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Over The Coffeecups
Warren Mitchell - Editor
TODAY'S PROGRAM
Frank Wells
will introduce the speaker, Kathryn Hollingsworth who
is the Director of the Archibald Senior Center of the
Montgomery Area Council on Aging since September 2000. She
was born and raised in Birmingham. Kathy graduated with
honors from Birmingham Southern College with a B.A. in
Business Administration in 1979.
She has held
numerous positions with radio stations in Birmingham and
television stations in Montgomery. She has won multiple
awards for sales performance and production. She was also a
broadcast media buyer with Luckie & Torney Advertising firm in
Birmingham. Kathy was the Director of Finance and Human
Resources for Management Transportation, Inc.
She has a beautiful voice and will entertain
us singing. She will provide us with information about the
Montgomery Council on Aging at the Archibald Senior Center.
LAST
WEEK'S PROGRAM
Frank Wells introduced Dr.
William O. Sargent, a family practice physician. Dr.
Sargent retired from the Navy as a Commander after 27 years of
service. For 10 years he served in the emergency room and was
Medical Director, dealing with chest pain at Baptist
Hospital. While serving in Washington, D.C., he was physician
to the House of Representatives. He has one son who works for
Lockheed, converting submarines.
Dr. Sargent started his talk by referring to
a book called "Savage Wars of the East" by Max Mooth. When we
think about all the wars we have been through in terms of big
wars, the real tip of the spear with the Army, Marine Corps
and Air Force was involved in what Mooth called "Wars of
Peace". They have been engaged in supporting American policy
from Tripoli to the present action in Iraq.
When the present mobilization was being
worked up, he called a friend in Washington to see if he would
be called up; had been retired for 9 years. He was told only
Special Forces retired guys were being called. He thought on
the 4th of July of the Reservists who are serving; their lives
being quickly changed. The Reservists are constantly being
called upon to support U.S. policy. For 50 years of cold war
with the Russians was a hellish time.
He subscribes to DVD
Disc Service, where you get 3 movies a month. One of the
movies was from every conflict, letters written by men at the
front. Letters from Valley Forge to Vietnam. One thing that
struck him was the letters were very much alike, from men
serving in all the conflicts.
Last year he had a
pain in his leg. He went to the doctor and learned he had a
bone infection. He is now 59 and aware of being older. Dr.
Sargent talked about life prolonging things we can do for
ourselves to slow the rush into old age. He noticed that none
of us gets out of this life alive.
He gave some thoughts on what we can do to
slow the aging process. He recommended looking at the May
2002 article in "Scientific America" magazine showing pictures
of the aging process. It shows changes of what happens in our
own bodies.
He shared the concept of endothelia; in the
past 10 years it has become more and more understood.
Endothelium is one layer of cells that line the arteries.
People have thought it was there, but it turned out to be one
of the major organs of the body. If you took one layer of the
lining of all the arteries out of the body and put it in a
lump, you would have an organ as big as the liver. Albert
Bell who developed nitroglycerin in his later years developed
chest pains. He eventually wound up taking his own
nitroglycerine to relieve the pain.
It turns out that the lining of the arteries,
the endothelia, is a very active organ. We get fatter, eat
more cholesterol and your pipes clog up and at one point the
arteries become so closed up that the bloodstream is
interrupted and the flow stops. When this happens a person
could have a heart attack.
Concept of high cholesterol, where it does
its damage; it is broken down into good and bad cholesterol.
The LDL, the bad cholesterol begins to cause inflammation in
the lining of the arteries. It gets down underneath the
endothelia and builds Plax and ruptures. Half of the people
that have heart attacks never make it to the hospital. That
is because of the Plax ruptures the artery and blood comes out
forming a clot causing people to fall over. It makes sense as
to why physicians give people aspirin over the last 30 years.
Compounds have been used to control and lower cholesterol.
Drugs like Lipator, a
staff drug, not only lower cholesterol, but reduce the
inflammation. Cholesterol and inflammation are very exciting
concepts. Diabetics should take the staff drugs; 40% less
change of becoming a diabetic. The main thing is to reduce
the chance of stroke and heart attacks.
FORMER
PRESIDENT &
LT.
GOVERNOR RETURNS
Jack
Gifford was back and said he was returning to the Club.
He and his wife have just returned from an extended trip
visiting the Rocky Mountain National Parks. Welcome aboard
Jack.
ENTERTAINMENT
The quartet,
Al McLellan and John Burch sang the last 2
verses of "America
the Beautiful" for the 4th of July. It gave a patriotic air
to the meeting.
THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
Mike
Winstead said he had a few things for our website,
www.gmmkiwanis.com.
A man's wife
had her credit cards stolen, but he didn't report it right
away, because the thief was charging less than his wife.
He enjoys
teaching 5th grade Sunday school. He has been promoted to a
class of his peers. Things overheard by children in church.
Our Father,
who does art in heaven, Harold is his name.
A little one prayed, "Lord if you can't make
me a better boy, don't worry about it.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The
Board will meet the 3rd Monday of the month, July 21st at
Al McLellan's home.
President Wilkinson said the Club will try to have an
interclub once a month. July 21st will be the next attempt at
an interclub.
The Alabama District Convention will
be August 2nd & 3rd in Auburn. Members are encouraged to
attend this convention. There will be members from all over
the state and it provides an opportunity to meet fellow
Kiwanians. More information will be given at a later date.
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