angiEmedia

That disturbed mug you see to the left is foster mom Jennifer Ann Montag. Montag, a 40 year old Weber County, Utah foster mother, is another of the very caring foster moms chosen by the careful selection process used by a CPS agency. You’d think this process should be a snap in Utah. As you may know, Utah feels like a throwback to the days when crime didn’t pay and streets were safe. The citizens have strong family values and widespread involvement in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church. Personally, very nearly every Mormon I’ve ever known has been a polite, responsible, and decent person. Many of them are very devoted to community service, too. So you’d think that in Utah, finding good foster parents would be easier than in much of the United States.

Profile of a Caring Foster Mom: Jennifer Montag

The government did find a very caring foster parent in Montag, but not of the sort you might expect in Utah. Montag cared so much about her 14 year old foster son that she bedded him, allegedly had sex with him repeatedly, and when discovered threatened to kill herself if she was exposed and couldn’t be with her young love any longer.
Read more…

Most adults who are getting regular preventive healthcare are familiar with the lipid panel performed as a routine check for cholesterol levels. What they may not know is that the standard lipid panel can only identify about 40% of the people who are at high risk for heart disease. The result of this is that many adults mistakenly believe they have reduced their heart attack risk when they are actually carrying around ticking time bombs that could be defused with improved treatment.

While the exact treatment for blood lipid problems varies, doctors seldom consider any such treatments without the test data to justify them. You could argue that the conventional cholesterol test actually increases the risk for heart attacks by leaving people unwisely complacent because of incomplete and inaccurate information about the nature of the fats in their blood. For instance, the LDL cholesterol number for “bad” cholesterol in the conventional tests is just a calculated estimate, not a direct measurement. It could be off significantly.

The VAP Cholesterol Test

A newer procedure called the VAP™ Blood Test (for Vertical Auto Profile) helps improve the ability to identify blood lipid patterns associated with heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Atherotech, the company providing the test, estimates that it can identify twice as many patients at high risk for heart attacks than regular cholesterol lipid panel tests and also identify patients likely to develop type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease that may not lead to heart attacks.
Read more…