• 
• Breaking News
• March 20, 2024
• 30 views
• 7 minutes Read

English News: Why Your Diet Needs More Fermented Pickles

English News: Why Your Diet Needs More Fermented Pickles

[[{“value”:”

Maybe you heard somewhere that pickles are a “superfood,” and dutifully added them to your shopping list. Unfortunately, you may reach for the wrong jar, because many pickles at supermarkets aren’t especially good for you.

Scientists have made progress in separating fact from fiction when it comes to health claims about pickles: both the cucumber kind, and other types of pickled vegetables. We asked experts how to find the healthiest kinds of pickles, which benefits are backed by research, and the right amount to eat every day.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Pick the best pickle

Most of what you find at the grocery store—in both the refrigerated and room-temperature sections—are “quick pickles,” meaning the cucumbers (or other pickled vegetables) are acidified in a vinegar-based broth for no more than a few days. Some of these quick pickles are also heat-processed to make them last longer on store shelves and destroy pathogens that could make people sick.

This process is called “pickling.” But what you really want are fermented pickles.

During fermentation, the vegetables sit in a salt brine for several weeks. This leaves enough time for healthy bacteria, or microbes, living on the cucumber’s surface to act on the sugars inside the vegetable, converting them to lactic acid. The process gives pickles their tangy flavor while killing off other bacteria that could spoil them or harm you. And when you eat these fermented treats, scientists think the remaining live microbes affect the gut in ways that improve health.

To find these healthier pickles, look for refrigerated jars with labels that say “fermented.” In addition, the ingredients list on the back generally should not include vinegar, which is a sign of quick-pickling, says Robert Hutkins, a microbiologist at the University of Nebraska. (There are, however, a few brands of “lightly” fermented vegetables that do contain some vinegar, he adds.)

Read More: Is Kombucha Healthy? Here’s What Experts Say

Another telltale sign: “When you pop open a jar of fermented pickles, you should see some bubbles forming on the surface,” says Frances Largeman-Roth, a registered dietary nutritionist and author of Everyday Snack Tray. Some examples of fermented pickles include several Bubbies products (the ones marked “fermented”) and Olive My Pickle.

Adopt a pro-microbe mindset

If eating microbes sounds unappetizing, keep in mind they’ve been part of the human diet for eons. People were enjoying fermented vegetables more than 4,000 years ago, according to anthropologists. Other evidence shows that our earliest ancestors discovered the tastiness of pickled veggies after stumbling upon vegetables that had been buried underground—by accident, at first—millions of years ago. In Korea, keeping salted vegetables in cold, dark soil developed as a useful way to preserve foods, which had a similar effect as today’s fermentation methods.

Read More: Why Older People Love Pickleball So Much

You’re very unlikely to become ill from eating properly fermented vegetables because the microbes and the use of right techniques will create conditions that make it nearly impossible for pathogens to grow. Large and small manufacturers alike are required to comply with safety regulations.

The health perks of pickles

There is “evidence that fermented vegetables, including pickles, may have health promoting properties,” Hutkins says.

More research is needed, but a few dozen studies have been well designed to compare diets with pickled vegetables to diets with non-pickled versions of the same vegetables, Hutkins says. Most of this research has been conducted in Korea and focuses on kimchi, or pickled cabbage—not pickled cucumbers. But the findings are promising, with fermented vegetables—again, mostly cabbage—linked to significantly better glucose metabolism, lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, a more robust immune system, decreased triglyceride levels, and higher HDL cholesterol (the good kind) in people who ate them.

Other research has found that regularly reaching for fermented veggies is linked to lower blood pressure. “That’s counterintuitive,” Hutkins says, “because these products contain a fair amount of salt,” an excess of which may increase blood pressure. One theory to explain this paradox is that “fermented foods may counter the potential negative effect” of sodium, says Andres Gomez, a microbial ecologist at the University of Minnesota.

Read More: How Stress Affects Your Heart Health

The benefits seem to come partly from the fiber, vitamins, minerals and other chemicals that are retained during the fermentation process. In addition, the live microbes of fermented vegetables may offer unique benefits compared to the unpickled, unfermented kind, providing more support for intestinal and metabolic health. At least one study linked a healthy diet, spiced up by pickles, to reduced psychological stress, supporting the theory that the gut and brain exchange important information. “We know the microbes, organic acids and other metabolites in fermented foods influence communication between the gut and brain in a positive way,” says Gomez, who studies this phenomenon.

Mix up your pickles

Try to add multiple types of pickled vegetables to your diet: cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, peppers—the list goes on. Since different pickled vegetables pack distinct microbes, such a repertoire could be healthier than eating only one kind. This helps explain why kimchi may be particularly good for you. Kimchi recipes typically mix napa cabbage with other pickled ingredients, such as bok choy, green onions, garlic and ginger, multiplying the microbes headed for the gut.

Such diversity is “considered one of the most protective and healthiest approaches,” Hutkins says, adding that we’ll need more studies to know if it makes a large difference to a person’s overall health.

Pickles vs. pills

Probiotic supplements often contain microbes like the ones found in fermented vegetables. So, if you’re looking to benefit from these microbes, you could replace pickles with pills—at least in theory.

Read More: What the Science Says About the Health Benefits of Vitamins and Supplements

However, “not all probiotic supplements have been verified to work,” Largeman-Roth notes—plus, pickles are less expensive and taste better. “Personally, I prefer to get my nutrients, vitamins, and my live microbes from food,” says Hutkins, who founded and advises a probiotics supplement company called Synbiotic Health and wrote a book on fermented foods.Many probiotic supplements also lack the chemicals that result from the activities of live microbes during fermentation, Gomez says. Fermented pickles contain these “postbiotic” chemicals, such as butyrate and GABA, which have their own benefits for gut health and gut-brain communication, he says.

The right amount of pickles

Aim to have between two tablespoons and ¾ cup of pickled vegetables per day, Hutkins says. That’s the range eaten in studies showing health benefits. If you load up on more, you could get yourself in a pickle with your doctor. Pickles contain a fairly high amount of sodium per serving, and an overage of sodium is linked to adverse health outcomes.“It’s okay to eat pickles daily if you’re balancing out their sodium content with fresh, low-sodium produce like fruit and leafy greens,” Largeman-Roth advises. This is another reason to buy fermented pickles; the non-fermented, unrefrigerated, quick-pickled brands often have more sodium. Even with fermented pickles, though, it’s important to look for pickles with lower sodium and be mindful of your overall sodium intake.

Get the most from your pickle

To truly raise your pickle game, eat them after you’ve sweated a lot during exercise or a sauna session. In this scenario, the salt content works on your behalf, because it adds electrolytes that were lost through sweating, Largeman-Roth says. So, for a strategic recovery, grab a pickle after pickleball.

“}]] 

We asked experts how to find the healthiest kinds of pickles, which benefits are backed by research, and the right amount to eat every day. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, Evergreen, freelance, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

We asked experts how to find the healthiest kinds of pickles, which benefits are backed by research, and the right amount to eat every day.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 20, 2024
• 29 views
• 3 minutes Read

English News: New Zealand Becomes the Latest Country to Crack Down on Disposable Vapes

English News: New Zealand Becomes the Latest Country to Crack Down on Disposable Vapes

[[{“value”:”

After scrapping a plan several months ago to ban people born after 2008 from buying tobacco cigarettes, the New Zealand government on Wednesday announced a total ban on single-use e-cigarettes—also known as disposable vapes—and said it will increase the fines on retailers selling cigarettes and vapes to those under 18, in the country’s latest approach to discourage smoking among youth.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“The rapid rise in youth vaping has been a real concern for parents, teachers, and health professionals,” Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said when announcing the changes to New Zealand’s Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act. She added that reusable vapes would remain available for adults as they are “a key smoking cessation device” but that too many teenagers use disposable vapes because “they’re cheap and remain too easy to get.”

Costello said the New Zealand government is “committed to tackling youth vaping and to continue to drive down smoking rates to achieve the Smokefree goal of less than 5% of the population smoking daily by 2025.” As of last year, she said, 6.8% of the population smoked daily.

Under the new rules, fines for retailers caught selling regulated products like vapes and cigarettes to minors would be increased from NZ$10,000 (about $6,000) to NZ$100,000 ($60,000). Costello said the New Zealand Cabinet also reconfirmed a range of additional smoking-related regulations set to take effect on March 21, including “a ban on vaping products with images of cartoons or toys on the packaging, and limiting flavor names to generic descriptions.” Meanwhile, reusable vape products will have until Oct. 1 of this year to include removable batteries and child-proofing mechanisms.

New Zealand is the latest country to ban disposable vapes after the U.K. announced a similar measure in January. And New Zealand’s neighbor Australia has banned the importation of disposable vapes since Jan. 1 amid concerns over widespread teenage use. As of December last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said 34 countries had banned e-cigarettes, while 74 countries had no vape regulations in place.

Not all in New Zealand are on board with the country’s new ban, however. A spokesperson for right-wing pressure group New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union warned that banning disposable vapes outright will have a number of adverse effects. “We welcome the proposed changes in relation to harsher penalties and enforcement for those illegally selling vaping products to minors but extending this crackdown to a ban on disposable vapes will simply drive people back towards smoking and encourage a blackmarket of unregulated vaping products as seen in Australia,” Connor Molloy said in a statement posted on X. “This ban will simply [make] it harder and more expensive to quit smoking, instead encouraging people to remain or revert to smoking, or to consume black market vaping products where the risks are completely unknown.”

The WHO has argued that vapes are “not shown to be effective for quitting tobacco use at the population level” and urged governments worldwide to ban their sale to all ages or implement measures that would dissuade the public, particularly children, from using them.

“}]] 

New Zealand is the latest country to crack down on single-use e-cigarettes in a bid to curb smoking, especially among minors. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, News Desk, overnight 

Health – TIME 

New Zealand is the latest country to crack down on single-use e-cigarettes in a bid to curb smoking, especially among minors.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 19, 2024
• 32 views
• 7 minutes Read

English News: The Health Benefits of Wearing Shoes in the House

English News: The Health Benefits of Wearing Shoes in the House

[[{“value”:”

Every day, people with foot pain hobble into Dr. Priya Parthasarathy’s podiatry office, and she asks them the same three questions: “What do you do for work? Where do you work? And what do you put on your feet when you’re working?”

More often than not, they work from home, barefoot. Over the past few years, there’s been a “significant increase” in people experiencing foot pain, says Parthasarathy, a podiatrist with Foot and Ankle Specialists of Mid-Atlantic in Silver Spring, Md. A rise in remote work is partly to blame, she believes.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

There is a solution to the aches, strains, and even stress fractures, though it’s not one patients like to hear: Start wearing shoes inside. “It makes such a big difference,” she says.

Hard floors are bad for your feet

There are lots of reasons why people go barefoot at home. It’s a common and expected practice in some cultures; others do it because they’re grossed out by tracking dirt and germs inside. But for people without strong feelings on the subject, and whose home doubles as their office, indoor shoes are a good idea. People who work remotely tend to underestimate the amount of time they spend walking around barefoot during the day. “You’ll get up and stand around the kitchen and chop vegetables, or clean, or go up and down the stairs to do laundry,” says Dr. Jackie Sutera, a podiatrist based in New York City. That’s a problem because hard floors, unlike padded carpets, don’t offer any support or shock absorption. If you’re barefoot, only your fat pad—the thin layer of fat located under the ball of the foot and the heel—will absorb that repetitive impact. “There’s a cumulative effect,” Sutera says. Putting pressure on your feet by walking around barefoot for weeks or months can cause them to become inflamed, which can lead to serious problems.

Many of Parthasarathy’s patients who work from home, for example, have metatarsalgia, which is inflammation that causes pain at the ball of the foot. “It can migrate upwards, causing pain in the knees, hips, and back,” she says. Plantar fasciitis, meanwhile, can lead to stabbing pain in the bottom of your foot, while Achilles tendinitis is characterized by pain and stiffness in the morning, as well as swelling in the heel area. “No one is meant to walk on hardwood floors all the time,” she adds. “That’s very different from walking on soft, grassy terrain, or the beach. You’re walking on engineered wood.”

Tripping risks, standing desks, and poor sitting form

Hard floors are at the root of many foot problems—but they’re not the only culprit. Consider all the opportunities for tripping over or running into stuff. Your kids left Legos all over the floor and you didn’t see them before walking into the room barefoot? Ouch. You stubbed your toe against the edge of the bed? Here’s hoping the neighbors didn’t hear your screams. Throughout the pandemic, “I saw a lot of people coming in with fractured toes and feet from accidentally kicking furniture or tripping over pets,” Parthasarathy says. Such injuries can be especially concerning for people with diabetes, who are at heightened risk of foot complications. Wearing sneakers makes you more stable than you would be either barefoot or in just socks.

Then there are standing desks. Some remote workers, determined to be more active, end up standing for the majority of the day—but forget to put on shoes, Parthasarathy says. That can quickly tire the feet and exacerbate or lead to conditions like plantar fasciitis. In addition to wearing shoes, Parthasarathy recommends using an anti-fatigue floor mat, which research suggests can alleviate foot fatigue, ensure pressure is well-distributed, and promote stability. “That, paired with a good sneaker, could really make a difference,” she says.

Of course, not everyone is motivated to stand all day. Some prefer sitting—and in a less-than-ideal position, to boot. If you’ve ever pulled your feet up underneath yourself while perched on your office chair, you know they eventually start to hurt. “There are tendons that go around the ankle, and they don’t like to be stretched in those ways,” Parthasarathy says. “Sitting with one foot under your bottom for even a few hours a day will put you more at risk for tendonitis.” If you’re wearing shoes, she points out, you’ll probably be more inclined to keep your feet on the ground. 

What to look for in an indoor shoe

Shoes provide comfort, support, and protection, while taking pressure off important tendons and ligaments. But not just any sneaker or slipper will do. If you can bend yours completely in half, it’s time to invest in a better pair, says Dr. Nicole Brouyette, a senior staff podiatric surgeon at Henry Ford Health in Detroit. Same verdict if you flip your shoes upside down and find that the soles are so worn out, they’re uneven.

Ideally, shoes will have a spacious fit at the toes and provide at least some degree of arch support. “Everyone has a natural arch to their foot, or if they have flat feet, they need a natural arch,” Brouyette says. “I make sure the shoe has that built-in—you can check to see if there’s a little bit of a ridge by the middle of the foot, on the bottom.” If there’s not, you don’t necessarily need to buy a new pair; she often suggests patients buy an over-the-counter orthotic, which is an insert designed to relieve foot pain. They can be especially helpful for people with plantar fasciitis, she says; in serious cases, she might recommend a custom, medical-grade orthotic that’s designed to match the contours of your feet.

You might be tempted to wear slippers inside—and that’s O.K., with some caveats, Brouyette says. If they’re the fuzzy type designed to keep your feet warm, they’re probably not providing meaningful support. “You’re maybe doing a disservice to yourself,” she says. Wear them while you’re watching a movie on the couch, but once you start walking around, opt for a pair with an outer sole that provides arch support.

But what about germs?

Perhaps you still have cold feet about wearing shoes inside—because no one wants to track in dirt, allergens, or especially feces. There’s an easy solution, Brouyette says: Keep two separate sets of shoes. Wear your public-facing, outdoor shoes to the gym or grocery store or wherever else you head when you leave the house. Then, have another set of shoes you only wear indoors. “I know we’re creatures of habit, and sometimes it’s like, ‘I’m in a rush, I just ran in from the grocery store, and I have to get on this call,’” she says. “But it takes a quick three seconds to take them off and put on your indoor shoes.” Your feet will be happy—and the habit ensures there’s nothing disgusting about wearing shoes inside.

“}]] 

People who work from home are increasingly reporting foot pain. Often, it’s because they’re walking around barefoot. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, Evergreen, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

People who work from home are increasingly reporting foot pain. Often, it’s because they’re walking around barefoot.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 19, 2024
• 30 views
• 4 minutes Read

English News: Don’t Be Surprised If Your Doctor Starts Charging You for Email

English News: Don’t Be Surprised If Your Doctor Starts Charging You for Email

[[{“value”:”

Doctors are starting to charge for responding to email, and other offline tasks. Is it justified or just extra costs in an endless stream of medical bills?

It’s 6 pm and you might expect your doctor’s workday to be complete after a busy patient load. Yet for majority, work has just begun. It’s time to open their patient portal, review test results, answer piles of patient email. Then they do whatever needs to be done, like ordering more tests or consults.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Patient portals have improved access to test results and physicians. Day or night, you can review your results and pose questions such as, “What does this lab value mean?”, “Can you refill my prescription?”, “My x-ray shows a pulmonary nodule. What is that?”, or “Can I have a referral to see a specialist?” Patient portals have become an innovative and cost-free way for patients and doctors to communicate. Instead of dropping a co-pay for a traditional appointment or signing up a telehealth visit, a portal post often does the trick.

Here’s the problem: doctors are traditionally only paid for real-time encounters. There’s been no extra pay for responding to email or following up on many offline requests. Many doctors spend tons of time—often after hours—on unreimbursed activity.

Extra uncompensated tasks increasingly weigh down physicians spiritually and emotionally. Drowning in heaps of unpaid work, the toll is physician productivity, family life, and ultimately mental health. It is sometimes referred to as “burnout.” Others call it “moral injury,” creating a deeper and more complex psychological crisis.

Here’s what changing: emailing in patient portals may soon not be so free anymore. In 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new billing code where doctors can charge for answering patient-initiated emails that require at least five minutes. Doctors can bill up to once a week per patient for total time spent. Excluded are emails related to scheduled appointments, refilling prescriptions, follow-up after procedures, or within seven days of a visit. The insurer then decides whether to pay for it directly or pass the costs onto the patient.

Read More: Why It Takes Forever to Get a Doctor’s Appointment

A recent study of insured patients by the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that doctors charge on average $39 per email. Patients with out-of-network benefits pay about $25 per email. Certainly, in the context of all the money we spend on healthcare, this seems nominal. But costs can add up if multiple emails are sent.

Yet, the KFF study found the frequency of claims related to patient portal emails to be low: averaging about 1 in every 192 office visit claims in 2021. This shows that in the first few years of the ability to bill, doctors hadn’t started charging patients.

Why? First and foremost, doctors may not want to alienate patients or disincentivize asking their health questions. Billing for portal messages may also be cumbersome, particularly because some messages are billable while others aren’t. Finally, some doctors may not even know you can bill for email.

There are reasons to believe that doctors charging for patient emails may catch on. One big driver is declining physician reimbursement. The amount doctors can charge for visits for Medicare patients has not kept up with inflation over the last two decades. There is also downward pressure on commercial payments through laws like the No Surprises Act (NSA), which outlaws balance billing. Billing for emails allows doctors to fill some of these gaps.

The KFF study found that in 82% of cases the insurance company just paid the bill. But as the frequency of billing ramps up, insurers will likely start passing on more of costs onto patients. 

Billing for patient portal messages also raises an ethical dilemma with doctors, specifically whether charges are justified. If we look at traditional business practices, it’s clearly reasonable. Working after traditional business hours and not receiving compensation violates labor law. Additionally with the advent of concierge medicine and other newer models such as direct primary care, subscription-based fees charged by such practice models will incorporate responding to email.

What’s clear is this: workable solutions, both ethically and economically, are necessary to address the deluge of communications—whether via traditional email, patient portals or phone calls—that physicians encounter.

Until the time comes that artificial intelligence (AI) can reliably and accurately answer patient questions and perform other important functions and tasks, physicians or their proxies will be required to empty their inboxes beyond the hours spent involved in direct patient care.

“}]] 

Patient portals are weighing on doctor’s time and insurance companies are letting them start to charge for it. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, freelance 

Health – TIME 

Patient portals are weighing on doctor’s time and insurance companies are letting them start to charge for it.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 19, 2024
• 30 views
• 5 minutes Read

English News: Air Quality Is Bad Pretty Much Everywhere, New World Pollution Report Finds

English News: Air Quality Is Bad Pretty Much Everywhere, New World Pollution Report Finds

[[{“value”:”

The rules of survival are simple: humans can live weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without air. Air is the most vital resource to human life, and yet what most of the world breathes in every day is dirty.

According to the 2023 World Air Quality Report published on Tuesday by IQAir, a Swiss firm that monitors real-time air quality around the world and has published an annual assessment since 2018, only 10 countries or territories last year had air quality that met the World Health Organization’s standard for clean air.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

IQAir used as its primary indicator of each country or territory’s air quality the average concentration of PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, measured across cities with publicly-available data. PM2.5 is a harmful component of air pollution that comes from a variety of sources, including emissions from coal and oil burning as well as dust storms and wildfires. The WHO says PM2.5 “can penetrate through the lungs and further enter the body through the blood stream, affecting all major organs” and that exposure to PM2.5 can cause cardiovascular and respiratory health issues, such as strokes or lung cancer. Air pollution is associated with an estimated 7 million premature deaths each year.

WHO guidelines recommend exposure to no more than an annual mean PM2.5 concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic meter (5 µg/m3). Of the 134 countries and territories IQAir was able to assess, only Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius, and French Polynesia met that threshold in 2023.

Here are key regional takeaways from IQAir’s 2023 World Air Quality Report.

Asia is the world’s most polluted region

All but one of the 100 cities with the most polluted air in the world are located in Asia, with 83 of them located in India, according to IQAir’s report. Each of these cities had PM2.5 levels that exceeded the WHO’s standard by 10 times or more. The most polluted city, Begusarai, an Indian city of more than half a million residents in the western state of Bihar, had PM2.5 levels of 118.9 µg/m3 last year—or 23 times the WHO standard.

Central and South Asia contain the top four most polluted countries in the world—Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Tajikistan—and 31% of the region’s cities reported PM2.5 levels more than 10 times the WHO standard, a proportion vastly exceeding any other region in the report.

IQAir cited several reasons for Asia’s air pollution problem—ranging from the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and peatbog burning to the El Niño weather phenomenon’s delay of the onset of the rainy season, which would have lessened the impact of PM2.5 levels.

Oceania is the world’s cleanest region

Oceania—comprising Australia, New Zealand, and French Polynesia—remained the region with the cleanest air in 2023, according to IQAir’s report, with each of its countries and territories managing to meet the WHO standard. The region also has the largest proportion, 55%, of reported cities meeting the WHO standard.

Europe is the most improved region

Of the 43 nations monitored in Europe, the annual average PM2.5 levels fell in 36 of them, increased for six, and remained constant for one. Bosnia Herzegovina is still the most polluted country in the region, with an annual average PM2.5 level of 27.5 µg/m3, but even that’s down by 18% from 2022. Croatia showed the most improvement, with its annual average PM2.5 level dropping more than 40% compared to 2022. While 39% of European cities had an annual average PM2.5 level of 10 µg/m3 or lower in 2022, 54% were below that threshold in 2023.

The Americas are the most monitored region

With 3,242 cities analyzed or 40% of the total cities in the report, North America was the most-monitored region, while Latin America and the Caribbean continued a trend of significantly expanding their region’s air-quality monitoring network as new government-operated and non-government-operated monitoring stations popped up in numerous cities and countries, including the Bahamas and Ecuador, that were previously unrepresented in IQAir’s reports.

In North America, Canada surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of air pollution since the inception of IQAir’s annual report, due in large part to the massive wildfires that burned from May to October last year. The report said that in May last year, the monthly average air pollution in Alberta skyrocketed almost ninefold compared to the same period in 2022.

The U.S. also saw an uptick in air pollution, climbing from a nationwide average of 8.9 µg/m3 in 2022 to 9.1 in 2023, with the southward-drifting smoke from Canada’s wildfires partly to blame. Columbus, Ohio, was ranked as the most polluted major U.S. city for the second year running with an average PM2.5 level of 13.9 µg/m3, while, Las Vegas, Nev., was ranked the least polluted major U.S. city with an average PM2.5 level of 4.9 µg/m3.

Africa is the least monitored region

The only non-Asian city in the 100 most polluted cities in the world in 2023 was Benoni, South Africa, which had a PM2.5 level of 54.9 µg/m3, or 11 times the WHO standard. But more broadly. Africa faces a major challenge in combating air pollution: its lack of data.

Though the continent’s urban population is rapidly growing, only 24 out of 54 countries, representing 66% of the population, have sufficient air quality data to be included in IQAir’s report.

The country of Chad, which ranked the No. 1 most polluted in the world in IQAir’s 2022 report, was not included because of a lack of publicly available monitoring data.

“Lack of air quality data delays decisive action and perpetuates unnecessary human suffering,” said Frank Hammes, global CEO of IQAir. “Air quality data saves lives. Where air quality is reported, action is taken, and air quality improves.”

“}]] 

Most places in the world have pollution above the acceptable standard. Here’s how each region fares. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, News Desk, overnight 

Health – TIME 

Most places in the world have pollution above the acceptable standard. Here’s how each region fares.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 19, 2024
• 42 views
• 4 minutes Read

English News: Ozempic Gets the Oprah Treatment in a New TV Special

English News: Ozempic Gets the Oprah Treatment in a New TV Special

[[{“value”:”

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound are already extremely popular: by 2030, about 10% of the U.S. population will be on one of these drugs and the category’s sales will surpass $100 billion, according to some projections. On March 18, they got another major cultural boost from Oprah Winfrey, who shared her own experience with—and support for—these medications in an ABC special called “Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

During the special, Winfrey talked about how using one of these weight-loss drugs (she did not say which) changed her life and opened her eyes to the reality that obesity is a disease, rather than a choice. “All these years, I thought all of the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower, and they were for some reason stronger than me,” Winfrey said.

After taking medication, however, she realized that she thought about food differently than people who had no trouble keeping weight off. Her brain was working against her. “You weren’t thinking about the food! You weren’t obsessing about it!” she said. “That is the big thing I learned.”

The special, which will be available on Hulu starting March 19, spotlights a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that suppresses appetite and controls blood sugar, helping some patients lose roughly 20% of their body weight. These medications include Ozempic and Mounjaro (which are approved to treat Type 2 diabetes, but are also used off-label for weight loss) and Wegovy and Zepbound (which are approved as anti-obesity medications).

About three-quarters of Americans say they’re familiar with these drugs, recent polling data from Pew Research Center show, and that number will likely rise even more after Winfrey’s special. At times, that felt like the program’s whole aim. Winfrey interviewed people who have lost large amounts of weight on GLP-1 drugs, along with executives and paid medical consultants from the pharmaceutical companies that make them. (Ozempic and Wegovy are made by Novo Nordisk, while Mounjaro and Zepbound are made by Eli Lilly.)

Read More: Should We End Obesity?

Making a television special about these drugs was so important to Winfrey that in February, she announced she would leave WeightWatchers’ board and donate her company stock to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in part to “eliminate any perceived conflict of interest” since WeightWatchers now embraces anti-obesity medications and even started a program to prescribe them. The company’s CEO, Sima Sistani, was interviewed about that shift on Winfrey’s special. “We are the most clinically tested, evidence-based, science-backed behavior-change program, but we were missing the third prong, which was biology,” Sistani said.

Even as drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound soar in popularity, however, skepticism remains about their widespread use, particularly among people who just want to drop a few pounds. In the February Pew poll, 62% of respondents said these medications are not good options for those who do not have a weight-related health problem—a view shared by some physicians, who argue weight loss is not always medically necessary.

Even for people who do have weight-associated health conditions, GLP-1 drugs can come with side effects, including gastrointestinal distress, headaches, pancreatitis, and obstructions of the digestive system. Some researchers have also raised concerns that they may contribute to an elevated risk of thyroid cancer.

Read More: For People with Eating Disorders, the Buzz About Ozempic Is a Nightmare

On Winfrey’s special, Dr. Amanda Velazquez, a weight-loss specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a paid consultant for pharmaceutical companies that make weight-loss medications, called side effects “over-hyped,” noting that they’re “mild to moderate in the research studies.”
But other research suggests GLP-1 side effects are bad enough that a significant portion of patients stop using them, which typically results in gaining back much of the weight they lost. In the special, Velazquez acknowledged that people will likely have to take these drugs their entire lives to maintain their weight loss.

As she closed her special, Winfrey said weight-loss drugs are not for everyone, and that some people may choose not to lose weight or to do so with diet and exercise. But “for the people who think that this could be the relief and support and freedom…that you’ve been looking for your whole life,” she said, “bless you.”

“}]] 

Oprah Winfrey produced a new special all about weight-loss drugs. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

Oprah Winfrey produced a new special all about weight-loss drugs.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 18, 2024
• 30 views
• 4 minutes Read

English News: New Study Finds No Brain Injuries Among ‘Havana Syndrome’ Patients

English News: New Study Finds No Brain Injuries Among ‘Havana Syndrome’ Patients

[[{“value”:”

WASHINGTON — An array of advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among U.S. diplomats and other government employees who suffer mysterious health problems once dubbed “Havana syndrome, ” researchers reported Monday.

The National Institutes of Health’s nearly five-year study offers no explanation for symptoms including headaches, balance problems and difficulties with thinking and sleep that were first reported in Cuba in 2016 and later by hundreds of American personnel in multiple countries.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

But it did contradict some earlier findings that raised the specter of brain injuries in people experiencing what the State Department now calls “anomalous health incidents.”

“These individuals have real symptoms and are going through a very tough time,” said Dr. Leighton Chan, NIH’s chief of rehabilitation medicine, who helped lead the research. “They can be quite profound, disabling and difficult to treat.”

Read More: Long COVID Doesn’t Always Look Like You Think

Yet sophisticated MRI scans detected no significant differences in brain volume, structure or white matter—signs of injury or degeneration—when Havana syndrome patients were compared to healthy government workers with similar jobs, including some in the same embassy. Nor were there significant differences in cognitive and other tests, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

While that couldn’t rule out some transient injury when symptoms began, researchers said it’s good news that they couldn’t spot long-term markers on brain scans that are typical after trauma or stroke.

That “should be some reassurance for patients,” said study co-author Louis French, a neuropsychologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who treats Havana syndrome. “It allows us to focus on the here and now, to getting people back to where they should be.”

A subset, about 28%, of Havana syndrome cases were diagnosed with a balance problem called persistent postural-perceptual dizziness, or PPPD. Linked to inner-ear problems as well as severe stress, it results when certain brain networks show no injury but don’t communicate properly. French called it a “maladaptive response,” much like how people who’ve slouched to alleviate back pain can have posture trouble even after the pain is gone.

The Havana syndrome participants reported more fatigue, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and depression.

Read More: Inside Ibogaine, a Promising and Perilous Treatment for Addiction

The findings are the latest in an effort to unravel a mystery that began when personnel at the U.S. embassy in Cuba began seeking medical care for hearing loss and ear-ringing after reporting sudden weird noises.

Early on, there was concern that Russia or another country may have used some form of directed energy to attack Americans. But last year, U.S. intelligence agencies said there was no sign a foreign adversary was involved and that most cases appeared to have different causes, from undiagnosed illnesses to environmental factors.

Some patients have accused the government of dismissing their ailments. And in an editorial in JAMA on Monday, one scientist called for more research to prepare for the next such health mystery, cautioning that NIH’s study design plus the limits of existing medical technology could have missed some clues.

“One might suspect that nothing or nothing serious happened with these cases. This would be ill-advised,” wrote Dr. David Relman of Stanford University. In 2022, he was part of a government-appointed panel that couldn’t rule out that a pulsed form of energy could explain a subset of cases.

The NIH study, which began in 2018 and included more than 80 Havana syndrome patients, wasn’t designed to examine the likelihood of some weapon or other trigger for Havana syndrome symptoms. Chan said the findings don’t contradict the intelligence agencies’ conclusions.

If some “external phenomenon” was behind the symptoms, “it did not result in persistent or detectable pathophysiologic change,” he said.

The State Department said it was reviewing NIH’s findings but that its priority was ensuring affected employees and family members “are treated with respect and compassion and receive timely access to medical care and all benefits to which they are entitled.”

___

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

“}]] 

Advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among government employees with the condition. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate, wire 

Health – TIME 

Advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among government employees with the condition.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 18, 2024
• 38 views
• 5 minutes Read

English News: EPA Bans Asbestos, a Deadly Carcinogen Still in Use Decades After a Partial Ban Was Enacted

English News: EPA Bans Asbestos, a Deadly Carcinogen Still in Use Decades After a Partial Ban Was Enacted

[[{“value”:”

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos, a carcinogen that is still used in some chlorine bleach, brake pads and other products and that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.

The final rule marks a major expansion of EPA regulation under a landmark 2016 law that overhauled regulations governing tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, from household cleaners to clothing and furniture.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The new rule would ban chrysotile asbestos, the only ongoing use of asbestos in the United States. The substance is found in products such as brake linings and gaskets and is used to manufacture chlorine bleach and sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the final rule a major step to protect public health.

Read More: EPA Chief Michael Regan Wants to Advance Environmental Justice—With the Energy Industry’s Help

“With today’s ban, EPA is finally slamming the door on a chemical so dangerous that it has been banned in over 50 countries,” Regan said. ”This historic ban is more than 30 years in the making, and it’s thanks to amendments that Congress made in 2016 to fix the Toxic Substances Control Act,” the main U.S. law governing use of chemicals.

Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Ending the ongoing uses of asbestos advances the goals of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, a whole-of-government initiative to end cancer in the U.S., Regan said.

“The science is clear: Asbestos is a known carcinogen that has severe impacts on public health. This action is just the beginning as we work to protect all American families, workers and communities from toxic chemicals,” Regan said.

The 2016 law authorized new rules for tens of thousands of toxic chemicals found in everyday products, including substances such as asbestos and trichloroethylene that for decades have been known to cause cancer yet were largely unregulated under federal law. Known as the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, the law was intended to clear up a hodgepodge of state rules governing chemicals and update the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 1976 law that had remained unchanged for 40 years.

The EPA banned asbestos in 1989, but the rule was largely overturned by a 1991 court decision that weakened the EPA’s authority under TSCA to address risks to human health from asbestos or other existing chemicals. The 2016 law required the EPA to evaluate chemicals and put in place protections against unreasonable risks.

Asbestos, which was once common in home insulation and other products, is banned in more than 50 countries, and its use in the U.S. has been declining for decades. The only form of asbestos known to be currently imported, processed or distributed for use in the U.S. is chrysotile asbestos, which is imported primarily from Brazil and Russia. It is used by the chlor-alkali industry, which produces bleach, caustic soda and other products.

Read More: Is Any Kind of Baby Powder Safe to Use?

Most consumer products that historically contained chrysotile asbestos have been discontinued.

While chlorine is a commonly used disinfectant in water treatment, there are only 10 chlor-alkali plants in the U.S. that still use asbestos diaphragms to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide. The plants are mostly located in Louisiana and Texas.

The use of asbestos diaphragms has been declining and now accounts for about one-third of the chlor-alkali production in the U.S., the EPA said.

The EPA rule will ban imports of asbestos for chlor-alkali use as soon as the rule is published, but a ban on most other uses would take effect in two years.

A ban on the use of asbestos in oilfield brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes and linings and other gaskets will take effect in six months. A ban on sheet gaskets that contain asbestos will take effect in two years, with the exception of gaskets used to produce titanium dioxide and for the processing of nuclear material. Those uses would be banned in five years.

Read More: America’s Grid Isn’t Ready for the Green Transition

The EPA rule allows asbestos-containing sheet gaskets to be used until 2037 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to ensure that safe disposal of nuclear materials can continue on schedule, the EPA said.

Scott Faber, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group that pushed to ban asbestos, hailed the EPA action.

“For too long, polluters have been allowed to make, use and release toxics like asbestos and PFAS without regard for our health,” Faber said. “Thanks to the leadership of the Biden EPA, those days are finally over.”

“}]] 

The EPA announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos, a carcinogen that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, wire 

Health – TIME 

The EPA announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos, a carcinogen that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 18, 2024
• 28 views
• 10 minutes Read

English News: The Most Exciting New Advances in Managing COPD

English News: The Most Exciting New Advances in Managing COPD

[[{“value”:”

The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, or GOLD, is the world’s preeminent COPD research and advocacy organization. Founded in 1997 in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, one of GOLD’s stated aims is to “improve prevention and treatment of this lung disease.”

In its 2023 global strategy report, GOLD changed its definition of COPD—which many in the profession viewed as overdue. Specifically, the new definition emphasized the heterogeneity of COPD in terms of its underlying drivers and long-term disease course.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“If you look at the new GOLD guidelines, they’re really acknowledging that there’s more of an inflammatory component to COPD than we initially thought,” says Dr. Laren Tan, a pulmonary disease and critical care specialist and chair of the Department of Medicine at Loma Linda University Health in California.

Tan says the recognition that COPD can take unconventional forms is crucial to tailoring appropriate care to the individual patient. “We’re now approaching COPD in terms of trying to identify subgroups of patients that have this underlying inflammatory state,” he says. “If we don’t uncover this inflammatory component, that can lead to worse outcomes.”

Here, Tan and other experts in the field describe how this new understanding of inflammation is informing treatment. And it’s just one of several recent advances in COPD care and management. From innovative new lung valves to refinements in the deployment of inhaled therapies and vaccines, the landscape of COPD care and treatment is changing.

The newest drug therapies

Arguably the most buzzed about advancement in the COPD treatment landscape is the emergence of new biologic therapies, says Dr. Meilan Han, a professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan. Biologics are injected medications derived from living cells or other biologic material that are able “to target very specific immune pathways,” Han explains.

Essentially, these drugs are intended to narrowly shift or block the operation of the immune system, thereby switching off or moderating the types of inflammation or other immune reactions that drive some COPD exacerbations while simultaneously leaving the remainder of the immune system unaffected. The drugs are already used to treat related pulmonary conditions, like asthma, and there’s reason to believe they’re about to enter the COPD arena.

“The exciting news is that there is a drug that looks like it will work for COPD, and that may soon have [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approval,” Han says. That medication, dupilumab, is already approved for the treatment of asthma. In July 2023, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that patients with so-called Type 2 inflammation—defined by the elevated presence of blood eosinophils—benefited from dupilumab. The patients experienced “fewer exacerbations, better lung function and quality of life, and less severe respiratory symptoms than those who received placebo,” the study found.

“What we’d seen in the last few years prior to this was that companies were fleeing respiratory drug development because a lot of studies had failed,” Han explains. “Dupilumab is just one drug, but it opens up the door for a lot more research and exploration of biologics for the treatment of COPD.” She notes that there are multiple trials examining additional biologics that target new pathways. “I’m hoping this is just the tip of the iceberg, and soon we’ll have many more new therapies,” she adds.

While biologics are garnering the most attention, experts say that smaller, more incremental improvements in care are having a greater impact on the day-to-day lives of COPD patients.

For example, phosphodiesterase inhibitors have long been used to help treat the mucous production and accumulation that so many COPD patients experience, Tan says. “The new phosphodiesterase inhibitors help relax airway smooth muscle and also help to clear out mucus from airways,” he says. “But patients take this as a tablet, which unfortunately comes with a lot of side effects, such as GI issues.” To prevent these side effects and improve the drug’s efficacy, researchers have looked into the development of inhalable forms of these drugs, and Tan says there’s promising data that these work.

Staying in the inhaler space, one of the greatest challenges in COPD care—and, for that matter, in the care of asthma and other lung conditions—is the problem of poor patient adherence to medications. Inhalers are often a mainstay of symptom management, but it can be a struggle for people to use an inhaler consistently, especially when treatment involves more than one type of inhaled drug.

This problem of adherence led to the development of combination inhalers—a single device that allows a patient to take two or even three medications simultaneously. “They’ve taken all these inhalers and put them into one device,” Han says. “This makes it easier for patients to take their medications, and this has led to a reduced frequency of exacerbations.”

In parallel with the emergence of combination inhalers, research has revealed that, for some COPD patients, the blend of three inhaled medicines may be superior to the old two-drug approach. “For most patients, we prescribe two long-acting bronchodilators,” says Dr. Peter Barnes, a professor of thoracic medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute in the U.K. These are a long-acting muscarinic antagonist, or LAMA, coupled with a long-acting β2-agonist, or LABA. While this LABA/LAMA combination is nothing new, Barnes says that adding a third medicine—an inhaled corticosteroid—has proven helpful in patients with high blood levels of eosinophils. “These three can now be combined in single inhaler, called a triple inhaler,” he says.

Plus, some of the first research studies on the long-term benefits of these triple inhalers have found that they may reduce mortality among patients who use them. “When used appropriately in combination, these drugs can save lives,” Han says.

Read More: Severe Asthma Patients on Ways Their Doctors Could Improve Treatment

Valves, telemedicine, and other advances

Lung volume reduction surgery, or LVRS, is one of the most common surgical procedures for the treatment of COPD. The procedure, which has been around since the 1950s, involves the removal of the most diseased parts of lung tissue in order to allow better, less-restricted lung expansion during breathing. “When you take that diseased part out, that helps to restore the lung’s natural mechanics,” Han says.

But this surgery comes with downsides. “It’s a major surgery with a long recovery time, and the risk for complications is high,” Tan says. These complications include unintended air leakages, pneumonia, and heart issues such as arrhythmias.

In just the past few years, a new and milder intervention has emerged. Two different companies have developed valves that can be placed in the airway using a minimally invasive procedure, and that allow trapped air to escape the damaged lung. “These are essentially a one-way valve that allows air to go out of the affected areas of the lungs,” Tan explains. “This helps improve ventilation and breathlessness.” The procedure, known as bronchoscopic lung volume reduction, mimics the effects of the older surgery, but is reversable.

Aside from new drugs and surgical procedures, vaccines are another area that should lead to better symptom management. “With COPD, a lot of common viruses—things like respiratory viruses—can contribute to periodic flare-ups or exacerbations,” Han says. Vaccines can help prevent these viral infections, and more are becoming available all the time. “The ramp-up of vaccine development we saw during the pandemic—I’m hopeful we’ll continue to see new vaccines for things like rhinovirus that have a major impact on COPD,” she says.

Experts say there have also been helpful advances in the way COPD patients and their care providers interact. 

“Pulmonary rehab doesn’t get much buzz, but we know it’s critical for a patient’s daily functioning,” Tan says. Pulmonary rehab often involves group education courses that teach people with COPD how to adjust their lifestyles—for example, by incorporating safe forms of exercise, or learning to prepare healthier meals—in order to improve their symptoms and functionality.

Unfortunately, reimbursement and insurance coverage for pulmonary rehab is poor. Plus, attending the group sessions can be difficult or inconvenient for people who don’t live close to their center of care. “But during the pandemic, we found that we can offer pulmonary rehab remotely through telehealth, and I think that’s been a gamechanger,” Tan says. While many of those pandemic-era telehealth programs have since been suspended, they acted as a proof-of-concept—a demonstration that pulmonary rehab courses can be offered virtually—that Tan hopes will eventually increase access and reduce costs for people with COPD.

Smoking cessation is another area that has witnessed some noteworthy advancements, Tan says. A majority of COPD patients are current or former smokers, and a lot have trouble quitting despite the help of medications and patches or other nicotine-replacement aids. “Now we’re starting to see people using an AI-powered app to help them quit,” he says. 

Earlier this year, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center launched a free QuitBot AI app. The app offers personalized smoking cessation support—answering questions and providing evidence-based pre- and post-quit-date education materials—that can help people stick with it.

Meanwhile, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found that combining psychedelics with cognitive behavioral treatments can lead to remarkable cessation rates. One study found that 80% of people were able to stay cigarette-free six months after the treatment—an unheard-of success rate for smoking cessation therapies.

Read More: How Alternative Medicine Can Help People With Asthma

What’s next?

In many branches of medicine, researchers and providers have turned their attention to better, more comprehensive diagnostics. With the help of advanced genetic testing, blood analyses, and other cutting-edge assessment tools, doctors can get a clearer picture of a patient’s underlying disease state, which can guide them toward the most efficacious and precise treatments—and, as a result, improving outcomes and reducing side-effects or other quality-of-life challenges.

This, experts say, is where COPD care is headed. “We know now there are multiple subtypes of COPD—that the inflammatory sub-profile differs from patient to patient,” Tan says. “But the inflammatory process is extremely complex.” It will take time to map the different inflammatory pathways and processes at play, and years of work to identify or develop new medicines that treat those specific instigators of inflammation. But all of this is underway. And, as the latest research on biologics suggests, this form of precision medicine is going to be part of the COPD conversation for a long time to come.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is the first time I feel like we’re at an inflection point where I’m anticipating a lot of new therapies within the next five years,” Han says. 

For people with COPD—and their care providers—the future looks bright.

“}]] 

For people with COPD—and their care providers—the future looks bright. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, freelance 

Health – TIME 

For people with COPD—and their care providers—the future looks bright.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 18, 2024
• 28 views
• 7 minutes Read

English News: How to Stop Procrastinating at Bedtime and Actually Go to Sleep

English News: How to Stop Procrastinating at Bedtime and Actually Go to Sleep

[[{“value”:”

Once I finally tuck my kids into bed, clean the kitchen, and shoot off my last work email of the night, it’s “me” time. It’s also, cruelly, bedtime. I know I should sleep, but instead I stay up way too late binge-watching Love Is Blind or mindlessly scrolling on Reddit. I need rest, but I push it off. This is my only uninterrupted time, and I want to maximize it.

This phenomenon is so universal that there’s a scientific name for it: “bedtime procrastination.” According to the researchers who coined it in a 2014 study, bedtime procrastination is “failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

People with stressful days and little control over their time are the ones most likely to procrastinate going to sleep, says Lynelle Schneeberg, a sleep psychologist at Yale University. Parents with young children, students, or people with extra-demanding jobs fall into this category. Schneeberg says it’s also common—not surprisingly—in people with insomnia, people who already procrastinate in other areas of their lives, “night owls,” and people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). So—a lot of us.  

We often delay sleep because we want to regain the control—and time—we lost during the day. “When you don’t have the sense that you can manage your own time, it’s really frustrating,” Schneeberg says.

But here’s the paradox: Instead of getting more control over our days, bedtime procrastinators end up sabotaging them. When I stay up too late, I’m exhausted and groggy the next day. I feel like I’m on autopilot, and I have less energy to do the things I love, like going for a run or playing outside with my kids. The effects are physical, too: my face is puffy, my appetite is poor, and I’m more likely to catch one of my kids’ colds. 

What’s so bad about pushing off sleep? 

Dr. Safia Khan, a sleep medicine specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, says when you stay up past your natural bedtime, your body produces more wake-promoting hormones.

These hormones are supposed to be high during the day and low at night. When your body has to produce more of them to keep you awake, that puts pressure on the adrenal glands (which produce hormones), the cardiovascular system, and the respiratory system, “because now you’re doing something your body was not intended to do,” says Khan, who recently co-wrote a book on sleep disorders in women. “This, in turn, leads to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, mood disorders, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, muscle fatigue, joint aches and pains—I could go on and on.”

Read More: 5 Steps to Take to Become a Morning Person

Getting too little sleep can delay our healing if we’re sick, Khan says. Sleep deprivation can also impact our memory and cognition; studies have shown that driving on little sleep can be as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. 

So why do we do it?

Experts believe our addictive electronics have made this problem infinitely worse. “Scrolling, online shopping, social media, TV shows you love—they give you a little hit of pleasure,” Schneeberg says. Repeat this nightly for weeks or months, and “then you’re looking for [it], instead of the boredom that comes with signing off and going to bed.” 

Not that it’s your fault for wanting to scroll instead of sleep, says Dr. Rachel Salas, a sleep neurologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have everything on demand,” she says. “Now, we’re so much more tempted. I can order anything from Amazon at 2 a.m. I can binge-watch all of my Netflix shows. I can research a trip. Everything is at our fingertips now.”

Another reason we stay up late? We’re dreading the next day. In one study published in 2023 in the British Journal of Health Psychology, researchers interviewed young people in the workforce about their bedtime habits. One sentiment stood out: they tended to feel a sense of apprehension at starting the next day, which researchers called “tomorrow aversion.”

Read More: Why Waking Up Earlier Isn’t Necessarily Better

Using something that gives us a little hit of dopamine, like our phones, makes us (falsely) feel like we’re delaying the stress of the following day, says Sheehan Fisher, a perinatal clinical psychologist at Northwestern Medicine who works primarily with new parents. “One thing about sleep is that once you’re unconscious, you wake up to the next day,” he says. 

When we delay our bedtime, we think we’re prioritizing some much-needed “me” time. But sleeping, Salas says, should be thought of as the ultimate form of “me” time. “Sleep is a basic human need,” she says. “It’s important for your memory, your mood, and your health.”

If you’re a bedtime procrastinator, here’s how to regain control of your sleep. 

Move up your “me” time

Although this might not be possible for everyone, consider shifting your self-care tasks to earlier in the day, Fisher says. Have a family member watch your kids after work so you can get in a quick exercise session. Or meal prep on Sunday so you can get the hours back that you would have spent cooking each weeknight. 

Don’t hang out in bed

When you scroll on your phone or watch TV in bed, you’re training your brain to think that’s what you’re supposed to do in bed, Salas says. A good rule of thumb is to reserve your bed for sleep, especially if you struggle to doze off at night. 

Avoid sleeping in on the weekends

Although everyone’s circadian rhythms vary, Salas says most people feel best going to bed around 11 p.m. and waking up at 7 a.m. If you need to be on an earlier or later schedule, that’s OK, as long as you’re consistent. “If you can at least be consistent with your bedtime and waking time, you’re already doing wonders for your quality of sleep,” she says.

Read More: How to Treat Your Weekend Like a Vacation

Schneeberg adds that it’s a myth that you can “catch up” on sleep on the weekends. By pushing back your wake time by several hours, you’re confusing your body, she says. It won’t know when to trigger the production of cortisol, a hormone that helps with waking, or melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep. A good rule of thumb is to keep your daily waking time within the same two-hour window.

Trust your body

Around bedtime, “the first time you get drowsy, you have about 20 minutes to fall asleep,” Schneeberg says. “If you miss that window for any reason, then you’re not usually sleeping for a couple more hours.” What happens then? “You’ll get a second wind”—which, unfortunately, is perfect for staying up and staring at your screen. 

If your body tells you it’s time to sleep, trust it. Put off any tasks until the next morning, and get some good shut-eye. 

Create a relaxing bedtime routine

“I think people have lost the opportunity to have a good bedtime routine,” Salas says. Create one that you look forward to. Practice yoga, take a warm shower, drink a cup of herbal tea, listen to an audiobook—the key is to do whatever you find most calming and enjoyable. 

Schneeberg also recommends doing any nighttime care tasks, like washing your face and brushing your teeth, right after dinner. “Then, when you feel drowsy, it won’t be such an effort to get to bed,” she says. 

“}]] 

Move up your “me” time. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, Evergreen, freelance, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

Move up your “me” time.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 16, 2024
• 37 views
• 6 minutes Read

English News: Why Massive Numbers of Farmed Salmon Are Dying

English News: Why Massive Numbers of Farmed Salmon Are Dying

[[{“value”:”

The popularity of farmed Atlantic salmon on dinner tables worldwide has been a disaster for the king of fish. A new study determined that 865 million farmed salmon have died in mass die-offs in the last decade. The scientists blame the deaths on several factors, from ocean warming caused by climate change to the aquaculture industry’s overuse of antibiotics and pesticides and its aggressive attempts to increase production. Beyond the staggering number of dead fish, the findings raise questions about the future of growing salmon in cages on the ocean—and aquaculture in general.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Salmon farming has expanded rapidly in the past 25 years into a $20 billion-a-year industry. Farmed salmon are advertised as an environmentally friendly and sustainable solution to the need for animal protein for the world’s growing population. But mass die-offs and other controversies have challenged these claims.

Salmon are raised in crowded cages floating near coastlines, called open-net pen farms. A single farm can contain a million or more fish, leading to high concentrations of diseases and parasites that kill farmed salmon and endanger nearby marine life and migrating wild salmon. The nets extend 30 feet below the surface and allow currents to sweep excess feed, excrement, and chemicals into the surrounding waters.

The peer-reviewed paper published this month in Nature was the first to analyze global data on these sudden die-offs. The scientists found that these events are increasingly common and killing more fish. The data came from the four largest salmon-producing countries, Norway, Chile, the United Kingdom, and Canada, as well as two smaller producers, Australia and New Zealand.

Among the common causes were lax government regulation, competition among companies to meet rising demand, and warming waters caused by the climate crisis, Dr. Gerald Singh, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a co-author of the study, told us. “With climate change, I suspect more of these events will occur,” he said.

Ocean temperatures show no sign of cooling. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average temperature of the ocean’s surface in 2023 was the highest since record keeping began in 1850—and 2.21 degrees F above the average for the 20th century. It is a trend with potentially catastrophic consequences, not just for farmed salmon but other marine species and the planet’s ability to avoid extreme weather events.

Salmon are cold-water fish. Warm water contains less oxygen, making it harder for salmon to breathe. Marine biologists have tracked both Atlantic and Pacific salmon migrating to the Arctic in search of a more hospitable environment.

Farmed salmon, however, are trapped in cages and cannot make the journey toward colder water. Last year, when a record 17.4 million farmed salmon died in Scotland, processors blamed warming water. The deaths of 100,000 salmon at two farms off the coast of Maine were attributed to low oxygen in the water, likely a result of rising temperatures. At least 2.6 million salmon died at 10 farms along the coast of Newfoundland in eastern Canada in late summer of 2019 during a prolonged spell of warm water. An inquiry into the die-off concluded that the salmon were already under stress from chemical treatments for parasites and suffocated after swimming to the bottom of the pens in search of cooler water.

Warming waters also allow parasites and viruses to thrive inside the cages, requiring farms to use more chemicals to try to stop outbreaks that can wipe out entire farms. Rising temperatures also contribute to algal blooms, which threaten salmon by further depleting oxygen levels.

The salmon farming industry has had limited success combatting die-offs, which cost it billions of dollars every year. Instead, it has responded to the losses by increasing production, which has led to greater profits. For instance, Norway’s Mowi ASA, the world’s biggest salmon farming company, reported a record profit of more than $1 billion along with record production in 2023.

Concerns about fish welfare, threats to endangered wild salmon, and ocean pollution have sparked calls from environmentalists and animal rights activists to remove salmon farms from the ocean. Some groups advocate moving salmon farms to land-based facilities where water temperature and other conditions can be controlled.

Bill Taylor, president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, an international organization dedicated to protecting wild salmon, said the salmon farming industry is only accountable to shareholders and is focused on short-term profits. “The only way salmon farmers can really do this is to pump more fish into more cages, accept massive losses, and eke out a few more fillets at the end of a growing cycle,” Taylor said in an email interview. “There is no future for salmon aquaculture in ocean sea cages.”

But Dr. Charles Mather, a professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland and a co-author of the Nature paper, told us that the highly profitable industry has absorbed mass mortalities for years and that these events won’t be what forces salmon farms out of the water. “I would look to Washington State to see how to get nets out of the water,” he said in an email interview.

Washington State banned non-native fish farms from its waters after the collapse of a salmon farm in Puget Sound sent 250,000 alien Atlantic salmon into the home waters of Pacific salmon. A state investigation concluded the collapse was caused by negligence, not climate change. But public outrage was so strong that elected officials enacted the ban within weeks.

Similar attempts to remove or restrict salmon farms in Canada, Scotland, Norway, Chile, and Australia have struggled. But opponents of ocean-based salmon farming hope that the new data on die-offs will buttress their case with consumers and producers that salmon farming on the ocean is unsustainable for the fish and the marine ecosystem.

“The increasing frequency and size of mass mortality events on open-net salmon farms is the result of an unsustainable industry operating beyond natural limits, in an increasingly unpredictable and uncontrollable environment,” Rachel Mulrenan, Scotland director of the UK environmental charity WildFish, which was not involved in the study, said in an email interview.

“}]] 

Mass die-offs of farmed salmon show the deep problems with aquaculture. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, freelance, Sustainability 

Health – TIME 

Mass die-offs of farmed salmon show the deep problems with aquaculture.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 15, 2024
• 34 views
• 5 minutes Read

English News: EPA Tightens Limits on a Cancer-Causing Chemical Used to Sterilize Medical Equipment

English News: EPA Tightens Limits on a Cancer-Causing Chemical Used to Sterilize Medical Equipment

[[{“value”:”

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is imposing stricter limits on a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment after finding a higher-than-expected cancer risk at facilities that use ethylene oxide to clean billions of devices including catheters and syringes.

A rule finalized Thursday will reduce ethylene oxide emissions by about 90% by targeting nearly 90 commercial sterilization facilities across the country, the EPA said. The companies will also have to test for the antimicrobial chemical in the air and make sure their pollution controls are working properly.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The new rule will “safeguard public health from this pollution–including the health of children, who are particularly vulnerable to carcinogens early in life,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “We’ve arrived at a historically strong rule that will protect the most exposed communities from toxic air pollution while also ensuring … safeguards (to) our nation’s critical supply of sterilized medical equipment.”

The American Lung Association called the rule an important step forward to protect human health from cancer caused by ethylene oxide emissions.

“The science on health risks from ethylene oxide shows both short-term and long-term exposure are dangerous for health,” said Harold Wimmer, the group’s president and CEO.

People who live near commercial sterilization facilities are more likely to develop cancer over their lifetimes, Wimmer said, adding: “No one should have to live with elevated cancer risk because of air pollution in their community.”

Read More: Climate Change Is Rolling Back American Progress on Air Pollution

Patients with lung disease and other health problems “also need access to safe and clean medical supplies,” he said. “We appreciate the work EPA put into ensuring that this final rule both cleans up harmful emissions and ensures continued access to sterilized medical equipment.”

Darya Minovi, a senior research analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the EPA action overdue.

“For far too long, communities across the country—especially Black and Brown people and those who do not speak English as a first language—have been exposed to the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide,” Minovi said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: politically powerful industries sought to weaken the rule’s health-protective standards, but the public health benefits that will be afforded to communities through this action are a testament to the efforts of grassroots advocates and public health experts who didn’t let up in their demands,” she added.

The tightened safeguards are driven by the EPA’s better understanding that ethylene oxide’s threat is severe, Regan said. The chemical is classified as a pesticide. A worker in a medical sterilizing plant, over the course of a career, could see their risk shoot up by as much as one extra case of cancer for every 10 people exposed. The EPA’s generally acceptable increase in lifetime cancer risk is 1 in 10,000.

Ethylene oxide is a gas used to sterilize roughly half of all medical devices and is also used to ensure the safety of certain spices and other food products. It is used to clean everything from catheters to syringes, pacemakers and plastic surgical gowns. Brief exposure isn’t considered a danger, but breathing it long term elevates the risk of breast cancer and lymphoma, the EPA said.

In 2016, the EPA updated its assessment of ethylene oxide’s danger based on information about exposed workers at sterilizing facilities, finding the chemical was many times more threatening than previously known. Analysis released by the agency two years later found that cancer risk was too high near some medical sterilization plants and some other facilities that release ethylene oxide.

In 2022, the EPA laid out the risk faced by residents who live near medical sterilization facilities. In Laredo, Texas, for example, residents and activists fought to clean up a sterilization facility run by Missouri-based Midwest Sterilization Corp. It was one of 23 sterilizers in the United States that the EPA said posed a risk for people nearby.

Read More: All the Stuff in Your Home That May Contain PFAS Forever Chemicals

Sterigenics, a major sterilization company, shuttered a medical sterilization plant in a Chicago suburb after monitoring found emissions spikes in nearby neighborhoods. They eventually settled numerous lawsuits.

Many facilities have sharply reduced ethylene oxide emissions in recent years, but those that haven’t will now have to meet stricter requirements, the EPA said.

The EPA said it worked closely with the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies to develop a final rule that centers on public health. The rule provides sufficient time and flexibility for commercial facilities to come into compliance, while offering strong public health protection for nearby communities and minimizing any potential impacts to the medical device supply chain, officials said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra hailed the rule as a victory for workers and fence-line communities that face ongoing dangers from ethylene oxide pollution.

Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, said medical sterilizers provide a vital service and many devices can’t be sterilized by another method.

The industry group appreciates EPA’s update and will be reviewing the rule, Whitaker said in a statement Thursday. The industry has emphasized the need for adequate time to implement the rule, “flexibility in technologies to remove emissions and the ability to achieve EPA targets that would not force resubmission of medical devices for FDA approval,” Whitaker said.

He said he remains hopeful that the rule “will not have a negative impact on the healthcare system or the patients we serve.”

“}]] 

The Environmental Protection Agency imposed stricter limits on ethylene oxide after finding a higher cancer risk at facilities that use it. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate, wire 

Health – TIME 

The Environmental Protection Agency imposed stricter limits on ethylene oxide after finding a higher cancer risk at facilities that use it.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 15, 2024
• 39 views
• 2 minutes Read

English News: Marriage Rates Are Heating Up Again Post-Pandemic

English News: Marriage Rates Are Heating Up Again Post-Pandemic

[[{“value”:”

NEW YORK — U.S. marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022.

That’s a 4% increase from the year before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the data Friday, but has not released marriage data for last year.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 1.7 million U.S. weddings—the lowest number recorded since 1963. The pandemic threw many marriage plans into disarray, with communities ordering people to stay at home and banning large gatherings to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Read More: Why You Shouldn’t Love Your Kids More Than Your Partner

Marriages then rose in 2021, but not to pre-pandemic levels. They ticked up again in 2022 and surpassed 2019 marriage statistics by a small margin.

New York, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii saw the largest increases in marriages from 2021 to 2022. Nevada—home to Las Vegas’ famous wedding chapels—continued to have the highest marriage rate in the nation, though it slightly decreased from 2021.

The number and rate of U.S. divorces in 2022 fell slightly, continuing a downward trend, the CDC said.

Overall, marriages remain far less common than they once were in the U.S.

According to data that goes back to 1900, weddings hit their height in 1946, when the marriage rate was 16.4 per 1,000 people. The rate was above 10 in the early 1980s before beginning a decades-long decline. In 2022, the marriage rate was 6.2 per 1,000 population.

“}]] 

U.S. marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate, wire 

Health – TIME 

U.S. marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 15, 2024
• 36 views
• 7 minutes Read

English News: Why Conspiracies Theories—From Kate Middleton to the Moon Landings—Are So Seductive

English News: Why Conspiracies Theories—From Kate Middleton to the Moon Landings—Are So Seductive

[[{“value”:”

If you’re like millions of people worldwide, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, is very much on your mind this week. That’s because of a royal kerfuffle that erupted recently, when Middleton—who had not been seen in public since January when she underwent abdominal surgery—released a cheery Mother’s Day photo of herself and her children. The next day, the Associated Press pulled down the photo because it turned out to have been digitally altered. Other news agencies followed suit, and Kensington Palace issued an apology signed by Kate.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Predictably, this was catnip to conspiracy theorists, who speculated endlessly online about her health, mental and physical well-being, and whereabouts. “None of it makes sense. Where is Catherine? Why is the palace being so secretive about the royals’ health? What are they covering up?!” wrote Margaret Hartmann of New York magazine, in a piece titled “Kate Middleton Photo Editing Made Me a Conspiracy Theorist.”

And so the Middleton saga joined other conspiracy theories involving Barack Obama (born in Kenya!), the 2020 presidential election (stolen!), the moon landings (faked!), and vaccines (deadly!). Why are conspiracy theories so seductive? And what can sensible people do to combat them?

They make us feel powerful

One of the greatest drivers of conspiracy theories, experts say, is power—or, more specifically, the lack of it. Move through a world in which you have authority and some agency, and you’re likely to feel a comforting sense of control. But when outside circumstances and anonymous people seem to have too much sway over your welfare, you’re more inclined to go looking for hidden patterns and purposes.

“If you have people who have been marginalized in society, then they’re at the bottom end of a power asymmetry,” says Joseph Uscinski, associate professor of political science at the University of Miami and co-author of the 2014 book American Conspiracy Theories. “Same thing with young people, who aren’t fully integrated into society and are trying to climb their way up. They tend to believe more conspiracy theories than older people who are comfortable in the system because they’ve succeeded.”

Read More: 7 Ways to Get Better at Small Talk

Clinging to conspiracy theories can make people feel better about themselves. One paper published in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that when people feel like they are in possession of privileged knowledge, that’s enough to provide something of an ego boost. “A small part in motivating the endorsement of…irrational beliefs,” the researchers wrote, “is the desire to stick out from the crowd.”

Power imbalances make politics an especially toxic spot for conspiracy theories. Somebody will win every election and somebody will lose, and the backers of the people who are denied high office are sometimes inclined to reject the legitimacy of those who achieve it. According to a January poll conducted by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland, and reported by The Hill, only 31% of Republican adults believe that President Joe Biden was legitimately elected four years ago. A Gallup poll taken in 2001 found that after the disputed 2000 vote, more than a third of Democrats insisted that then-President George W. Bush had stolen the election. “Being out of power tends to add fuel to the fire,” wrote Joseph Parent, a professor of political science at Notre Dame University and Uscinski’s co-author, in an email to TIME.

However, in politics and elsewhere, not all conspiracy theories are unwarranted. “Like germs, they’re always with us and not always unhealthy,” wrote Parent. “You do tend to see surges when there are [real] conspiracies (Watergate) and coverups (Warren Report).” The COVID-19 pandemic fueled no shortage of conspiracies regarding the origins of the virus, and no one yet knows with certainty what its source was.

Famous people are mega targets 

Celebrity helps conspiratorial ideas bubble up. Middleton is about as big a celebrity as it’s possible to be. So is Taylor Swift—and Uscinski reports that after the Feb. 11 Super Bowl, he received 10 calls in the course of a week from journalists wanting to know if Swift’s romance with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and her appearance at the big game was a prelude to a conspiratorial plan to endorse Biden for reelection.

Read More: Why You Can’t Remember That Taylor Swift Concert All Too Well

“Almost by definition,” conspiracy theories involve high-profile people, says Parent. “[They] are about plotters working in secret to deceive us. No one would care if the plotters were powerless.”

Fear fuels conspiracy theories

Fear plays a role too, impelling people to find reasons for mortal perils. This is true on an individual level; in a 2022 paper published in PLOS One, Uscinski studied how enduring 30-plus conspiracy theories were, and many were about deaths, shootings, or assassinations. It’s also true on a societal level. The pandemic, for example, was a time of terror about a borderless disease that swept the planet in a matter of months. Uscinski and his colleagues found that early on, in March of 2020, fully 31% of Americans already believed that the virus was “purposely created and released.” By 2021, that figure had dipped only slightly, to 29%.

Conspiracy theories may seem more prevalent now—but they’re perennial

A common notion is that social media turbocharges conspiracy theories, giving believers a platform from which to spread their messages. But Uscinski is not convinced. “If it was the case that there was something new driving these beliefs, whether it be social media or the Internet, you might expect [conspiracy theories] to be going up, up, up, up, up in very measurable ways, but we just don’t find that,” he says. If you think the old days were better—that “we all just believed true things and we agreed on everything,” he adds—you’re misremembering.

Read More: America Has Reached Peak Therapy. Why Is Our Mental Health Getting Worse?

Indeed, the pre-Internet era was not remotely a golden age of conspiracy-free thinking. In his 2022 paper, Uscinski and his coauthors documented a past that was rife with conspiracy theories, with belief in them fading only as they receded from the news cycle. In 1981, for example, 59% of respondents said that there was a conspiracy to kill the Rev. Martin Luther King; in 2021, the figure was down to 33%. In 1995, 34% of people said there was a police plot to frame O.J. Simpson; in 2021, it was 11%. 

“It’s not necessarily the case that just because something’s old means it’s necessarily going to be forgotten,” Ucsinski says. “It’s just maybe people latch on to other ideas.”

How not to fall for conspiracy theories

When you’re confronted with a conspiracy theory, one strategy is simply to listen to what the person has to say. “Why not take their beliefs seriously and take them to their logical conclusion?” asks Parent. “If they pass fair standards of logic and evidence, maybe there’s something to them. If they don’t—well, people are free to believe whatever they want.”

To guard against falling prey to conspiracy theories, it’s important to embrace failures or setbacks without looking for someone else to blame. “Experiencing loss and needing a scapegoat or an epicenter of evil are ripe circumstances [for conspiracy theories],” wrote Parent. It’s also wise to remember the counsel of the 14th-century philosopher and friar, William of Ockham, who is celebrated for developing the “law of parsimony”—better known today as Occam’s razor—which posits that the simplest solution to any question is almost always the best. Shave away any extraneous assumptions, including those involving complex conspiracies, and what you’ve got left is usually the truth.

“}]] 

Rumors and misinformation have always been with us—snd surely always will be. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

Rumors and misinformation have always been with us—snd surely always will be.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 14, 2024
• 44 views
• 6 minutes Read

English News: A 5-Minute Quiz Revealed Olivia Munn’s Breast Cancer Risk. You Can Take It Too

English News: A 5-Minute Quiz Revealed Olivia Munn’s Breast Cancer Risk. You Can Take It Too

[[{“value”:”

Olivia Munn recently revealed in an Instagram post that a free, easy tool saved her life. Her ob-gyn used a questionnaire designed to calculate a person’s risk of breast cancer, which revealed Munn had an increased chance of developing the disease. That led to further tests and an early diagnosis of Luminal B cancer in both breasts and quick treatment.

The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool, which her doctor used, isn’t new. It doesn’t involve any high-tech gadgets, doesn’t require a doctor, and doesn’t even cost anything. Experts say more women should know about it and complete it after they turn 35. Here’s what to know.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

What is the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool?

Released in 1989 by the National Cancer Institute, the online questionnaire takes less than five minutes to complete and pretty accurately predicts a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. “This calculator is a great first step that women can do on their own and discuss the results with their primary care doctor or gynecologist,” says Dr. Jennifer Litton, professor of breast medical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

It relies on a model built from many aspects of women’s health data including their age, their race and ethnicity, their family history of breast cancer, when they began their periods, and, if they have children, how old they were when they had their first one. The model matches these and other features with breast-cancer outcomes of women with similar characteristics and provides two risk assessments: a woman’s five-year risk of developing breast cancer, and her lifetime risk of the disease.

Read More: The Race to Make a Breast Cancer Vaccine

The questionnaire—also known as the Gail Model after its developer Dr. Mitchell Gail at the National Cancer Institute—is about 98% accurate in predicting risk of breast cancer in most women. It’s less accurate in women of color, who were less represented in the original model’s database, but the model is constantly updated and increasingly includes more information on a more diverse group of people. Overall, scores of 1.7% or above for five-year risk, and 20% or above for lifetime risk, indicate a higher risk that women should discuss with their doctors.

Who should take it?

Any woman between age 35 and 74 can take it to learn her risk, and about half a million women use it annually, according to the National Cancer Institute. It’s especially helpful for those who have a family history of breast cancer or for people who don’t know their genetic risk for the disease or don’t have major genes for breast cancer such as BRCA1 or BRCA2—which was the case with Munn. For women who fall into these categories, the tool can detect whether there are other factors that increase their risk.

“The vast majority of breast cancers aren’t related to BRCA mutations,” Litton says. “There are other environmental factors and lesser genes that, together with a perfect storm of other exposures, could lead to breast cancer. Breast cancer is the endpoint and there are millions of different ways to get there.”

Read More: The Women Most Likely to Die of Breast Cancer Get the Least Attention

The tool was built on data from the Breast Cancer Demonstration Project, a screening study conducted in the 1970s involving 280,000 white women, and cancer data from the NCI Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program (SEER). Additional data, including from Black women, were added from the Women’s Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study collected in the 1990s, and for Asian women from the Asian American Breast Cancer Study conducted in the 1980s, along with updated cancer incidence rates. Breast cancer data involving Hispanic women came from the San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study that collected data from 1995 to 2004.

People who want to learn more about their breast-cancer risk can also try another free online risk calculator called the Tyrer-Cuzick model, which relies on more recent data and provides similar predictions. At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), doctors often use both and go with the higher score to advise women. “We’re getting better and better at risk assessment,” says Dr. Larry Norton, medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at MSKCC.

Where do mammograms fit in?

These questionnaires are not a substitute for regular mammograms, which women should start at age 40. But using them in addition to mammograms helps doctors to better advise women about the best ways of reducing their risk and ultimately helping them to avoid the more aggressive forms of the disease that are harder to treat, Norton says. “The object of these scores is to estimate a healthy woman’s risk of developing disease,” he says. “If that leads to earlier diagnosis, then that has [treatment] implications. Dealing with a small cancer”—one that doesn’t involve the lymph nodes—”is much simpler than dealing with a larger cancer that involves multiple lymph nodes.”

Read More: The Unique Hell of Getting Cancer as a Young Adult

Depending on what the scores reveal, doctors could make a number of changes, such as adding an MRI to the regular mammogram to enhance monitoring for potential tumors, or adding anti-estrogen medications to further lower a woman’s risk. In addition, “if they see higher risk, that might lead to a conversation that might include things like genetic counseling or genetic testing,” says Litton. Such testing could reveal additional genetic factors, other than BRCA, that might be contributing to a higher risk of breast cancer. Depending on which genes are involved, certain targeted therapies could lower the chances that those mutations could lead to advanced breast cancer.

Future innovations

Other risk-assessment tools are on the horizon. Machine-learning models are further refining the information gleaned from mammograms, and some are getting sophisticated enough to predict which currently normal scans show signs of potentially turning into malignant tissue in the future.

Even after a woman is diagnosed, tests such as OncotypeDx can predict whether she will benefit from adding chemotherapy, or whether her chances of remission are just as good using only anti-estrogen therapy. “It’s a very useful tool for helping some women avoid chemotherapy that they just don’t need,” says Litton.

But none of these tools are useful if women, and their doctors, don’t take advantage of them. “Roughly half of people are not getting any screening [with mammograms] at all,” says Norton. “The first step is to get what we currently have available to the general population. And then the ability to do risk-adjusted screening will further improve prognosis for patients.”

“Knowledge is power, he adds. “The more you know about yourself, and the more you engage with medical professionals, the better you can get answers that are appropriate for you.”

“}]] 

Olivia Munn credits the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool with saving her life. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

Olivia Munn credits the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool with saving her life.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 14, 2024
• 34 views
• 5 minutes Read

English News: Why Zero Stress Shouldn’t Be Your Goal

English News: Why Zero Stress Shouldn’t Be Your Goal

[[{“value”:”

How many times have you heard that squashing stress is crucial for good health? Stress has become such a wellness buzzword that the quest to get rid of it can feel, well, stressful. But stress isn’t always the enemy. In fact, research suggests some is actually good for you, with potential benefits ranging from enhanced brain function to healthier aging.

In recent decades, some people have grown overly fearful of stress, concluding that it’s “the most horrible thing that can happen to you,” says Daniela Kaufer, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. But “it’s a much more complex story,” she says. “Stress is a vital, required response.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

What is stress, anyway?

For one thing, it’s ubiquitous: research suggests people feel at least some stress on up to 90% of their days. But what’s actually going on in your body when you’re dealing with family drama or work deadlines?

In a high-stakes situation, your brain directs the adrenal glands to release hormones including adrenaline, causing physiological changes throughout the body that lead to the sweaty palms, fast breathing, and racing heart many people experience when they’re under pressure. The body also releases oxytocin, or the “bonding hormone,” during times of stress.

When stress festers for a long time, unaddressed, it’s linked to mental and physical health issues, even raising your risk for chronic conditions like heart disease. But in an immediate sense, a stress response is vital. It can help you power through a hard time or even escape physical danger. And, when acute stress is managed well, it can set you up for better health and well-being in the future.

How stress improves health

In toxicology, there’s a phenomenon known as “hormesis,” which describes substances that are beneficial at low doses but dangerous at high doses. Assaf Oshri, an associate professor of human development and family science at the University of Georgia, has applied that concept to his research on adversity, demonstrating that it works in largely the same way.

Chronic stress, as well as stress resulting from highly traumatic experiences, can be damaging—but moderate amounts of stress can benefit the body and mind, improving cognitive function and boosting resilience, according to Oshri’s work. In studies on rats, Kaufer has also demonstrated that acute stress may help the brain work better and prime animals for better reactions next time they encounter stressors.

“Resilience is a process. It’s not a trait,” Oshri says. “It emerges from your interactions with the environment.” If people aren’t exposed to any stress, he says, they may not build up that resilience muscle. If they’re exposed to too much—or to particularly traumatic forms, like abuse or discrimination—their well-being may suffer. But there seems to be a sweet spot in between, where stress fortifies psychological health and helps people bounce back from difficult situations. (Exactly where that sweet spot is may vary from person to person, Oshri says.)

Even physical health can benefit from some level of stress. Exercising is, at its core, a process of putting stress on the body so it can grow stronger. And some studies also show that short-term stress exposure boosts immune function.

How you deal with stress matters

It’s not just the amount of pressure you’re under that influences well-being; it’s also how you respond to it. Studies have shown that people who believe they can learn and grow from hard experiences fare better during challenging times, as opposed to those who view stressors as completely negative.

Still, it’s okay—even healthy—to be a little rattled by life’s curveballs. A 2024 study found that there’s a “Goldilocks zone” when it comes to emotional responses to stress. People who tend to have either extremely strong or extremely weak reactions to challenging situations are at increased risk of poor health and well-being, explains co-author Jonathan Rush, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Victoria in Canada. People in the middle, who respond a little but not too much, tend to be healthiest, he says.

“One of the main purposes of having emotions is that they alert us to things in our environment” so we can deal with them appropriately, Rush says. Blocking out your emotions entirely is akin to ignoring a leaky faucet in your bathroom: “eventually,” Rush says, “you’re going to have a flood in your home.”

Mindfulness practices like yoga and meditation can help people cultivate a balance between going off and shutting down in the face of stress, Rush says. Mindfulness isn’t about ignoring negative feelings, but rather acknowledging them so you can manage them in healthier ways, he explains.

Leaning on loved ones during tough times is important too, Kaufer adds, since social support can serve as a buffer against the negative effects of stress and trauma. And if you can, she says, remind yourself that stress is a difficult but necessary part of life.

“You can’t choose exactly what happens to you, but you can choose your response in the moment,” Kaufer says. “Having the idea that you can overcome things, you can grow from things, whatever happens you will have a path forward”—that’s what matters most.

“}]] 

Relax: some stress is good for you. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, Evergreen, healthscienceclimate 

Health – TIME 

Relax: some stress is good for you.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 14, 2024
• 34 views
• 4 minutes Read

English News: A Blood Test for Colon Cancer Shows Promise

English News: A Blood Test for Colon Cancer Shows Promise

[[{“value”:”

A blood test for colon cancer performed well in a study published Wednesday, offering a new kind of screening for a leading cause of cancer deaths.

The test looks for DNA fragments shed by tumor cells and precancerous growths. It’s already for sale in the U.S. for $895, but has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and most insurers do not cover it. The maker of the test, Guardant Health, anticipates an FDA decision this year.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

In the study, the test caught 83% of the cancers but very few of the precancerous growths found by colonoscopy, the gold standard for colon cancer screening. Besides spotting tumors, colonoscopies can prevent the disease by removing precancerous growths called polyps.

But some people avoid the exam because of the hassle of getting time off work or the day-ahead preparation that involves drinking a strong laxative to empty the bowels.

A convenient alternative is an annual stool test, where people send a stool sample to a lab for analysis.

Read More: The Unique Hell of Getting Cancer as a Young Adult

“The best test is the one someone will actually complete,” said Dr. Douglas Corley, chief research officer for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California, who was not involved in the study. “Giving people a choice increases the number of people who will get screened.”

In the U.S., screening is recommended for healthy adults ages 45 to 75 at average risk for colon cancer. Frequency depends on the test: a routine colonoscopy is every 10 years. Screening is inching up but falls well short of the 80% of age-eligible adults goal set by the American Cancer Society and other groups.

Guardant recommends testing with its blood test called Shield every three years. Like a stool test, the blood test requires a follow-up colonoscopy if there’s an abnormal result, which could lead to more out-of-pocket costs.

The study, sponsored by Guardant and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 7,861 people in the U.S. who had both a colonoscopy and a blood test.

While the blood test caught 83% of the cancers found by colonoscopy, it missed 17%. That’s on par with stool-based tests.

Read More: 7 Myths About Kidney Cancer

There were also false alarms: For 10% of the people where the colonoscopy found nothing, the blood test falsely indicated they might have colon cancer. That means a sizeable number of people would face the anxiety of follow-up colonoscopies.

The blood test is tuned to pick up the signature of colon cancer but more research is needed to determine if it might pick up other cancers as well and give misleading results, Corley said.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the third worldwide. In the U.S., more than 153,000 new cases and 53,000 deaths from the disease are expected this year.

More screening should result in fewer cancer deaths, said study co-author Dr. William Grady of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle and a paid member of Guardant’s scientific advisory board.

In a separate study published Wednesday in the same journal, an updated version of the Cologuard stool test, which also looks for DNA fragments, seemed to improve its performance on false alarms, possibly leading to fewer follow-up colonoscopies. That study, involving more than 20,000 people, was sponsored by Exact Sciences, maker of the test.

“The more options we have for our patients, the better,” said Dr. Nabil Mansour of Baylor College of Medicine, who was not involved in either study. He’ll continue to recommend a colonoscopy for his patients but “I’m excited there will be a pretty good blood test option available.”

“}]] 

In a study, the test caught 83% of the cancers, but very few of the precancerous growths found by colonoscopy. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate, wire 

Health – TIME 

In a study, the test caught 83% of the cancers, but very few of the precancerous growths found by colonoscopy.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 14, 2024
• 34 views
• 5 minutes Read

English News: Paul Alexander, Polio Patient With Iron Lung and Positive Outlook, Dies at 78

English News: Paul Alexander, Polio Patient With Iron Lung and Positive Outlook, Dies at 78

[[{“value”:”

DALLAS — Confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, Paul Alexander managed to train himself to breathe on his own for part of the day, earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Alexander died Monday at the age of 78 at a Dallas hospital, said Daniel Spinks, a longtime friend. He said Alexander had recently been hospitalized after being diagnosed with COVID-19 but he did not know the cause of death.

Read More: To Fight COVID-19, Ford Is Planning to Manufacture Ventilators. This Isn’t the First Time the Automaker Has Made Medical Devices

Alexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was 6. He became paralyzed from the neck down and he began using an iron lung, a cylinder that encased his body as the air pressure in the chamber forced air into and out of his lungs. He had millions of views on his TikTok account.

“He loved to laugh,” Spinks said. “He was just one of the bright stars of this world.”

In one of his “Conversations With Paul” posts on TikTok, Alexander tells viewers that “being positive is a way of life for me” as his head rests on a pillow and the iron lung can be heard whirring in the background.

Spinks said Alexander’s positivity had a profound effect on those around him. “Being around Paul was an enlightenment in so many ways,” Spinks said.

Spinks said that Alexander had learned how to “gulp air down his lungs” in order to be out of the iron lung for part of the day. Using a stick in his mouth, Alexander could type on a computer and use the phone, Spinks said.

“As he got older he had more difficulties in breathing outside the lung for periods of time so he really just retired back to the lung,” Spinks said.

Gary Cox, who has been friends with Alexander since college, said his friend was always smiling. “He was so friendly,” Cox said. “He was always happy.”

A book Alexander wrote about his life, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” was published in 2020. Cox said that the title comes from a promise Alexander’s nurse made him when he was a young boy: He’d get a dog if he could teach himself to breathe on his own for three minutes.

“That took a good maybe two years, three years before he was able to stay out for three minutes and then five minutes and then 10 minutes and then eventually he got the strength to learn to stay out all day,” said Cox. And, indeed, Alexander did get that puppy.

Alexander, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1978 from the University of Texas and a law degree from the school in 1984, was a driven man who had a strong faith in God, said Spinks. They became friends in 2000, when Cox took a job as his driver and helper.

He said he would drive Alexander to the courthouse, and then push him to his court proceedings in his wheelchair. At the time, he said, Alexander could spend about four to six hours outside of an iron lung, and would be in an iron lung when he was at his office or home.

Spinks only worked for Alexander for about a year though they remained friends, and Spinks said he was among the friends who helped maintain and repair Alexander’s iron lungs.

“There were a couple of close calls when his lung would break and I would rush out there and we would have to do some repairs on it,” Spinks said.

Cox said that at one point, he and his brother got an iron lung off eBay and drove to Chicago to pick it up, bringing it back to Dallas and refurbishing it.

“They quit making them,” Cox said. “They quit supplying the parts for them. You can’t even get a collar for them anymore.”

Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease primarily affects children.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it was no longer routinely spread.

Read More: What the History of Polio Can Teach Us About COVID-19

Spinks said that Alexander loved being interviewed, and had a passion to show that disabled people had a place in society.

Chris Ulmer, founder of Special Books By Special Kids, a social media platform that gives disabled people a way to share their stories, interviewed Alexander in 2022.

“Paul himself really loved inspiring people and letting them know that they are capable of great things,” Ulmer said.

“He just had such a vibrant and joyful energy around him that was contagious,” he said.

Cox said that over the years, people around the globe sought Alexander out to hear his inspirational story.

“If he set his mind to it, he could do it,” Cox said.

“}]] 

Alexander earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, and built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, News Desk, overnight, wire 

Health – TIME 

Alexander earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, and built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook.

• 
• Breaking News
• March 13, 2024
• 37 views
• 4 minutes Read

English News: A Deadly Amoeba Is Linked to Neti Pots. Here’s What to Know

English News: A Deadly Amoeba Is Linked to Neti Pots. Here’s What to Know

[[{“value”:”

NEW YORK — For years, scientists have known people who use neti pots can become infected with a brain-eating amoeba if they use the wrong kind of water. On Wednesday, researchers linked a second kind of deadly amoeba to nasal rinsing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report that for the first time connects Acanthamoeba infections to neti pots and other nasal rinsing devices.

Officials also renewed their warning that extremely rare, but potentially deadly, consequences can come from flushing nasal passages with common tap water.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“We published this study because we want people to be aware of this risk,” said the CDC’s Dr. Julia Haston.

What are neti pots?

Neti pots are one of the better known tools of nasal rinsing. They look like small teapots with long spouts, and usually are made of ceramic or plastic.

Users fill them with a saline solution, then pour the liquid in one nostril. It comes out the other, draining the nasal passage of allergens and other bothersome contaminants.

Neti pot use in the U.S. has boomed in the last couple of decades, driven in part by the increasing prevalence of allergies and other respiratory diseases, market researchers say.

There also are other methods of rinsing nasal passages, including specially shaped cups and squeezable plastic bottles.

Why you shouldn’t use untreated tap water in neti pots

Tap water in the U.S. is treated to meet safe drinking standards, but low levels of microscopic organisms can still be found in it. It’s usually not a problem when people drink or cook with the water, but it can pose more of a danger when tap water is used for other purposes—like in humidifiers or for nasal irrigation.

CDC officials, citing a 2021 survey, say about one-third of U.S. adults incorrectly think tap water was free of bacteria and other microorganisms. Nearly two-thirds say tap water could be safely used for rinsing their sinuses.

The CDC recommends using boiled, sterile or distilled water.

If tap water is used, it must be boiled for a minimum of one minute—or three minutes at higher elevations—before it is cooled and used, officials say.

Rare illnesses and nasal rinsing

More than a decade ago, health officials linked U.S. deaths from a brain-eating amoeba—named Naegleria fowleri—to nasal rinsing. More recently, they started to note nasal rinsing as a common theme in illnesses caused by another microscopic parasite, Acanthamoeba.

Acanthamoeba causes different kinds of illness but is still dangerous, with a 85% fatality rate in reported cases.

“These infections are very serious and even life threatening,” said Haston who was lead author of the report published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The new study focused on 10 patients who fell ill between 1994 and 2022, three of whom died. Researchers say they can’t be sure how the patients were infected, but they noted several commonalities: All had weakened immune systems and practiced nasal rinsing.

Seven patients reported nasal rinsing for relief of chronic sinus infections, and at least two of them used neti pots. Two other patients did nasal rinsing as part of a cleansing ritual that is part of Indian tradition.

What is Acanthamoeba?

This amoeba can be found naturally all over the environment—in lakes, rivers, seawater, and soil.

It can cause diseases of the skin and sinuses, and can infect the brain, where it can cause a deadly form of inflammation. The microorganism also been connected to non-fatal, but sight-threatening, eye infections, sometimes through contaminated contact lens solution.

U.S. health officials have identified about 180 infections from the single-cell organism since the first one was diagnosed in 1956.

In the vast majority of cases, researchers don’t know exactly how people became infected. But in reviewing cases in recent decades, CDC researchers increasingly received information that a number of the cases had done nasal rinsing, Haston said.

Research also has indicated it’s common in tap water. A study done in Ohio in the 1990s found more than half of tap water samples studied contained the amoeba and similar microorganisms.

“It’s very likely that we’re all exposed to Acanthamoeba all the time,” she said.

“}]] 

Extremely rare, but potentially deadly, consequences can come from flushing nasal passages with common tap water. 

Read More 

Uncategorized, healthscienceclimate, wire 

Health – TIME 

Extremely rare, but potentially deadly, consequences can come from flushing nasal passages with common tap water.