tests and drugs specifically for the disease.

Smalley will work closely with Dr. Touradj Solouki at the University of Maine, and Dr. Douglas A. Hinerfeld at the Jackson Laboratory.

Smalley’s arrival and the start-up of the Proteomics Technology Core, in collaboration with the University of Maine and The Jackson Laboratory, will provide continued advancement of the biomedical technology sector in Maine, said Dr. Janet Hock, director of the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health. “The availability of such rich resources is very exciting for scientists and biotech businesses in Maine.”

Smalley has a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Akron, where he studied the enzymology of Vitamin K-dependent blood clotting factors. After joining the University of Connecticut, he studied cell biology of endothelial cells, the cells that line blood vessels.

Since then, he has used biochemical approaches to examine endothelial cell function, focusing on how these cells change after exposure to native LDL – bad cholesterol – during the early stages of atherosclerosis.

Recently he was an assistant professor of research at University of Virginia, where he led the biomarker discovery efforts and developed a new approach to discovering biomarkers from blood and urine, an approach which is applicable to a wide variety of diseases.