In the movie ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ Rosie Perez’s character Gloria had a saying. Sometimes when you lose you actually win. Such is the case for Jerome Harrison who was set to be traded to the Philadelphia Eagles contingent upon him passing his physical. He failed, which might be the best thing to happen. During the physical doctors discovered a brain tumor, which since caught early should allow him to lead a healthy and normal life and allow him to continue his career. Now treatment for his tumor will sideline him for the rest of the year, however, losing a year on the field to make sure your health is alright sounds like a win to me.
Category Archives: Health
Delonte West Plays Bingo With Your Grandma
Many know NBA player Delonte West for his legal trouble and medical condition. However, those who don’t take the time to know Mr. West would miss out the hilarity he provides. Today to kick off his charity weekend he visited a nursing home and hosted bingo and luncheon with the residents. Check out the picture below to see him calling the numbers and his uncle Rudy serenade the crowd. But the fun doesn’t stop there he’ll spend time at The D.C. Childrens Advocacy Center, hold a free basketball clinic for bi-polar children for the National Association of Mental Illness and visit the National Childrens Hospital. Good to see athletes giving back, and the beauty of technology, we don’t need mainstream media to let us know that not all guys who make a mistake are bad. If you want in on what Delonte is up to, follow him on twiiter @CharleeRedz13 and check out his website www.dwest13.com
Loss of Memory Not Determination
Pat Summitt, who has won more games in NCAA college basketball history as coach of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, has suffered a tremendous health loss. Summitt was recently diagnosed with early onset of dementia of the Alzheimer type at the age of 59. Dementia is described as affecting memory, thinking, language and judgment. Summitt noticed something was wrong when she was having trouble with remembering things but initially thought it was a symptom of her arthritis medicine. After consulting with her doctors and numerous tests they discovered the diagnosis of dementia. Having a grandmother who suffered from dementia in her mid 70’s I understand the hard road that is ahead of Summitt and her family. On many days my grandmother didn’t remember my name, my age and whether I was still in school or not. I saw the loss of determination, due to what her brain wouldn’t allow her to do anymore. So for Summitt to remain active is and remain head coach of the Lady Vols basketball team is great. What’s even better is her realizing her limitations, in an interview with ABC she was quoted as saying “I realize I may have some limitations with this condition, since there will be some good days and some bad days. For that reason, I will be relying on my outstanding coaching staff like never before.” Many times when we suffer a setback we fail to acknowledge that we have to rely on others more, and that we have to do things differently. In all the interviews and articles Summitt appears upbeat and prepared to fight this head on. Below is a video of Summitt speaking about her diagnosis and the road ahead.
Catholic School to Drug Test Students?
To think that pro athletes are the only ones taking performance enhancing drugs would be very naïve thinking. So an Elyria High School athletic director has decided to implement a drug testing program for his football team that will screen for recreational and performance drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Mike Wisnor is the athletic director for Elyria Catholic High School and has already ran this program for the soccer last year with the soccer team and the team captain had no problem with even going as far to say that he felt it helped the team. In my opinion, I hate this initiative. It’s discriminatory in every way. Why are only the athletes only expected to not take drugs? What about the kid that doesn’t play sports that takes steroids just to bulk up for the ladies. Or the kids that takes uppers to keep him awake to allow him to stay up all night and still be fresh for class? I completely support promoting a clean athletic program, but not in this manner, and if I was a parent and the school didn’t extend this testing to all students I would send my child to another school. This goes completely against what we fight for as everyday Americans. To be judged and viewed fairly. This however, highlights one particular group and ignores everybody else. Also what about the funding aspect, it can’t be cheap to run these tests, and in an economy where school funds are shrinking, I’m pretty sure there are better ways to spend budget money. For now Wisnor is saying the money for the testing won’t come out of the students or parents pockets, which leads one to ask, well where will the money come from? Football coach Mike Polevacik has said he’s all in favor of the test and holding his student-athletes to a higher standards; which is great, however, the way these higher standards are being enforced is all bad. If you’re going to drug test student-athletes then drug test all students, just because they play sports doesn’t mean they should be treated differently.
Pressure & Performance
Could you imagine needing therapy for your job? Ok maybe bad analogy. Better yet, could you imagine needing therapy to perform the job you loved? How would you feel if the pressure to perform just became too much to handle and you had to step down? Well this is the very disorder that has caused Tom Durkin to step down from his job of announcing the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and Belmont Stakes for NBC. Durkin said he took medication and even tried therapy but nothing helped and that he would feel a wave of stress and nervousness during the three months of these events. Stress and anxiety is a problem many of us may face and not know it. According to anxietymatters.com around 13% of the population will suffer from some kind of anxiety. Though anxiety is what helps keep us aware of danger and allows us to feel trepidation when taking on certain tasks, it is still important to know how to manage your anxiety. Ricky Williams once suffered from anxiety so much that he at one point couldn’t talk to reporters without his helmet on. Tom Durkin will still announce horse races for the New York Racing Association three tracks Aqueduct, The Belmont Stakes, and Saratoga. However, he has no plans to do them on a national level, saying it’s more important to look out for your personal life more than your professional life. So for all of us let this be a reminder that nothing is more important than your health and that no one or anything is in more control of your mood than you. If you wish for more information of dealing with anxiety, below are a few links that deal with preventing anxiety and some self help steps to take to help deal with stress.
http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/preventing-anxiety
http://helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_self_help.htm
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