Cases of a new group of mpox viruses are rising, potentially posing a risk to people around the world, according to health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So far, the cases have been centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and have not spread beyond Central African countries where the virus remains endemic, the CDC wrote in a report on May 16. But health officials are concerned because this group of viruses—known as clade I mpox viruses—is known to cause more severe illness than the clade II viruses responsible for the previous mpox outbreaks in 2022, which originated in Nigeria. Clade I mpox viruses have a higher fatality rate—killing anywhere from 1.4% to more than 10% of infected people—than clade II, which has a 0.1% to 3.6% mortality rate. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The 2022 outbreaks spread primarily through sexual contact among men who have sex with men. An effective, two-dose vaccine helped to protect these higher risk groups and kept the infections from expanding into an epidemic. (The current vaccine also works against the latest clade I viruses.) But with a recent increase in global travel, health officials are watching for spread of the latest clade I viruses outside of the regions where it is endemic. According to the CDC report, health officials in DRC reported that clade I infections were reported in 25 of 26 provinces of the country, and that young people were the hardest hit: 67% of cases and 78% of deaths occurred in people 15 years or younger. The virus can cause more severe disease in those with weakened or compromised immune systems. Researchers believe that the infections were caused by exposure to infected animals, which then spread quickly from person to person through close contact in households. Read More: What It Really Feels Like to Have Mpox In the U.S., the CDC recommends that doctors test anyone suspected of having mpox, either because of recent travel to affected areas in Africa, contact with someone who has recently been to Africa, or exposure to someone with mpox. Symptoms include fever, headache, rash, and painful sores. Existing tests for mpox are designed to pick up orthopoxvirus, the group of viruses to which mpox (and smallpox) belong, but these tests cannot detect whether an infection belongs to clade I or II. Some tests available at specific laboratories can detect clade II viruses, and therefore rule out clade I mpox, but to be certain, CDC is conducting further genetic analysis on positive orthopox samples sent from U.S. labs to the agency to determine which type of virus it is. No clade I cases have yet been found in the U.S. According to the CDC, 343 samples tested positive for orthopox from December 2023 to mid April 2024, and further testing showed no clade I viruses. To better capture any potential infections among people who might not get tested, the agency also began looking for mpox last December in wastewater, and so far, positive signals correspond to areas from which clade II viruses were found. Samples collected at four airports through the CDC’s Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance program from passengers who volunteer to provide samples did not detect any orthopox virus since last December. For now, the CDC is working with health officials in DRC to track and respond to the current outbreak there. The effective vaccines that most of the world turned to in response to the 2022 outbreaks are not authorized in DRC, which increases the risk that cases will continue to rise and potentially spread beyond that region of the world. In the U.S., the agency is urging doctors to educate their at-risk patients, which include gay and bisexual men and men who have sex with men, to get the vaccine. Since the 2022 outbreaks, only 23% of people at risk of mpox infection in the U.S. have received two doses. “Collaboration among global health partners is now urgently needed to assist DRC in procuring and delivering sufficient vaccine where it is most needed,” the CDC scientists write in the report. from https://ift.tt/3sLMi9q Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/
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Through the ages, humans have fueled their most physically demanding efforts with meaty proteins. Ancient Greeks loaded up on red meat before Olympic contests, and medieval knights recovered from war with venison and pork. The tradition continues today, with world-record-setting weightlifters breakfasting on chicken thighs, eggs, and bacon. But experts recommend that the modern, average person eat several other foods before and after tough workouts, even if the knights may have tossed them from their castle windows. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The missing ingredientsDuring exercise, blood carries the nutrients we’ve consumed to our strained muscles, where they’re absorbed. “We are what we eat,” says Keith Baar, a molecular exercise physiologist at the University of California, Davis. “And when we exercise, we’re more of what we just ate.” With proper nourishment, our muscles perform better, exercise feels easier, and we recover faster. The ancients weren’t exactly wrong about protein. It’s critical in forming the building blocks of muscle tissues during exercise and afterward, when the fibers are beaten up and need repairs. But many athletes and weekend warriors focus too much on protein, says David Nieman, who leads research on exercise and nutrition at Appalachian State University’s Human Performance Lab. “Unfortunately, a lot of people still act like protein is everything,” he says. Carbohydrates matter just as much, especially for cardio workouts. (And high-fiber carbs, in particular, tend to support long-term health compared to carbs with fewer nutrients.) “We’ve known since the 1960s that the muscles want carbs,” Nieman says. After we eat carbs, they’re converted into something called glycogen, which is stored in muscles until it’s needed for energy. “The research is so strong, you’d be foolish not to use it,” Nieman adds. Read More: Why Your Diet Needs More Fermented Pickles But the best exercise fuel you’re not eating may be fruits, nuts, dark greens, and other plants. They’re full of essential nutrients like folate, magnesium, and vitamins A, D, and E, which can reduce stress and inflammation from exercise. Yet most Americans don’t get enough. “Over 90% of our recommendations for many people come down to eating more whole plant-based foods,” Nieman says. For light exercisers, “everything else is minor.” For people who are just trying to meet the minimum exercise recommendations of 150 minutes per week, try to follow the baseline, daily recommendations for vegetables, protein, and carbs. It doesn’t really matter whether you eat them before or after your workout, experts agree. For more intensive exercise, though, you’ll want to adjust nutrition before and after—or your workout could involve more rigor than vigor. Before your workoutPower up with nuts and berriesYou may be surprised to find a ream of sports nutrition research pointing to a humble bowl of blueberries and almonds. Many ancient warriors overlooked these foods, but they offer an unusually high variety of polyphenols, compounds found in plant-based foods that reduce inflammation from prolonged workouts. Blueberries, especially wild ones that you can find frozen, have this effect in competitive cyclists and untrained athletes alike. Their polyphenols are antioxidants, meaning they counter harmful molecules caused by inflammation during exercise—like firefighters putting out flames. This speeds up the recovery process. Jenna Stangland, team dietitian for the Minnesota Timberwolves, infuses the NBA players’ diets with polyphenols, she says; the Timberwolves’ second-best regular season in franchise history was powered by blueberry vinaigrettes, added recently to the team’s salad station. (Stangland is also an advisor to Momentous, a supplement company.) Nieman also has found that snacking on about 40 almonds per day for four weeks before heavy exercise contributed to less muscle damage. In a study this year, people who ate almonds for two weeks weren’t as sore after running 30 minutes downhill. Because almonds are high in calories, stay very active when upping your intake. Decades of research support the general health benefits of polyphenols, but their role in exercise is a recent discovery. “They’re the future of sports nutrition,” Nieman says. Eat a slice of sourdough two hours beforeFor tough exercise, increase your intake of carbs above the minimum guidelines. Swimmer Michael Phelps set a world record after having three slices of sugar-covered French toast (plus a five-egg omelet). However, Phelps isn’t your average human. Healthier sources of carbs are chickpeas, lentils, and sourdough bread. They take longer to digest, providing a slow, steady release of energy to fuel exercise later in the day. Aim to have these types of carbs about two hours before working out, says Elaine Lee, a kinesiologist who directs the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory. Eat a banana immediately beforeCarbs with more sugar and less fiber, such as bananas, get broken down faster. If you time them just before or during your sweat session, the body can use them right away. (Bananas, a high-carb, polyphenol-rich fruit, promote recovery as well as sports drinks according to Nieman’s research.) Read More: 11 Foolproof Ways to Start a Conversation Stangland likes honey for her players because it contains the right mix of simple sugars for energy. “I give out honey sticks right before tipoff and at halftime,” she says. Eating these foods too early, by contrast, “can cause blood sugar to crash before exercise,” Baar says. “Then your performance will be very poor.” Sate your hunger with eggsYou may benefit from combining pre-workout carbs with protein, such as eggs or Greek yogurt. Because protein is more filling than other foods, it overcomes a big obstacle to exercise: hunger. “You’ll feel sated for longer, which can play a role in how you perform,” Baar says. Vegetarians, worry not; recreational athletes do just as well with plant-based protein compared to meat. Lentils pack ample amounts. “We have some players who prefer plant protein,” says Stangland. Brown rice and pea protein powder is the perfect mix for them, since these two plant powders combined provide all of the amino acids that support exercise. Consider coffee and collagen an hour before exerciseResearch supports only a few pre-workout supplements, found in food, as safe and effective for athletic performance. One is caffeine. Fewer studies point to a protein called collagen for reducing joint pain; mixing it with orange juice, an hour before exercise, may increase absorption. (Stangland makes a pre-game “watermelon collagen shot” for her players, especially the ones who are more prone to tendon injuries.) Amy Bream, an adaptive CrossFit athlete from Nashville, says collagen has helped her back pain. “It’s in my coffee every morning,” she says. After your workoutRefuel with sweet potatoes 1 to 4 hours afterPost-exercise, it’s key to start replacing the fuel that was exhausted—especially the glycogen—to prepare for future workouts. Lee, who coached and rowed at the NCAA division 1 level, recommends combining high-fiber carbs, protein, dark greens, and hydration within 1 to 4 hours after exercise, saying, “That’s when your tissues are most metabolically active.” Sweet potatoes are ideal as the carb portion, offering plenty of fiber and nutrients such as polyphenols and electrolytes, good for rehydration. Stangland serves the Timberwolves sweet potatoes at least twice per day. “It’s great for them, and they like them—a win-win,” says Stangland. If you’re older, have protein immediately afterProtein can be enjoyed when convenient throughout the day. Scientists used to think you had to eat it right after the gym to gain muscle, but recent studies find that the timing makes little or no difference in healthy younger people. Seniors benefit more from protein immediately following exercise, Baar says, because their bodies target it better to the muscles at this time. Another strategy that helps with protein absorption: chewing food thoroughly and opting for ground meats instead of steaks, Baar says. Don’t overdo it with the vitaminsIt’s possible to get too many antioxidants, including vitamins. If consumed post-workout, they could block the benefits of exercise. Studies show that athletes supplementing with excess vitamins C and E have more inflammation and molecular stress during their recoveries. But that’s no reason to skip your veggies. It’s next-to-impossible to reach this threshold from food alone, experts say. Read More: Why Walking Isn’t Enough When It Comes to Exercise Many studies do support taking a post-workout supplement called creatine, based on a natural compound in muscle cells. Taken daily, it boosts recovery and performance in weightlifting and high-intensity interval training. Experiment with recovery shakes and other combinations“We don’t yet have a magic shake” for exercise recovery, Lee says. “Everyone has a different tolerance for what they can eat and how much.” But you can test one dietary change at a time to see how it affects your performance and recovery. Maybe try having a post-workout, polyphenol-rich bowl of almonds, blueberries, and greens—an AB&G instead of a PB&J—each day to see if it improves your exercise over two weeks. If you measure your heart rate during and after exercise, keep track of the answers to questions like: can you push your heart rate higher than before the change? Or achieve the same workout at a lower heart rate? Afterward, does your heart rate return to normal faster than usual? Stangland makes a different recovery shake for every player on the team, with extra carbs for Edwards’s all-out performances, for instance. Like all of nutrition science, ultimately “it’s a customization,” Lee says. “You have to find what works for you.” from https://ift.tt/WiTmI9Z Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ If you’re an undocumented immigrant in Tennessee, you don’t have a lot of options when it comes to birth control. You can’t get an abortion—it’s been banned with very limited exceptions since 2022. You can’t get services from state public-health clinics, which lost federal funding with the abortion ban. The state has backfilled the funding, but a Tennessee law prohibits that money from being used for family-planning services for people without legal status. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]One thing you can do is reach out to a nonprofit called A Step Ahead, which will pay for you to get a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC), like an intrauterine device (IUD) or an implant that goes into your arm. But there’s a problem, some reproductive justice advocates say. In many regions of the state, including Memphis and Nashville, A Step Ahead will only pay for an implant or IUD, not for birth-control pills or other short-acting methods of contraception. That means many women have a stark choice to make if they are uninsured and want contraception: They can get a LARC from A Step Ahead—devices that they will need to get a doctor to remove when they are ready to have children—or they can go without birth control. There appear to have been instances of A Step Ahead paying for LARCs for undocumented women who didn’t speak English, at times without a translator present, says Della Winters, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus, who wrote her dissertation on the use of LARCs in Tennessee. “I’m not sure my clients really understood or even consented,” one provider, an employee of a federally-qualified health center, told Winters, about the large number of Latina clients that appeared to be getting LARCs but who did not speak English. (Winters completed her work in 2019 and 2020, before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. A spokeswoman for A Step Ahead East Tennessee, which serves majority Latina clients, says that the group’s call center coordinator is bilingual and the group makes sure a translator is available whenever necessary.) The role of A Step Ahead in Tennessee illustrates how private programs have stepped in to provide ways for women to access birth control methods in the absence of state and federal funding. It also shows how those programs can push women into a specific method of contraception, depriving them of choice. “It is absolutely coercive to only pay for one class of methods and not another,” says Christine Dehlendorf, a researcher and ob-gyn at the University of California, San Francisco. Read More: Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control. There are other ways that Tennessee policies can limit womens’ choices. In 2017, a Tennessee judge began offering reduced sentences to women who agreed to get birth-control implants inserted in their arms. Though the judge later rescinded the order after pushback, more than 32 women received implants in the two months the order was in effect. As recently as 2020, the state was pushing LARCs on women in prison, says Winters, who interviewed the Tennessee Department of Health about a program that visited jails, showed women videos of babies experiencing withdrawal from drugs they were exposed to in utero, and asked them to sign up for LARCs. “The thing that these states will tout is, ‘Look how much money we saved by not paying for these babies on Medicaid or mothers on public assistance,” Winters says. (The Tennessee Department of Health did not return multiple requests for comment.) There is a patchwork system of birth-control access across the country. Though the Affordable Care Act mandated that private insurance plans cover FDA-approved contraceptives without cost sharing, there are many women who still can’t access affordable birth control. This is especially true in states like Tennessee that have not accepted the federal Medicaid expansion. Around 95,000 uninsured adults in the state have an income too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to qualify for financial assistance in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. States in the Southeast, including Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, make up the majority of states that haven’t accepted the Medicaid expansion. In some of these states, private organizations have stepped in to provide access to birth control and LARCs. In South Carolina, a privately-funded nonprofit called New Morning partners with clinics and healthcare providers to offer free or low-cost birth control methods. New Morning initially found that many clinics in the state couldn’t afford to stock IUDs and implants, and helped pay for them to do so. But New Morning is very deliberate about providing access to eight separate methods of birth control, including the patch, the pill, and condoms, says Bonnie Knapp, New Morning’s president and CEO. The group also trained providers on “person-centered counseling,” essentially making sure doctors listened to what patients wanted when it came to birth control. “We really wanted to create an environment where every woman would have a choice of methods,” she says. “We’re very committed to making sure that we don’t do anything to add to the history of stigma and coercion that the state has and the South has.” This tension between providing access to birth control but also not pushing women to choose one method over another is present in many groups that have stepped in to provide access, including A Step Ahead. The organization was founded in 2011 by Claudia Halton, a former Tennessee juvenile-court magistrate who was troubled by the number of women who came before her who had difficulties with housing or other issues and who didn’t have childcare options for their children. The magistrate would ask women who were on the pill whether they had taken it before appearing in court, but not a single woman had, says Nikki Gibbs, the current executive director of A Step Ahead Foundation, who worked as a state investigator at the time. “We saw firsthand what happened,” Gibbs says, “when a woman had too many babies before she was financially ready for them.” A Step Ahead Foundation, the Memphis branch, primarily serves Black and Latina women. Through radio and TV ads and events in low-income communities, it seeks to teach women about the most effective contraceptive methods and how using contraception can help women get “a step ahead” in life. The organization will pay for the LARC and the procedure to insert it, as well as transportation to the doctor’s appointment. It does not offer short-acting methods of birth control, Gibbs says, because LARCs are the most effective form of contraception, and because, she says, women can easily get the pill elsewhere for free. Read More: Why Health Care For Mothers Is Underpaid. But even some of A Step Ahead’s affiliates believe it is coercive to choose a woman’s method of birth control. A Step Ahead has expanded to five other locations since 2011, and the Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Johnson City locations now provide free short-acting methods of birth control like the pill and do not promote one form of birth control over another. “That would be coercive,” says Taylor Phipps, the executive director of A Step Ahead East Tennessee, which is based in Knoxville. “Our organizational values relative to contraceptive access do not fully align.” A Step Ahead East Tennessee had no choice but to just provide LARCs when it was first launched, Phipps says. That’s because it received funding from A Step Ahead Foundation, the original organization based in Memphis, and that funding had a stipulation: New affiliates must pledge to only offer LARCs for the term of their affiliate agreement. The affiliate agreement of A Step Ahead East Tennessee ended in 2019, and the group decided to start providing access to the pill and other short-acting birth-control methods in 2022, after the Dobbs decision and the pandemic. It now partners with a telehealth clinic, which opens up options for women, who can get short-acting methods mailed to them. “Given how the reproductive health landscape is changing in Tennessee,” says Phipps, “we felt that it was our mission to provide as much information as possible so that women can make their own decisions about their own bodies.” Limiting birth control access to LARCs could cut off access for some women, like those who can’t get transportation to come into a clinic but could do a telehealth appointment for the pill, Phipps says. Other women prefer the Depo-Provera shot because it’s not noticeable by a woman’s husband or partner, who might not want her to be on birth control. “If we could provide short-acting methods to our clients without transportation or cost barriers, it was a no-brainer,” Phipps says. Still, the Memphis and Nashville branches of A Step Ahead, which only provide LARCs, are thriving. The Nashville nonprofit said in 2023 that it was expanding to serve 11 more surrounding counties, bringing the total to 29. Charitable contributions to the Nashville A Step Ahead grew 80% between 2021 and 2022, to $1.2 million, and the Memphis group saw charitable contributions grow 8% to $2.3 million in the same time period according to a TIME analysis of the groups’ tax forms. The Dobbs decision and subsequent abortion ban in Tennessee has created a huge boost in need for the services of A Step Ahead East Tennessee, Phipps says. In 2022, the group provided around 250 contraceptive prescriptions a year; it now provides around 750. But in contrast to the Nashville and Memphis affiliates, she says, “we are struggling.” This article was produced as a part of a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2023 Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems. from https://ift.tt/36tINec Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Sue Gray, 59, has been sick half her life. But it took two decades to confirm why. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]When Gray was 30 and living with her then-husband in the middle of the woods in upstate New York, she felt a tick on her scalp one day after taking a shower. Her former husband plucked it off with tweezers, and “that was the end of that—for that day,” Gray says. Over the next few months, however, Gray’s health began to decline. She suffered frequent respiratory infections and developed a twitch in her eye. Then, a few weeks after the twitch began, she felt the sensation of ants crawling up and down her legs, even though nothing was there. That made Gray nervous enough to book an appointment with a neurologist. Remembering her recent tick bite, Gray asked to be tested for Lyme disease—but the results came back negative. Looking back, knowing what she does now about the faultiness of Lyme tests, she wishes she’d been retested. But her doctor just sent her on her way. Over the next two decades, Gray’s neurological issues continued and she progressively developed new symptoms: numbness and tingling in her back, chronic pain, anxiety, and an uncontrollable rage that made her feel like an entirely different person. She knew something was seriously wrong, but she didn’t know what. “I was scared to death,” she says. In 2007, Gray was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She was stable for a while, but in 2014, her symptoms took a turn for the worse and she was hospitalized. Doctors ran a battery of tests, and one for Lyme came back positive, confirming Gray’s initial hunch from decades earlier. Between scouring the internet for information and visiting countless doctors, getting to that point felt like having an unpaid full-time job for most of her adult life. “It’s been hell,” Gray says. Thousands, if not millions, of people in the U.S. have lived through versions of that hell. Nearly half a million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year after being bitten by ticks typically carrying the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. In its acute phase, Lyme disease causes symptoms including fatigue, headaches, and muscle aches. As the infection proliferates in the body, it can spiral into arthritis, chronic pain, heart palpitations, inflammation of the brain, neurological issues, and more. Most people who are treated with a two- to four-week course of antibiotics get better. But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that treatment fails for up to 10% of patients, who develop what is officially known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), a lingering condition that comes with symptoms like profound fatigue, body aches, and cognitive impairment. A small 2022 study put the number a little higher, finding that about 14% of patients properly treated for Lyme experienced prolonged symptoms. And those figures don’t even include people like Gray, who were either never treated for acute Lyme or treated too late. (Many patients prefer the term “chronic Lyme disease,” which is more inclusive of people who were treated late, inadequately, or not at all.) Read More: We Used to Have a Lyme Disease Vaccine. Are We Ready to Bring One Back? For years, much of the medical establishment has downplayed or outright dismissed the idea of chronic Lyme disease, for which there is no definitive diagnostic test or treatment. Kim Lewis, a biology professor at Northeastern University who researches Lyme disease, thinks that’s because the medical system isn’t comfortable with uncertainty. “It is much easier, psychologically, to conclude that chronic Lyme doesn’t exist” than to say that it does but no one knows what to do about it, Lewis says. “The best way to solve a problem is to announce that it doesn’t exist.” Over the last few years, though, there’s been a renaissance in Lyme research. Buoyed by widespread acceptance of Long COVID—which similarly results in chronic symptoms after what “should” be a short-lived illness—the medical establishment is looking anew at post-Lyme complications. The U.S. National Institutes of Health expects to grant more than $50 million for the study of Lyme disease this year, doubling its 2015 budget for the condition, and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) last year awarded $3 million in first-year grants for PTLDS research. As interest in the condition grows, scientists across the country have reported promising findings related to diagnosis and treatment of chronic Lyme, bringing patients closer to mainstream acceptance—and hopefully, eventually, a cure. “Lyme impacts so many people, and it has never had its moment in the spotlight,” says Lindsay Keys, a patient advocate who directed The Quiet Epidemic, a 2022 documentary on the subject. “I am optimistic that this could be chronic Lyme’s moment.” First identified in Lyme, Conn., in 1975, Lyme disease cases have exploded in recent decades, as climate change and real-estate expansion push Americans into closer contact with the blacklegged ticks that carry Lyme bacterium. In the 1980s, the CDC received about 1,500 annual reports of Lyme disease. Now, nearly half a million people are diagnosed annually—and that’s probably an undercount. Lyme disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose. While many people develop a telltale bullseye-shaped rash after being bitten by an infected tick, up to 30% of people don’t, and others may never notice a rash that forms on a hard-to-see body part. Other early Lyme symptoms—like headaches, muscle aches, and fatigue—can be easily mistaken for those of different conditions. Tests are also limited in what they can detect. Standard Lyme tests look for antibodies that the body produces in response to an infection, rather than the bacterium itself. Some companies sell tests using alternative diagnostic methods, and these are widely used among patients and “Lyme-literate” doctors, but federal health officials caution that they may not be reliable since they haven’t gone through the full regulatory review process. It’s hard to blame patients for turning to these methods, when approved tests are not 100% accurate even during the acute phase of a Lyme illness. False negatives are common, especially when people are tested early in their infections, since it can take weeks for the body to mount an antibody response strong enough to register on tests. But the situation is even more complex when symptoms have dragged on for months or years, since someone may have antibodies long after an acute infection is gone. “The antibody tests that we’re using currently cannot tell the difference between an active infection and a long-time-ago exposure,” says Michal Tal, an immunoengineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies Lyme. Read More: Ticks Carry More Diseases Than Lyme. Here’s What You Need to Know At the moment, there’s no other objective biomarker that clinicians can use to tell whether someone’s ongoing symptoms are related to Lyme. Researchers have found some clues, including differences in the genes, health histories, and microbiomes of people who develop chronic symptoms relative to those who don’t, but there is not yet a surefire way to detect the condition, which leads some doctors to conclude that it’s not real. Many patients also report symptoms that fall outside what the CDC recognizes as signs of PTLDS—namely fatigue, body aches, and difficulty thinking—which also complicates the diagnostic process. Cody Mode, 30, learned that the hard way. He’s lived with symptoms including chronic pain, insomnia, brain fog, and sensory and temperature-regulation issues since he was a kid—in retrospect, he believes, tracing back to tick bites he sustained as a child in Alaska. These issues went unexplained for years; he recalls one doctor shaking him by the shoulders, shouting that everything was in his head. But finally, in his mid-twenties, he was diagnosed with Lyme on a test from a private laboratory that he took after moving to New England with his family. Today, Mode’s wife, Rose, and two of his five children have also been diagnosed. The other three kids have Lyme-like symptoms, but haven’t officially been diagnosed. The Modes aren’t able to work full-time jobs because their symptoms are unpredictable and can leave them unable to function. They also decided to homeschool their children, since the kids were missing so many classes due to health issues. But despite the massive toll Lyme has taken on his family, Mode says they regularly encounter physicians who don’t believe there’s anything wrong with them and wave off their diagnoses, saying they’re based on quack tests. “Every time I go to the doctor, I’m worried,” he says. Read More: Scientists Have Identified the Lyme Disease Genes Responsible for Severe Symptoms NIAID has called for more research on Lyme diagnostics, and some scientists are working toward innovations like at-home tests, urine tests, and better antibody tests. In addition, Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine, is working with Tal to map an immune profile of chronic Lyme, analyzing patients’ blood and saliva samples to search for biological markers that may differentiate people who have long-term symptoms from those who don’t. And Dr. John Aucott, director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center, is studying whether functional MRIs can detect changes in the brains of PTLDS patients, relative to healthy people. “I have spent the last 15 years trying to prove that [chronic Lyme] is real,” Aucott says. Only when the medical and scientific establishments believe that it is, he says, will anyone be willing to fund major treatment trials. Treatment for both acute and chronic Lyme is a puzzle. For most patients who are accurately diagnosed with acute Lyme, a course of antibiotics (often doxycycline) wipes out the infection. But about 10% of the time, that approach doesn’t work, leaving a small-but-significant minority of patients with PTLDS. Tal is studying the immune systems of people for whom treatment works versus those for whom it doesn’t, in hopes of predicting who will go on to develop chronic symptoms so that doctors could intervene early with immune-system-altering drugs and better monitor patients’ recoveries. But right now, doctors don’t know why treatment sometimes fails, or for whom it will; some outright reject the idea that treatments don’t always work. “Instead of admitting that it fails 10% of the time, we have just been sweeping this under the rug and calling these people crazy,” Tal says. But at least PTLDS is a CDC-recognized diagnosis. The term “chronic Lyme” is even less accepted within the medical establishment. The Infectious Disease Society of America has been sued by patients for rejecting it as a legitimate medical diagnosis, allegedly leading to insurance-coverage denials. (A judge dismissed those claims in 2021, but patients have continued to fight to move the case forward.) The CDC discourages use of the term “chronic Lyme” because, as the agency says, “it implies that prolonged symptoms are caused by an ongoing bacterial infection when, in fact, the cause is not currently known.” It’s true that researchers don’t know what causes post-Lyme symptoms. It’s possible that bacterial fragments stubbornly linger in the body, either causing ongoing infection or interacting with other pathogens, Tal says. Or, she says, it’s possible that the bacterium causes the immune system to attack itself, or triggers another kind of abnormal immune response that outlasts the initial infection. But no one really knows, because a relatively small number of scientists have researched Lyme’s chronic symptoms over the past several decades, Aucott says. However, there are signs of progress. Columbia University in 2021 launched a Lyme-focused treatment clinic, and Yale followed suit last year with a new research center dedicated to post-infectious illnesses including chronic Lyme. The NIH’s PTLDS grants have also brought new scientists into the field, Aucott says. Patient advocates have also been effective at pushing for change and raising awareness, including by appearing in recent documentaries including The Quiet Epidemic and I’m Not Crazy, I’m Sick, which came out in 2023. In April, Keys, director of The Quiet Epidemic, met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to call for a public-awareness campaign and more research funding related to Lyme, winning support from representatives in states including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. “The research is finally happening, exploring the questions that patients have been asking all along,” Keys says. That wave of support stems in part from a newfound respect for post-infectious illnesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, she says. “People have had to reckon with the fact that we’re living amongst infectious diseases and anyone can be impacted,” Keys says. Read More: A Hotter World Means More Disease Outbreaks in Our Future An estimated 7% of U.S. adults have chronic post-COVID-19 symptoms known as Long COVID—a patient group too large to ignore and one that has granted newfound credibility to people with other long-discounted post-infectious illnesses, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic Lyme. Long COVID is also subject to many of the same limitations and knowledge gaps as chronic Lyme—there’s no agreed-upon biomarker for diagnosing it, no clear reason why some people have long-term symptoms and others don’t, and a significant group of patients who never tested positive for acute COVID-19—but it has become an accepted diagnosis anyway, with more than $1 billion of federal research funding poured into it. “The chronic Lyme community is trying to grasp onto what’s happening right now with Long COVID and hold on for dear life,” Tal says. “If Long COVID is real, and Long COVID looks [almost] exactly like chronic Lyme, then do we need to go back and reassess some of our assumptions about chronic Lyme?” There have already been promising research breakthroughs. Timothy Haystead, a professor of pharmacology at the Duke University School of Medicine, is working on an approach borrowed from oncology that he describes as a “theranostic,” combining therapy and diagnostics. Haystead’s team is studying a cancer drug that targets proteins in the Borrelia bacterium, enters its cells, and then destroys the bacterium from within, all while sparing healthy surrounding tissue. “The same molecule that you use to detect the disease is also used to kill it,” he explains. Haystead is hopeful that clinical trials in mammals, and then humans, will move forward within the next few years. Another research team, this one at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is also testing cancer drugs for use against Lyme bacteria, following some preliminary but promising findings in lab studies. Meanwhile, at Northeastern, Lewis is studying an “old, abandoned antibiotic” that’s “lousy” against most pathogens, but in animal trials appears to be “exceptionally potent” against Borrelia. Lewis’ team partnered with a drug-development company that recently began preliminary human trials of the antibiotic. Research will start with patients who have acute Lyme, and if the drug works well in this population and cuts down on the percentage of people who develop lingering symptoms, it could feasibly then be tested among people who already have chronic illness, Lewis says. Other labs, including one at Stanford University, are also taking a second look at existing antibiotics, searching for answers in medications that are already approved and available—and, thus, that could relatively quickly make it to patients if they prove effective. Still, much more research is required before doctors get anywhere close to prescribing these potential therapies to chronic Lyme patients. The road is long, but Lewis says it’s important to look for new treatments, even as other researchers continue to study the root causes and underlying biology of chronic Lyme. Believing it exists is only the first battle. Right now, a diagnosis may do more to soothe the mind than the body. Shivani, 37, has lived much of much of her life with symptoms—ranging from physical tics to gastrointestinal issues—that she thinks were likely related to Lyme disease contracted while growing up on Long Island. Then, at age 33, a tick bite preceded a “neurological explosion” that made her body and brain feel like they were on fire and resulted in hallucinations, rage, and insomnia. Shivani, who asked to use only her first name, tested negative for Lyme using the CDC-recommended testing protocol but positive on a test from a private laboratory—a result that she says some doctors still reject. The diagnosis offered some clarity but little else. Shivani says she initially felt some improvement after taking antibiotics, but the results didn’t stick. None of the mainstream treatments her doctors have prescribed have made a meaningful, lasting difference—and some, she says, have been actively harmful, including a prolonged course of benzodiazepines that she says caused cognitive injury and antibiotics that she says made it nearly impossible to eat. Too sick to work or live independently, she has relied heavily on the care of her parents and friends. Facing massive pain and little hope, Shivani says she has often felt suicidal. She remains alive in large part, she says, due to her spiritual beliefs and her deep-seated sense that “there’s something to fight for,” whether that’s sharing her story, serving as a voice for those who are suffering, or simply getting better so she can spread love and positivity in the years to come. Moving forward isn’t easy; sometimes she wonders how long she can stand the suffering she faces every day. But, she says, “I’m pretty undefeatable, when it comes down to it.” Jiatong Lu is a mixed-media artist and photographer based in New York. Her work focuses on exploring individual and collective dilemmas, delving deep into the connections between personal and shared experiences, societal culture, and social policies. After being diagnosed with neurological Lyme disease in 2021, Jiatong Lu started her documentary project “Nowhere Land,” photographs from which are included throughout this piece. Through intimate narratives, the project captures the silent suffering, daily battles, and emotional isolation endured by individuals living with this invisible and debilitating condition, aiming to shed light on the plights encountered by numerous chronic Lyme disease patients. from https://ift.tt/6t5NTXD Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ BOSTON — A Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge on social media died from eating a large quantity of chile pepper extract and also had a congenital heart defect, according to an autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press. Harris Wolobah, a 10th grader from the city of Worcester, died on Sept. 1, 2023, after eating the chip manufactured by Paqui. The cause of death was listed as cardiopulmonary arrest “in the setting of recent ingestion of food substance with high capsaicin concentration,” according to the autopsy from the Chief Office of the Medical Examiner. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Paqui, pulled the product from store shelves shortly after Harris’ death. The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment Thursday to the Hershey Co., which owns Paqui. Read More: Why Your Diet Needs More Fermented Pickles The cause of death was determined on Feb. 27, and the death certificate was released to the city clerk’s office on March 5, according to Elaine Driscoll, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The Paqui chip, sold individually for about $10, came wrapped in foil in a coffin-shaped box containing the warning that it was intended for the “vengeful pleasure of intense heat and pain.” The warning noted that the chip was for adult consumption only, and should be kept out of the reach of children. Despite the warning, children have had no problem buying the chips. There have been reports from around the country of teens who have gotten sick after taking part in the chip-eating challenge, including three California high school students who were sent to a hospital. Paramedics were called to a Minnesota school in 2022 when seven students fell ill after taking part in the challenge. from https://ift.tt/BkoS30t Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Rare but deadly blood clots tied to Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 shots were caused by an autoimmune reaction that some people are predisposed to, researchers found, a discovery that they say will shape development of future vaccines. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Adenovirus-based vaccines, like the J&J and AstraZeneca shots that were later pulled from the market, contain a component that, in genetically susceptible people, can trigger the production of unusually structured antibodies against a protein involved in blood clotting, scientists said Wednesday in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers plan to identify the culprit and then try to remove it using genetic engineering. Read More: How COVID-19 Vaccines and Infections Are Tweaking Our Immunity An extremely similar deleterious antibody response occurs in susceptible patients after infection with adenoviruses, which often infect the airways and lead to cold-like symptoms, the study found. It’s not known how many people may be susceptible to the complication, said Tom Gordon, head of immunology at Flinders University in South Australia, whose molecular sleuthing led to the finding. The immune reaction linked to the shot is “a new disease,” he said in an interview. Hematologists and intensive care specialists are likely to spot more cases as they become familiar with it, he said. “It’s a kind of autoimmunity where we know the trigger,” said immunologist James McCluskey, assistant vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne, who wasn’t involved in the research. “That’s unusual. In most cases we never get a handle on the trigger.” Vaccines withdrawnOut of more than 18 million people who received the single-dose J&J vaccine, 60 cases of the clotting disorder were reported and nine people died, according to the Yale School of Medicine. A small number of clot-related deaths tied to the AstraZeneca vaccine led to its withdrawal or restriction in Denmark, Norway and other countries in 2021. The complication occurred in about 2-3 people per 100,000 vaccinated with the Astra shot under age 60 in Australia, where it hasn’t been available since March 2023. The European Commission withdrew the marketing authorization for the immunization in March 2024. “AstraZeneca welcomes any further examination of the possible underlying mechanism of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), given that, despite extensive investigation, we do not yet understand the mechanism that can in very rare cases be a trigger for TTS,” a spokesperson for the company said. J&J also said it supports research that helps guide development of safe and effective vaccines. Read More: The Miracle Workers: Vaccine Scientists Are TIME’s 2021 Heroes of the Year “More data are needed to fully understand potential factors that may be associated with this rare event, including its potential relationship with adeno- and other viruses, to draw appropriate conclusions about the underlying pathogenesis,” the company said in an email. Both shots played an important role in vaccine programs during the early stages of the pandemic. One analysis found the Astra vaccine saved an estimated 6.3 million lives in 2021. The mRNA vaccines made by the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE partnership and Moderna Inc. were later found to be more effective at protecting against Covid and have been updated to tackle more recent virus variants. from https://ift.tt/9WOdoAj Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ New York City will host its very first National Urban Rat Summit this fall, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday. The summit will invite experts like academic researchers and municipal pest control managers to come together and share strategies on rodent mitigation and “advance the science of urban rat management,” the city said in a press release. Experts from across the country—including Boston, New Orleans, and Seattle—will be invited to attend the summit, which will be held on Sept. 18 and 19. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“New Yorkers may not know this about me—but I hate rats, and I’m confident most of our city’s residents do as well,” Adams said in the press release. “The best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy. That’s why we’re holding this inaugural summit, to bring experts and leaders from across the country together to better understand urban rats and how to manage their populations.” The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Cornell University’s New York State Integrated Pest Management Program will host the summit. Read More: Rat Infestations Are a Global Problem. Is Birth Control the Solution? The announcement of the summit comes after city officials have embarked on several initiatives to combat the city’s growing rat population. New York is the third “rattiest” city in the U.S., after Chicago and Los Angeles, according to the pest control company Orkin’s 2023 ranking. The rankings are based on the number of new rat treatments—both residential and public—that Orkin performed in the cities over the year. In April 2023, Adams appointed Kathleen Corradi as the citywide director of rodent mitigation, the first person to hold the position meant to address the city’s rat problem. The city also now has four “Rat Mitigation Zones,” which are areas that the city targets to reduce rat populations. New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch also led an initiative to containerize all 14 billion pounds of trash that the city produces annually, according to the city’s press release. All that trash used to sit on the street out of containers for hours, attracting rats. (Tisch is perhaps best known for the line that made her go viral in October 2022: “The rats are absolutely going to hate this announcement. But the rats don’t run this city. We do.”) Rat sightings reported to 311 have since declined, according to the city’s press release. Within the city’s Rat Mitigation Zones, rat sightings have gone down nearly 14%. “Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, New York City is taking the fight to the rats, enacting proven strategies that have been delayed by inertia for too long—and getting results, with rat sightings down 12 of the 13 months since we began the Herculean task of getting all 44 million daily pounds of rat-attracting trash off the streets,” Tisch said in the city’s press release. “The Urban Rat Summit is an opportunity to share best practices as the ‘Trash Revolution’ marches forward.” from https://ift.tt/EYgcLFX Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Recently, I was catching up with a friend who’d just given birth to her first baby. I thought about all of the changes I’d experienced since having my 1- and 3-year-old daughters. “I feel like I’m a completely different person,” I said. As soon as the phrase came out of my mouth, I questioned it. Nearly 2 billion people in the world are mothers. Surely they didn’t all feel completely different after giving birth. Or did they? [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Most people are familiar with the term “mommy brain,” a phrase that describes the brain fog and forgetfulness that many pregnant women and new moms experience. But it turns out there’s way more going on than just forgetting the name of your college professor, and it’s something called matrescence. Coined by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael in 1973, matrescence is, quite simply, the process of becoming a mother. It’s an immense physical, psychological, emotional, and social shift—and one that’s far more intense than most people realize. “When I was pregnant with my first child, I thought pregnancy was a one-time, transient hormonal event, and that when [my daughter] was born, I would just go back to myself,” says Lucy Jones, a journalist and author of Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood. “But that’s just not what it is at all. It’s actually the most dramatic, seismic, endocrinological, and neurobiological experience you can have in adult life.” Major changes are at playAlthough it’s common knowledge that women undergo massive hormonal shifts on their way to becoming a mom, there’s been a lack of research into new moms’ brains until very recently. But several groundbreaking neuroscience studies have been published in the past few years, Jones says. One showed that pregnancy leads to significant structural and functional changes in the brain, while another demonstrated alterations to gray matter in certain areas of pregnant womens’ brains. (Interestingly, these changes persisted for years after childbirth.) Countless other changes are happening too, though they’re harder to quantify. Ask any new mom if she feels like some of her relationships with family and friends have changed since having kids, and she’ll likely say yes. There are also pronounced physical changes—like embracing new postpartum bodies that function differently, whether that means pelvic floor problems, hair loss, or weakened abdominal muscles. Plus, there are emotional changes, like a newfound and fierce protectiveness over our children. Read More: There’s a New Way for Moms in the U.S. to Recover After Childbirth. Most Can’t Afford It During the early postpartum period, there’s an immense learning curve. Although this phase can feel overwhelming, one study suggests that if the cognitive challenges present during this time are continued across someone’s lifespan (meaning someone is actively parenting for many years), it can actually be beneficial for brain health later in life. “What we know about the brain is that novelty and complexity and cognitive challenge are very stimulating,” says study author Edwina Orchard, a postdoctoral research associate at the Yale Child Study Center at Yale University. In other research, Orchard has even shown that the more children someone has parented, the younger their brain looks—and that middle-aged parents actually have quicker response times and better visual memories than their childless counterparts. That suggests a neuroprotective effect of parenthood on brain age. Other research has shown moms’ brains change to varying degrees, says Orchard, who also works at the Before and After Baby Lab, a research group at Yale. “Mothers who experience more pronounced changes also show more sensitive caregiving behaviors,” she says. “They have better attachment or more positive feelings about their child.” Stronger than before“Mommy brain” is a real thing, particularly when it comes to word recall and memory. But the idea that new moms undergo some sort of early onset dementia during matrescence is misguided, says Abigail Tucker, author of Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct. Experts believe the cognitive deficit many pregnant women and new moms face when they forget someone’s name or put the cereal in the fridge could very well be the result of sleep deprivation, Tucker says. Or, it could simply be from the shift in focus that new moms are experiencing. “All of a sudden, the new mother’s thoughts revolve around a tiny person who didn’t exist a few months or even minutes ago, and everything else falls by the wayside,” Tucker says. “Perhaps there is temporarily less brain power left over for other stuff that suddenly seems so much less important, like remembering to mail a letter.” Read More: How to Start Strength Training if You’ve Never Done It Before I was definitely sleep-deprived, forgetful and absentminded during pregnancy and the early postpartum period. (My older daughter used to ask me why I was spacing out so much). But I had this innate sense that I’d also become mentally sharper in many ways. It turns out I was onto something. Research has shown pregnant women and new moms are better at facial recognition and reading peoples’ emotions, Tucker says. They’re more alert and even better at identifying colors and scents, possibly to detect potentially harmful foods. They can also be surprisingly calm in stressful situations: One research study found that women late in pregnancy rated an earthquake in California as less stressful than other survivors. All parents—not just moms—undergo a neural transitionMoms aren’t the only ones who experience a major identity shift when they become parents. “Science is showing that, particularly with hands-on, affectionate care, spending time with a child affects a father or a non-biological parent’s hormone levels, shape of the brain, anatomy of the brain, and response to the baby,” Jones says. One study found the degree to which a new father’s testosterone and cortisol levels changed when his baby was born could predict how involved he’d be with his child later on. Another study found that very involved dads experienced more activation in the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for decision-making, instinct, and the fight-or-flight response. One study also suggested foster mothers experience similar oxytocin changes as gestational mothers when bonding with their babies. Increased awarenessExperts believe matrescence is as significant of a transition as adolescence. Yet the term matrescence (which doesn’t even appear in the Merriam-Webster dictionary) still hasn’t gained much traction in the 50 years since it was coined. “Everyone knows adolescents are uncomfortable and awkward because they are going through extreme mental and bodily changes,” Jones writes in Matrescence. “But, when they have a baby, women are expected to transition with ease—to breeze into a completely new self, a new role, at one of the most perilous and sensitive times in the life course.” Read More: How to Cultivate Hope When You Don’t Have Any More research on matrescence is being done each year. Historically, perinatal mental-health researchers thought it was important to study moms for the sake of their babies, says Sheehan Fisher, a perinatal clinical psychologist at Northwestern Medicine. “Now, we’ve shifted so that moms’ mental health matters in and of itself.” More awareness about the changes women go through during this time can be beneficial on both an individual and societal level. Perinatal mental health conditions are common—one in five women experience one during this vulnerable time—plus the majority of new moms in the U.S. still don’t have access to paid maternity leave. “I think our understanding of this as a sensitive period should be positioned as strongly as possible to encourage governments to federally mandate paid parental leave for all new parents, not just birthing parents,” Orchard says. “Not just as a physical recovery from birth, but as an acknowledgement of the huge environmental and behavioral identity shifts that are happening through this time.” from https://ift.tt/VLUq5kx Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Wildfires burning in Canada started sending smoke across the border on Sunday and into the week, prompting U.S. officials to issue air quality warnings in several northern states—and experts say people should be prepared to experience more air quality alerts this summer. Parts of Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin suffered from poor air quality on Sunday and Monday because of smoke from wildfires continuing to burn in British Columbia and Alberta. While skies in the U.S. mostly cleared by Tuesday, experts say they’re expecting another active wildfire season this summer. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Last summer was Canada’s most devastating wildfire season on record, and researchers found that it was also the worst season in recent history for smoke exposure per U.S. resident. “We still think that last year was pretty extreme, kind of an anomaly, but we do expect an above average year (this year) in terms of air quality alerts,” says David Brown, an air quality meteorologist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Brown urged people to be aware and cautious because of the danger that inhaling wildfire smoke poses. “Wildfire smoke can really affect everyone,” Brown tells TIME. “Prior to these really bad two summers, air quality has kind of been … an issue that probably only affects a small percentage of the population. But these impactful wildfire smoke events really can have impacts on everyone, so everyone kind of has to pay closer attention to the weather and air quality.” Fine particles in wildfire smoke—known as PM2.5 because they have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers—are so small that they can enter your lungs and even your bloodstream, according to Craig Czarnecki, the outreach coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Air Management Program. The average person could experience relatively mild symptoms after breathing in these particles, like a scratchy throat and itchy eyes, Brown explains. But for children, older people, and people with pre-existing heart or respiratory conditions, breathing in these particles can cause more significant symptoms—for instance, it could exacerbate a person’s asthma. In extreme cases, some people with pre-existing heart conditions have experienced heart attacks or heart palpitations. Read More: What Wildfire Smoke Does to the Human Body A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found an association between smoke from Canadian wildfires and an increase in the number of people being treated for asthma-related symptoms in emergency departments in New York City. The study shows that “wildfire smoke is a public health threat,” according to Kai Chen, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the study. But the effect of wildfire smoke on asthma is “just one piece” of the impact wildfire smoke can have on people’s health, Chen says. Research also shows that exposure to wildfire smoke could have long-term impacts. A working paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research found that, as climate change increases the prevalence and intensity of wildfires, wildfire smoke exposure could lead to nearly 28,000 deaths a year by 2050 —a 76% increase from estimated average deaths between 2011 and 2020. Other studies show that long-term exposure to PM2.5 can impair children’s lung development and increase the risk of developing lung cancer or heart disease. When officials issue air quality alerts, people should limit their exposure to the wildfire smoke, reduce exertion, and keep an eye out for potential symptoms, like coughing or shortness of breath, Brown and Czarnecki advise. Wearing an N95 mask might be helpful if people are going to be outside for extended periods of time, Czarnecki adds. “When we have advisories like this, the best way to prevent breathing particles during smoke events is to stay indoors,” Czarnecki says. from https://ift.tt/eGXjFTK Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record since 1850, and this summer could be just as sweltering. That puts older adults—a group especially vulnerable to heat-related illnesses—at elevated risks for a number of health conditions and outcomes. Older people are less able to regulate changes in body and environmental temperatures, and higher temperatures put them at increased risk of dehydration, heat stroke, blood pressure changes, muscle cramps, and dizziness. These issues are likely to become far more prevalent than they currently are. From now until 2050, the number of people 60 years or older will double to nearly 2.1 billion, making up 21% of the global population, according to projections from the World Health Organization. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Giacomo Falchetta, a scientist at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy, and his team wanted to better understand the scope of the problem. In a new study published in Nature Communications, they correlated a given population’s age with the region’s temperatures to project how older people will be affected by hotter weather. They found that by 2050, more than 23% of the world’s population over age 69 will be living where peak temperatures reach beyond 99.5°F (37.5°C), compared to just 14% of that group today. That means that up to 246 million more elderly people will be exposed to dangerously high temperatures. “Everywhere around the world, we see increasing life expectancy, which is bringing many more older adults into the health-care system due to climate change,” Falchetta says. Read More: What’s the Best Kind of Sunscreen? Falchetta and his team used population data from the U.N. Population Division and widely publicized estimates of climate change that predict warming temperatures in coming years. Those data allowed them to tease apart the main factors driving heat exposure for older adults in different parts of the world. In temperate regions including North America and Europe, for example, higher global temperatures will be the primary factor affecting heat exposure for the elderly, while in typically warmer parts of the world such as Asia, Africa, and South America, population growth, and increases in longevity are more likely to contribute to more older adults exposed to heat-related illnesses. Falchetta hopes the research helps persuade policymakers to address the coming collision of population growth, increased life expectancy, and climate change. Understanding where older populations are at risk for heat-related health issues, for example, could help governments to focus health-care resources and address infrastructure needs, such as building power grids to manage increased electricity demand for air conditioning and cooling centers, and providing more urban green spaces. “We hope to engage public-health planners, national economic planners, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.N. Development Programme to provide a sense for what we expect the needs of an aging population will be in a warmer world,” he says. from https://ift.tt/4ljcA92 Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ |
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