You can often lose weight by making small yet strategic calorie cuts at every meal, rather than eliminating entire meals or cutting portions so severely that you never feel satisfied.
You probably already know that a cup of blueberries with a dollop of creamy yogurt has a fraction of the calories of a slice of blueberry pie.
But there are many other ways you can trim the calories in favorite meals without diminishing their satisfying taste.
Here are 5 ideas that each shave off about 200 calories:
Eggs
If your idea of a big breakfast is a fatty sausage, egg and cheese sandwich, have a veggie-filled omelet instead. Make it with one whole egg and two extra whites for more protein and “overload” it with tomatoes, peppers and onions.
Romaine
Ditch the bread and high-calorie sandwich condiments at lunch by wrapping up lean protein, such as slices of roasted chicken, in large leaves of romaine lettuce with a touch of balsamic vinegar or hot sauce.
Cauliflower
To get the toothy appeal of steak, make your main course grilled portabello mushrooms and serve them with a side of mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes. With some no-salt seasoning, you won’t taste any difference.
Squash
There’s no need to give up your favorite red sauce if you use it to top spaghetti squash (or zucchini ribbons) rather than spaghetti, plus you can eat twice as much. Want healthier meatballs? Try making them with a blend of ground turkey and a whole grain like kasha or farro.
Salsa
Love Mexican food? You can still enjoy the taste—and get the fiber and protein goodness of beans—by simply skipping the tortilla or taco shell. And you don’t need sour cream if you have a dab of guacamole. Just go easy on the cheese and rice but double up on low-cal zesty salsa.
Job stress, high blood pressure and poor sleep may be a recipe for an early death, German researchers report.
In a study of nearly 2,000 workers with high blood pressure who were followed for almost 18 years, those who reported having both a stressful job and poor sleep were three times more likely to die from heart disease than those who slept well and didn’t have a trying job, the investigators found.
“As many as 50% of adults have high blood pressure,” said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
It’s a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease and premature cardiovascular death, said Fonarow, who had no role in the new study.
“A number of studies have found associations between greater work stress and subsequent risk of cardiovascular events. Impairment in sleep has also been associated with increased risk,” he said. However, these associations did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
In the new study, the researchers reported that among people with high blood pressure (“hypertension”), those who had work stress alone had a twofold higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, as did those who reported having poor sleep alone.
According to lead researcher Dr. Karl-Heinz Ladwig, “Sleep should be a time for recreation, unwinding and restoring energy levels. If you have stress at work, sleep helps you recover.” Ladwig is a professor at the German Research Centre for Environmental Health and also with the Technical University of Munich.
“Unfortunately, poor sleep and job stress often go hand in hand, and when combined with hypertension, the effect is even more toxic,” he added in a statement.
According to the study authors, a stressful job is one where employees have many demands but little control over their work. For example, an employer demands results but denies authority to make decisions.
“If you have high demands but also high control, in other words you can make decisions, this may even be positive for health,” Ladwig said. “But being entrapped in a pressured situation that you have no power to change is harmful.”
Poor sleep was defined as having difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. “Maintaining sleep is the most common problem in people with stressful jobs,” Ladwig said.
These problems combine over time to sap your energy and “may lead to an early grave,” he added.
Ladwig suggested that to lower the risk of an early death, people have to keep their blood pressure low, develop good sleep habits and find ways to cope with stress.
Mika Kivimaki, a professor of social epidemiology at University College London, thinks this study provides a unique look at workplace risk.
Most previous research on work stress has targeted the general working population, he said.
“The effects on health have been relatively modest. However, recent findings suggest stress might be a much bigger problem for those with pre-existing disease. This new study supports this notion,” said Kivimaki, who had no part in the study.
Focusing on people with high blood pressure was a good choice, he noted.
“In this group, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) is common,” Kivimaki said. And for these patients, “stress response could increase cardiac electrical instability, plaque disruption and thrombus (clot) formation,” which can contribute to an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), heart attack or stroke.
The researchers think that employers can help by implementing programs that teach employees how to relax.
Employers should provide stress management and sleep treatment in the workplace, Ladwig added, especially for staff with chronic conditions like high blood pressure. Such programs should also include helping employees to quit smoking.
It is well known that people with high blood pressure can substantially lower their risk of heart attack and stroke by achieving and maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, Fonarow said. Whether or not workplace programs designed to reduce stress and improve sleep will pay off remains to be seen, he said.
The report was published recently in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
But it’s essential for the making of nerve and red blood cells, as well as DNA along with many other body processes.
Adults and teens need just 2.4 micrograms a day, but you can fall short even on this small amount.
You’re at particular risk of a B12 deficiency if you’re a vegetarian because animal foods, like meat and dairy, are the only foods that deliver it.
If you have a health problem that affects nutrient absorption, like Crohn’s disease, have had bariatric surgery or take certain medications, you also run the risk.
So do people over 50 because of changes in stomach acids.
Common medications that can affect your body’s B12 levels:
PPIs such as omeprazole (Prilosec) and lansoprazole (Prevacid), used for treating heartburn or GERD.
H2 receptor antagonists such as famotidine (Pepcid) and ranitidine (Zantac), also used for treating those and other conditions.
Metformin, the diabetes drug.
A deficiency can develop slowly over time or come on rather fast.
Possible warning signs include emotional or thinking problems, fatigue, weakness, weight loss, constipation and numbness or tingling in hands and feet. These can also be symptoms of many other conditions, but it takes only a blood test to diagnose a B12 deficiency.
If you don’t eat animal-based foods, you can boost B12 with fortified soy foods or grain products like cereal.
And unless the deficiency is severe, you’ll get enough through a multivitamin supplement. When the deficiency is more serious, your doctor might give you a B12 shot to bring your level up to normal.
Be certain that the doctor who prescribes B12 supplementation for you is aware of any medications you’re taking to avoid negative interactions.
If you have developed swallowing problems as you age, a new study may explain why.
A loss of muscle mass and function in the throat helps explain why 15 percent of seniors have difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), researchers have found.
“Dysphagia has serious consequences for health and quality of life,” said study author Sonja Molfenter. She is an assistant professor of communicative sciences and disorders at New York University in New York City.
“This research establishes the need for exercise programs for older adults that target throat muscles, just like those that target the muscles of the arms, legs and other parts of the human body,” Molfenter said in a university news release.
Swallowing problems can also lead to health issues such as malnutrition, dehydration and pneumonia from food and drink that end up in the lungs instead of going down the throat.
Research has also shown that when patients with dysphagia are admitted to the hospital, they’re in the hospital an average of 40 percent longer than those without dysphagia. That adds up to an estimated cost of $547 million a year, the study authors said.
Dysphagia in older adults is concerning as the proportion of seniors in the United States is expected to top 20 percent by 2030, the researchers noted.
The findings were published in the journal Dysphagia.
Thousands of children each year suffer from a variety of backpack-related injuries, including back and neck pain, shoulder pain, muscle strains and spasms, nerve damage and headaches.
These conditions are preventable with just a few quick tips:
Check weight: The total weight of the load should not exceed more than 10% of the child’s body weight. For example, if your child weighs 100 lbs., the weight of the backpack should not be more than 10 lbs.
Right size: choose a backpack that fits the child’s size. An 8-year-old needs a smaller backpack than a teenager.
Design: Thick, padded straps are best. A waist strap is also very important. Our shoulders are not meant to carry all that weight
Packing: Place the heaviest items closest to the child’s back. Using the bag’s compartments to even out the weight helps too.
Wear the bag right: Be sure to use both shoulder straps when carrying the bag. If the bag has a waist strap, use it! Do not lean forward when walking or standing with the bag. Stand up straight.
Hopefully these simple tips can save unwanted pain and injury this school year.
Researchers in one recent study said doctors should consider quickly prescribing antibiotics to older adults who develop UTIs, given the increased risk of sepsis and death. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
For older adults with a urinary tract infection, antibiotic treatment should begin immediately to prevent serious complications, a new British study finds.
Delaying or withholding antibiotics in this age group can increase the risk of bloodstream infection (sepsis) and death, researchers reported recently in the BMJ.
The findings suggest that doctors should “consider early prescription of antibiotics for this vulnerable group of older adults, in view of their increased susceptibility to sepsis following UTI and despite a growing pressure to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use,” Paul Aylin and colleagues said in a journal news release. Aylin is a professor of epidemiology and public health at Imperial College London.
UTI is the most common bacterial infection in older patients. But concerns about antibiotic resistance have led to reductions in antibiotic use in England, the study authors noted.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data on more than 300,000 urinary tract infections among more than 150,000 patients aged 65 and older, between 2007 and 2015.
Of those patients, 87 percent were prescribed antibiotics on the day of diagnosis, 6 percent received a prescription within seven days and 7 percent did not take antibiotics, according to the report.
The patients were tracked for 60 days after their diagnosis. After accounting for other factors, the investigators found that sepsis and death rates were much higher among patients with no antibiotics or delayed prescriptions, compared with those who received immediate prescriptions.
On average, for every 37 patients not given antibiotics and for every 51 patients with delayed antibiotic treatment, one case of sepsis would occur that would not have occurred with immediate antibiotic treatment, the study authors said.
However, because this was an observational study, it cannot prove cause and effect.
The researchers also found that hospital admission rates were 27 percent among patients with no and delayed prescriptions, compared with 15 percent among those with immediate prescriptions.
Older men, especially those over 85, and those living in poorer areas had the highest risk of problems from no prescriptions or treatment delays, the findings showed.
Writing in an accompanying journal editorial, Alastair Hay, of the University of Bristol in England, suggested that further research is needed “to establish whether treatment should be initiated with a broad- or a narrow-spectrum antibiotic, and to identify those in whom delaying treatment (while awaiting test results) is safe.”
Researchers have found that injuries sustained while dog walking—fractures, specifically—have jumped 163 percent in the 65 and older group over the past 15 years. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Walking the dog can be great exercise for seniors, but there could be one downside: fractures.
Fractures suffered by elderly Americans while walking their dogs have more than doubled in recent years, new research shows.
Still, taking your dog for a walk can also bring big health rewards, one joint specialist said.
“Pets can provide companionship for older adults—and the physical exercise from regularly walking a dog may improve other aspects of physical and psychological health,” said Dr. Matthew Hepinstall, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
“So, the risks of walking a dog should be balanced against potential benefits,” said Hepinstall, who helps direct joint surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
The new research was led by Kevin Pirruccio, a second-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania. His team tracked national data and found that among people aged 65 and older, fractures associated with walking leashed dogs rose from about 1,700 cases in 2004 to almost 4,400 cases in 2017—a 163 percent rise.
More than three-quarters of the fractures occurred in women, with hip and arm fractures being the most common. About half of all fractures occurred in the upper body, with fractures of the wrist, upper arm, finger and shoulder leading the way.
The most common type of fracture was a broken hip (17 percent). That’s cause for concern, Pirruccio’s team said, because the death rate linked to hip fractures in people older than 65 is close to 30 percent.
The researchers added that the study only involved data on fractures treated at emergency departments. The actual number of dog walking-related injuries among seniors might even be higher if injuries not typically seen in a hospital—for example, tendon or muscle tears—were factored in.
Why the rising rates of fractures tied to dog walking? The study authors theorized that increased pet ownership and a greater emphasis on physical activity for older adults may be driving the trend.
In a university news release, Pirruccio stressed that walking your pooch each day “has repeatedly demonstrated social, emotional and physical health benefits.” It’s also “a popular and frequently recommended activity for many older Americans seeking new ways to stay active,” he said.
On the other hand, “patients’ risks for falls must be factored into lifestyle recommendations in an effort to minimize such injuries,” Pirruccio said.
Hepinstall agreed.
“The take-home message for older adults and their families is that, when choosing to care for a pet, be sure to consider the strength and coordination of the older adult, and the size and expected behavior of the pet selected,” he advised.
Pet ownership and care may need to be re-assessed with age, Hepinstall added.
“When the mobility of older adults changes, they should be encouraged to re-evaluate their ongoing ability to care for any pets,” he said. “This will help ensure that the health and other needs of the adult and of the pet can be properly managed.”
Picture yourself at some point in the future — on a cruise, at an event, or reaching a milestone. How do you want to look and feel? Make a plan to achieve your picture of self. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Several years ago (well, a few more than several), when I was 39 years old and not happy with the size of scrubs I fit into at the hospital, I really began to think about how I wanted to be in the future.
I realized that if I couldn’t run a 5K or fit into yellow tie scrubs (the smaller scrubs) at 39, how would I be able to run a 5K or fit into anything I wanted to wear at age 60? So, I started to think about my future.
I am a very visual person, so I picked a specific age —53— and pictured myself at that age. When I am 53, my youngest child will graduate from high school, and I pictured myself at his graduation party. How did I want to look and feel at that age? At that party? To reach my goal, I knew my plan had to be very clear, so I sat down and started to develop my plan.
The following week, during a busy day in my office, I almost bumped into a patient as I rushed through the hallway.
I apologized and started to continue on my way when she stopped me and said, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I told her I did not recognize her, and she said, “During my appointment last year, you asked me how I wanted to be when I turned 50. I left your office and really thought about that question. I decided I wanted to be ‘hot’ — and now I am! I ran a 10K, and developed a new food plan that I love and can follow. I have so much more energy now, and I feel great!”
She looked amazing.
This patient really listened to what I had to say at her yearly physical, and she came up with a plan to reach a goal she set for herself.
The truth is that many women don’t have a plan for the future. It’s easy to think, “I will exercise and eat better tomorrow,” but tomorrow comes and nothing changes.
In addition, many women don’t have any plan, and they foolishly think that being healthy will just magically happen. Unfortunately, good health doesn’t just happen. It requires commitment and a detailed strategy.
This is true for all women, including those who are successful at work, successful at home and successful at being a good parent. But, all this success doesn’t mean they are also happy with their health, weight, or energy level. In other words, they don’t plan for themselves.
So, where should you begin? Every strong plan starts with a goal, and I recommend you call your goal your picture of self.
Picture of self is simply how you see yourself at a specific point in the future. It can be short term or long term—a college graduation, before you get pregnant, one year after the birth of your child, your daughter’s wedding, retirement, or an upcoming trip. It just needs to be a specific event or time where you can picture the event well and put yourself there figuratively.
You begin with visualizing the overall picture and then breaking it down into the fine details — the style of your hair, how it feels to walk into the event, how you interact with others in the room.
Creating your picture can help you start thinking about your own health both now and in the future. Then, make a plan for how to become that picture of self. Start today.
Know where to seek medical help quickly on vacation. Immediate care is especially critical in the event of a heart problem. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Headed out on vacation? Beware of heart attack: It’s the leading cause of natural death among travelers.
If you have heart attack symptoms on the road, getting immediate medical care can improve your odds of long-term survival, according to a study presented Saturday at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, in Malaga, Spain.
“If you are traveling and experience heart attack symptoms—such as pain in the chest, throat, neck, back, stomach or shoulders—that lasts for more than 15 minutes, call an ambulance without delay,” study author Dr. Ryota Nishio said in a society news release.
“Our study shows that long-term outcomes after a heart attack while traveling can be good if you get prompt treatment,” added Nishio, who works in the cardiology department at Juntendo University Shizuoka Hospital in Izunokuni, Japan.
For the study, the researchers examined data on more than 2,500 patients who had a heart attack and rapid treatment with a stent (percutaneous coronary intervention) between 1999 and 2015 at the hospital. It’s located on the Izu Peninsula, a popular tourist destination near Mount Fuji, and a regional center for percutaneous coronary intervention.
Patients who were traveling tended to be younger than other patients and had a higher prevalence of heart attacks due to a blockage in a major artery to the heart, the investigators found.
The researchers followed the patients for up to 16 years, comparing death rates among different groups. The median follow-up period was 5.3 years—meaning half were tracked longer, half for less time.
During the follow-up period, local patients had a much higher rate of death from all causes (25 percent) than travelers (17 percent), mainly due to cancer. But the two groups had similar rates of death from heart-related causes.
“It is important that, when you are over the immediate emergency phase, and return home, you see your doctor to find out how you can reduce your risk of a second event by improving your lifestyle and potentially taking preventive medication,” Nishio said.
Research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Nearly half of Americans feel lonely or left out—increasing the risk of early death by more than 45 percent, and doubling the risk of obesity. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Sleep problems can play havoc with your social life, a new study suggests.
A series of experiments revealed sleep-deprived people feel lonelier and less eager to engage with others. That, in turn, makes others less likely to want to socialize with the sleep-deprived, researchers said.
The researchers also found that well-rested people feel lonely after spending just a short time with a sleep-deprived person, which suggests that social isolation caused by sleep problems may be contagious, according to the investigators at the University of California, Berkeley.
These findings are the first to show a two-way link between poor sleep and social isolation, offering new insight into what the researchers called a global loneliness epidemic.
“We humans are a social species. Yet sleep deprivation can turn us into social lepers,” study senior author Matthew Walker said in a university news release. He is a professor of neuroscience and psychology.
Brain scans of sleep-deprived people watching videos of strangers walking toward them showed heightened activity in networks typically activated when people feel their personal space is being invaded, the researchers found.
Sleep deprivation also reduced activity in brain regions that normally encourage social engagement, the findings showed.
“The less sleep you get, the less you want to socially interact. In turn, other people perceive you as more socially repulsive, further increasing the grave social-isolation impact of sleep loss,” Walker explained.
“That vicious cycle may be a significant contributing factor to the public health crisis that is loneliness,” he added.
Surveys suggest that nearly half of Americans feel lonely or left out. And loneliness increases the risk of early death by more than 45 percent, double the risk associated with obesity, research shows.
According to study lead author Eti Ben-Simon, “It’s perhaps no coincidence that the past few decades have seen a marked increase in loneliness and an equally dramatic decrease in sleep duration.” She is a postdoctoral fellow in Walker’s Center for Human Sleep Science.
“Without sufficient sleep, we become a social turn-off, and loneliness soon kicks in,” Ben-Simon said.
The study did offer a reason for optimism: A good night’s sleep makes a rapid difference.
Walker said that “just one night of good sleep makes you feel more outgoing and socially confident, and furthermore, will attract others to you.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Research has shown that strength training leads to a significant reduction in risk of developing cardiovascular disease. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
Americans have long been told that heart health depends on activities like walking, running and cycling.
But as experts continue to sift through piles of research about the relative heart health benefits of cardio versus strength training or flexibility, the conclusion about any so-called best exercise is rather surprising.
Essentially, it’s up to you.
“It all comes down to discovering your own internal motivation,” said Hannah Wright, certified exercise physiologist with the Spectrum Health Preventive Cardiology program.
“People don’t like being told what to do,” Wright said. “But when they start to see exercise in the context of their long-term health goals—whether they want to get off medication, chase after their kids and grandkids, or just feel better—they can start to see exercise as something that is in their self-interest, not just something they’re supposed to do.”
It’s not about doling out treadmill prescriptions or mandating weightlifting sessions. It’s about building solutions that suit lifestyles.
“We ask them what kind of life they envision for themselves,” Wright said.
And this hinges on a simple question: What do you want to do most?
The answer to that, when based on true inner wisdom, will invariably recognize that real motivation is derived from the “joy of living” as opposed to the “fear of dying,” Wright said.
Exercise as medicine
To understand what exercise is best for you, it may help to get a refresher in just how powerful a medicine exercise can be to begin with.
“The amount of activity we do isn’t just good for our hearts,” said Thomas Boyden, MD, cardiologist with Spectrum Health Medical Group. “It reduces risks for many things, including cancer. The more time you put into being active each week, the more likely you are to stay healthy.”
Thirty minutes of moderate exercise each day—even a brisk walk—will lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by 45 percent and lower cancer risk by 34 percent, Dr. Boyden said.
And the more you do, the bigger the benefit.
“Even moderate amounts of regular exercise can be enough to reverse some chronic diseases and help people get off medications,” he said.
If moving more and sitting less is the general goal, you should start by sketching out what your typical exercise week might look like.
Ideally, adults should strive for least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week, or about 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
You can also opt for an equivalent combination of the two.
Does everyone achieve this? Not by a long shot.
According to the CDC, only about 23 percent of Americans actually meet these recommended standards.
Moderate intensity means you’re still able to speak in short sentences while working out, but you shouldn’t be able to sing or speak in a normal conversational voice.
In vigorous activity, you’d likely only get a few words out without pausing for breath.
The CDC also recommends adults engage in moderately challenging strength-training muscle activities twice a week.
Research continues to show weight training isn’t just good for building muscle and improving bone health—it builds heart health, too. In fact, it could be just as helpful as cardio.
In a 2018 study of 4,000 American adults, researchers tracked cardiovascular outcomes in two groups: those who engaged in a static activity, such as weight training, versus those who pursued dynamic movements, such as walking or running.
Both exercise styles were linked to a 30 to 70 percent decrease in cardiovascular disease risk factors, but the most significant declines in risk factors were seen in the static-activity group.
Build your best
If you don’t have access to fancy equipment, fret not. You can still structure workouts to suit your needs, whether you’re looking to become more active, create a structured exercise routine—or both.
“You don’t need to go to a gym for strength training,” Wright said. “There are plenty of bodyweight exercises like wall push-ups, squats or leg raises that can be done anywhere for short bouts.”
Those seeking more of a challenge can add resistance bands.
If you’re looking to try something new at home, experiment with working in some weight exercise using household items like soup cans or water bottles, walking up and down stairs, or repeatedly rising and sitting from a chair, which builds muscle.
She suggests trying to make these moves habitual—and imagine how they’ll help achieve your goals. For example, try doing calf raises while brushing your teeth and think about how it will help you walk on the beach this summer.
You can also experiment with combinations of cardio and strength training. YouTube has videos for all levels. (Wright likes HASFit.)
For maximum benefits, consider high-intensity interval training.
These workouts involve exercises performed at high speed for very short periods—20 seconds of planks or step-ups, for example, followed by 10 seconds of rest.
Just seven minutes of interval training can have a powerful impact. One of the best aspects of these types of workouts is the abundance of free programs and apps.
Flexibility is also essential, particularly if you’re looking for something that makes you feel better fast.
“It prevents injury and increases range of motion,” Wright said. “It’s amazing the changes people see in a short amount of time. People who are gaining flexibility are able to move more freely, which aids in everyday activity and structured routines.”
Softer forms of fitness, such as yoga, are also beneficial.
“Yoga is a lot more challenging than many people give it credit for,” Dr. Boyden said. “It raises your heart rate, uses big muscle groups and lowers stress. That reduces inflammation. And it improves mental health.”
Finally, while a mix of cardio, strength training and flexibility workouts is ideal, there is one exercise that stands out above all others.
And only you will know what it is.
“The best exercise is the one you’re most likely to stick with,” Dr. Boyden said.
Is your body clock out of whack? Not only might you not be sleeping right, you may have other medical problems. What you need to know to stay in time. Visit here for the story.
My heart will go on
It only makes sense, but a blood test can help you and your doctor gain information on your susceptibility to heart attack or stroke. Visit here for the story.
Behind the wall of sleep
Its OK to feel a little tired after a busy day. But if you’re drowsy in the middle of the day, it could be a sign of a deeper problem. Visit here for the story.
Fun fact:
21 (maybe only 20)
How many song titles in the Old Dominion song “Song for Another Time”? Depends on if the song itself is one of the titles. Source. (Ps. Did you notice all the headlines were song titles?)
Researchers believe that Alzheimer’s disease may be a double-prion disorder in which two rogue proteins destroy the brain. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
With findings that might alter the path of Alzheimer’s research, scientists say misfolded forms of two proteins appear to spread through patients’ brains similar to an infection.
The findings suggest that Alzheimer’s is a “double-prion” disorder. This discovery could help lead to new treatments that focus directly on prions, according to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.
A prion is a misshapen protein that can force other copies of that protein into the same misfolded shape and spread in the brain.
It’s best known for its role in bovine spongiform encephalopathy—”mad cow” disease—and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a degenerative brain disorder.
In the new research, the university team analyzed the brains of 75 Alzheimer’s patients after death and found self-propagating prion forms of the proteins amyloid beta and tau. Higher amounts of these prions were associated with early-onset Alzheimer’s and younger age at death.
Alzheimer’s patients have amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, but efforts to treat the disease by clearing out these inactive proteins have failed.
These new findings suggest that active amyloid beta and tau prions could drive Alzheimer’s and offer targets for effective treatment, according to the researchers.
“I believe this shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that amyloid beta and tau are both prions and that Alzheimer’s disease is a double-prion disorder in which these two rogue proteins together destroy the brain,” said study senior author Dr. Stanley Prusiner, director of the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Prusiner won a Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering that prions were responsible for mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Prion levels also appear linked to patient longevity, he noted.
“We need a sea change in Alzheimer’s disease research and that is what this paper does. This paper might catalyze a major change in AD research,” Prusiner said in a university news release.
For this study, the researchers used recently developed laboratory tests to rapidly measure prions in human tissue samples. They can reveal infectious prion levels in just days.
These tests “are a game-changer,” said study co-author William DeGrado, a UCSF professor of pharmaceutical chemistry.
In order to develop effective therapies and diagnostics, scientists must target the active prion forms, rather than the large amount of protein in plaques and tangles, DeGrado said.
The researchers hope that measuring the prion forms of amyloid beta and tau might lead to the development of drugs that either prevent them from forming or spreading, or help remove them before they cause damage.
The study was published recently in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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.”
