You have health insurance, but not all expenses are included in the insurance premium. Doctor visits, medicine, braces and glasses are some expenses you may have to pay. The good news is there are ways to manage your health care costs to save money. This article will focus on health Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). Also, look for related articles on reasons to have health insurance (Part 1) and health savings accounts (Part 4).
Setting money aside to manage health care expenses helps reduce your need to use credit to pay medical bills and reduces your concerns that you can cover a bill, according to the University of Maryland Extension. You can save money in your emergency fund. You might qualify for a health Flexible Spending Account (FSA).
Health Flexible Spending Accounts allow you to contribute pre-tax dollars and then be reimbursed for qualified medical expenses based on IRS code. FSA accounts are only offered through employer’s benefits plan packages; you cannot open one as an individual consumer. Typically, you enroll once a year during your employer’s open enrollment season. The amount you choose is automatically deducted from your paycheck and is placed in an account managed by a third-party agency.
You choose the amount to save, up to certain dollar limits. It is important to plan carefully and not put more money in your FSA than you think you will spend during the year on things like co-payments, coinsurance, prescriptions and other allowed health care costs. Otherwise you may lose any money left over in your FSA.
How do you figure out how much to contribute? A good place to start is to calculate your out-of-pocket expenses for the past year. You can get this information from receipts, looking at your explanation of benefits, or obtaining a print out from your doctors’ offices and pharmacy for all visits and prescription purchases. Use the worksheet or online health care cost calculator.
You use your hands nearly every minute of the day, so any time they hurt it’s important to find out why.
Certain conditions can affect people who do the same hand movements for hours every day. Repetitive strain injury can cause pain in muscles, nerves and tendons.
Carpal tunnel syndrome swelling compresses a key nerve. The lesser known de Quervain’s tenosynovitis typically affects tendons on the inner sides of the wrist.
An autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis often causes joint pain. Without treatment, it can lead to deformities in your hands. The wrist and finger joints are common targets of osteoarthritis, which occurs over time from normal wear-and-tear.
Treatment might start with an over-the-counter or prescription NSAID to temporarily relieve pain, but their long-term use has been linked to side effects such as liver or kidney damage and elevated heart attack risk.
Stronger medications may be needed to stop a degenerative disease like rheumatoid arthritis. Corticosteroid injections are an occasional option to reduce inflammation.
Heat can ease stiffness while a cold pack can relieve soreness.
If you have a chronic condition, an occupational therapist can teach you how to limit stress on joints when using your hands. During a flare, he or she might suggest a splint to stabilize your hand.
Sometimes surgery is needed.
Dupuytren’s contracture, a thickening under the skin on the palm of the hand, can develop into firm lumps that cause fingers to bend inward. Unless lumps are removed early, it may be impossible to straighten fingers later on. If other options don’t help carpal tunnel and de Quervain’s, surgery might be the answer.
Many conditions worsen without appropriate treatment, so don’t delay in seeing your doctor or a hand specialist.
Misaligned body clocks have been tied to a wide range of illnesses, including diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease and asthma. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
No matter what your watch says, your body may be on a whole other schedule. Now, scientists say they’ve created a blood test that pinpoints the timing of your own internal clock.
The TimeSignature test evaluates dozens of genes to reveal an individual’s “circadian rhythm”—the crests and troughs that occur throughout the day as your body and brain cycle between sleepiness and alertness.
“Everyone’s clock ticks at a different rate. If you want to do personalized medicine, knowing the clock time of the patient is very important,” said sleep expert Dr. Mark Wu, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Two blood samples taken about 12 hours apart could provide a solid estimate of your internal clock, said lead researcher Rosemary Braun.
“By looking at a set of 40 different genes that are expressed in blood, we can pinpoint a person’s internal clock to within an hour and a half,” said Braun. She’s an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago.
Easy and accurate assessment of a patient’s body clock could potentially help doctors treat more than just sleep disorders, experts said.
For example, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs work better when a person is winding down, because the enzyme they block is more active in the evening, said Wu, who wasn’t involved in the current study.
There’s also some evidence that chemotherapy works better when administered at specific times of day when cancer cells are actively dividing, added Wu, an associate professor of neurology.
Your internal biological clock orchestrates processes in nearly every organ system throughout the body. Anyone who has worked a night shift or flown overseas can tell you the entire body is thrown off kilter when your internal body clock doesn’t match the timing of the external world.
Until now it’s been extremely cumbersome to precisely determine an individual’s circadian rhythm, said Dr. Steven Feinsilver, director of sleep medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He played no role in the new research.
Doctors can take urine or saliva samples from a patient every hour for a day or two and measure levels of melatonin or cortisol, hormones closely related to the sleep/wake cycle, Feinsilver and Wu said.
The other option is to use a rectal probe to monitor core body temperature for a day or so, the experts said.
“The current approach clinically is impractical and costly,” Braun said. “It requires multiple samples across the day and night. That makes it really burdensome to the patient and expensive to do.”
Northwestern University researchers evaluated about 20,000 genes to determine which ones are most closely linked to the rhythms of the body, Braun said.
They pared their test down to 40 genes that told internal time most accurately. Then they developed a computer process that reads those genes to establish an individual’s circadian rhythm.
“Some of them are known clock genes. Others are genes that are not directly related to the clock, but we know they’re under circadian control,” Braun said. “Between 30 and 40 percent of genes fluctuate over the course of the day, in keeping with that clock. That’s the signal we’re picking up.”
Blood samples for the test can be taken any time of day. And the test is accurate whether or not you’ve had a good or poor night’s sleep, researchers said.
Northwestern has filed for a patent on the blood test. The test will need more validation before it’s put on the market for clinical use, but it’s now available for free to other researchers for use in scientific studies, Braun said.
Misaligned body clocks have been tied to a wide range of illnesses, including diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease and asthma, researchers said.
“We might be able to predict ahead of time who is at risk of getting sick before they develop symptoms,” Braun said.
This test also could have applications outside medicine. For example, employers could use it to design the best shift schedule for their workers by sorting out early birds and night owls, Feinsilver said.
The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Making a health insurance plan choice can be confusing. You may be tempted to select the lowest premium you can find. However, it is important to look at more than just the monthly premium. This article will focus on some positive actions you can do to evaluate your current needs, finding the right plan for you, and affordability.
Many people enroll in the marketplace in silver and bronze plans with the lowest premium. But for patients with regular health care needs, much of their annual health expenses are also determined by the cost-sharing structure of the plan they select. AARP has created a free, online calculator, which is easy to use, helps people have a better understanding of their health care costs to decide about insurance marketplace options, and find coverage that meets their individual health care and budget needs. The free calculator shows how an individual’s total annual health care spending can vary based on plan selection.
Depending on your household income and health needs, a plan that has a higher monthly premium but offers better coverage could be a smarter choice. That is why it is worth the effort to accurately review the last year’s medical expenses. Next year may be different, but some needs can be projected.
In the marketplace, you may be eligible for tax credits or cost-sharing premium discounts. Tax credit subsidies are available to eligible individuals and families with incomes below 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Use this calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation to estimate your subsidy.
But the cost-sharing discount applies only if you buy a silver plan. This is another reason the cheapest plan isn’t always the best. People buying a silver plan with incomes below 250 percent of poverty lower the amount they pay out of pocket for deductibles, coinsurance, and co-payments with a cost-sharing reduction discount. Go to Healthcare.gov to check out the plans in your area.
Doctor visits, medicine, braces and glasses are some expenses you have to pay for beyond an insurance premium. The good news is there are ways to manage your health care costs to save money. Also look for related articles on reasons to have health insurance (Part 1) and special health savings accounts (Parts 3 and Part 4).
Children are increasingly specializing in just one sport, such as basketball, a more popular choice among youth. It’s leading to a rise in burnout and injuries. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Playing team sports is a great way to teach kids life lessons about leadership, teamwork and how to socialize with peers.
Sports are also a great way to build self-esteem and gain physical skills. Most important, they’re fun.
But too many—nearly three-quarters of young athletes—are specializing in just one activity as early as 7 years old, even playing on numerous league-level teams.
This puts them at risk for injury, stress, burnout and eventually abandoning sports, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
About 70% drop out by age 13 for such reasons as pressure to perform or, conversely, not getting enough playing time.
And at least half of athletic injuries are related to overuse. On the other hand, playing multiple sports offers benefits such as fostering a love of different activities that can last their entire lives.
To keep kids in the game, the the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests encouraging them to play multiple sports until at least age 15. To lessen the risk of injury, they need one or two days off every week.
If the decision has been made to specialize in a single sport, both parents and child should have a discussion with the child’s pediatrician to evaluate whether the young athlete’s goals are appropriate and realistic. Keep in mind that barely 1% of high school athletes get scholarships and only a fraction make it to the pros.
Kids who do specialize should take one-month breaks from their sport, ideally at three different times each year, while pursuing other activities. Parents should watch out for too much pressure being placed on those in elite sports programs.
A test that measures the protein troponin could one day help your doctor identify if you’re at high risk of heart attack or stroke. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Imagine getting a simple blood test to help doctors predict your risk for having a heart attack or stroke.
That test exists—and that scenario could become reality, according to a new study.
The test is often used now to help hospital medical staff diagnose heart attacks in people who come in with chest pain or other symptoms. It involves analyzing blood samples for specific proteins released by the heart muscle when damaged.
In recent years, these tests have become so refined that some can detect very low levels of these proteins, known as troponin.
Researchers determined that troponin levels in healthy middle-aged to older adults could help predict their risk for eventually developing cardiovascular disease.
Their findings were published recently in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
“What we’re finding out is that these tests can be used in the general population to give us information as to who is most likely to have a future problem, whether it be a heart attack, stroke or heart failure,” said Dr. Christie Ballantyne, the study’s senior author and cardiology chief at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Researchers examined a group of 8,121 people, ages 54 to 74, with no history of cardiovascular disease. Troponin levels were detected in 85 percent of the group. Higher levels of the protein were associated with a greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure.
The study found that highly sensitive troponin tests were especially good at predicting cardiovascular events when added to the results of a special equation commonly used to calculate a person’s 10-year risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
While the troponin tests have been used to diagnosis heart attack in the United States, Ballantyne said they have not been approved as a risk assessment strategy. The report said additional studies on troponin tests could help pave the way for using them as part of a globally accepted formula on assessing risk for cardiovascular disease.
“Research in this area is leading us toward individualized care more and more, so we can better predict who’s at risk for developing adverse cardiovascular outcomes,” said Dr. Rebecca Vigen, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She was not involved in the research. “This study is a step in the direction of personalizing care.”
Ballantyne said the ability to use the results from a simple blood test to help predict cardiovascular disease could help people avoid “the number one cause of pain, suffering, death and medical expenses” in the country.
People might be more inclined to work harder to reduce their cholesterol level, keep their blood pressure under control, and exercise, he said.
“If you can treat someone much earlier, before you have symptoms, you will be far more effective in preventing events,” Ballantyne said.
“Our major problem is that we do too little too late. If the first time you find out that you’re at risk for heart failure is when you actually start getting short of breath and you end up in the hospital, you probably have advanced heart disease already, and it is going to be harder to treat than if that person took steps years earlier.”
One size doesn’t fit all. Backpack safety and features should be considered before you purchase a new pack for your child. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
It’s school backpack shopping time, and for kids that means checking out the cool new colors and designs with their favorite TV and movie characters, sports teams or brands.
But for parents, there’s far more to consider in picking out the perfect pack.
Books. Binders. Lunch. Snack. Water bottle. Gym shoes. Laptop. Even musical instruments. When you pile it all in—and add in the stray pens, long lost papers and random “treasures” collecting at the bottom—it’s easy to see how a child’s backpack can become a hefty safety hazard.
Jennifer Hoekstra, injury prevention program coordinator at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, is here to help.
Backpack is best, but wear it right
A backpack is the best option for children and teens to carry all they need for a school day (rather than shoulder slings or messenger bags), because it allows them to distribute the weight across the strongest muscles of the body—the back and abdomen.
But, Hoekstra urged, they should wear it right, using both shoulder straps, rather than slinging it over one shoulder.
“It’s so much safer to carry the backpack with the weight distributed over the whole back,” she said.
If there’s just too much stuff to fit in the backpack, carry overflow (like musical instruments and sporting equipment) in a separate bag. Kids tend to carry things on their dominant side, but it’s important to switch from side to side to keep their spine in proper alignment and prevent “gravitational pull,” she said. One day carry it in the right hand, the next day, use the left hand.
Shopping tips
Hoekstra said parents should look for these things in a safe backpack—as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics:
a lightweight pack that doesn’t add a lot of weight from the pack itself (for example, leather packs can be much heavier than canvas)
two wide, padded shoulder straps; straps that are too narrow can dig into shoulders and cut off circulation
a padded back, for comfort and protection from being poked by sharp edges on objects (pencils, rulers, notebooks) inside.
a waist belt, which helps distribute the weight more evenly across the body using hip bones. (Hoekstra said parents should encourage their kids to wear the waist belt at all times. “It really is a good idea if you can teach kids from the beginning that this is an expectation,” she said.)
multiple compartments, which can help distribute the weight more evenly, rather than having just an open backpack where everything falls to the bottom.
Lessening the weight
According to doctors and physical therapists, kids should carry no more than 10 to 15 percent of their body weight in a backpack. Books and supplies can add up in a hurry, so Hoekstra suggests emptying the backpack each night to clear out any extras that have accumulated.
Many backpack manufacturers offer age and height recommendations for their products. This can be helpful in picking a backpack that’s the right fit for your child, but still be mindful of how much kids are piling inside.
Kids carrying big backpacks often aren’t aware of how much space they’re taking up. Show kids in a mirror what their loaded backpack looks like on their back, so they can take care not to knock over other kids on the bus or in the hallway, Hoekstra said.
Safety first
Do not have your child’s name printed or monogrammed on the outside of the backpack.
“Strangers may use that to call a child by name,” she said. “We, as creatures of habit, are very comfortable when someone knows our name, so people with bad intentions are going to use that to their advantage.”
Instead, find a place inside the backpack to label it. If you want to use the monogramming option offered by some manufacturers, use initials instead, she said.
Children walking to school or waiting at a bus stop should also have something reflective on their backpack, making them as visible as possible to passing motorists, Hoekstra said.
Summer is the worst season to deal with hot flashes.
In the winter, you can get at least some relief by cracking open a window to let in the arctic air.
In the summer, not even air conditioning is enough. The days and nights are hot enough already—you shouldn’t have to face hot flashes, too.
If this has become your reality, it’s time to learn what to do to make these hot flashes go away.
Too hot, too cold
First, it’s important to understand why a hot flash happens.
A hot flash or night sweat is the body’s way of cooling off. The blood vessels in the skin are commanded to open, or dilate, and blood rushes to the surface, allowing heat to escape.
Sweating goes along with this, of course, further allowing the body to cool.
Women will say they glow or radiate heat during a hot flash. That’s exactly what’s happening.
Hot flashes often happen in the years before menopause, in the days before a period, and then more frequently in early menopause because estrogen levels are low.
Estrogen is a powerful regulator of temperature regulation. When estrogen levels drop, the thermostat gets very sensitive.
The comfort zone changes from a comfortable 4 degrees to a narrow range of 0.4 degrees. This is why many women in perimenopause or menopause say, “I’m always too hot or too cold—never just right.”
The body’s air conditioning—hot flashes—can also be triggered by sudden stress. The adrenaline rush can flip the switch.
High blood sugar, even after eating something as simple as a little cookie, can also trigger it. It can also happen 30 minutes after that cookie, when the blood sugar crashes.
Alcohol can trigger a hot flash, too. Many women will agree that drinking wine at dinner can cause night sweats.
Failing to drink enough water can cause hot flashes to increase in frequency and intensity. Weight gain can also make the body warmer and harder to cool.
Sleep-deprived women may experience hot flashes more frequently. Fluctuations in brain chemicals—brought about by situations involving chronic stress, for example—can also increase the frequency of hot flashes.
Finding hope
By understanding why hot flashes occur, women can avoid the suffering and begin to find solutions.
The most effective treatment for hot flashes and night sweats is estrogen medication.
It’s not compounded, but available by mail-order or from your local pharmacy.
Estrogen medication is safer than most people think.
We have many good studies to back that up.
Even a low dose of estrogen—much lower than normal ovary function back in the day—can reduce hot flashes within seven to 10 days.
If a woman has a uterus, she needs to take a progesterone with the estrogen. This can often help with sleep, too.
Safety comes first—and for some women, estrogen is not safe. We go through a checklist before prescribing it.
If estrogen is not the treatment of choice, the next best medication is the same class of drugs used for depression and anxiety.
This is used not because the woman has depression or anxiety, but because the medications can increase serotonin.
Serotonin makes the thermostat less sensitive and reduces the frequency of hot flashes, almost as effectively as estrogen.
Ultimately, you have to build the right foundation for treating hot flashes. This entails a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight.
About 80% of women have symptoms that interfere with their quality of life.
But there is hope.
SEEDS (Seven Essential Elements of Daily Success) is the best place to start.
It begins with water—80 ounces per day—and 50 hours of sleep each week.
It also involves daily activity and exercise, a multivitamin and vitamin D and a healthy diet rich with complex carbs, smart protein and healthy fat. Limit yourself to just one treat per day and make sure you get all the fiber you need.
Practice metered breathing and gratitude.
As you do more SEEDS each day, you’ll experience fewer hot flashes.
The SEEDS approach can help in everyday life, too.
Health care can be costly. Doctor visits, medicine, braces and glasses are some expenses you have to pay for beyond an insurance premium. The good news is there are ways to manage your health care costs to save money. This article will focus on four personal and financial reasons to have health insurance. Also look for related articles on smart choices to pick health insurance plans and special health savings accounts.
If you do not have health insurance, check it out. You may be surprised at the affordability. Many Michigan residents who selected plans through HealthCare.gov are getting financial assistance to lower monthly premiums. Others were determined eligible for Medicaid, the Healthy Michigan Plan, or MiChild. Take the first step and find out how much financial help for which you could qualify. So you may pay now with some peace of mind if you get sick or injured, or pay later with no benefits.
Financial Protection
Health insurance helps protect your family’s financial future. Health insurance helps pay costs when you need care and protects you from very high medical expenses. You may not feel that you need health insurance right now — health insurance is for helping manage risks — in this case potential future health problems.
In 2013, over 20 percent of American adults were struggling to pay their medical bills, with three in five bankruptcies due to medical bills. Sometimes we are quick to blame debt on poor savings and bad spending habits. However, research shows the burden of health costs causing widespread indebtedness. Medical bills can completely overwhelm a family when illness strikes,” says Christina LaMontagne, VP of Health at NerdWallet. Furthermore, 25 million people hesitate to take their medications in order to control their medical costs. Unfortunately, this can lead to even worse financial outcomes as preventive treatments are not rendered and patients end up using expensive ambulance and ER care as their health worsens.
Prevention Services
Many health insurance plans offer services and programs to help keep you healthy, thus saving you time and money over time. The Affordable Care Act includes free preventative benefits for adults at no cost to you, without charging you a copayment or coinsurance. This is true even if you have not met your yearly deductible. In addition to annual wellness visits, some plans also offer benefits such as personal wellness coaching, healthy pregnancy programs, gym membership discounts, nutrition counseling, online seminars/webinars, checklists, tools and calculators.
Better Health Outcomes
If you and your family have adequate insurance coverage, based on your health care needs and wants, and use your health insurance as it is intended to be used (prevention visits, immunizations, etc.), this can lead to overall better health for everyone. Even if you have a pre-existing health condition, you cannot be turned down or charged more for health insurance.
Open Enrollment in the Marketplace is in the fall. Consumers should visit HealthCare.gov to check the dates, review and compare health plan options. If consumers who were automatically reenrolled decide that a better plan exists for their families, they can make that change at any time before the end of open enrollment. If income and family size indicate eligibility for a government health insurance plan, you will be redirected to that enrollment site.
Consumers can find local help at Localhelp.healthcare.gov. You can also call the Federally-facilitated Marketplace Call Center at 1-800-318-2596. TTY users should call 1-855-889-4325. Translation services are available and the call is free.
In summary, three key reasons to see what you qualify for are that 1) There are different types of plans available so you can find coverage that meets your needs and budget, 2) Preventive care is free, including cancer screenings and wellness checkups and 3) Quality care no matter what. You cannot be turned down or charged more for being sick or having a pre-existing condition. Take the first step to check out how much financial help you could receive. Then make your informed enrollment decision.
Growing evidence suggests that lack of sleep may play a role in Alzheimer’s, and that getting enough sleep may be one way to reduce the risk of the memory-robbing disease. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Feeling drowsy during the day might mean you have an increased risk for Alzheimer’s, new research suggests.
The long-term study included 123 adults with an average age of 60 when the study began. The findings showed that those who were very sleepy during the day had a nearly threefold increased risk of developing brain deposits of beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings add to growing evidence that lack of sleep may play a role in Alzheimer’s, and that getting enough sleep may be one way to reduce the risk of the memory-robbing disease, according to the researchers.
“Factors like diet, exercise and cognitive activity have been widely recognized as important potential targets for Alzheimer’s disease prevention, but sleep hasn’t quite risen to that status—although that may well be changing,” said study leader Adam Spira. He’s an associate professor in the department of mental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore.
“If disturbed sleep contributes to Alzheimer’s disease, we may be able to treat patients with sleep issues to avoid these negative outcomes,” he added in a Hopkins news release.
It’s unclear why daytime sleepiness would be associated with beta-amyloid protein accumulation in the brain, Spira said. And the study did not prove that sleep actually causes beta-amyloid to build up in the brain.
But it may be that poor sleep due to sleep apnea or other factors causes the formation of beta-amyloid through an unknown mechanism, and that these sleep disturbances also cause excessive daytime sleepiness.
“However, we cannot rule out that amyloid plaques that were present at the time of sleep assessment caused the sleepiness,” Spira said.
Animal studies have shown that restricting night-time sleep can lead to more beta-amyloid protein in the brain and spinal fluid, and some human studies have linked poor sleep with greater levels of beta-amyloid in the brain.
Sleep problems are common in Alzheimer’s patients, and beta-amyloid accumulation and related brain changes are thought to harm sleep.
“There is no cure yet for Alzheimer’s disease, so we have to do our best to prevent it. Even if a cure is developed, prevention strategies should be emphasized,” Spira said. “Prioritizing sleep may be one way to help prevent or perhaps slow this condition.”
The study findings were published in the journal Sleep.
Certain lifestyle changes can be most beneficial to women whose genetic profile puts them at increased risk of developing breast cancer. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
While genetics, such as carrying BRCA gene mutations, play a role in who is more likely to get breast cancer, everyday lifestyle factors are involved, too.
Research published in JAMA Oncology used data from thousands of women to identify which lifestyle factors in particular could affect a woman’s risk for breast cancer.
The study found that three specific steps could potentially prevent up to 29 percent of all breast cancers: Avoid alcohol and, after menopause, avoid both obesity and estrogen-progestin replacement hormone therapy.
The researchers noted that these recommendations could be most helpful for women at a high risk of breast cancer because of factors they can’t change, like genetics and their age at menstruation and menopause.
In fact, for them, having a low body mass index, not drinking alcohol, not smoking and not taking hormone therapy could lower breast cancer risk to that of the average woman.
The research has some limitations, however.
For instance, the study only looked at data from white women in the United States, not other ethnic groups. But these are lifestyle changes that can boost overall health for all women.
For more global advice, the American Institute for Cancer Research states that excess body fat is one of the strongest factors linked to a greater risk of breast cancer after menopause. So is abdominal fat, regardless of your body mass index (a measure of body fat based on height and weight).
The organization also warns that drinking alcohol can increase breast cancer risk before menopause and touts the positive effects of daily exercise and, for new moms, of breastfeeding.
That’s the answer we’re looking for. But not many people—doctors or patients—give the bone-weakening disease the attention it deserves, according to Jodi Hamblin, MD, a bone health specialist.
“Osteoporosis is a lethal disease that is frequently ignored,” Dr. Hamblin said, explaining that the disease signals a problem with both the quantity and the quality of bone.
In the United States alone, half of adults age 50 and older either already have osteoporosis or are well on their way to developing it.
Silent and overlooked
The trouble is, osteoporosis doesn’t have symptoms, so most people don’t know they have it until they break a bone.
And even then, many patients don’t realize that osteoporosis was the cause of their fracture—when in fact, a low-trauma fracture almost always indicates osteoporosis in older adults.
“After 50, if you fall from a standing position and you break a bone, excluding your hands and feet, then you have osteoporosis,” Dr. Hamblin said. This type of break is called a fragility fracture.
Osteoporosis can also be diagnosed when a bone density test reports low bone density.
Research suggests doctors and patients tend to overlook the threat of osteoporosis.
According to a 2016 study by Northwell Health in New York, more than two-thirds of patients who suffered a hip fracture said their doctors didn’t tell them they have osteoporosis, and more than half said they weren’t given medication to treat osteoporosis after their fracture was treated.
This lack of information and follow-up is a huge problem, the study’s senior author said, because of the seriousness of hip fractures.
“You can die after a hip fracture, and you’re at great risk of prolonged complications,” said author Gisele Wolf-Klein, MD, in a statement. “You can also be left as an invalid—a fear of many older adults.”
Six months after suffering a hip fracture, only 15 percent of patients can walk across a room without help, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
Getting on top of the problem
Bringing more attention to the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis is the goal, said Dr. Hamblin.
By following up after a break and treating the cause of the bone loss or poor bone quality, doctors can help prevent future fractures.
Patients are more likely to sustain a secondary fracture if they are not treated for their osteoporosis, Dr. Hamblin said.
High-risk patients include:
Heart and lung transplant patients, who are at risk because the anti-rejection medications they take are bone weakening
Breast cancer patients, who are on estrogen-preventing medications that can cause bone loss
Gastric bypass surgery patients, who typically have bad absorption of nutrients so don’t get sufficient calcium and vitamin D—two essential nutrients for bone health
The care plan includes balance testing, nutritional counseling, bone density testing, blood and urine testing to identify risk factors, and medication review and management.
“Sometimes medications taken for other conditions can get in the way of calcium absorption or directly weaken the bone or even contribute to dizziness,” which can increase a patient’s risk of falling, Dr. Hamblin said.
Physical therapy can help people learn how to build bone through exercise and how to prevent falls, which are responsible for 90 percent of hip fractures.
“Fall prevention is half the battle,” Dr. Hamblin said. “If you have weak bones and you don’t fall, you may never break.”
Osteoporosis risk factors
In addition to the medical issues listed above, several other factors can put you at risk for bone loss and poor bone strength. Risk factors include:
Advanced age—this applies to both women and men, though the incidence of osteoporosis is higher in aging women because of a drop in hormone levels
Diabetes
Steroid use (5 or more milligrams a day for three months or longer)—this lowers bone quality in men and women equally
Overactive thyroid or parathyroid activity
Cigarette smoking
Regularly drinking more than two alcoholic beverages a day
Lack of appropriate exercise
Low calcium intake
Vitamin D, vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency
“There’s an extensive list of causes for bone loss and for poor bone quality,” said Dr. Hamblin. “If we can get those conditions in order, sometimes that’s all we have to do.”
When medications are called for, doctors have a variety of options based on the patient’s situation. For example, some patients need medications that help build new bone, while others need medications to prevent bone loss.
The aim is to decrease the risk of fracture by keeping bone loss in check and by limiting the risk factors for poor bone quality.
A preventable disease
Of course, prevention is the best course of action, and osteoporosis is very preventable, Dr. Hamblin said.
“If we could get kids and young adults to improve their dietary calcium intake and have a good exercise program, that would be huge,” she said. “And if we could eliminate smoking and excessive use of alcohol, that would make all the difference for most people.”
Stroke survivors often face limited mobility, which quadruples their odds of osteoporosis, broken bones and falls. But most are never screened for these problems, new research reveals.
“Our study adds to previous research that found despite an increased risk, only a small number of people who have recently had a stroke are tested and treated for osteoporosis,” said lead author Dr. Moira Kapral. She is director of general internal medicine at the University of Toronto.
Impaired mobility can result in bone mineral density decline, which is associated with osteoporosis. The condition weakens bones and increases risk of fractures.
In this study, researchers looked at more than 16,500 Canadian stroke survivors, aged 65 and older, from Ontario.
Of these patients, only 5% had undergone bone mineral density testing, 15.5% had been prescribed medications for osteoporosis within the year after their stroke and only a small percentage were prescribed medications for osteoporosis for the first time.
Patients most likely to have bone mineral density testing tended to be younger, female and to have had low-trauma fractures in the year after their stroke.
Patients were more likely to be prescribed medications for osteoporosis after their stroke if they were female, already had the bone-thinning disease, had previously broken bones, had previous bone mineral density testing, or had fallen or broke bones after their stroke.
The study was published recently in the journal Stroke.
“This study offers more evidence that there is a missed opportunity to identify people with stroke at increased risk of fractures and to initiate treatment to prevent bone loss and fractures,” Kapral said in a journal news release.
Less than one-third of older U.S. women are screened for osteoporosis.
The maximum treatment rate for some high-risk patients is about 30%, the researchers pointed out.
Although 170 foods have been reported to cause allergic reactions, there are eight common foods that cause allergies: milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and shellfish. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
When you have serious food allergies, eating at a restaurant can literally mean risking your life. But new research suggests you can take steps to protect yourself when dining out.
In fact, the more steps you take to protect yourself from exposure to the allergic substance, the less likely you are to have an allergic reaction, the study found.
The researchers asked 39 people with allergies (or their parents) about 25 behaviors people might do before eating out. Nineteen of those surveyed had experienced a food allergy reaction while dining at a restaurant.
“Overall, when you look at the results and the strategies that people used, people who had an allergic reaction [after eating out] used significantly less strategies compared to non-reactors. Non-reactors used an average of 15 strategies, reactors used an average of six,” said study author Dr. Justine Ade, a pediatric resident at University Hospitals’ Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.
Up to 15 million people may have food allergies, according to the nonprofit organization FARE (Food Allergy and Research Education). Although 170 foods have been reported to cause allergic reactions, there are eight common foods that cause allergies in the United States: milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and shellfish. FARE reports that sesame allergy is also a growing threat.
Eating food outside the home has been linked to numerous deaths in people with food allergies, according to the researchers.
Although the study didn’t evaluate how well any particular strategy worked, it did note how often people used individual strategies.
The top 5 strategies people use
Speaking to the waiter on arrival (80 percent)
Ordering food with simple ingredients (77 percent)
Double-checking food before eating (77 percent)
Avoiding restaurants with higher likelihood of contamination (74 percent)
Reviewing ingredients on a restaurant website (72 percent)
The strategies used least often
Placing food allergy order separately (23 percent)
Using a personal allergy card (26 percent)
No longer eating at restaurants (39 percent)
Choosing a chain restaurant (41 percent)
Going to a restaurant during off-peak hours (44 percent)
Ade said it may sound like a lot of work just to eat out, but “these
are things that become second nature for some people, and it probably
takes less than five minutes to do most of these things.”
People with food allergies aren’t the only ones who worry about what’s on their restaurant plate. Alice Bast, CEO of Beyond Celiac, a nonprofit health and awareness group, said that every time someone with celiac disease eats out, they play “gluten roulette.”
Celiac disease is a digestive disorder, and symptoms are triggered when someone with the disease eats gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.
“Dining out is one of the biggest challenges of living with celiac disease,” Bast said. “When you’re out of control of your food, it’s easy to feel anxious about the possibility of becoming sick. There are always risks when someone else is preparing your meal, especially if they don’t take it seriously, or if they are just unaware of how to take the appropriate precautions.”
Both experts said it’s important to be vigilant and take the steps that you can to make sure your food is as safe as it can be. In the case of food allergies, Ade said it’s important to carry an epinephrine injection pen every time you eat out.
Ade presented the findings at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology annual meeting, in Seattle. Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Propionate is a preservative commonly found in breads and other manufactured foods. Researchers are trying to pin down the effects on humans, but in animal trials the ingredient led to weight gain. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
If you’re watching your weight, you probably know to avoid sugary and fatty foods.
But what about preservatives?
Eating a preservative widely used in breads, baked goods and cheese may trigger metabolic responses that are linked to obesity and diabetes, an early study suggests.
The additive, called propionate, is actually a naturally occurring fatty acid produced in the gut. When it’s used as an additive in processed foods, it helps prevent mold.
But in the new study, researchers found that feeding mice low doses of propionate gradually caused weight gain and resistance to the hormone insulin—which, in humans, is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
And when the researchers gave healthy adults a single propionate dose, it spurred a release of blood sugar-raising hormones—and a subsequent surge in insulin.
None of that proves propionate-containing foods raise the odds of weight gain and diabetes, said senior researcher Dr. Gokhan Hotamisligil, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“The point is not to say this additive is ‘bad,’” he stressed.
Instead, Hotamisligil said, his team is interested in understanding the effects—good or bad—of the various “molecules” humans consume in their diets.
“There’s a scarcity of scientific evidence on a lot of the things we put in our bodies through food,” he said. “Propionate is just one example.”
Still, Hotamisligil said, the findings do raise an important question: “Could long-time consumption of propionate in humans be a contributing factor to obesity and diabetes?”
When it comes to processed foods, the concern is usually directed toward ingredients like added sugar, sodium and trans fats. But there’s also a host of additives that, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, are “generally recognized as safe.”
Despite that “GRAS” status, though, there is typically little known about how those food additives might affect metabolism, according to Hotamisligil.
Dr. Emily Gallagher is an assistant professor of endocrinology at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in New York City.
She agreed it’s important to dig into the potential metabolic effects of food additives.
“People may look at food labels and think they are making healthy choices,” said Gallagher, who had no part in the study. “But without our knowledge, very small amounts of certain additives in food may be causing detrimental metabolic effects.”
That said, it’s too soon to point the finger at propionate, according to Gallagher.
She called these early findings “thought-provoking,” but said longer-term studies are needed to better understand any health effects from the additive.
For the animal portion of the study, the researchers gave mice propionate in their water. The immediate effects included an increase in three hormones that spur the liver to produce glucose (sugar). Over time, chronic exposure to the additive caused the mice to gain weight and become resistant to the hormone insulin, which helps lower blood sugar levels.
The human portion of the study included 14 healthy people given a dose of either propionate or a placebo with a meal. Compared with the placebo meal, the additive caused the same hormonal response seen in mice, plus a surge in insulin in the blood.
Whether those effects over time could harm people’s health is unknown.
Many factors, including overall diet and exercise, affect the risks of obesity and diabetes, Gallagher pointed out.
For now, she said, the findings support the general advice that we should be limiting processed foods in favor of healthier, whole foods.
Hotamisligil agreed. “I’m not saying, if you don’t eat propionate, you’ll live forever,” he said. “But these are the types of foods we should limit anyway.”
The findings were published online recently in Science Translational Medicine.
If your child is headed to college for the first time, you can allay some of your worries by ensuring they’re up to date on vaccinations. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
If you’re looking to help your burgeoning thinker prepare for the first year of college, you could do worse than start with a simple science lesson.
Think of the higher learning universe as a giant petri dish.
Your youngster will dive headlong into that glorious environment, seizing opportunities to broaden the intellect and test new ideas that challenge the status quo.
College is, however, a life-sized cauldron of cellular chaos, swimming with a frightening array of potentially deadly germs.
What important steps can parents take to ensure their college student is prepared for life on campus?
Above all else, make sure your child is properly vaccinated, said Mary Zimmerman, immunization program manager at Spectrum Health.
Does this mean you can’t spend this last month of summer scouting out the best deals on futons, bed sheets and mini refrigerators? No. It just means immunizations need to maintain their proper place at the top of the to-do list.
Teens headed to college should be current on six vaccinations in particular—meningococcal serogroup B, meningococcal conjugate vaccine (serogroups ACWY), hepatitis A, Tdap, HPV and influenza.
Meningococcal serogroup B vaccine
Given their bustling social lives and close-quarter living, college students are uniquely prone to exposure of meningococcal disease, Zimmerman said.
And if there’s just one thing to remember about meningitis, it’s this: It is deadly serious.
“People who have had meningitis had flu-like symptoms and then they were dead within 24 hours,” Zimmerman said. “If you survive, it’s a long-term stay in the hospital.”
The disease kills 10 percent of its victims, she said. Of those who survive, 20 percent will suffer long-term consequences from infection, including brain damage, amputation or loss of hearing.
When the bacteria infect the brain and spinal cord, it’s known as meningitis. When it infects the bloodstream, it becomes septicemia. There are two different vaccinations for meningococcus—serogroup B vaccine and serogroup ACWY vaccine, also known as the conjugate vaccine—and they immunize against different groups of the disease.
The CDC requires children to receive the conjugate vaccination by age 12, with a recommended follow-up conjugate booster at age 16. It’s also recommended that children receive the serogroup B vaccine at age 16, when they get the conjugate booster, but it’s not required, Zimmerman said.
Only recently has there been growth in awareness about the serogroup B vaccine.
In Michigan, the family of Emily Stillman, a Kalamazoo College sophomore who died of meningitis in 2013 at age 19, has emerged as the vanguard in pushing for awareness about meningococcal serogroup B.
Stillman died within 36 hours of contracting bacterial meningitis. She had received the meningococcal conjugate vaccine in her youth and also the recommended conjugate booster at age 16.
She did not receive the serogroup B vaccine.
Why? In 2013, the serogroup B vaccine hadn’t been available in the U.S. Not until 2015 did it become available.
Zimmerman cautioned that parents may encounter circumstances, even today, in which a primary care provider doesn’t have immediate access to the serogroup B vaccination.
This should not discourage them from pursuing it further.
“Check first with your primary care provider,” Zimmerman said. “If they don’t carry the B shot, you can check with the local health department — they do have it.”
Don’t assume the serogroup B vaccination isn’t important simply because the CDC made it a recommended vaccination, as opposed to a requirement, said Mary Wisinski, immunization program supervisor at Kent County Health Department.
“Absolutely get the vaccine,” Wisinski said. “It’s a deadly disease.”
Meningococcal conjugate vaccine
All strains of meningitis are spread through secretions from the throat and respiratory system—coughing, kissing, sneezing, sharing cups and so forth. Simply living in the same environment as someone with the disease could put you at risk.
About 10 percent of people who carry the bacteria in their nose or throat won’t show symptoms of the disease. But they can spread it.
“That’s why it’s so scary,” Zimmerman said. “There’s no rhyme or reason as to who might get the disease and who might just be a carrier.”
This is why vaccinations are so critical, she said, especially for the age 16-to-24 group headed into socially rich environments such as universities.
While the CDC requires the conjugate vaccination by age 12, there are of course children whose parents may have opted them out of vaccines.
College is a great time to reconsider such views.
“A college student will think they’re just run-down, and then they have to be rushed off to the hospital,” Wisinski said. “There’s nothing they can do.
“People do survive it, but the infection can cause them to lose their arms or legs, or cause them to be deaf,” Wisinski added. “It’s not a pleasant thought. Especially when there’s a shot to protect against it.”
The Kent County Health Department follows the mantra, “Vaccinate before you graduate.”
“(Parents) are sending these kids off to college very unprepared and unprotected,” she said.
In recent years, there has been a grassroots push among certain parents to opt out of vaccinations, but that has only led to spikes in diseases that had virtually fallen off the threat radar.
In 2016 and 2017, for example, the CDC logged outsized jumps in the number of mumps cases—directly traced to university campuses. The two largest cases were in Iowa and Illinois.
A Michigan college hit with a recent mumps outbreak didn’t have the data they needed to tackle it, Wisinski said.
“They didn’t know the vaccination status of any of their students,” she said.
In respect to the meningitis conjugate vaccination, nearly half of all teens fail to get the follow-up booster shot recommended at age 16, Wisinski said.
“(In Michigan), 80 percent of our kids get the first meningococcal vaccine at age 12,” she said. “But they don’t come back. In Kent County, only 50 percent of the teens that are immunized with the first vaccine will get that second one. Nationally, it’s 30 percent.”
For about the past decade, the CDC has recommended children receive two HPV vaccinations starting at about age 11.
HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, with some strains causing various types of cancer. Much like other series of vaccinations, it’s important to have the complete series before any exposure, Zimmerman said.
HPV is a two-dose series if the first dose is administered before a child’s 15th birthday. If administered after the 15th birthday, three shots are required, Zimmerman said.
It’s important to remember the follow-up.
“Obviously, you get your best protection by completing the series,” she said.
“So many college students are traveling abroad,” Zimmerman said. “It’s good just to be protected.”
Hepatitis A is a liver disease spread through contaminated food and water. The vaccination is a routine recommendation for children starting at age 1, but there are adults and older children who have never had it.
The hepatitis A disease rate has declined 95 percent since the vaccine became available in 1995, but don’t imagine for a second that it has magically disappeared in this country.
The disease incubates in the body anywhere from 15 to 50 days before manifesting itself, Zimmerman said. Adults who get the disease can be ill for up to six months, with symptoms including nausea, vomiting and jaundice.
“It’s a virus,” Zimmerman said. “You clear it from your system. If you have the disease, you then have immunity. But that’s the hard way to get it.”
The easiest route is vaccination.
Tdap vaccine
Babies and small children receive a series of shots called DTaP, which protect against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
As a child ages, the effectiveness of this vaccination wears off. Consequently, at about age 11 the CDC recommends children receive a Tdap vaccination, Zimmerman said.
It’s effectively a booster for the original shot.
“They get the maximum benefit from (receiving) doses at the proper time,” Zimmerman said.
Tetanus is caused by toxins from bacteria in the soil. Diphtheria and pertussis are spread through coughing and sneezing. According to the CDC, about 1 in 5 people who get tetanus will die and 1 in 10 who get diphtheria will die.
Pertussis is most dangerous for babies. They contract the disease from children or adults who haven’t been vaccinated.
“Pertussis won’t kill adults, but it does kill infants,” Zimmerman said.
Here again, the anti-vaccination crowd has given rise to pertussis outbreaks at levels not seen since the 1950s, according to CDC data. In 2012, more than 48,000 pertussis cases were reported—the most since 1955.
Researchers have blamed these developments on a reduction in herd immunity.
Influenza vaccine
A list of recommended vaccinations for any age group, infant to elderly, would be incomplete without the addition of the influenza vaccination.
“The annual flu vaccine is always recommended,” Zimmerman said.
Children from eligible families can receive free vaccinations through the Vaccines for Children program, Wisinski said. This applies to all vaccines, from birth to age 19. Children with medical insurance that does not cover certain vaccines can also receive vaccines, but they must get them at the health department or a qualified facility.
“If they have Medicaid or no insurance, or even insurance that doesn’t cover shots, they can get free shots,” Wisinski said. “It’s part of the VFC program.
“If someone from birth through age 18 has no insurance, or insurance that does not cover vaccines, the vaccine is free—but we do charge an administration fee on a sliding scale fee, from $0 to $23,” Wisinski said.
Beat chronic inflammation—and all of its side effects—with a vegan diet. And if that won’t work, there are other options. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
As it relates to biological processes within the human body, inflammation is often considered a necessary process.
When the body recognizes a threat from something foreign—an invading bacteria or virus—it activates the immune system to protect itself. Much benefit is derived from the inflammatory process, but only when it truly alerts the body to fight the foreign invaders.
Chronic inflammation is another story altogether. It often presents itself in well-known inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disorders and ulcerative colitis, among various other illnesses.
But chronic inflammation has even a darker side, according to Thomas Boyden, MD, medical director of preventive cardiology with Spectrum Health.
Chronic inflammation can cause coronary artery disease and contribute to the process that causes heart attack and stroke, Dr. Boyden said.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to help reduce the harmful effects of chronic inflammation: Eat a healthier diet.
In a society where the penchant for meats and over-processed foods runs high, it is admittedly no easy feat for most people to follow a proper diet.
But the most ideal way to reduce chronic inflammation is, in fact, to follow a plant-based diet, Dr. Boyden said. Basically, you would eat nothing that was once alive and moving, such as red meat, poultry, pork or fish. Stay away from animal products such as dairy.
Those who can accomplish this vegan regimen could reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, Dr. Boyden said.
Realistically, this type of diet doesn’t work for most people, so he highly recommends the Mediterranean diet as the best alternative.
“You can eat fish, poultry and dairy, but it is basically a plant-based diet that allows you to eat small portions of animal-based foods,” he said.
A workable diet
The Mediterranean diet is an entirely accessible, achievable solution for eating.
“I always find it interesting to hear the different reasons that people want to join the program,” Franowicz said. “We’ve had a lot of success with weight loss, lowering blood sugars and cholesterol. Besides these factors, I also have people join because they may have Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis or cancer in their families, and they want to reduce their risks.
“I think people have great success with long-term weight loss because the diet is sustainable, delicious and satisfying,” she said.
Another reason people often find success with the Mediterranean diet: It emphasizes good fats such as olive oil, nuts, seeds and omega-3 fatty acids. These types of fats are not only delicious and satisfying, they also keep people from feeling deprived of food.
Better still, these fats help fight inflammation.
To reduce inflammation, it’s generally smart to avoid animal products as often as possible, Dr. Boyden said. Avoid saturated fats, too, which are often found in those products.
And more specifically: Stay away from foods that are fried, sugary or processed.
You should avoid artificial sweeteners, too. They’re made from chemicals—and why would you want to put a synthetic chemical in your body?
“They are not healthy,” Dr. Boyden said, explaining how artificial sweeteners can actually stimulate the brain to tell you you’re hungry. They can also make you gain weight.
“Truthfully, if you change your diet, you really do change your life,” Dr. Boyden said.
Dr. Boyden and Franowicz listed some of the obvious foods that exacerbate inflammation, as well as those that help fight it.
Foods that cause inflammation:
Butter and margarine
Fast food and fried foods
Red meat (burgers, steak) and processed meat (hot dogs, sausage)
Refined carbohydrates such as white breads, sweets and pastries
Sodas and sweetened beverages
Foods that fight inflammation:
Olive oil, nuts and avocados
Fatty fish like salmon twice a week
Tomatoes and greens like kale, spinach, swiss chard
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you‘re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you‘re mis-informed.”
Mark Twain
Lee Middle and High School. (WKTV)
New principal at Lee high
Lee Middle and High School will have a new principal when it greets students later this month as Godfrey-Lee Public Schools announced this week that Candida VanBuskirk would fill the position following Kathryn Curry’s retirement after 7 years as principal. Visit here for the story.
More than 1,200 backpacks were collected for the 2018 School Supply Santa. (Supplied)
Back to school help
A school ad shows a student larger than life because of all the new school supplies and clothes she got. But for some local residents, just purchasing the basic school supplies can be a momental task. Visit here for the story.
The annual Metro Cruise is a feast of automobiles and automotive details (Courtesy Bruce Carlson)
Easy parking for Metro Cruise
The annual Metro Cruise is always popular, with visitor parking often at a premium, and the Wyoming-Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2019 28th Street Metro Cruise on Aug. 23-24 will be no different. But thanks to a partnership with The Rapid, there will be two shuttle buses running from nearby but off 28th Street parking locations — Wyoming High School and the Wyoming’s Kent District Library. Visit here for the story.
(Not so) Fun fact:
With 66 percent of Americans using Facebook, Pew Research Center says 45 percent of US adults get at least some of their news from the site. The survey found that of the 45 percent turning to Facebook for news content, half claim it is the only social platform they are using for news.
Scientists believe they can reduce mosquito populations by using a bacteria that interferes with the insects’ reproductive cycle. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Some mosquitoes spread diseases to humans through their bite, passing along harmful pathogens like Zika, dengue fever, West Nile virus and chikungunya.
Now humans are turning the tables, infecting these dangerous mosquitoes with bacteria that sabotage their ability to spawn.
Chinese researchers were able to reduce these mosquito populations by as much as 94% using a bacteria-based strategy that interferes with the insects’ reproductive cycle.
“In principle, all the mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue, malaria, West Nile, chikungunya and filariasis, can be controlled using this technology,” said senior study author Zhiyong Xi. He is director of the Sun Yat-sen University/Michigan State University Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases. “There will be none of those diseases without transmission by mosquitoes.”
The mosquito control strategy hinges on bacteria called Wolbachia, which can affect the reproductive biology of mosquitoes, said Peter Armbruster, a professor of biology at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C.
Essentially, a male mosquito carrying a specific strain of Wolbachia cannot successfully reproduce if the female is infected with a different strain of Wolbachia, explained Armbruster, who wrote an editorial accompanying the report in a recent issue of the journal Nature.
The Chinese research team created a lab-based colony of mosquitoes that all carry a newly developed combination of three Wolbachia strains. This hybrid strain doesn’t occur in the wild. The colony produced around 10 million male mosquitoes a week, Xi said.
The male mosquitoes were then released into the wild, in areas designated for pest control.
“They mate with wild females and then the wild females produce inviable eggs,” Armbruster said. “It’s a way of letting the males do the work by finding the females and preventing them from reproducing.”
The researchers also treated the mosquitoes with a low dose of radiation, enough to sterilize any accidentally released females carrying the triple bacteria strain but not enough to impair the male mosquitoes’ reproductive drive. This helped speed up laboratory production of the mosquitoes, Armbruster explained.
Field trials focused on Aedes albopictus mosquitoes were able to drive populations down by around 83% to 94%, with no wild mosquitoes detected for up to six weeks after release, the researchers reported.
Dr. Amesh Adalja is senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. “Mosquitoes have long been a scourge of mankind and their effective control is one of the most daunting tasks in infectious diseases,” he said.
“Exploiting the phenomenon of mating incompatibility through male mosquito Wolbachiainfections, combined with irradiation, is an elegant solution that this study demonstrates is feasible,” Adalja said.
At least one American company, MosquitoMate, is already using a similar bacteria-based approach to control mosquitoes, Armbruster noted. The innovation in the study was the combination of three different Wolbachia strains and the use of radiation to make sorting and releasing mosquitoes an easier process.
You don’t want to release both male and female mosquitoes with the triple strain, because they’ll be able to successfully mate. Until now, lab technicians have had to run the mosquito swarms through a machine that separated males from females, and then do a second hand-sort to make sure all the females had been removed, Armbruster said.
Because the approach targets specific disease-carrying species of mosquitoes, it will not wipe out other benign mosquito populations that co-exist in the same area, Xi added.
“As mating happens only within the same species, this is a species-specific control tool, without any impact on non-target species,” Xi said. “The majority of mosquito species in nature are not disease vectors, and thus will not be targeted by our technique.”
These field tests released the lab-infected male mosquitoes on two small islands located on rivers that run through Guangzhou, the city with the highest dengue transmission rate in China, the study authors said.
The goal was to reach a 5-to-1 ratio of infected males versus wild males, to effectively suppress the mosquito populations, Xi said.
Further research will be needed to see if the same laboratory production techniques could be used to battle mosquitoes in large U.S. cities, Armbruster said.
“It’s still an open question whether this is scalable to a major metropolitan area,” Armbruster said.
Kent County 17th Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Feeney, with one of the West Michigan Therapy Dogs, Inc. dogs and handler, at City of Wyoming’s 62-A District Court. (WKTV)
By K.D. Norris ken@wktv.org
Kai and Bentley, a German Shepard and a Goldendoodle, respectively, were friendly but not very talkative as they were introducing themselves around City of Wyoming’s 62-A District Court earlier this summer as part of Kent County’s Courthouse Therapy Dog Program pending expansion.
That’s okay, though, it’s sort of what they are trained to do as therapy dogs: to present a smiling dog face, a scratch-able ear, and a transferable sense of calmness to humans in stressful situations.
And, anyway, as WKTV hung out with Kai and Bentley and several of their 4-legged friends while the dogs prepared to start duty in Wyoming, their West Michigan Therapy Dogs, Inc. handlers and Kent County 17th Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Feeney — a driving force behind the program — had plenty to say on the dog’s behalf.
“They have been going to the different courthouses, getting used to the victim witness units, and in the courtrooms,” Judge Feeney said to WKTV in late June. “So they could be available for children who are victims of crime … and for vulnerable adults, who are also preyed upon, unfortunately, in criminal circumstances.
“We work them (the dogs) in two-hour shifts because that is about all they can handle because, believe it or not, they absorb a lot of the stress the kids are under.”
As of last week, Judge Feeney said several dogs have been “trained for Wyoming, Walker and Grandville (courts), as well as the 63rd and 61st District courts,” but have not yet started working in Wyoming.
Several of the West Michigan Therapy Dogs, Inc. dogs and handlers at City of Wyoming’s 62-A District Court. (WKTV)
In late 2018, Kent County’s Courthouse Therapy Dog Program began a trial effort in Judge Feeney’s court, along with the 61st and 63rd District Courts in Kent County. The program is a joint effort of Judge Feeney, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker and his office, as well as with West Michigan Therapy Dogs, Inc.
“Prosecutor Chris Becker and I had talked about having dogs brought into the courthouse for a couple years now, and when we started hearing about more and more courts in Michigan having dogs coming into the courthouse, courthouse dogs … We thought, OK, we need to start looking into this more, and he was very open to it,” she said.
Maybe not so incidentally, Judge Feeney has a personal connection to therapy dogs and to the local therapy dog group.
Kent County Circuit Court Family Division Judge Kathleen A. Feeney. (Supplied)
“My now four-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog, Rosie, is a West Michigan Therapy dog,” she said. “So we do dog therapy, in addition to the 400 other people who belong to this organization throughout West Michigan. And so I thought, okay, this is perfect. Let’s see if we can’t bring West Michigan Therapy Dogs into the prosecutor’s office and the courts.”
And the trial program, less than a year old, is already proving its success.
“The evolution is how people are valuing it, Judge Feeney said. “At first we only got a couple calls from victims or victim advocates … for dogs, but all of a sudden, they started seeing how positive it was for the victims, for the families, who are also very stressed and concerned about what is going on. Now there are a lot more requests.”
So what sort of dogs work well as therapy dogs? Just how do they do their jobs? Kai and Bentley let their handlers tell us.
Kai. (WKTV)
Kai’s “been doing therapy work for two years. He’s an 8-year-old dog and he’s been a court dog since October (2018),” Mary Hovingh said to WKTV. His “personality is calm, sweet, and in his case, he likes kids. Everything he does as a therapy dog is with children, no adults.
“I read the child. If the child does not want to touch the dog, they can sit near the dog, play games. If they want to pet the dog, they can. I’ve had kids show him pictures, they’ll read a book and show him a picture. And he will, oddly, look at the pictures.”
Mary Hovingh. (WKTV)
Hovingh explained that in addition to working in courts, “my dog goes to schools, he’s up to eight or nine different schools now, during the school year. And he does libraries. About a third of his people, the children who read to him, are special needs kids. He has ridiculous amounts of patience for children.”
Three-year-old Bentley, according to handler Val Bares, has a similar demeanor and work ethic.
Bentley. (WKTV)
“What traits make a good therapy dog?” she repeated a question from WKTV. “Mostly you look at the personality, you want the dog to be friendly with people. There are people dogs and there are dog dogs, and you want a people dog, one that loves to be petted. Their temperament is key. You want them to be calm.”
Bentley and Bares have been together since he was a puppy, and they work together in hospitals, a burn unit camp and at an assisted living center, she said. And she would not trade her work with Bentley for anything.
“I don’t know where it is more rewarding, for him or for me,” she said. “ Their intuition to people that are hurting or that are sad, is just unbelievable. It is such a blessing to be able to do this with him, in this program.”
To ensure your sunglasses provide adequate protection from the sun’s rays, consider asking your eye doctor to have a look at them. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Sunglasses need to be more than just fashion accessories, an eye expert advises.
“Think of sunglasses as sunscreen for your eyes,” said Dr. Dianna Seldomridge, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
“Your eyes need protection from the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays, just like your skin,” she explained. “Make sure your eyes are protected year-round. Harmful UV rays are present even on cloudy days.”
You should choose sunglasses that block 99% to 100% of both UVA and UVB radiation from the sun. You may be confused by labels that say the sunglasses provide 100% protection from UVA/UVB radiation, while others offer 100% UV 400 protection. Both will block 100% of the sun’s harmful radiation, the academy said in a news release.
If you’re skeptical of the UV protection label on sunglasses, take them to an optical shop or an ophthalmologist’s office, Seldomridge suggested. Most have a UV light meter that can test the sunglasses’ UV-blocking ability.
Consider buying oversized or wraparound-style sunglasses. The more coverage they provide, the better they protect your eyes, she said.
An important note: Dark lenses don’t block more UV rays than lighter lenses.
And you don’t have to pay a lot to get sunglasses that provide good eye protection, Seldomridge said. Less expensive ones marked as 100% UV-blocking can be just as effective as those that cost more.
Consider polarized lenses, which reduce glare from reflective surfaces (such as water or pavement). This doesn’t provide more protection from the sun but can make activities like driving or being on the water safer or more enjoyable.
Don’t forget sunglasses for your children, Seldomridge advised. Their eyes are just as susceptible to the sun’s harmful rays as yours and it’s a good idea to get them into the habit of wearing sunglasses at an early age.
Help your child adjust to back-to-school sleep schedules gradually. This will help them be alert and eager to learn by the time class starts. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Good sleep habits tend to take a vacation when school is out for the summer.
Long lazy days. Staying up late. Sleeping til noon. It’s all part of the fun.
But in the weeks leading up to the first school bell of the year, don’t forget to plan an adjustment to your child’s sleep routine. It’s never too early.
“It’s natural to be flexible with bedtimes in the summer,” said Jason Coles, MD, a pediatric sleep medicine specialist with Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. “But … you’ll want to transition to a more normal routine. The day before school begins isn’t the time to start—kids need to gradually adjust to a new sleep schedule.”
Begin adjusting bedtime and wake time now to work toward the following recommended amount of sleep each night:
Children 3 to 5 years old: 11 to 13 hours
Children 5 to 12 years old: 10 to 11 hours
Teens 13 to 18 years old: 9 to 10 hours
The best way to make bedtime earlier, Dr. Coles said, is to decrease bedtime by 15 minutes every three to four days, giving your child time to adjust.
For example, if your child is going to bed at 11:30 p.m., have him start going to bed at 11:15 p.m. for a few days, then 11 p.m. for a few days, and so on. If your bed time goal is 10 p.m., it’ll take a while to reach it.
Making sleep a priority can be challenging. Especially considering the growing body of evidence that early school start times prevent adolescents and teens from getting the sleep they need.
“Sleep is such an important element in a child’s success at school and their overall health and well-being,” Dr. Coles said. “Just like with adults, lack of sleep can negatively affect memory, concentration, mood and attitude. It’s well worth the effort to ensure that your kids get the sleep they need.”
Dr. Coles noted, however, that it’s equally important to focus on wake-up time.
“Kids will have a hard time falling asleep earlier if they’re not waking up earlier,” he said, suggesting having the alarm ring earlier and earlier leading up to the school year.
“Bright light exposure and physical activity, specifically in the morning, help this process to happen quicker and feel more natural,” Dr. Coles added.
Dr. Coles offers these 8 tips for healthy sleep habits:
Steadily adjust to earlier sleep and wake schedules well before school starts. This will adjust biological clocks to the new schedule.
Avoid physical activity before bedtime and encourage physical activity in the morning upon waking.
Establish a relaxing bedtime routine. Reading before bed is a good choice for kids of all ages.
Create a sleep environment that is cool, quiet, dimly lit and comfortable.
Keep television, video games and other electronics out of the bedroom. Avoid using them within one hour of bedtime.
Eliminate or reduce caffeine.
Eat well. Avoid big meals right before bed.
Increase activity (not near bedtime). Exercise and regular physical activity during the day improves sleep at night.
Even on weekends, keep a regular sleep schedule and avoid extremes. Having a regular bedtime every day increases the likelihood that kids, including teens, will get optimal sleep.
Keeping your child on a sleep routine will make it easier to wake them in the morning and they’ll feel better and more rested during the school day.
But don’t expect this to be easy.
“A change in sleep habits is hard, especially when kids want to make summer last and not think ahead to school,” Dr. Coles said. “Younger kids are more likely to question why they have to go to bed before the sunset. Remind them that good sleep means more energy to have fun the next day.”
Sweet plums and peaches are great on their own, a good source of potassium and a sweet low-cal snack with only 40 calories each.
But you can also use them as the foundation of dishes perfect for summer entertaining.
When it comes to picking out the best stone fruit, look for firm, unblemished skins—no scratches or bruises. If they’re firm to the touch, let them rest on a countertop or windowsill or in a basket for four to five days until ripe.
If you love fruit pies, but not their calorie overload, fruit crisps are a great swap. They’re lower in calories because they have only a streusel topping, no pie crust. This also makes them easier to prepare.
Stone fruit crisp
4 plums or peaches, halved, pitted and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
1/2 pint raspberries
(For the streusel)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup rolled oats
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place the stone fruit slices in a large bowl along with the lemon juice, vanilla and cinnamon. Toss well. Arrange fruit in an 8-inch baking dish, overlapping them slightly, and then sprinkle with the raspberries.
In a clean bowl, use a pastry blender or fork to mix the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter and rolled oats until well combined. Sprinkle over the fruit and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until top is golden and the berries are bubbling. Cool 5 minutes before serving.
Yield: 4 servings
For a twist on traditional salsa, this fruit-based variation really satisfies.
Stone Fruit Salsa
1 pound ripe peaches, plums or a mix, pitted and diced
1/2 cup minced red onion
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, leaves and stems
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 limes, juiced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, toss well and refrigerate for about an hour before serving to allow the flavors to develop. Use as an accompaniment for grilled chicken or fish, or as a dip for whole-grain pita wedges or crackers.
Why do some folks manage to lose significant weight with casual dieting, while others will lose nary a pound with a strict plan? It often comes down to genetics, researchers say. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
While some people fight the “battle of the bulge” for a lifetime, others seem to effortlessly stay slim. And now scientists say it all boils down to genetics.
Certain DNA helps decide whether weight gain is a torment or not for people, British researchers report.
“It’s easy to rush to judgment and criticize people for their weight, but the science shows that things are far more complex,” said study leader Sadaf Farooqi.
Instead, “we have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think,” said Farooqi. She’s a professor at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge.
One U.S. expert agreed.
“We stigmatize people based on weight and subconsciously blame them for not taking care of themselves,” said Dr. Mitchell Roslin, chief of obesity surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “We state they lack willpower, but instead, this study shows that the most thin and the heaviest have genetic dispositions that control their body weight.”
Of course, any number of factors affect weight, including eating habits and exercise levels. But some people stay thin despite unhealthy lifestyles, while others struggle with overweight and obesity despite their best efforts, the British team noted.
Prior studies on “obesity” genes have focused on people who were already overweight or obese.
But the new study also focused on thin people (those with a body mass index of 18 or below), trying to discover why they often have an easier time staying slim.
To do so, the Cambridge group analyzed the DNA of more than 1,600 thin, healthy Brits. They then compared that data with the genetics of nearly 2,000 severely obese people and more than 10,000 normal-weight people.
The investigators spotted several common gene variants already linked with obesity. They also found new genetic regions tied to severe obesity, and some others linked to “healthy thinness.”
The researchers then added up the contribution of the different genetic variants to calculate each person’s “genetic risk score.”
“As anticipated, we found that obese people had a higher genetic risk score than normal-weight people, which contributes to their risk of being overweight,” study co-author Ines Barroso, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said in a university news release.
“The genetic dice are loaded against them,” Barroso said.
Thin people also had fewer genetic variants known to raise the odds of being overweight, according to the study published recently in the journal PLoS Genetics.
Farooqi’s conclusion: “Healthy thin people are generally thin because they have a lower burden of genes that increase a person’s chances of being overweight and not because they are morally superior, as some people like to suggest.”
These “thin genes” appear to be passed along through generations, the study authors added. About 74 percent of the thin people in the study had a family history of people being thin and healthy.
Does all of this mean that less genetically gifted people should just shrug and give in to becoming obese? Not so, said nutritionist and weight-management expert Michelle Milgrim.
“While genetics may play a leading role in determining our ‘weight destiny,’ there is a growing body of research to suggest that how we live our lives is as important as our genetic predispositions,” said Milgrim, who manages employee wellness at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
“Staying active, sitting less, cutting out processed and fast foods and focusing on eating a balanced diet of whole foods are general healthy recommendations for everyone, despite your genes,” she said.
In the meantime, the Cambridge researchers said their research might someday end up helping everyone stay thin, regardless of their personal DNA.
“We already know that people can be thin for different reasons” Farooqi said. “Some people are just not that interested in food whereas others can eat what they like, but never put on weight. If we can find the genes that prevent them from putting on weight, we may be able to target those genes to find new weight-loss strategies and help people who do not have this advantage.”
The “hygiene hypothesis” holds that early exposure to a variety of microorganisms may decrease the risk for chronic inflammatory diseases, like asthma.
Two Swedish studies that tracked 650,000 children found that exposure to farm animals and even dogs can have this kind of beneficial effect. Living on a farm cut kids’ asthma rate by half. Just having a dog in baby’s first year was linked to a 13 percent lower risk of asthma later on, the researchers reported.
Most Americans don’t live on farms, but these findings show that raising a baby in a household with a dog might have benefits beyond love and companionship. Early exposure to cats as well as dogs may offer some protection from developing allergies and asthma, health experts suggest.
Other steps can also help prevent childhood asthma.
First, don’t smoke or allow anyone else in your household to smoke. Smoking when pregnant increases the chances of your baby wheezing during infancy. And continued exposure to secondhand smoke has a direct tie to asthma and other respiratory illnesses in kids.
Also, try to breastfeed baby for at least four to six months to strengthen his or her immune system and help avoid infections that start in the lungs, common asthma triggers.
Other suggestions:
Reduce exposure to dust mites, a common allergen
Use zippered covers on pillows and mattresses, wash all bedding in
hot water once a week and keep the humidity in your home below 50
percent
If you can, keep baby’s room free of carpeting and upholstered furniture, places where mites hide
A big part of your checklist as you prepare for a trip overseas: Make sure you’re up to date on your measles vaccination. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Due to waning vaccination levels in some areas, measles outbreaks are back with a vengeance.
But many globe-trotting Americans may not realize the problem is worldwide. Therefore, making sure your measles vaccination is up to date is paramount before jetting off.
In fact, U.S. outbreaks of measles “are usually started by foreign travelers importing the virus to the U.S.,” according to Dr. Len Horovitz. He’s a specialist in pulmonary illnesses at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
“This is exacerbated by lack of vaccination in many foreign countries,” Horovitz said. And according to a regularly updated list of measles “hotspots” from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “this is clearly a global epidemic,” he said.
“Asia, Africa and the Middle East lead the list, but in Europe the Ukraine and Romania have had reports of outbreaks,” Horovitz noted. “Also included on the outbreak list are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria and Lithuania.”
Besides ruining a dream vacation, measles is very contagious and can be spread quickly to others, experts warn. And even if you think you got the shot in childhood, it’s smart to check and see if your immunity has waned, Horovitz said.
That’s especially true for some of the baby boomer generation.
“It’s well-known that vaccines between 1963 and 1967 were less effective and immunity can fade over the age of 50, even if you’ve had the disease,” Horovitz explained. “So one cannot assume immunity to measles, mumps or rubella in any adult.”
A simple blood test can gauge your immunity.
Horovitz said he’s been “testing patients for immunity in the last 10 weeks. All are adults and I’ve uncovered two or more patients each week who need booster vaccination. That’s 23 non-immune adults so far in a solo practice.”
According to Horovitz, one large commercial lab that tests for immunity to measles, mumps and rubella found that as many as 9%-13% of specimens lacked immunity to one or more of the three viruses.
So while getting kids vaccinated is crucial, “there’s also clear evidence that there is a significant number of non-immune adults in the U.S.,” Horovitz said.
Meanwhile, the measles situation in the United States continues to be dire.
“The 2018-2019 measles epidemic has been documented as one of the worst on record since 2000,” Horovitz said. “In April 2019, the CDC reported 695 cases in 22 states. The largest outbreaks were in Washington state and New York State.” He pointed out that 2018 saw a 300% increase in cases.
Some patients should not receive measles vaccination (including those with multiple sclerosis), so it’s better to assess a patient’s need for re-vaccination rather than just giving a booster to any patient requesting it or traveling to a country where measles is common, Horovitz said.
“A simple blood test with 24-hour turnaround time will reveal the immune status and need for vaccination. Patients who don’t require a booster should not be vaccinated, but a surprising number will require it,” he said.
Research suggests antibiotic use be kept to as short a period as possible, given the potentially adverse effects of prolonged use. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Antibiotics can be lifesaving, but using them over a long period might raise the odds of heart disease and stroke in older women, a new study suggests.
Researchers tracked the health of nearly 36,500 U.S. women over an average follow-up of nearly eight years. During that time, more than a thousand developed heart disease.
The study found that women aged 60 and older who used antibiotics for two months or longer were 32% percent more likely to develop heart disease than those who did not use antibiotics.
Women aged 40 to 59 who took antibiotics for longer than two months had a 28% higher risk than those who did not take the drugs, said a team led by Lu Qi. He directs the Tulane University Obesity Research Center in New Orleans.
Said another way, the results mean that for older women who take antibiotics for two months or more, 6 per 1,000 would go on to develop heart disease, compared with 3 in 1,000 among those who did not take the drugs.
There was no increased risk of heart disease among women aged 20 to 39 who took antibiotics, according to the study published recently in the European Heart Journal.
“This is an observational study and so it cannot show that antibiotics cause heart disease and stroke, only that there is a link between them,” Qi said in a journal news release. “It’s possible that women who reported more antibiotic use might be sicker in other ways that we were unable to measure, or there may be other factors that could affect the results that we have not been able take account of.”
However, the researchers did take into account other factors, including age, race, sex, diet and lifestyle, reasons for antibiotic use, overweight or obesity, other diseases and medication use.
The most common reasons for antibiotic use among women in the study were respiratory infections, urinary tract infections and dental problems.
So what could be the link between antibiotics and heart risk?
One possible reason could lie in the fact that antibiotics do alter the balance of gut microbes, destroying good bacteria and increasing the proportion of viruses, bacteria or other microbes that can cause disease, Qi suggested.
“Antibiotic use is the most critical factor in altering the balance of microorganisms in the gut,” he said, and “previous studies have shown a link between alterations in the microbiotic environment of the gut and inflammation and narrowing of the blood vessels, stroke and heart disease.”
Study first author Yoriko Heianza is a research fellow at Tulane University. She noted that, as the women in the study aged, “they were more likely to need more antibiotics, and sometimes for longer periods of time, which suggests a cumulative effect may be the reason for the stronger link in older age between antibiotic use and cardiovascular disease.”
According to Qi, the take-home message from the new study is that “antibiotics should be used only when they are absolutely needed. Considering the potentially cumulative adverse effects, the shorter time of antibiotic use, the better.”
Dr. Eugenia Gianos directs Women’s Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She wasn’t involved in the new research but said the findings are “interesting and warrant further analysis.”
Gianos agreed that the study couldn’t prove cause and effect.
“It is very possible that patients who require antibiotics for an infection have a worse underlying infectious or inflammatory process and that the systemic effects of these diseases are what cause cardiovascular disease,” she reasoned.
But the interplay between antibiotics, the gut’s “microbiome” and the cardiovascular system could be important as well, Gianos said.
“Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.”
George Eliot
On a roll
Only recently, Margo Price “was a country underdog just trying to keep enough gas in the tank to get to the next gig,” but by the end of 2016, she was one of the genre’s most celebrated new artists with gigs on late night television and at major festivals around the world. Don’t miss her performance at Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park this Thursday, Aug. 1st. The Dawes with Margo Price concert will start at 6:30pm (5:15pm gates open), with a $50 general admission ticket price. For more information and tickets visit meijergardens.org. Go here for the story.
Precious cargo
National Heat Stroke Prevention day is July 31, 2019, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is reminding everyone to “look before you lock.” It takes just 10 minutes for a vehicle in the sun to heat up by 20 degrees and become potentially deadly for a child left locked in a car. Go here for the story.
Tick tock
If despite your best prevention efforts, a tick still attaches to you, there’s a right and a wrong way to remove ticks. Don’t use matches or the tip of a cigarette to burn off ticks. This could cause them to transmit bacteria more quickly. The correct way to remove a tick is to lift it gently with thin forceps or tweezers. Here are more tips.
Fun fact:
A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. You’re welcome.
Most people think about going to their primary care provider’s office when they are sick, but did you know it’s also recommended to visit your health center, on average, once per year when you are healthy? This is commonly called a “yearly physical” or “annual preventive visit.” The goal of this visit is to promote health and prevent disease. There are several diseases we can either prevent or catch early before they cause you problems — and most of these don’t have any symptoms, meaning that you feel fine and might not know that something is wrong.
This includes:
High blood pressure
Diabetes or Pre-diabetes
High cholesterol
Certain cancers, such as cervical, breast, or colon cancer
Certain sexually transmitted infections
Coming in for a yearly physical is also a great chance to make sure you are up-to-date on the recommended vaccines (such as your yearly flu shot, tetanus booster, or pneumonia vaccine), and talk to your primary care provider about any other recommended screenings based on your age and risk factors. For example, did you know all baby boomers are advised to be screened for Hepatitis C? This is a virus that can be silent for years but ultimately cause liver damage or even cancer. The good news is we have a cure, and all it takes is a simple blood test to detect it.
At your annual physical, you and your primary care provider will together come up with a plan to ensure you stay healthy and work on any areas that might be holding you back or hurting your health.
Over time, the more you get to know your primary care provider, the more comfortable you will feel seeking help if something does go wrong. And believe it or not, the better your primary care provider knows you, the better care they will be able to give you.
Summer is a great time to schedule an appointment for your yearly physical. Call your health center today!
I once had a patient I’ll call Laura who taught me the power of goal-setting and running.
I always knew goal-setting could be an effective motivator and used this in my personal life to get through school, medical training, fitness goals, to help my kids, and so forth, but had not explored how to utilize the power of a goal for healthy aging for others.
I remember seeing Laura for her annual physical, and she told me she had been through a rough time in her marriage, did not like her job, had stopped working out, gained weight, ate without planning or thinking, and did not feel attractive or energetic.
When asked what goal she had for herself at a date in the future, she said she wanted to be hot. She defined ‘hot’ as fit, back in her old clothes, and able to run and exercise like when she was 40.
My next question was, “How badly do you want this?” She told me she knew she wanted this.
In the past she had been a runner, and knew the River Bank Run was coming up. She told me to expect great things and left with her shoulders back and a smile.
More than a year later, while rushing through a busy day, I went around the corner fast in the hallway. I almost ran into a woman I did not recognize, and excused myself. It was Laura, and she laughed when she realized I did not recognize her. I looked closer and my chin dropped.
Laura had achieved her goal. She looked fit, had lost a significant amount of weight, and had a big smile on her face. She said, “I did it, I am hot!”
In the intervening year, she had gone online to the River Bank Run website, and used its planning tool to train for the race.
She had not run in years, and took the first several months slow, working on her endurance, and being careful to not get too impatient. She took note of warming up, stretching and improving her core strength to avoid injury, and even visited a local trainer to make sure she was being smart.
Once she built her base, she started working harder, and at the same time did research on a healthy diet for her workouts and made sure she had plenty of complex carbs like brown rice, Ezekiel bread, sweet potatoes and oatmeal.
Running most days helped her sleep improve, and on busy days she would even run indoors at 8 or 9 at night. Her mood improved, she made better choices in her personal and professional life, and began to fit into her old clothes again. The image of being hot at 50 kept her going, even on days she did not feel like running. She always felt better after a run.
Race day came and she finished in a respectable time. She lost 55 pounds, regained her self-respect and liked herself again. She was ready to enjoy her 50th.
I loved her story as it shows what a goal can do to motivate someone. Not only did she achieve her goal, but felt better and better each day. And not only did she change her outside, but her inside as well.
With exercise and weight loss come a healthier blood vessel system with smooth walls and a lower chance of building up plaque. This lowers the chance of dementia, stroke and heart attack.
Her bones increased in density, lowering the risk of osteoporosis and fracture. The weight loss also lowered her risk of many cancers, namely breast and uterine cancer.
Most of all, Laura took care of herself.
Even if running is not your thing, we encourage all people to set a life goal. Think of a key event in your life — a birthday, a child’s wedding (or your own), retirement, or a dream vacation. Write it down, talk about it, make a plan on how to achieve that goal, and get busy.
As a dangerous heat wave descends upon the Midwest, and in advance of National Heat Stroke Prevention day on July 31, 2019, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is reminding everyone to “look before you lock.” This national campaign urges drivers to develop a routine habit of checking their backseat before locking their car and walking away. Outside of crashes, heatstroke is the number one vehicle-related killer of children in the United States. Vehicle heat stroke occurs when a child is left in a hot vehicle, allowing their body temperature to rise rapidly and often fatally. In the 20 years from 1998 to 2018, 772 children died of heatstroke in hot cars. Already in 2019, 21 children have died in hot cars.
As temperatures outside climb, the interior of vehicles rapidly reach dangerous temperatures. It takes just 10 minutes for a vehicle in the sun to heat up by 20 degrees and become potentially deadly. This means in the forecasted 95-degree heat, the interior of a vehicle can reach a lethal 115 degrees in the time it takes to run into the bank or gas station.
Children are significantly more sensitive to heat stroke than adults. Infant and children’s body temperatures rise three to five times faster than that of adults experiencing the same temperatures. When a child is trapped in a hot vehicle, their body temperature will rise rapidly. Heat stroke begins when the core body temperature reaches 104. A core body temperature of 107 is fatal.
Make it a habit to look in the back seat EVERY time you exit the car.
ALWAYS lock the car and put the keys out of reach.
Courtesy Michigan State University Extension
If you are a bystander and see a child in a hot vehicle:
Make sure the child is OK and responsive. If not, call 911 immediately.
If the child appears to be OK, attempt to locate the parents or have the facility’s security or management page the car owner over the PA system.
If there is someone with you, one person should actively search for the parent while the other waits at the car.
If the child is not responsive or appears to be in distress, attempt to get into the car to assist the child—even if that means breaking a window. Many states have “Good Samaritan” laws that protect people from lawsuits for getting involved to help a person in an emergency.
Know the warning signs of heatstroke, which include red, hot and moist or dry skin; no sweating; a strong rapid pulse or a slow weak pulse; nausea; confusion; or acting strangely. If a child exhibits any of these signs after being in a hot vehicle, quickly spray the child with cool water or with a garden hose—NEVER put a child in an ice bath. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.
More than half (54%) of all vehicle-related heatstroke deaths in children are caused by a child accidentally being left in the car, and 26% are from a child getting into a hot car unsupervised. It only takes a few minutes for a vehicle to reach dangerous temperatures. Take time to develop a vehicle safety routine for your family and prevent tragedy.
While only a few tick species infect people with diseases, the rising popularity of many outdoor activities and the spread of residential developments has upped the odds that one of those creepy parasites might latch on to you.
“Luckily, ticks don’t fly, jump or fall from the sky,” vector-borne disease expert Stephen Wikel said. He’s a professor emeritus of medical sciences at Quinnipiac University’s Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine, in North Haven, Conn.
“They generally move from grass to a living host, and crawl upwards, looking for a warm, moist area to feed. Ticks also have incredible anti-detection defenses. For example, their saliva is loaded with antihistamines, anticoagulants and other inhibitors that prevent wound healing, and dampen pain and itch responses; unfed nymphs are so small, they can be mistaken for freckles,” he said.
So, how can you avoid becoming a tick’s next meal? Wikel recommends the following preventive steps:
Protect your ankles. Wear long pants tucked into high socks when doing yard work. Wrap duct tape—sticky-side out—around where the pants and socks meet so that crawling ticks get stuck on the tape.
Dress properly. Use clothing, tents and other gear treated with repellent, such as permethrin. This repellent kills ticks, mosquitoes, chiggers and mites. These products are available online or at sporting goods stores.
Wear repellent. Apply topical insect repellent that contains less than 40 percent DEET. Children should use repellent that contains no more than 30 percent DEET, Wikel said.
Conduct tick checks. “Tick bites are painless, so if you are in an area with ticks, perform a thorough tick check and remove ticks immediately,” he advised.
Don’t forget pets.”The neurotransmitter blockers in anti-tick treatments and flea collars are very effective in keeping ticks from biting pets,” said Wikel. “When pets come indoors, check for crawling ticks to prevent them from getting off your pet and on to you.”
Create a tick-free zone. You can make your yard less attractive to rodent, deer and other tick-carriers. Keeping lawns trimmed and creating barriers between your yard and the woods with wood chips, mulch or gravel can eliminate tall grasses where ticks crawl. Remove wood piles and stones where mice, chipmunks and squirrels may hide. These little critters keep tick larva and nymphs circulating in nature.
Hike carefully. Stay in the center of hiking trails to avoid contact with vegetation.
If despite your best prevention efforts, a tick still attaches to you, there’s a right and a wrong way to remove ticks, Wikel cautioned.
Don’t use matches or the tip of a cigarette to burn off ticks. This could cause them to transmit bacteria more quickly.
The correct way to remove a tick is to lift it gently with thin forceps or tweezers. It’s also a good idea to use a magnifying glass while removing a tick, Wikel advised.
If you can remove the tick intact, you can bring it to your doctor’s office or local health department for identification.
If you develop symptoms within a few weeks after a tick bite, make an appointment with your doctor, advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Warning signs of tick-borne diseases may vary from person to person, said Wikel. Symptoms, which can range from mild to severe, may include: fever and chills, headaches, fatigue and muscle aches.
People with Lyme disease may also develop joint pain, he said.
“Many people think a sign of Lyme disease is a bull’s-eye rash, but rashes don’t always occur,” said Wikel.
If left untreated, Lyme disease can affect the joints, the heart or the nervous system. When diagnosed early, on the other hand, Lyme disease can be cured with antibiotics. This is the case for most tick-borne disease, Wikel said.
Researchers say they’ve genetically modified a species of ivy to filter out harmful pollutants. Other common houseplants are likely next. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
A common houseplant to help keep your home’s air cleaner and safer?
Scientists report they have genetically altered pothos ivy to filter certain hazardous chemicals from household air.
Many people use HEPA air filters to reduce levels of allergens and dust particles in their homes. But the molecules of the chemicals benzene and chloroform are too small to be trapped in these filters, the University of Washington researchers explained.
Chloroform is present in small amounts in chlorinated water. Benzene—a component of gasoline—can accumulate in homes through showering or boiling water, or by keeping cars or lawn mowers in attached garages, the study authors noted.
Both benzene and chloroform exposure have been linked to cancer.
“People haven’t really been talking about these hazardous organic compounds in homes and I think that’s because we couldn’t do anything about them,” study senior author Stuart Strand said in a university news release. He’s a research professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering.
“Now we’ve engineered houseplants to remove these pollutants for us,” Strand said.
The researchers genetically modified pothos ivy to remove chloroform and benzene from the air around it. The altered plants produce a protein called 2E1 that transforms chloroform and benzene into molecules the plants can use for growth.
When placed in glass tubes with either benzene or chloroform gas, the modified plants reduced chloroform levels by 82 percent after three days, and the gas was almost undetectable by day six. Benzene levels dropped by about 75 percent after eight days, the researchers said.
These lab tests used much higher levels of the gases than would be found in homes, but it’s likely that the plants would lower home levels of the gases as fast, or even faster, the study authors said.
The researchers said they’re now adding another protein to pothos ivy that can break down formaldehyde, a gas found in many wood products and tobacco smoke.
The research was published recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Based on new findings, scientists suspect people are more likely than first thought to develop a red meat allergy if they’re bitten by a tick. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Certain tick bites can cause a red meat allergy—and now scientists are shedding new light on the condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome.
Alpha-gal is a sugar found in most mammal blood, but not in humans.
“Our original hypothesis was that humans developed the allergy after being exposed to alpha-gal through a tick that had fed on a deer, dog or other small mammal that has alpha-gal,” said researcher Scott Commins.
When people develop an allergic immune response to alpha-gal, it can lead to a red meat allergy, explained Commins, who is an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.
“This new data suggests that ticks can induce this immune response without requiring the mammal blood meal, which likely means the risk of each bite potentially leading to the allergy is higher than we anticipated,” he said in a university news release.
In this study, scientists did a series of laboratory experiments with human immune cells and saliva from four species of ticks: Lone Star, deer, Gulf Coast and American dog. Some had fed on blood containing alpha-gal, others had not.
As expected, saliva from Lone Star and deer ticks that had recently fed on blood containing alpha-gal caused an immune cell reaction. But saliva from ticks that had not recently fed on blood also triggered a reaction, the findings showed.
“These results suggest that more tick bites than we initially suspected could pose a risk for developing red meat allergy,” Commins said.
However, no saliva from the Gulf Coast or the American dog ticks caused a reaction, according to the report.
The study was presented Saturday at an American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology meeting, in San Francisco. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
There is no treatment for alpha-gal syndrome, other than avoiding foods and products that cause a reaction, the researchers noted.
Scrutinizing what you eat—and how much—will play an outsized role in shaping your metabolism in your mid-30s and beyond. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Your metabolism rate determines how fast you burn calories. That can influence how fast you lose weight—and how easily you can gain it.
After age 25, metabolism naturally slows by 5 percent every decade.
So if you eat as much in your 40s as you did in your 20s, you’re going to add extra pounds—especially if you exercise less and lose muscle. In addition to weight training to maintain muscle, these tips from the American Council on Exercise can help.
Stick to well-spaced meals at the same times each day. This lets your body know to expect fuel at regular intervals and prevents it from conserving calories and adding to fat stores.
Calorie cutting is important if you need to lose weight, but reducing your intake to starvation levels also puts your body in conservation mode, slowing down metabolism.
So rather than speeding up weight loss, starvation ultimately slows it. And that’s why it’s so easy to regain lost weight when you start eating normally: Your metabolism tends to stay slow.
Dehydration can lead to a 2 percent drop in the number of calories burned, so drink at least eight glasses of water throughout each day and even more when you sweat a lot.
Watch the alcohol. Besides adding empty calories to your diet, processing alcohol diverts the liver from burning fat.
Also consider milk and other dairy choices for their calcium, a mineral involved in fat metabolism.
Dairy also delivers whey and casein—proteins that help build and preserve muscle. Remember that the more muscle you have, the more calories it takes to maintain it.
Finally, keep the hormones that regulate hunger and fullness on an even keel by getting enough sleep—at least seven hours a night.
Otherwise, you might find yourself craving sugary, fatty and starchy foods. Plus if you’re sleep-deprived on a regular basis, your body may not burn calories efficiently.
